Shorthand Politics 3: Bailouts... Really?!

[freedomworks2]

Neat video Greg. Good comments Rick. Just a note about the 2nd - the idea comes from Ludwig von Mises, the great Austrian economist in an academic article of 1920! (only 3 short years after the Russian Revolution) and then expanded in his book Socialism of 1922. Friedrich Hayek later picked up on it too in some famous debates in England on the subject in the 1930s.

[RickW05]

There are two essential points in here. Schumpeterian "Creative Destruction," is where companies fail when they don't do what customers want and so their capital is bought up by other firms

There is also the economic calculation problem. Rational economic calculation is only possible with prices. In a market prices are based on costs and value. When gov't bails out companies, those prices are distorted in a way that doesn't reflect the fundamentals of the market, reducing overall efficiency.

[ShorthandPolitics]

Thanks guys, I'm glad my key points hit home and were recogniozed!

Greg