Keeping Faith in the Free Market - Peter Thiel

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2008/11/24/Uncommon_Knowledge_Peter_Thiel

PayPal founder and venture capitalist Peter Thiel encourages support for the concept of an unfettered, unregulated free market in the face of the current economic downturn.

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Peter Thiel argues that a book published in France in 1968, Le Defi Americain (The American Challenge) has a lot to say to us in the United States in 2008 and discusses why the U.S. has failed to rise to the heights predicted by its author, J. J. Servan-Schreiber.

In explaining what's wrong with the U.S. economy, Thiel points out that, although we have benefited from growth that is both extensive (e.g., free trade) and intensive (e.g., technology), we have not featured enough of each.

He asserts that the credit crisis of 2008 has nothing to do with the failings of the free market but rather is a by-product of government entanglement, nurtured by the motors of economic growth working less well than expected - Hoover Institution

Peter Thiel is an American entrepreneur, hedge fund manager, and venture capitalist. With Max Levchin, Thiel co-founded PayPal and was its CEO. He currently serves as president of Clarium Capital Management LLC, a global macro hedge fund with more than $6 billion under management, and a managing partner in The Founders Fund, a $275 million under management venture capital fund he launched with Ken Howery and Luke Nosek in 2005. He was an early investor in Facebook, the popular social-networking site, and sits on the companys Board of Directors.

Thiel was ranked #377 on the Forbes 400, with a net worth of $1.3 billion.

Peter M. Robinson is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, where he writes about business and politics, edits Hoover's quarterly journal, the Hoover Digest, and hosts Hoover's television program, Uncommon Knowledge.

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• capitalism
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• friedman
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• deregulation
• deregulated
• government
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[Invirtuo]

Utopia's don't exist. How do you define crap salaries? Americans are in the top ten best remunerated people in the world. The first rule of economics is that scarcity applies to infinite wants. Paradise on earth is impossible. We have to do the best we can.

Capitalism has proven to be the best provider for the masses. Centrally planning has been abject failure every time it was implemented. There is simply no alternative to Capitalism and Freedom if you want a decent living standard

[MeBoReDsOiLoGiN]

he's right we haven't had a free market in a couple decades... i hate these idiots blaming capitalism

[Clint7981]

@MeBoReDsOiLoGiN what do you mean a couple decades? Try ever...

[SeeProfileForDetails]

@MeBoReDsOiLoGiN what about the oil spill? should have regulated, or not?

[Aliothemage]

@coffeescup

I didn't say I was against "fluctuating values". I'm against robbery. When the government force us to use their money (You can call the police on any business who doesn't want to accept payment for services in all pennies and they WILL force them to accept them) and then prints money or uses the fractional reserve system to cause inflation, that actively steals from every holder of US money. THAT is wrong.

I'm find with the stock market so long as no one is forced to participate.

[Aliothemage]

And what is the baloney about Singpore's environmental degradation? According to what standard? According to the "Happy Planet Index" they have the 49th best which is better then Sweden, Germany, Finland, France, England, Japan, and many others. Just check it on Wikipedia.

And no, Singapore doesn't have a high suicide rate, its lowers then the US's, Denmark's Norway's Canada's France's, ect.

And guess what! They live longer and pay less for health care and have lower infant mortality!

[Aliothemage]

@coffeescup

Switzerland has a "highly regulated" market compared to what? They have the 15th LEAST regulated economy in the world according to IMF and World Bank data. And so what if they have subsidized health insurance? There are NO first world nations without some sort of big national health care system. Even b4 Obamacare over 50% of medical in the US were paid for with tax payer money...

[coffeescup]

@Aliothemage You are against the fluctuating of values, but let me ask you this--how do you feel about the stock market? Values change. It is only when they change at an unmanageable rate that we should worry.

[coffeescup]

@Aliothemage Switzerland is highly regulated and has such safety nets as subsidized health insurance: bad example. Singapore, on the other hand, is a good example. Yes, they have a quickly growing economy with literally no environmental regulation or safety net. They also have the highest rate of suicide! You are free to go there if you want. I never advocated a completely socialist environment and didn't mention communism at all. I also don't use those terms interchangeably.

[Aliothemage]

@coffeescup

The fact is that the more-free an economy is the better it does. Take a look at the annual Freedom of the World Report at freetheworld(.)com It shows that the freest economies have the highest income, faster income growth, wealthier poor populations, less corruption, more civil freedoms, less environmental degradation, longer life expectancy, and more life satisfaction.

Hong Kong currently has the freest economy in the world, followed by Singapore, New Zealand, and Switzerland.

[Aliothemage]

Like I said before, there doesn't NEED to be a perfect free market to know that free market policies work best, just like we don't need to see a perfect circle to know that the closer you get to a perfect circle, the more perfectly round it is.

For that matter, we've never had a "perfect" socialist or communist economy either, but we can know how well those socialist and communist policies work even without seeing them implemented "perfectly".

[Aliothemage]

@coffeescup

Inflation is ENTIRELY unethical. It robs everyone who holds the money that is being inflated by stealing the value of that money. Lowering interest rates CREATES bubbles by sending market signals that tell investors that people are saving money, when they aren't in reality, which creates a lot of mal-investment. In this instance a whole lot of that mal-investment was in housing.