Comments (21)

• Robert Nathan

  I suspect that Bin Laden and his cronies (what’s left of them) are celebrating. With only a platoon of soldiers, he was able to destroy Capitalism. The destruction of the World Trade Center was the ignition of an implosion that is about to culminate.

  It is beyond belief that our lawmakers are apparently going to choose socialism over the Constitution. Welcome to serfdom.
  

  Published: September 25, 2008 8:33 AM

• Todd

  It is a national travesty for those who live well within their means and save a good portion of their income. We have the most to lose in the future State. Our economic liberty is at stake and few people act like they care. I am having an immensely difficult time discerning whether our "leaders" are either ignorant or part of the desire to transition to socialism. In either case, they are culpable enablers of the "crisis" and the impending degradation of economic liberty.

  Published: September 25, 2008 8:49 AM

• jack radin

  this article is right on target. as a 30 year veteran of the residential mortgage business in the united states, it is obvious that the fundamental problem in this country stems from the activities of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Reserve, the three most statist institutions in the history of mankind. people keep claiming that the current situation is a failure of capitalism. i continue to ask these same people what Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Reserve have to do with capitalism? The answer is clearly nothing. jr

  Published: September 25, 2008 8:50 AM

• James Kluttz

  Statism is likely in our genes because we instinctively deal with other people, not abstract ideas like markets. Maybe it is time for lovers of liberty to realize what we are up against? Thank you for trying to educate us.

  Published: September 25, 2008 8:58 AM

• Inquisitor

  Markets are, in fact, dealings with other people. Statism is "inherent" because some people are too shortsighted to understand emergent systems like the market (and here is where abstraction does come into play) or because some benefit by acting as parasites. Nothing new. Pity the dupes who buy into it though.

  Published: September 25, 2008 9:22 AM

• Inquisitor

  Markets are, in fact, dealings with other people. Statism is "inherent" because some people are too shortsighted to understand emergent systems like the market (and here is where abstraction does come into play) or because some benefit by acting as parasites. Nothing new. Pity the dupes who buy into it though.

  Published: September 25, 2008 9:22 AM

• Gustavo Sosa

  Dear Pierre

  I don't see your email in this article. I want your permission to translate the article into Spanish and post it in my blog and send it by email.

  I am so pissed by the comments of our Latinamerican presidents (did you hear Cristina Kirchner?) that I would lose some work time just to spread your word.

  Please send me a YES to gussosa@montevideo.com.uy

  :)

  Hug

  Gustavo

  Published: September 25, 2008 9:30 AM

• ajax

  Gustavo - his e-mail address is listed under his photo on the right side of the page next to the article.

  Published: September 25, 2008 9:45 AM

• Fred

  There is a great deal of "confusion" as to what capitalism and unregulated financial markets are. The widely accepted "conventional wisdom" accepts the view that interventionism is capitalism and U.S. central, privileged by government, fractional-reserve banking, is unregulated banking. Therefore, the "conventional wisdom" does not hold regulation and privilege as being the root cause. Nor is the intervention of government in the monetary system considered by those with "conventional wisdom".

  Reality is, capitalism and the unhampered market, has never been tried - only blamed Only fraudulent banking is known in the modern world. How can they have failed? It is interventionism, that is government and the hampered market, that has failed. Unfortunately, the holders of "conventional wisdom" cannot see this. Until the "conventional wisdom" changes, we can only expect more of the same.

  Published: September 25, 2008 10:30 AM

• Mary Diane Dolan

  Why doesn't someone interview former Enron executives now in prison? Or these executives' lawyers? Their "take" on present goings-on would be interesting.

  Published: September 25, 2008 10:52 AM

• Book 'em Danno

  Mary Diane,

  Great idea! Fun too. Andrew Fastow, the former chief financial officer pegged as the mastermind behind the complicated financial schemes that ultimately doomed Enron, got six years. You can try to get on his email list:

  http://www.bop.gov/inmate_programs/trulincs_faq.jsp#5

  Otherwise, here is Fastow's snailmail address:

  ANDREW FASTOW
  INMATE # 14343-179
  FDC OAKDALE
  FEDERAL DETENTION CENTER
  P.O. BOX 5010
  OAKDALE, LA 71463

  What questions will you ask? Do you think he will respond (he probably has not much better to do!)?

  Others have questions?

  Published: September 25, 2008 12:09 PM

• Gustavo Sosa

  Thanks Ajax. I have just sent him the email directly.

  The first time I landed in this page. The second time I was able to find his profile.

  Published: September 25, 2008 12:51 PM

• Xeno77777, ST. Petersburg, FL, USA.

  Moses prevented his Civil Servants, the Levites, from owning property, and made them retire at age 50-Basil Liddell-Hart suggests 45, so their decisions would not be compromised either by bribes nor by atherosclerosis, as are those of the American Bureaucracy, Congress, the Presidents, and the Judiciary. Lenin was urged to adopt the John Dewey System, based on Bullying and Cultural Deprivation, similar to Psychological Deprivation, a known form of torture. John Dewey was summoned into a Kremlin Office, and behind the desk, sat the Soviet Dictator, Vladimir Lenin. He stated, Mr. Dewey, we appreciated your political support, and I admit your System's graduates are docile. But we receive new threats every day from all points of the globe, so we need graduates who can do mathematics, science, and engineering, to build weapons for self defense, and your systems graduates cannot do these. So, Mr Dewey, we cannot use your system. So Good Day, Mr. Dewey. With that, John Dewey was escorted out of the Kremlin and Soviet Consideration forever. The United States needs to do the same. Atherosclerosis, the John Dewey system base on bullying and Cultural Deprivation, and Bribes may be why the US Government cannot fail, as well as tolerance of Domestic Terrorism: in addition to the Capitalism-Militarism (Bureaucrats) Dichotomy. It is well known that the US system is based on a disguised form of Fascism. See Ludwig von Mises' book, "Omnipotent Government." Prior to the US entry into WWII, the Rockefellers, Walkers and Bush'es supported the Nazi Fascists.

  Published: September 25, 2008 5:34 PM

• Bruno

  Great article, Mr. Lemieux, congratulations.

  Reading it remembered of an old quote, very applicable to the present situation:

  "The bureocracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureocracy"

  Published: September 25, 2008 6:54 PM

• Bruno

  I meant "bureaucracy", not "bureocracy".

  Published: September 25, 2008 6:57 PM

• Michael Bakhama

  "I wonder what they have been smoking."

  Blunt (no pun intended) and humorous. I wonder that sometimes myself.

  This article is, mostly, right on the money (again, no pun intended), but I would encourage everyone to keep in mind that the word "capitalism" has multiple definitions.

  After all, capitalism, as Mises pointed out, is essentially a political buzzword coined by Marx. While most Objectivists and libertarians in the United States today associate capitalism with laissez-faire, a significant portion of the world associates capitalism instead with the idea of "political capitalism" or corporatism.

  Sadly, many leftists are either ignorant of this distinction altogether, or else blithely assume, based on some variation of Hegelian dialectics, that laissez-faire must inevitably degenerate into corporatism as a law of history, so it's all the same to them.

  To the extent that they sincerely hold their definition of capitalism to entail corporatism, these types of criticisms by the left are actually quite justified. However, the leftist who takes this position should be at least honest enough to clarify what it is that they are opposing (see, e.g., the "free market anti-capitalist" Kevin Carson). It is completely inexcusable when people attempt to discredit genuine laissez-faire by deliberately obscuring terminology (see, e.g., the countless number of insufferable political hacks).

  Published: September 25, 2008 7:05 PM

• Michael Bakhama

  @ James Kluttz:

  "Statism is likely in our genes because we instinctively deal with other people, not abstract ideas like markets. Maybe it is time for lovers of liberty to realize what we are up against? Thank you for trying to educate us."

  Why must we assume that dealing with people inherently involves coercion and central planning? Why can we not deal with each other on a voluntary and mutually beneficial basis? Moreover, statism and its many failed justifications are all abstractions themselves.

  Published: September 25, 2008 7:10 PM

• james Kluttz

  I agree that the market is a natural system which emerges without human intervention, as does nature itself. Nature has always been feared and so have markets; and for the same reason, they cannot be predicted.

  If memory serves, F A Hayek pointed out that we only have the choice of putting our fate into the hands of an unpredictable and unfeeling market or into the hands of other people. In every case the choice has been other people, to our endless detriment.

  Published: September 25, 2008 8:48 PM

• Alex Davidson

  I see that France's Sarkozy has joined the interventionist cheer squad too. So much for those who voted against socialism in the recent elections...

  From Townhall.com:
  "Self-regulation as a way of solving all problems is finished. Laissez-faire is finished. The all-powerful market that always knows best is finished," Sarkozy said.

  Published: September 26, 2008 1:28 AM

• junkcafe

  Wow! The Leftist propaganda machine has succeeded in brainwashing the gullible and weak. And, hey, some of them manage to be heads of state. I suppose now they can be officially labeled as 'brainless'. I do believe that the battle for true unfettered liberty and laissez-faire economics must continue. Lovers of liberty: don't give in, don't give up! Time to shine the light of truth on the pillagers.

  Published: September 29, 2008 2:03 PM

• EnEm

  Here's some fresh air amidst this fetid mess.......
  ...........................................................................

  My Atlantis

  My Faith, Will and my Human Mind together
  Blew the lid off this world and its Sin,
  I built my Atlantis, that glowing Light,
  Come live in the universe that I am in.
  Be clean of heart and pure of Mind
  To enter my dimension,
  If all you have is cunning wit,
  Then you won’t have Ascension.
  It’s devoid of deceit, there is no envy,
  There’s no pain, no fear, no guilt,
  Unearned Love does not exist here,
  Happiness the core, of this Shangri-La I built.
  Life is the standard of Existence,
  Any life-form, no matter how small or weak,
  Yes, Life’s the standard, your own the purpose,
  It will not be inherited by the meek.
  Look around at my universe,
  At the achievements of unfettered Man,
  Integrity’s the steel, from which we built,
  There are no castles in the sand.
  Our brilliance outshines the sun’s golden rays,
  We obey nature and her wondrous laws,
  Reality is our sounding board,
  And there is no Effect without a Cause.
  Atlantis lives in the souls of men,
  It’s not a mythical Camelot,
  It’s a world of shiny spires and gallant knights
  Amidst the purest freedom of thought.
  

  Published: October 2, 2008 7:29 PM