Say Good Bye to Free Market Economics

Government Taking Extreme Measures to Rescue Corporate America
Simulataneously published at Money Daily.

Unbelievable.

The measures being undertaken by various branches of the government, including the congress, the SEC and Treasury in concert with the Federal Reserve are the most extraordinary that I have ever seen.

The US Treasury is opening a function that will guarantee money market funds. Treasury also recently announced plans to sell bonds to fund the Federal Reserve. The Fed and Treasury are planning, with congress, to create an entity for the liquidation of bad debt. The SEC has banned short selling on 799 financial stocks.

Adding to the steps already taken - bailouts of Bear Stearns and AIG, the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - the federal government is engaging in nothing short of naked fascism, the combination of government and corporations.

Being sold as various attempts to "unfreeze the liquidity crisis" the government is doing more to boost the fortunes of the same people and companies which precipitated the whole mess. They are making them whole. Banks, funds and other financial institutions are being made whole by allowing them to whisk away all of their underfunded obligations from the balance sheets.

Eventual cost to the taxpayer for the entirety of these measures will run into the trillions of dollars. If the figure reaches $2 trillion (and that’s probably conservative) that would result in a debt of roughly $6,500 for every man, woman and child in America.

Guess what? With 6,500 free dollars I could pay off almost all of my debt. So could most other Americans. My sister and her family would get $32.500. They could buy a few more rental units. Certainly, every other individual and family would benefit from such a generous show of largess. But, that’s not going to happen. No, the money is going to the banks.

If the government wants economic prosperity, it would probably be better the forget the greedy, cruel, uncaring, lascivious banks and financiers and give the money directly to the citizenry. The banks will be saved, with the American people getting nothing but the bill.

It’s absurd. The federal government is completely off the rails and out of control. Largely, it is the fault of the American public, who were warned at least 40 years ago about apathy toward government. Eventually, however, responsibility must fall on the sitting and previously-elected officials who allowed this pitiful economic condition to occur and who are now employing desperate - and ultimately damaging - methods to "fix" the problems.

The entirety collapse of the financial underpinnings, the bailouts and special entities created to restore confidence in the markets are not the making of the president, the Fed, the Treasury, the SEC, the congress, the Wall Street bankers or unscrupulous lenders. It is all of them, working in concert, to undermine the capitalist system and democratic institutions.

The government is already nearly $10 trillion in debt. Another couple-three trillion isn’t going to affect anyone, except for the value of the US dollar, which will plummet in value even more than it has over the last 8 years.

On the surface, everything in most places in America will feel and look the same as always, except in one place: the future. Once more, America’s leaders have chosen to mortgage our future to save the banks and other poorly-run and grossly-negligent financial institutions from even an ounce of pain, spending money we don’t have that creates a debt to be bourn by today’s youth and the yet unborn.

America is rapidly morphing into a complete warfare/welfare state. The current rescue operations are only the more bold and significant devices to further that particular political and financial structure.

The US stock markets, which are due to open within minutes, should end the day with record gains. The govenment has cancelled most, if not all, bad corporate debts. Horray!

Say good-bye to free market economics. Ours is now and has been manipulated and massaged, sheltered and shepherded by the not-so-invisible hand of government.