Neoliberalism: The Ideology That Dares Not Speak Its Name

[Warren Dew]

(01-03-2017, 03:54 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(12-31-2016, 07:07 PM)Warren Dew Wrote:

(12-31-2016, 12:06 PM)TeacherinExile Wrote: What examples of subsidizing "failures" can you cite?  Do we presume that you're referring only to government expenditures on the common welfare?  Let me cite a few in the private sphere that could clearly be labeled failures.  How about we start with the most obvious one: the bailouts that followed the financial crash of 2008--Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, GM, private enterprises all, which according to the strict dictates of the "free market" should have been allowed to fail.

Your examples are in fact also examples of the government subsidizing failure, just as much as failing inner city public schools are.  The failing corporations should absolutely have been allowed to fail rather than bailed out.  The bailouts were an egregious example of undermining of the free market, and did incalculable damage to the economy as a result.

If the big banks, GM and Chrysler had been allowed to fail, we would have been thrown solidly in the 2nd Great Depression.

Spoken like an unwitting pawn of the Rothschild conspiracy 0.1%.

GM went bankrupt anyway, and Chrysler was a distress sale to Fiat.  The only thing the bailouts changed was to save the unions' gold plated health care at taxpayer expense, while undermining the standing of all corporate bonds, throwing sand in the gears of the financial system.

As for the banks, let's think about what would have happened had they not been bailed out.  Yes, some hedge funds heavily involved in credit default swaps would have been wiped out, and foreign governments heavily invested in securitized housing debt would have taken a hit.  All that would have done is successfully corrected some of the overconcentration of wealth at the upper end.

Meanwhile, ordinary depositors would have been protected by the FDIC.  All Congress would have needed to have done was ensure that the FDIC had an adequate credit line, either with the Treasury department or with the Fed.

Instead, we bailed out rich investors at the expense of ordinary working people.