So I ask myself, as I often do, are Conservatives truly stupid or are they just on drugs? The ability of Movement Conservatives (meaning those who earn their living by being over the top, wild-eyed conservative) to ignore facts and live in an alternative, Ayn Rand universe is amazing.
Ambrose says:
"While there is a leftist mythology to the contrary, free markets do tend to be self-correcting, and government intervention often makes things worse"
So, Jay, let's consider the Fed's bailout of Bear Stearns. The free market said Bear needs to go broke on Monday - no questions asked. No problem; self correcting markets at work! Unfortunately, Bear going broke on Monday would have led to Lehman Bros. going broke on Wednesday. What comes next? Who knows - but by that point, maybe 500 billion dollars worth of financial contracts would have evaporated and the Free Market would be in a state of panic.
All Jay needs to do is look at the business cycles since the mid 19th century to the present. Before the government started regulating capitalism, the cycles were wild and dependable, like clockwork as the Free Market corrected itself. But once the Federal Reserve was created in the '30s, the cycles started to be tamed, and by the '80s, they have almost disappeared.
If Jay Ambrose wants to bet his IRA (or his job) on unregulated Free Markets, fine; just spare me the column.
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