Last night 60 minutes on CNBC ran a show about the sub-prime mortgage meltdown. In it an interviewee said, “the Capitalists almost brought down Capitalism.”
If there’s one thing the average Jane (and Joe) needs to understand if she wants to play a role in reviving America’s economy and spirit, it’s that Capitalism had nothing to do with the financial meltdown of 2008. Capitalism is synonymous with “Laissez-faire Capitalism,” which from Wikipedia, ” describes an environment in which transactions between private parties are free from state intervention, including restrictive regulations, taxes, tariffs and enforced monopolies.”
How in an arena with the likes of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the FDIC, government bailouts, the Community Reinvestment Act and the Federal Reserve does one find the temerity to call this Capitalism? The credit expansion caused by the Federal Reserve alone left the banking system to be leveraged well over 150 to 1. Is it any wonder why it would only take a 1% decrease in housing values, caused by sub-prime defaults, to severely impact the capital adequacy of the banking system and precipitate a much wider crisis?
Not once during the entire “60 minutes,” was there an indication that the government had ANY role in precipitating this crisis. In fact, the only time the government was mentioned as a player was when it swooped in as the hero with its bail outs.
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Reporters, commentators and economic critics continue to trumpet this lie. Given the simple facts about the definition of Capitalism and the government’s role during the crisis, it’s time the average Jane and Joe called them on it and demanded that they set the record straight. Capitalism is not the cause but indeed the way out of this mess.
Click this link to contact ANY Representative to encourage him or her to Co-Sponsor Congressman Rohrabacher’s bill promoting the superiority of Capitalism as an economic model.
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