The Economic Mess

Another major culprit in the mess we are in is Ayn Rand devotee, former Fed chair, and husband of Andrea Mitchell, Alan Greenspan:

But others hold a starkly different view of how global markets unwound, and the role that Mr. Greenspan played in setting up this unrest.

“Clearly, derivatives are a centerpiece of the crisis, and he was the leading proponent of the deregulation of derivatives,” said Frank Partnoy, a law professor at the University of San Diego and an expert on financial regulation.

The derivatives market is $531 trillion, up from $106 trillion in 2002 and a relative pittance just two decades ago. Theoretically intended to limit risk and ward off financial problems, the contracts instead have stoked uncertainty and actually spread risk amid doubts about how companies value them.

If Mr. Greenspan had acted differently during his tenure as Federal Reserve chairman from 1987 to 2006, many economists say, the current crisis might have been averted or muted.

Over the years, Mr. Greenspan helped enable an ambitious American experiment in letting market forces run free. Now, the nation is confronting the consequences.

What kills me is this Friedmanite religion (which is nothing more than Randroidism among economists) was so against what we have ALL known has worked in this economy, yet the Friedmanites didn't care. Government was evil, unless to bail out the financial elites when they invariably fucked up with their greed and incompetence, business was God no matter how crooked or how much they hurt workers, and to hell with the truth or reality.

Believe me, the article notes Greenspan's fanaticism:

A professed libertarian, he counted among his formative influences the novelist Ayn Rand, who portrayed collective power as an evil force set against the enlightened self-interest of individuals. In turn, he showed a resolute faith that those participating in financial markets would act responsibly.

An examination of more than two decades of Mr. Greenspan’s record on financial regulation and derivatives in particular reveals the degree to which he tethered the health of the nation’s economy to that faith.

Most Randroids grow up and see the light, but Greenspan never did, much to the grief of the U.S.