With words like default and debt ceiling being on so many peoples minds, let us not forget the reason why the economies of so many countries are in shambles.
Laissez-faire economics.
The idea that a market can grow unfettered and unregulated and not ever hit any roadblocks or encounter plain old human greed and stupidity is lunacy. On the flip side, if we allow an economy to be over engineered that can cause problems as well.
The issue is is that Laissez-faire had it's chance and failed miserably, sorry Ayn Rand!
Because of the decisions of a few to gamble with risky derivatives, the US economy and indeed the world economy suffered damage that will be felt for years to even more then a decade to come.
The extreme capitalists I suspect are gleeful at what is now happening in Europe. First Greece, Ireland, and England axe massive cuts to social spending and now Spain and Italy are on the block.
I will concede that in the case of Greece the government and spending were definitely over bloated, but in the case of England, exposure to toxic assets is predominately responsible for the hemorrhaging being unleashed on social spending. Why should the people suffer at the whims of a few obscenely rich whose only goal was to become even more rich despite the known uncertainty and risks to individual life savings that their actions or lack of actions fostered?
I'm not saying that the head of Bear Sterns or entire workforce of ING are cold hearted bastards and meant to precipitate a global financial crisis, but I can't fathom how these individuals should ever be allowed to work for either the government or a financial institution ever again.
Should we continue to have blind faith in capitalism? I don't think so. I don't advocate communism, but clearly we need to examine several decades of capitalistic blunders and ensure that the same mistakes don't happen again.
