Bush was a freemarket leader?
Since the market crash that followed the cratering of the property market in the US and elsewhere, many people have been shouting that this cratering proves that capitalism and markets don’t work. The contol-the-world types of both ends of the spectrum have trotted this one out, often for political expediency, but mostly because they seem to think that the US and international financial markets were/are somehow free. The blame is squarely placed on the Bush administration, not for incoherent policy incentives and overspending, but because he is a free-market leader that has let capitalism run amok and ruin the world.
Luminaries of the political right, like Sarkozy and Brown are trumpeting nationalism over markets. The Left is doing exactly what you would expect - Marxists and soft-left types are singing in solidarity. Even Paul Krugman has joined the corus suggesting that the GOP is small government.
Ron Paul has an excellent response to this whole thing in his aptly titled column, Has Capitalism Failed? It’s quite clear that the problems that have occurred over the past 3 (or 15) years have not been due to underregulation of markets. The best quote of the entire stack is:
Capitalism should not be condemned, since we haven’t had capitalism. A system of capitalism presumes sound money, not fiat money manipulated by a central bank. Capitalism cherishes voluntary contracts and interest rates that are determined by savings, not credit creation by a central bank. It’s not capitalism when the system is plagued with incomprehensible rules regarding mergers, acquisitions, and stock sales, along with wage controls, price controls, protectionism, corporate subsidies, international management of trade, complex and punishing corporate taxes, privileged government contracts to the military-industrial complex, and a foreign policy controlled by corporate interests and overseas investments. Add to this centralized federal mismanagement of farming, education, medicine, insurance, banking and welfare. This is not capitalism!
Michael Shermer also steps in with a recent blog post describing the bloat of regulations that has occurred since the 70s. In the US, the amount of regulation and the amount of money spent on it means that it’s very likely that few people or institutions know how to navigate the regulation - certainly leading to perverse incentives, like those that lead to the property market crash in the US.
In no way has Bush or any of the recent US Presidents been anything resembling capitalist or free-market - the tax dollars thrown around and the surfeit of regulations is testament to the lack of freedom in the market.
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