Free Market vs. Bailouts
By Craig R
Smith
CEO, Swiss America
October 14, 2008
With a collective sigh of relief, millions of
Americans woke up on Monday to a record setting advance on Wall Street. In
one day the cries of “off with their heads” directed at CEOs
changed to “fill my pockets”.
Now keep in mind nothing has fundamentally changed. The world
governments simply went into battle mode to save the world and put a band
aid on a gaping wound. A wound that cannot be healed in this way. A wound
that will produce more government control of our lives and it is exactly
what most Americans asked for.
Flooding the world with money is not a cure. It may be a great
painkiller but it did nothing to address the real problem; excessive levels
of debt. Debt that will now run until the world drowns in it.
Corporate, personal and government debt, over the last two decades, has
reached unsustainable levels. When a small portion of the debt known as
“sub prime” went from the milk and honey of the money changers
to toxic waste, the whole system froze and revealed just how vulnerable it
was and continues to be.
There is no doubt we may have, for the moment, avoided a second great
depression but at what price? And equally important how can any of the
corporations being bailed out generate the profits necessary to pay back
the borrowed money?
How can companies founded on a free market business model now survive,
no less flourish, under government-controlled financial socialism?
They can't. And most honest economists know it. But the citizens of the
world don't want to face the truth behind the systemic problems. They want
and demand unbridled, uninterrupted growth and accumulation of personal
wealth. Wealth that is created, in many cases, without work. Wealth that is
guaranteed to never drop in value.
So the government has been assigned the task by many
uneducated citizens of making everyone in the world rich.
Soon we will witness what any society that subscribes to the belief
that wealth without work or risk is a birthright…inflation. That is
the only formula that will perpetuate the welfare state. And now that state
includes Wall Street bankers and investors.
The demand for continuation of the game will cause governments
worldwide to print money faster than it can be spent. Helicopter Ben
Bernanke will be loading the chopper with $100 bills dropping them over the
population at large. Many will think its great! I can see the masses in the
streets getting their “fair share” of the wealth. Even Obama
wants to “spread the wealth around”.
$250 billion of the $805 billion ($105 billion added pork) TARP program
will now buy direct equity in American banks and possibly banks around the
world. The government is now an investor with the taxpayer as the
guarantor. Soon government will be in health care, automobiles, aircraft
and Lord knows what else.
If these new government investments happen to fail who will save us
then? The taxpayer will have already been bled dry from stopping the
current failure. Has anybody planned ahead for if and, more likely, when
this occurs?
If any American at this point doesn't see the lunacy of the current
plan to “save” the system then they deserve the Socialism they
will receive. I for one have taken steps to protect my family from the
government mismanagement that is sure to come. They have done such a good
job running the country that we are now placing private business in their
hands? Have we reached that level of irrational panic?
October 13, 2008 will be the official day the final nail was driven
deep into the coffin of free markets and free market principles. No longer
is any responsibility required in business because government will always
reward bad behavior and ignore bad decisions. Moral hazard is now thrown
out the window. Apparently any behavior good or bad receives benefit.
Liberty was sold this week for the promise of wealth and prosperity.
Apparently two cars, a home, a fat 401k and a life of ease are much more
important than freedom and liberty. Liberty is based on personal
responsibility and Americans want all the reward without any
responsibility. Wall Street fat cats included.
Your government has replaced the greatest free market capitalist system
in the world, one based on risk and reward; with a completely socialist
financial system with the government at its foundation. There is only one
question left to ask. Who will have the power to pick the winners and
losers?
I doubt the average Joe will have the “w” on his side of
the ledger given the track record of this government but this is what the
people wanted. The pain got so severe we allowed our proven capitalist
ideals to be reduced to nothing better than the socialist sludge all of
Europe and the world have offered for years.
We will regret not biting the bullet and making the hard decisions. I
am convinced future leaders will tax the people to death trying to pay for
their foolish mistakes. That to me will create nothing more than a group of
glorified slaves.
Karl Marx must be smiling from the grave. Today he has triumphed over
Adam Smith and our founders for the heart and soul of the American people
and their pansy politicians.