Uh, no...the "free market" hasn't been a real free market in a long time so how can that have been the problem?   The problem was government intervention with price fixing and injection of unwarranted credit.

Oh ?

Here in Europe, it has been presented as the Bush's governement allowing more liberty to the market...

I love how people think ideas like this = extreme socialism.

This wont drive people to be lazy or make them not desire jobs more than they did already. People are still greedy, most will still want to work because they will earn more money and  luxuries. This will likely be a stop gap, probably with heavy criteria, on the road to economic recovery.

*shaking my head*  Facts, logic and reason.  I wish our governments and media would try and find a little.

We haven't had much real market liberty allowed in some time.  The government just loves to interject with it's own ideas, rules, regulations, taxes, policies, prices, rates, inflation, etc....

A truly free market is self perpetuating.  It works because it must.  Supply and demand rule.   The role of government should be to protect the citizens but has instead moved to protect the businesses and banks (from actions the government tok to cause the problem in the first place).

If a business fails then it goes into bankruptcy where it either restructures for profitability or is sold off.   For example, had some of these mortgage banks been allowed to fail like normal, people would not have lost their houses...they'd either keep the same bank as it restructures or their mortgage is issued to a new bank that can handle it.  That's a very generalized summary but you get the idea.

All this junk about the government getting involved more and more into the market is just bad, bad news.

Don't mind the long post but if you're insterested, here are some other examples of our government getting involved with what should be the private market.  Amtrak is our national passenger rail service.  It was failing in the 70's back when it was privately owned so our government bought it, claimed they'd fix it up and sell it in 3 years.  They still own all this time later and are losing billions on it.  Our mail service could be much better anc cheaper if the government didn't run it - it too loses billions.  They also have a law that makes it illegal to compete against them.  Public Education.  I'll save that one for a thread on its own.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: these were the government controlled mortgage companies that failed...big time.

Why not just let it recover on its own?  Why the massive government expansion and market take over?

The first option would take a few months.   The second option takes several years, trillions of dollars and alters the economic and social foundation of a country.

obama should buy me video games. im poor.

I dunno, I'm not to bright on the economics side of things, so everything I say should be taken with a pinch of salt.

It seems to me that in a recession like this, broadly speaking, bailouts should be vastly reduced from the level they are now, but the government should also find temporary ways of getting money to the people, through a mixture of work and welfare, until the economy recovers itself.

The economy would already be in a recovery if we simply let the market act accordingly.

The problem is government got us in this mess so it just seems counterproductive for it to be the solution.


Imagine it is raining. Government builds a big wood pile with lightening rods in the middle. Lighting strikes it and we get a fire. Leave it alone and the rain will naturally put it out but instead the government wants to smother it with more wood......with some kerosene added for good measure.

Well I'm certainly not a conservative.

Which part of the Great Depression was caused by people being forced out of houses they couldn't afford? I'm all for some welfare, but welfare should give minimum services, not keeping people's high standards of life which they can't afford.

I find your views a bit too simplistic.

A governement cannot just let thinks go... wait for an hypothetic fast recovery and cross his fingers...

Economy is about making people live... not the other way around (I'm a liberal BTW).

My figures are badly down this year... never happened to me... this has severly affected my revenues also.

If the governement helps the market, it will recover faster (but not fast enough) and I will be able to make more business..

I don't see why it is complicated to understand a higher autorithy's intervention... it is not in contradiction with the rules of the free market...especially when the banks are badly failing and that the whole credit system is fucked.

It affects healthy business that aren't responsible for the mistakes of others..