Krugman: How did a few failed banks add up to a financial meltdown?
By Barry Ritholtz - November 28th, 2008, 2:30PM
The bubble has burst; the era of sunny-side up capitalism is over. Washington may resuscitate the credit market, but will U.S. politics ever be the same? Paul Krugman, author, Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School, and New York Times columnist, visits Zócalo to explain exactly what happened.
November 14, 2008
Hat tip: Calculated Risk
November 28th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
I wish I could find the rest of this speach. Any ideas?
November 28th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
How did a few failed banks add up to a financial meltdown? I think that’s fairly easy.
It’s called GREED. Granted, we’re talking about Wall Street (and much of Main Street), and greed is part of capitalism. But this was unbridled, unchecked, unregulated greed stretching from CEOs hiding info from investors to newly hired traders creating or taking advantage of crazy calculations to line their pockets.
Now these institutions (and now, even more aggravating, are the Detroit 3) are turning to the US Government (us, the taxpayers, really) to bail them out. All the while, they maintain their private jet fleets, keep their golden parachutes and reward themselves with year-end bonuses (which they deserve, right?). These CEOs are just stealing from you and I to keep themselves afloat, not to provide for the best interest of Americans.
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Bailout Bums: Stealing YOUR Money: http://tv1.com/playlists/80
November 28th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
The problem comes from the marriage of power and wealth that is the basis of crony capitalism. The solution is a true free market where governments do not have the power to bestow favours on their friends and where elites cannot use the power of governments to gain advantage over others. Had we not had a Fed that was reluctant to permit companies to fail and resisted the liquidation of bad investment decisions by resorting to printing presses we never would have had the housing bubble, the dot.com bubble and the massive growth in debt levels that will lead to the inevitable end of the fiat money regime that was created after Nixon closed the gold window in 1971. What is needed is a free market in everything, including money.