alienation

Regulators Share Blame for the Financial Crisis

sorry - accidentally posted to the wrong thread

Regulators Share Blame for the Financial Crisis

@ozzy - do you have any references about that theory that the New Deal didn't help? As I understand it, the GD was caused by a number of factors, including global depression after ww1, uneven distribution of wealth, a housing bubble, and the business cycle. GNP collapsed before the New Deal was proposed. The recovery didn't come, and then the Second New Deal, a more traditionally socialist program that established Social Security, the FDIC and SEC, was put into effect. The economy remained in a depression for the rest of the 1930s until massive government spending for ww2 in the early 1940s created jobs.

I believe the New Deal did prolong the GD, but, during the postwar boom, the so-called "socialist" laws and bureacracy led to the creation of the "middle class". This more even redistribution of wealth, combined with increased regulation, has helped prevent subsequent dips in the business cycle from turning into depressions.

@ original post - perhaps we're seeing increases in government employment as a reaction to a fears of a recession, and increased unemployment. Perhaps it is merely smart management - if your income isn't directly dependent on the market, hire in a down market. Healthcare employment may be increasing due to marketing efforts by insurance companies to be health insurace more accessible -- due to fears of socialized insurance, they try to increase the number of insured to create political resistance to "single payer". Healthcare and the insurance industry spending that funds healthcare may behave more like government or "socialized" spending, because the services they provide are like socialism, except service is not available to people who do not purchase the insurance (the expenses of poverty are not included).