Ed-M

Capitalism and Freedom: Rethinking the Political and Economic System

User 380426 is correct. And I'd like to add something here! Free-market capitalism only works in small communities where everybody knows and trusts everybody else! That, and where transactions are utterly transparent -- such as in farmer's markets.

Where free-market capitalism does NOT work is in a very large economy dominated by large corporations headed and staffed in large part (doesn't have to be a <i>relatively<... large part, mind you) by persons who try to get an angle in in order to cheat the other guy and exploit flaws in the system! This has been soundly proven TWICE in the United States! Once, in the collapse of the Roaring '20s into the Great Depression and sceondly, in our time, now! Each time, bankers and hedge fund (then called a "trust") managers allowed way too much debt to be run up gigantic bubbles and when it became unsustainable due to a cut-off of incoming money (debt repayment or debt itself - German sovereign default then, end of Japan Carry Trade now) the bubble bursts, everybody notices and we end up with lost decades aka Depressions. Which is why OUR system CANNOT be a free-market system, it should be a free-enterprise system (better if owned by the workers, my idea of "communism") within a WELL-REGULATED market. Anything else is folly, which will come to grief. Always and utterly.

What Inflation Looks Like In Real Life

The debasing is underway! So long as there is any central bank that refuses to debase ITS currency (Canada?, Eurozone?, Russia?, China - definitely) we will have severe inflation in the US. Sooner rather than later.

How the U.S. Banking System Was Madoffed by the FASB

Frank, if the banks are allowed mark-to-model, they will invariably mark-to-fantasy, using flawed models backed up with shoddy data unless directed otherwise by regulators. This is what helped lead to the unhappy results in the stocks, bonds and credits markets that are still bedeviling us today. Any mark-to-model regime must reveal all model and data used; any deviation by the market from the model greater than -5% from model value must trigger mark-to-market IMO.

The End of the Credit Crisis

Nice plan (unless you're shorting the banks), 'til the inevitable oil supply decline sets in. Then Joe Grabasandwich can no longer afford the mortgage (again) on his now $300,000.00 house in the exurbs due to the price of oil and gasoline going through the roof and making the price of every other necessity inflate like mad.