johngonole

Robert Shiller on America's 'Speculative Culture'

I think the primary idea being that a little bit of speculation may be good, but mass speculation can be bad. When the whole economic system is propped up by debt with the idea that investing and speculation income will pay for it something is very wrong.

Greenspan is not small government. He abondoned that line of thinking long ago. Yes he has and always has made statements to the effect that the government should reduce spending and balance the budget. But he was the head of one of the worst monopoly powers this country has and the same monopoly power (The FED) that is the primary vehicle of government deficit spending. A stronger Federal Reserve could have checked government spending. The problem is Keyensian economic thinking. The idea that deficit spending in the hard times can prevent harmful corrections may indeed work. But in speculative boom times the government should do the opposite and pay down debt thus reigning in excessive speculation and spending. Instead they only spend spend and spend even more. This is what is creating inflation. Now like half the work force sits in government offices doing nothing of real productive value. Then you have all the retiress and students. A very small percentage of our population is actually productive at any given time. If one discounted the illegal immigrants that actually do most of the really hard work for almost nothing and the productivity of this country goes down even further. I say less safety nets, less government control of the economic sector, less monopolies or all sorts.

In the end monopolies wierd terrible power and they take advantage of the poor, the middle class, etc... The government is one of the most dangerous monopolies in the end. War, persecution, etc...