It is a bit interesting that the freemarketers argue that the cure for our problem is more of the same.  Derrida noted that the greek word 'pharmakon' (from which we get our word pharmacy) means both 'medicine' and 'poison.'  Fairly accurate here.

I would be more for letting the markets play this one out if it did not mean that a substantial number of people not directly involved in these crappy business practices and decisions would lose their pensions, insurance, and jobs or if it would not entirely cripple our economy.  I'm not ready to make that gamble just to see if it works.  

*Just to give you another example (since we have a minor sports thread in this post): In the early days of football, after the thousandth concussion, they did not say, "Hey, our shoddy leather helmets are the problem.  Let's get rid of those to solve the problem and weed out the weak."  They rightly created new rules and increased protection to make a more exciting (and safer) game.

*My apologies to Tlaloc for the sports metaphor.

Here is another example for the people who do not like sports:

Since I jumped in without reading that article, I'll try to placate Specter by providing a little response. Basically, I think it's a lot of BS:

Government failure, not market failure, would be a more accurate description of the subprime/credit crisis. There would have been less risk-taking and more market discipline if Congress had not guaranteed Fannie and Freddie debt

Sure, Freddie and Fannie were/are screwed up, but their debt is secure, and is not the basis of the financial meltdown. F&F helped shape the market, but they did not encourage anyone (except the Federal gov't) to take on more risk than they would have otherwise.

and had not passed the Community Reinvestment Act, which pressured banks to promote subprime and Alt-A mortgages.

Again, this could have cut into the profit margin of banks a little bit (and these banks had plenty of profit over the past decade), but it did not cause them to take on so much risk that they were faced with failure. At worst, the banks could have hedged against their exposure using their surplus--but they decided to hand out that surplus as dividends.

Moreover, by holding the Federal funds target rate at 1 percent from July 2003 to June 2004, the Fed fueled the housing boom.

Blah, blah, blah. Hindsight is 20/20. At the time, there was no indication of inflation (outside of asset prices), so there was no reason to raise the rates.

...

A little-discussed consequence is to severely undermine the moral basis of a free market — the ethic of individual accountability.

No man is an island. The market connects us to each other. Individual accountability is partial at best, unless we decide to sever those connections and strive for economic self-sufficiency. When we place our faith in "the system" (which could be "the market"), we have abandoned individual responsibility.

Before credibility can return to financial markets, however, there must be a restoration of confidence in government as the protector and guarantor of our economic liberties.

Wishful thinking.

Anyway, I don't think this is seen as the end of free markets -- the intervention packages are being framed in typical neo-liberal terminology (public goods, and emergency system stabilization), which has been the dominant ideology of government for decades (before which it was more socialistic):

There is nothing new in this quote from that Hong Kong guy quoted in the article

"When the market fails, the government should be prepared to intervene in a timely and decisive manner."

The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy -- having broken up eight years ago -- is putting the band back together and going out on tour. They're back with all the nuttiness and over-the-top lunacy we've all come to love and admire.

But will they come out with some fresh songs or just be content to put out a Greatest Hits CD and recycle old conspiracies?

Of course, it's going to hard to top those chart-busting hits from the 90s -- like "Clinton's Dealing Drugs from the Mena Airport," and "Vince Foster Was Murdered."

Give 'em a bailout!  What about all those displaced instant-film workers?   Who cares if their product has been upstaged by newer models that are easier and cheaper to use....it's an American Icon we're talking about here!  

Yes, dammit, it's humor.  Smile.  Despite the gloom and doom in the media, it's still a great time to be alive. 

A different article by the same author

Military analysts like K Subrahmanyam believe that elements in Pakistan's army and ISI may have staged the Mumbai raid to provoke a military response from India, providing an excuse for transferring Pakistani troops from the Afghan border to the Indian one. India must avoid such a trap.

One of the things that ran through my mind after seeing the attacks was "That was stupid of that group, they're going to get crushed [short pause], maybe that's what they want." What better way to start a war between India and Pakistan and have India "start it" than have the black hand of Pakistani's provoke India into throwing haymakers.