Raise the Hammer

Ryan >> capitalism is emphatically **not** self-regulating, as the current economic crisis demonstrates amply

How would we ever know? As soon as the big banks started running into trouble, they called on the government to bail them out, which they did, by giving them 700 billion in taxpayer dollars. If the government had minded their own business and let the banks fail, depositors would have been taught a valuable lesson, don't give money to people you don't trust.

Furthermore, if government hadn't provided completely bogus inflation numbers in the first place, based not on owner's equivalent rent (which takes into consideration the cost of borrowing money), but on actual home prices, interest rates would have been much higher they they were. As a result, there would have been far less homes built in a short period of time and better appreciation for the true value of homes and not what a rapid growth in money supply led people to believe. Once again, government hand it's hand in this whole mess from the beginning.

>> the Golden Age of Capitalism: two decades of more or less continuous strong economic growth, dramatic reductions in inequality between the richest and poorest, an expanded middle class, greater socioeconomic mobility,

If your argument is that more government helps the economy, then how do you explain the fact that from 1950 - 1969, when growth was much more robust than we see today, non military spending as a % of GDP averaged 15.36%, while in fourth quarter 2008, it comes in at 31.56%. If you want to be completely accurate, your call for "more government?", should actually shrink spending as a share of GDP in half. What do you think, do you want to start calling for less non military government spending? You would if you want to help the economy.