Weisberg wrote a version of the same article for Newsweek titled "The Libertarian's Lament"
http://www.newsweek.com/id/164502
He obviously doesn't have a clue. Of course, no one inside the Beltway does
My comment to Newsweek:
"Mr. Weisberg’s thinking is extremely dangerous. This is exactly the kind of thinking that will turn this recession into a depression.
The United States financial system is indeed very highly regulated. We have the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission, the Department of Justice, FDIC, State Attorneys General, etc.
The financial crisis is in no way a failure of libertarianism. Instead it is the natural result of the moral hazards generated by crony capitalism in which Wall Street pays off Congress to have its own way. Investment banks took huge risks knowing that if they were too large to fail they would be bailed out, just as in the Savings and Loan scandal. Bush’s bailout ensures that this moral hazard will continue into the indefinite future.
The number of bad assets will continue to grow, the federal government will keep printing money which will become increasingly worthless. The government will have even less ability to deal with a depression than today. The cycle of debt has to end. The U.S. cannot afford enormous Wall Street Bailouts on top of two major wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, military bases in 107 countries, and the expanded rosters of Social Security and Medicaid. Congress is bankrupting the United States. The next administration will have to learn to live within its means. I have yet to hear any serious economic proposals from either Obama or McCain. They do not seem to realize the seriousness of the situation that we are in. Instead, they are content to poke fun of each other at the Al Smith Charity Dinner."
