Economic History

Posted here:

wheatstraw wrote:

Another example of unchecked capitalism was the relaxation of lending standards and questionable banking practices (sub-prime loans, mortgage backed securities, derivatives) that lead to the current banking crisis. The bailout, or "socialization of America", or whatever you want to call it, is simply a response to that unchecked capitalism.

By "unchecked capitalism" you mean when the government comes in and says "give loans to the poor segment of your territory so they can get houses or we'll pull your license", right?

That's like the definition of deregulation: "We're removing 1% of the regulations, to give us better control, so ignore the 30% increase in new regulations so we can call it 'deregulation'.

The last hundred years have been almost constant additions to regulation and 'checks' on capitalism. Blaming the current situation on circumstances we haven't seen in almost a century is silly.