H/T to LibertyKnight for sending me this link!
Robert Higgs, author of the excellent book Crisis and Leviathan, has written a MUST READ article concerning the Financial Crisis of just a few months ago, the crisis that ultimately led to the federal government effectively taking control of a significant portion of the U.S. economy.
I first read "Crisis and Leviathan" in one of my college economics classes, you know, back in the day when learning econ required understanding more than today's Leftist government talking points. Amazingly, waaaay back then, in the early 1990's, instead of political indoctrination, we just plain had to learn economics. Seems like so long ago ...
Today, everyone ... left-wing, right-wing, no-wing ... should pick up a copy of this book, borrow it from someone, or check it out from your local library. That is ... if you're serious about understanding the government's role in economics.
If you prefer however, to listen to the "wisdom" of our politicos, just taking their word for it (being "our leaders" and all), please ... DO NOT read this book! Dr. Seuss has plenty of teriffic offerings.
From Robert Higgs, The Great Credit-Crunch Hoax of 2008 (emphasis added):
Remember the credit crunch? Of course, you do. We'd never seen anything like it, or so the highest financial authorities and their lapdogs in the news media told us ... in a breathless delivery that suggested imminent economic doom unless the government immediately undertook to "do something."
But, wait, something is terribly wrong in the statistical record! ... the greatest threat to this country since the Russians exploded an H-bomb, the most menacing economic event since the stock-market crash of 1929 ... I am rather embarrassed, on behalf of all these giants of the ruling elite, to inform you that in retrospect the Monster from Lack-of-Liquidity Lagoon doesn't really show up as such in the most relevant statistical series.
Probably the most important measure of credit-market conditions is the amount of commercial-bank credit outstanding ... although the middle part of 2008 does stand out in the long view, it does so not by virtue of credit's frightening contraction, but only by virtue of its hitting a six-month plateau ...
At no time during that interval ... did the amount of commercial-bank credit outstanding fall below the amount outstanding at the beginning of the year. In short, credit was actually ample, indeed, at an all-time high ... while one Wall Street wizard after another told NPR that "no money is moving, the credit market is completely shut down" or some such cock-and-bull story.
After the six-month pause, commercial-bank credit zipped upward again, so that by the end of the year, the amount outstanding stood more than 8 percent higher than it had a year earlier.
But don't write off this silly little hoax too fast, because, however baseless ... in economic reality, it was manifestly good enough for government [to have] placed U.S. taxpayers on the hook for trillions of dollars of additional Treasury commitments and put all holders of U.S. dollars and other dollar-denominated assets at risk of tremendous losses of their money's purchasing power.
The beauty of the Great Hoax of 2008, from the perspective of the ruling class, is that it was also a Great Scare, and such scares invariably serve as pretexts for the rulers' most audacious assaults on the peasants' lives, liberties, and purses. You'd almost have to admire the elite's ability to spook the rest of us into blind, unreasoning panic on such a flimsy basis, if it weren't for the fact that [we'll] find ourselves enormously worse off ... and our liberties throttled more tightly by an even bigger Leviathan ...
... the terrific excitement it brought to the Boob Tube while it lasted ... now seems hardly worth the trouble ... it holds in store for us as its consequences play out over the years to come.
I'm not sure when, but on my calculator 2+2 always equals 4, so thanks to Washington's Great Bailout, the entire U.S. economy is heading for a world of hurt. And no amount of positive-thinking can change this unfortunate fact.
PS - Republicans ... never forget it was George W. Bush, and bi-partisan legislator-extroidinarre John McCain, who are greatly responsible for this fleecing of us taxpayers. Wearing an 'R' on your lapel, should no longer be enough to earn your support.
Sad ... but true.
