GREAT idea! The sign of a producer!

Cool to know a fellow bass guitar player. Got Rush? If you can't play YYZ and Force Ten, then you're just like the rest of us. :)

Perfect! If I still actively played in bands, I'd do that, too. Instead I ordered one to pin on my new pea coat. I also grabbed one of the "Official Atlas Shrugged Part II Promotional T-shirt". At $4.95, I couldn't pass it up.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dil...

It has been pretty well accepted that the last financial crisis was the result of banks being forced by government into making home loans to people that could not afford to pay the mortgage. When those banks were then on the verge of collapse, they were recapitalized via tax money. It's more accurate to say the last financial crisis was the result of government meddling.

Assuming you accept the premise that government ought to be overseeing the economy, do you really think they have the brains to do this? Or that they will manage it without any bias to themselves or their friends? The fact of the matter is what you want is what we already have. We have a federal reserve whose entire mission is to keep inflation/unemployment/gdp within certain parameters. How's that been working out?

I find it ironic that I grew up in a country that was in a cold war with the Soviet Union and during those years I kept seeing examples of how superior the American economy was to theirs. In their centrally managed economy, one had to wait in line for bread, most people did not own cars, and they couldn't even grow enough food to feed their people - they had to buy grain every year from us.

Now that the USSR has gone into the dustbin, we have people in this very country arguing that what we need is more government control of the economy.

Remember that Nike left the U.S. because we buy their products at high volume, BUT the government taxes them extremely high and kills them with fees upon fees and more fees. Many different departments of government, not just federal taxes. Nike produces elsewhere because it's cheaper. They didn't leave to intentionally hurt our economy. If the US govt was more respectable, their taxes would be more favorable and they would create less waste and spend money more wisely (like a business would).

Do you own a business, dukerone?

that is because government and crony capitalists share power. Laws and Regulations are often the bad result of those kinds of relationships. Also, laws that have unintended consequences because politicians are not smart businessmen or special interests are the foundation. For example-something as innocuous sounding as FASB rules. you know, let's make sure we are all under the same accounting standards. seems reasonable. There is not one business that operates according to FASB. Now instead of one set of books, companies have at least two or more. One that is compliant with regulation reporting and one that is instructive for the business to make ongoing concern decisions. The FASB com pliancy costs US businesses billions-and not one of those dollars help them in their business affairs. Sarbanes Oxley. Passed under GWB, basically took the US from having the most companies in the world go public per year down to 7th or 8. Companies stay private due to compliance cost and risk. That is bad for every small company in the US. and larger companies not going public here? They chose to do it abroad. Much to the delight of Singapore and Great Britain.
I will agree with you that it doesn't take a brilliant banker to receive printed dollars at 0% interest and charge 2%. Would that all businesses have such an easy opportunity to aid in the destruction of the US currency.