Gillis on the Lessons of Atlas

David Gillis of St. Clair, a Times Herald community columnist, wrote a column comparing the business headlines to Atlas Shrugged, published 52 years ago.

The column is entitled "Rand's novel offers lessons for current economic crisis".

I posted the following brief comments, partly in response to other correspondents;

MikeZemack wrote:

Private business is the face of this crisis, but is NOT indicative of actual capitalism--the separation of economics and state. Private ownership can exist in non-capitalist systems, such as fascism. This crisis occurred in a heavily regulated industry, under a central bank money monopoly. There is the Federal Reserve, FDIC, Fannie and Freddie, mortgage guarantees, the CRA, the network of “affordable housing” policies, mandatory accounting rules, the state-licensed rating agency cartel’s AAA endorsement based upon implicit government guarantees, “to big to fail” bailout policies…etc., etc.

Rand correctly identified the corruptive nature of political interference in private economic decision-making, and the way in which the regulatory apparatus acts as the conduit. The government’s primary role in causing and exacerbating this crisis is impossible to dismiss. Those who blame “deregulation” or “unfettered markets” have no clue what capitalism is, and are not looking at the facts.