The
Rational Argumentator
The Federal Government is Too Big to Succeed
The Pecora Commission was stacked with big-government sympathizers who blamed the free market and the gold standard without question, and without any consideration of government interference in the economy. This panel is no different. Never will they contemplate how the federal government steered us into this crisis, and what perverse incentives can be removed or repealed so that the market will function more smoothly. Never will they discuss how investment should come from savings, not debt. Never will it occur to them that fiat money, artificially low interest rates, and the whole Federal Reserve System might be unwise and unstable, not to mention unconstitutional. The answer will always be more federal government regulation and oversight. It is predictable that this federal government panel will eventually come to the firm conclusion that the federal government needs to be bigger, and that the market is just too free.
How sad is this when exactly the opposite is true?
It is big government that gives out tax breaks to engineer behavior, often creating large pockets of malinvestments. It is the federal government that created the FDIC and the Fed as lender of last resort, which all encourages moral hazard. It is big government that gives federal bureaucrats the ability to bail out cronies with taxpayer dollars while screaming that the economic sky is falling if they don’t. It is big government that every year adds new layers to the already labyrinthine federal regulatory code that smaller businesses can’t keep up with, while simultaneously preventing new businesses from emerging. It is big government that misdirects economic productivity into bankrupt businesses that the powers that be consider to be too big to fail.
If this panel was serious about understanding the root of the problem, as its members claim to be, it would have people testify who understand the crisis and saw it coming. To my knowledge, none of them have received a phone call. The problem is those people would say too many things the federal government panel would find inconvenient. They would point fingers at too many of the anointed in Washington, D.C. They would recommend getting government out of the way of the free market and getting back to simply protecting contracts and punishing fraud. But the biggest fraud is perpetrated by the Federal Reserve. No one on this panel takes that viewpoint seriously. Instead, they will be asking people who are still scratching their heads at how they could have missed the housing bubble what new regulations they can put in place to prevent future bubbles. Thus, I don’t expect much real wisdom to come out of this current investigation.
Congressman Ron
Paul of
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