The Free Market Dies, Funeral Pending

"Free Market Capitalism" died this week, after a long illness and the funeral could cost "hundreds of billions," according to Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, or even as much as a couple of trillion; that is t-r-i-l-l-i-o-n, according to others. Free Market Capitalism is survived by.... well, it seems that no one wants to claim to be related. The "free marketers" have been discredited, and to prove the point, they all now claim that they didn't mean what they said before.... ah before, well, this week. These folks who claimed that free markets can do no wrong, that government is the enemy, that regulation is the enemy, that health care for ALL Americans is the enemy, that huge bonuses for CEOs, even those overseeing floundering companies, are just fine, well they now say that they are related to someone, and that someone is Uncle Sam. Many years ago on the television series "Get Smart," the main character, Secret Agent Maxwell Smart, would confront an enemy by calling him some nasty name, like "you stupid gorilla." Max would then go at his adversary with a punch to the face, a karate chop to the neck, and a swift fist to the gut. When the "gorilla" barely flinched, Max would put his arm around the guy and say very nicely, "Hey, I hope I wasn't out of line with that crack about you being a stupid gorilla." Well that's where the free marketers are now. They hated Uncle Sam, but now they claim to have been misunderstood, and that they really love their bearded uncle. "Hey Uncle Sam, we hope we weren't out of line with that crack about you being the enemy. By the way, could you spare a few hundred billion?"

While I'm on the television kick, there was another show called "Fantasy Island." The basic premise of the show was that various people would visit the island and get to live out their ultimate fantasy. Often this required turning back the clock to an idyllic time. In the end, the old saying about "Be careful what you wish for, you might get it," came true, and the people got to see the folly of their ways. Well now, we've had these free marketers take this country back in time to an age where there was virtually no law or regulation to stop them from doing anything and everything to make money. The problem with this scenario is, it is NOT a TV show, and millions of Americans have paid a terrible price for these folks' fantasies. And, as I noted above, the costs associated with this "turn back the clock" mentality haven't all come to pass, as yet. Let's just hope that what Uncle Sam has decided to do will now work, and that we avoid an even worse situation.