While Crazy Go Nut Capitialism certainly has the potential for abuse (`Scuse me while I build this massive, unsafe, unregulated nuclear reactor next to this elementary school'), there are also obvious problems with regulation ('Senator Ted, would you like a couple mm for relection? I've got some competition that needs snuffing out'). If you set folks to watching the hen house, you'll soon discover they are best buds with the foxes.
Capitalism is not a theory or an idea. It is an actual practice & methodology that started back in 14th-15th centuries by merchants of Europe. Maybe you cannot classify it as bad, but it certainly is not good as it has no care for anyone except the capitalist & his profits.
nitro, The solution is not 'more regulation' but 'better regulation', actually how to get better regulation is real question. Is not as easy as some liberal economists and politicians make it look like. As far as the financial and economic field is concerned forecasting is pretty important if you want to prevent bad outcomes, how can you get an army of great regulators who can see the future better than the market?Its difficult because hedge funds and the goldmans of the world tend to outbid the government and get most of the share of the market wizard pool, meanwhile anyone in government getting a massive salary would probably suffer political attacks and lead to all kinds of problems. ex: Bernanke gets paid $180K a year, thats less than the avg GS employeed even BEFORE the bonuses Thats why the lesson of this crisis is that banks need to have their capital requirements increased, it should be set in stone(heck put in the Constitution) that no matter how hard they try to convince the world that their new 'innovation' should have lower capital requirements or that its a 'new era' they should never be allowed to have less than 15% of high quality capital(or some other percentage). No regulator can prevent banks from doing dumb things, but adding safety nets like higher capital and liquidity requirements will make sure that there will be a softer landing when the plane goes down. The system becomes more robust
Capitalism works fine on paper. Socialism works fine on paper. Everything works fine, on paper. Throw in those pesky humans with all their defects of character, now there's the rub. All the regulations in the world won't help if those that do the regulating are as corrupt and/or incompetent as those being regulated. The last couple of decades are proof enough of that. Best way to resolve this little problem is to harshly punish those that were supposed to be doing the regualting along with the other game players. Won't be done because they're all on the same team.
er on the same gravy train ? Punishment ! What punishment ? A year or two in a comfy cell with en suite facilities and a chance to meet up with all their old mates ? Swap stories no doubt. And that's only IF they get caught. Why does one get the feeling it's only the tip of the iceberg. Perhaps they didn't pay off the right protection.
Oh yeah? When was true laissez faire capitalism fully implemented? I would say true laissez faire capitalism last existed during the paleolithic era.
The only goal of Capitalism is making more and more money. It doesn't care who suffers or the end results. It is callous to an extreme. The law of the semi civilized jungle. Surely people are more important. This is THE fundamental fact that the West just can't get its head around. Noone in Washington/London thinks to ask the Middle East etc. whether they want western capitalism with all its imperfections and democracy. They are trying to impose it. It just won't work. The third world largely prefer what has gradually grown up over thousands of years and they are comfortable with. Not the crime ridden, blatant sex, music etc culture that evolved in the West. After spending trillions nothing much has changed and the Western politicians just can't seem to grasp these easy to understand facts.
This sounds like the kind of thing that the leaders of the Soviet Union used to say... Regardless of its merits/flaws, capitalism, broadly defined, is the most viable practical solution we humans have come up with so far that allows us to organize our collective economic and social existence.