Yeah but my main discussion was about the rise of large governments and what it means for individuals and free markets. Trump is a joke. Sanders has no idea what he is talking about and both of them making Hillary look strong when, with sensible candidates, she would be a fringe player. But this isnt about US elections
Free unregulated markets? Do you want the Bush era "deregulations" with all its illegal wars, war-crimes, and the many financial crisises come back? Like everything else, also the markets need some strict, but fair, rules to follow and play by. What we had in the past 20 years or so was the exception, it was a heaven for fraudsters and warmongerers and their lobbyists in politics. I just wonder when the US will begin the next illegal war on poor countries. With Trump and Hillary it can't be that long...
I agree. There needs to be strict rules to prevent over leverage. Fraud. Corruption. That's a given. But government should not be picking winners and losers. Bailing out failures and taxing the hell out markets and businesses sucking liquidity out of them. Bernies financial transaction tax for example would raise trading costs on futures approximately 5x. It was trialed in Europe and it reduced their tax revenue from capital gains by almost 70% as everything was done on other exchanges or off exchanges (more risk). Trading volumes almost disappeared causing huge volatility and costs were passed on to end users punishing mortgage owners, pensioners and small businesses. It was reversed quickly. This is one example of the retarded policies politicians think up that harm everyone but get the populist vote from the uneducated. 08 did expose flaws in risk models. But central banks keeping interest rates artificially low for years driving people into a property frenzy was a major cause of the crash. And they're doing it all over again. Rules yes. Government manipulation and meddling in free markets. No way!
I recently read a news article or commentary which said that about 80% of the US market movement is done with govt money only... Unfortunately can't locate the article anymore ;-(