There has been a growing trend in the last 30 years towards less and less regulation. The philosophy behind this and the many reasons as to why this seemed like a good idea are far too complex for a short blog entry so I will take that as read.
The arguments have gone back and forth only to see left leaning political parties move to the right in order to appeal to the popularist ideas and seen the right leaning parties move even further to the right in order to differentiate. So much so that our last federal election was a competition to see who could move more right. Like a jockeying for the end position on a garden bench. What is even more interesting is the language of the Dem and Rep candidates in the campaign for US President. McCain blaming the greed of Wall St and Obama blaming the Rep policies. In fact they are both right and both wrong.
Laws serve two purposes – to protect the innocent and to protect the guilty. What! I hear you say – “to protect the guilty”! Well – yes. For instance when immunity from prosecution is granted – who does that protect? I know, laws do more than that and it is an over simplification but for the sake of this argument this is suffucuent. Much of the old regulation was replaced by the oxymoronic “self regulation”. Self regulation means no regulation. This has been proved over and over again but Governments of all persuations still think that they can acheive the same ends by allowing the foxes to look after the chicken coup and save a whole bunch of money into the bargain.
I know that there is more than on contributiong factor in the current financial disaster but this particular situation would not have occured had the US government no been so idiotic as to think that people are not essentially greedy and avaricious. Why is McCain so surprised that his parties policies allowed the Money Barons of Wall Street to get away with blue murder? I have to say that OBama’s policies are not much better. Of course if he really did promote a sound and necessary policy to address the fundamental weaknesses in the US at the moment then no way would he be elected. The US has drifted (and was always a little in many respects) too far to the right.
One can only hope that the lessons of a deregulated market will not be forgotten. The lessons of 37 are being learnt all over again, and I suspect will continue to be learnt by successive generations as the diabolical lust for money recurs.