George Will here summarizes Reckless Endangerment, Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner's scathing indictment of Democrats for causing the 2008 financial collapse, a crisis responsible for the length of this recession and the weakness of its recovery. Morgenson and Rosner make clear that this collapse was caused by government mandates pushed by Democrats starting in the early nineties that forced the financial industry to make home loans to borrowers who would probably not be able to repay them.
Thus, our current economic problems were caused by the collectivist fantasy that five -- or five hundred thirty six -- wise men in Washington can make millions and billions of economic decisions better than the individuals involved. That their belief in their wisdom is false is once again proven by the recent housing bubble, its collapse, and the current depression in the housing industry.
Individual freedom to make personal and corporate economic decisions and personal and corporate responsibility for the consequences of those decisions are the basis of a free market. Those free choices guided and rewarded or punished by real prices are the foundation of efficient production and economic prosperity for all.
Collective printing-press and point-of-the-gun interference with that freedom and responsibility always cause boom and bust cycles, lower productivity, and greater poverty.
Where is the honest man or woman who will say that we can not simultaneously have equality of result and prosperity?
