All Posts Tagged With: "Too Big To Fail"

‘Too Big to Fail’ Banks Could Be Downsized

“An unusual alliance of conservatives and liberals is pushing to break up or downsize banks deemed “too big to fail,” rather than create a new regulatory regime led by the Federal Reserve to try to keep them from getting into trouble again.” (Washington Times, Monday)
But still not allowed to fail.
FEE Timely Classic:
“Too Big to Fail” [...]

9Nov2009 | Mike Van Winkle | 0 comments | Continued

Government Sets Us Up for the Next Bust

If an athlete injures himself and suffers great pain, we recognize the shortsightedness of giving him painkillers to keep him going. The pain might be masked, but at the risk of greater injury later.
That’s a good analogy for the inflationary policies now pursued by Washington. These policies may temporarily “stimulate the economy,” but they also [...]

2Mar2009 | John Stossel | 29 comments | Continued

Too Big to Fail

“Once you lose your freedom to fail, you also lose your freedom to succeed and you cease to be a free society.” —U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas
In March 2008 the investment banking firm Bear Sterns failed and the federal government quickly stepped in. The public was inundated with the phrase “too big to fail” (TBTF) [...]

2Mar2009 | Michael Heberling | 4 comments | Continued

Bailing Out Statism

The key to understanding the saga of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—the recently nationalized twin government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) that dominate home financing—is this:
They were set up—intentionally—to distort the housing and mortgage markets. Government planners were not content to let voluntary exchange and spontaneous market forces configure those industries unmolested. So—holding the taxpayers hostage—they intervened.
Make no [...]

20Jan2009 | Sheldon Richman | 6 comments | Continued

What Happened to Market Discipline?

During the late presidential campaign Barack Obama said, “[Today’s economic problems are] a stark reminder of the failures of . . . an economic philosophy that sees any regulation at all as unwise and unnecessary.”
What? Does that mean that until last fall the Bush administration embraced the free market? Nonsense. Governments at all levels have [...]

20Jan2009 | John Stossel | 3 comments | Continued

Nationalization of the Mortgage Market

Breaking down the mortgage market breakdown and how it’s all the government’s fault.

1Dec2008 | Robert P. Murphy | 2 comments | Continued

The Subprime Crisis Shows that Government Intervenes Too Little in Financial Markets? It Just Aint So!

Start with two assumptions. No. 1: banking and financial markets are inherently unstable. No. 2: government intervention into banking and financial markets can only stabilize (never destabilize). You’ll find it easy to conclude that any period of market instability we experience, like the recent subprime-lending problem, is the market’s fault and that it could have [...]

1Oct2008 | Lawrence H. White | 0 comments | Continued

The Fed Should Inflate to End the Financial Crisis? It Just Ain’t So!

Ivan Pongracic, Jr. teaches economics at Hillsdale College.
The current housing and financial crisis has many people blaming “greed and market forces” for unleashing a panoply of evils on the unsuspecting middle class. This has led to many bad proposals to solve the crisis, such as the April 14 Wall Street Journal op-ed “The Inflation Solution [...]

1Jul2008 | Ivan Pongracic Jr. | 0 comments | Continued

Can the Feds Save the Housing Market?

Government Solutions Will Only Make Matters Worse

1Jun2008 | Robert P. Murphy | 2 comments | Continued

Welfare for the Rich

Advocates of the free market—including those considered “right-wing” and “conservative”—believe it is wrong to violate property rights. Consequently, they oppose egalitarian measures to steal from the rich and give to the poor. Such “income redistribution” represents naked theft and epitomizes the Founding Fathers’ fears of unfettered democracy. At the same time, champions of laissez faire [...]

1Apr2007 | Robert Murphy | 1 comment | Continued

The Government Is the Stabilizer?

Stability is the perennial issue in macroeconomics. The economist’s judgment about the stability of the market economy stems from what Joseph Schumpeter called the “pre-analytic vision.” To illustrate the point, Schumpeter specifically used John Maynard Keynes and his pre-analytic vision: Markets are inherently unstable; the government is the stabilizer. This belief, or vision, was held [...]

1Jan2000 | Roger W. Garrison | 0 comments | Continued