Mr. Rubenstein, You're No Adam Smith - James E. Miller - Mises Daily

Mr. Rubenstein, You're No Adam Smith - James E. Miller - Mises Daily: 'With the existence of the Federal Reserve, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and other bodies that make up the 115 regulators that oversee the financial sector in the United States, the claim that such a system constitutes free-market capitalism is preposterous. The evidence is clear that Alan Greenspan's cutting of the federal-funds target rate in the early 2000s and the expansion of the monetary base set the stage for the housing bubble. That "unfettered exuberance" on Wall Street was only a byproduct of the Fed and government's intervention in the economy. Business fluctuations brought on by changing human demand do exist in true capitalism, yet they are self-correcting and don't lead to years of prolonged unemployment.'

'No proponent of free-market capitalism denies that wealth disparity develops. For it is that exact wealth disparity that serves as an incentive for entrepreneurs to create and workers to produce in order to better their own personal standard of living. Contrary to popular belief, capitalism is not a system of rugged individualism but rather one of social cooperation that expands the division of labor and offers new opportunities of employment even for those less able to compete with more-productive workers.'

'As a rule, capitalism is blamed for the undesired effects of a policy directed at its elimination. The man who sips his morning coffee does not say, "Capitalism has brought this beverage to my breakfast table." But when he reads in the papers that the government of Brazil has ordered part of the coffee crop destroyed, he does not say, "That is government for you"; he exclaims, "That is capitalism for you."'