[Shermy]

“The government cannot fix the crisis, the free market can.”

Chant away, but the “free market” created $100 trillion plus in exotic derivatives, something the government has not nearly been able to do.

The “free market” owns the government. The “free market” is given a license to invent money, then buys politicians to protect them.

[giobruno]

Take the hyper-inflated mortgages, bundle them up as securities, get the ratings agencies to call dogturd lobster bisque, sell them into the international bond market to investors at all levels (many of whom would never be allowed to invest at the actual risk they actually were, see, ratings agencies above), and then get the Fed to sign off on outrageous leverage limits so it is possible to make more money than Croesus until the ponzi scam winds out. And when the hole opens up and begins swallowing banks, use every manner of backdoor and front-door deal from Washington, putting a gun to the head of the larger economy and claiming that without a payout, the nations gets it.

Free markets bought off regulators, wrote preferential deals, bought influence, drafted bad legislation, and otherwise scammed the system for all it was worth, and those people are still at it. There is plenty of blame to be placed at the government for all their complicity, but a market that runs on ponzi finance has plenty of cash to grease the wheels before the thing runs off the tracks. Free markets must have a real and enforced rule of law, and a meaningful regulatory apparatus or they will quickly become a free-for-all.