No Morals No Freedom, Know Morals ...

Two apparently unrelated bits of news:

Global despotism is on the rise and freedom take a beating around the world.

Free market ideals are taking a real beating as they are replaced by centrally planned, statist economies.

Actually, they are related. The champions of freedom have lost their moral authority. Yes, we had successes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, The Philippines and other more obscure places, and no, free market capitalism did not cause the economic debacle we now face.

But the Western press, resentful of the system that put them in their place of prosperity, want to bring it all down, man! "That'll teach those Bu$hies to try to free all those people!" They will never forgive Ronald Reagan for building the economic juggernaut that drove the decades-long global prosperity boom that enabled literally millions world-wide to pull themselves out of poverty. This model is still the envy and blueprint for successful economies worldwide.

Claudia Rosett writes in Forbes:

The basic cause for concern is not that there are more dictatorships than a few years ago, but that the global ethos has shifted. There is a growing swagger among despots.

since the wave of democratization that swept parts of Asia in the late 1980s and rolled on in 1991 to the Soviet collapse, despots have had a chance to rethink, regroup, and--like the opportunistic crowd they are--adapt. Where there is an opening, whenever the pressures come off, they tend to find and exploit it.

Freedom House notes the "continuation of a negative global trend with respect to freedom of expression, freedom of association and the rule of law." In Europe and the U.K., politically correct fear of giving offense has put a damper on free speech and honest discourse. This reaches even into the U.S., where open debate has come under attack by way of both the same political correctness...

Steven Malanga brings it all home the simple question: "Can free markets survive in a secularized world?" Weber's Protestant Work Ethic got us here, but we've abandoned it:

The gradual disappearance of the Protestant ethic has shifted the emphasis in our economy from work and production to work and consumption—but most of all to consumption. A culture of thrift has become a culture of debt, and in the process many people have blurred the line between the legitimate competitive activity that is so essential to capitalism and criminality.

Professor Gavin Kennedy of Edinburgh reminds us that Adam Smith first wrote on morals before penning his famous work, The Wealth of Nations.

That the discourse of public life is dominated by ideological assaults on the idea of freer markets, and the supposed blessings of ‘regulation’ by bureaucracies, instead of by the justice system, is a symptom of the misjudged tendency to blame markets, which are not free, for the failings from political interventions that are not capable.

Throwing good money after bad is a weakness of poor management; ever tighter regulation to cover the deficiencies of regulations that don’t work as intended is congenital to micro-regulators.

In business markets, incompetence is terminated by losses; in political regulation, incompetence is cushioned by the public purse.

The Founding Fathers knew it. Adam Smith Knew it: A free market or a free society without morals is like a structure without a foundation.

Can you feel the sand shifting beneath your feet?

http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/28/qaddafi-korea-dictators-opinions-columnists_0129_claudia_rosett.html?feed=rss_opinions

http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/01/can_free_markets_survive_in_a.html
http://www.adamsmithslostlegacy.com/2009/01/markets-and-morals.html

When Socialist Experiments Explode

In the James Dean movie "Rebel Without a Cause," reckless hoodlums steal cars and play chicken, racing them to the edge of a cliff. Whoever jumps out of the car first is the chicken. Sounds like Congress and the Wall Street bailout program.

House GOP members are trying to stick to their free-market principles and stay in the car, but the economy could end up going over a cliff. They're going to have to jump, and the Democrats will call them chicken when they do.

Democrats are keeping the pressure on because they don't want the truth to come out:

Democrats are the saviors of Wall Street fat cats and Republicans are looking out for the taxpayer.

Socialistic government intervention in private markets created this mess. This second truth explains the first truth. Jimmy Carter started a socialist experiment to allow more people to buy their own homes. Guilty do-gooder liberals in Congress loved the idea and forced lenders to relax their standard so more people could get loans. That is the "deregulation" that created all this bad debt that the President tells us is clogging the finance markets, bringing capital flows to a standstill.

Capitalism is apolitical and amoral. Government schemes of this magnitude need private sector cooperation, and Wall Street was happy to help. They funded Hitler, why not this? Wall Street would finance Satan's global takeover if they could make a profit. Fannie and Freddie greased the skids with political cash to its benefactors in Congress. Barney Frankenstein and Chris DodderingOldFool are swimming in political contributions from the same banksters they are now bailing out. See how this works?

This bailout maintains the status quo. Washington can continue to play Santa Claus with your money, and Wall Street can continue to profit from it.

Kevin Hassett at Bloomberg.com makes the best case I've seen for blaming the Democrats. See Jeff Jacoby's explanation of Barney Frank's guilt.