The case for deregulation

Check out this op-ed, published today in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

This is as strong an argument as I’ve seen for letting the markets handle the current crisis on their own. A bailout, as they wrote, would thwart “the dynamic process of creative destruction.”

Two things worry me right now about all this. One is inflation. Can the government add billions of dollars to the economy to solve this crisis without causing inflation? The other is the seemingly never-ending list of crises that politicians will want to fix. Remember, Social Security and Medicare are on the brink of ruin, too. We’ve known about those for more than a decade now. If the government bails out the market, doesn’t that reduce its ability to deal with other big problems?

So, do Americans really understand this on a gut level, or have they just lost faith generally in all politicians? I’ve enjoyed the intelligent discussion that has come to characterize this blog. Tell me what you think.