Economics

I so agree with the title of this Arianna Huffington article: Laissez-faire Capitalism Should Be as Dead as Soviet Communism. Here's how it gets started:

The collapse of Communism as a political system sounded the death knell for Marxism as an ideology. But while laissez-faire capitalism has been a monumental failure in practice, and soundly defeated at the polls, the ideology is still alive and kicking.

The only place you can find an American Marxist these days is teaching a college linguistic theory class. But you can find all manner of free market fundamentalists still on the Senate floor or in Governor's mansions or showing up on TV trying to peddle the deregulation snake oil.

And here's something from the Comments section that I thought made a lot of sense:

I would like to see ongoing articles directly refuting the arguments of the think-tanks who got us here. They have been knocked off balance by recent events and must not be allowed to regain their footing. The American Enterprise Institute, The Heritage Foundation, and The CATO Institute are among those who have been adding credibility to Market Fundamentalist ideology for years. They must be publicly challenged, in a way that ordinary people can understand.

Regulation is nothing more than a steering wheel. Market Fundamentalists would have us believe, in essence, that steering wheels keep cars from going forward. Following their logic, one should simple start the car, put it in drive and then jump in the back seat.

Of course, predictably, cars without steering wheels usually end up in the ditch.

We, as a society, realize that theft and murder are damaging to the common good and so we make them illegal. Unfettered greed by the powerful is also damaging to the common good and also causes death and destitution. So what's the problem for making that illegal too?