Lew Rockwell on Market Disaster

The past week has been educational, no doubt about it. I think Lew Rockwell sums it up best in one of his blog posts today:

Stop the Rip-Off!

Posted by Lew Rockwell at 09:00 AM

It seems ironic that the announced mega-bailout of corpporatist boondoggles Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - of the government-connected rich at the expense of the rest of us - has caused stock markets all be over the world to tank. But since the whole financial system of Fed inflation and fractional-reserve banking is fundamentally unstable - indeed, based on fraud and State counterfeiting - once it starts to go down there is probably no stopping it. The business cycle unleashed by Printing Press Alan Greenspan after 911 must run its course. Maybe Herbert Hoover Bush, Printing Press Ben Bernanke, and the pygmies in Congress can temporarily "restore confidence" (as conmen can fool the marks again) or maybe this is the big enchilada. In any event, don't trust the banks, believe the opposite of what officials tell you, stop as much spending as you can, increase your savings, and buy some gold. Oh, and get use to your house, because there will probably no selling it and moving. Instead, educate yourself about what the Fed has done to us and get angry at the criminal establishment. Stop the Rip-Off!

Lew is absolutely correct - few remember that, just prior to 9/11, the US stock market was sliding downward, and the economy was heading into the post dotcom bubble recession. Then, after the attacks, then-Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan (whom Ayn Rand referred to as "The Undertaker") lowered interest rates to unprecedented lows. The low interest rates led to the creation of a new bubble, this time in the housing market. What we are witnessing today is the collapse of another Fed-generated bubble and, because interest rates remain at ridiculously low levels, we can expect this collapse to last much longer.

And don't buy into the hype that increased regulation and bailouts will solve our problems. As a coercive body that produces nothing of value as a whole, the government's feeble efforts to revive the sinking economy can only result in increased chaos and uncertainty. The absolute worst thing the government can do right now is run the printing presses; sadly, it appears that's the course they will take.