Prof. Steven Horwitz of St. Lawrence University has this excellent letter directed to those on the left firmly gripping their blinders and continuing to insist that the current financial mess is a result of deregulation and greed.
Included is this insightful analogy:
"Many of you have rightly criticized the ethanol mandate, which made it profitable for corn growers to switch from growing corn for food to corn for fuel, leading to higher food prices worldwide. What’s interesting is that you rightly blamed the policy and did not blame greed and the profit motive! The current financial mess is precisely analogous."
"Greed" (i.e. profit-seeking) is a constant. Incentives matter. It is government’s meddling with the incentive structure of our financial sector that has us in this mess. Do you really think more meddling (regulation) is going to fix it?
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