Neo-Classic!
From the story in the Epoch Times:
The economy seems to be showing signs of recovery, but people’s faith in capitalism are being put to a test in face of tough challenges such as the current health care reform. Has capitalism stopped working for the U.S.? What is the cure for today’s troubled economy, “laissez faire” or a pro-socialist approach?
Steve Forbes, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Magazine recently made frequent appearances on national TV, talk show programs and speaking events sharing his answers to these questions with his new book How Capitalism Will Save Us. On December 15, 2009 hundreds of members of the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia heard his speech on why capitalism has always been and is still the best answer for the U.S. economy. In the 30-minute speech, Forbes discussed the causes of the recession and offered his optimistic forecast of a brighter economy under true capitalism….
Forbes attributed the failed economy to a series of failed monetary, accounting, foreign exchange, and trade policies.
According to Forbes, the first and foremost mistake was the Fed’s printing too much money, thus pumping too much fuel into and flooding the economic engine. Giant government-sponsored enterprise (GSE), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who owned or guaranteed about half of the US $12 trillion mortgage market back in 2008, were to blame for the burst of the housing market bubble. The SEC (Security Exchange Commission) regulatory accounting policy regulating banks and insurance companies brought even greater disaster to the financial system. In short, the troubled economy was not a result of true capitalism characterized by a free market, but a heavy-handed government meddling with private business….
Forbes described true capitalism as a free market where “if you do well, others can do well too. It is not zero sum game. Our founding fathers understood this.”
Forbes believed that it is the free entrepreneurs, not the government who can “turn today’s scarcity into tomorrow’s abundance and develop the innovation that are the foremost drivers of the economic growth.” He said a free market is the cure of today’s health care problem and “it will turn something that looks like a hopeless liability to the one most exciting dynamic growth the industry has ever.”