tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7475395270631949054.post4442991544871414085..comments2024-02-15T21:31:06.486-08:00Comments on Capitalism and Freedom: Guess who is causing the Greek crisis?Christopher T. Mahoneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07096275297545797428noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7475395270631949054.post-50572731630742116722010-02-19T10:38:48.154-08:002010-02-19T10:38:48.154-08:00Somebody's got to post, so it may as well be m...Somebody's got to post, so it may as well be me. <br />I cannot comment about the details of the Greek financial crisis, except to say it frankly doesn't sound that different to me than the American housing/mortgage crisis - both involved inflated numbers, misleading assessments or valuations, and of course, lying about the creditworthiness of the debt, either by ignoring risks of default, or simply ignoring relevant facts about the debtors' ability to repay. <br />What I want to hear more about is reconciling, as a policy matter, the libertarian impulse and the admission that some of our institutions are "too big to fail." Is this the latter day equivalent of Thomas Aquinas' purported reconciliation of faith and reason? <br />The essence of libertarianism is responsibility for the consequences of one's actions. Once we (politics aside) agree that certain institutions are absolved from those consequences, we're no longer libertarians. We're simply capitalist corporatists, and the only question is who gets the money.<br />dan stern<br />bankrupt harrisburg, pa - where we are not too big to failsternlawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12110121756060752227noreply@blogger.com