Yojimbo, I agree with most of what you are saying. But would you say the same for Jamie Dimon at JPMorgan?
What seems to be lost in this most delightful discussion is that we currently have the new “republicans” flavor of socialism: give to the upper 1% today and tax the other 99% tomorrow. I don’t think anyone in this class warfare battle likes this plan. Shouldn’t we, instead of bickering among ourselves, be united in our concern that the government is corrupt and dangerous, and its actions are harmful to all of us.
I haven’t read the book, but I think the point is that a government, made up primarily of people who are more skilled at winning popularity contests than they are at understanding finance, is not qualified to manage something as big and complex as the economy. Even their most well meaning efforts have unintended adverse consequences. How much should we trust these people to “fix” things? Not much, no matter where you land on the class spectrum. The idea of America is “individual freedom”, and our founders recognized that freedom for the citizens can only occur when the government’s powers are limited.
