Sunday ruminations

What a week! The First debate. The USA/Gallup poll said that Obama won. I think it was a draw. Palin threw herself under the bus in the Katie Couric interview. Wall Street came to the brink of total catastrophe. These are intense times. The genesis of the meltdown on Wall Street, as I understand it (and I am no expert by any means) was the adoption of the "Chicago School" of economics made famous by Milton Friedman. Starting with the Reagan administration, government gave more and more freedom to the markets with the notion that the markets could regulate the economy better than governments. They forgot the "Lord of the Flies" lesson. William Golding's novel followed children on an island striving to make their way without adults. It led to violence and chaos. The children, it turned out, needed adult supervision. Well, Wall Street, left to its own devices--without regulation (read 'adult supervision'), ends up in chaos and destruction. I believe that markets should be allowed free movement but there must be regulation to provide checks and balances against greed. In Argentina, they called the "Chicago School" 'Jungle Capitalism'. There needs to be balance between free markets and principles that defend the people against the excesses of greed. Hopefully, Democrats and Republicans can come together to find that balance.