La Voz

Issue date: 11/24/08 Section: Features

Media Credit: La Voz Reports

"Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite." -John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006), Canadian-American Economist

The headline of a recent article posted on Al Jazeera's Web site reads, "Is this the end of U.S. capitalism?" An October article from WashingtonPost.com basically asks the same question.

The cover of the Oct. 18 edition of The Economist features a wounded beast and the title, "Capitalism at Bay." During that same week, the conservative magazine National Review featured a drawing of a weeping Adam Smith (the "father" of free-market capitalism) and the words, "Adam Smith's Lament."

A couple weeks ago, Business Week had on its cover photos of United States Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed chief Ben Bernanke with "The Future of Kapitalism" (yes, with a "K") printed diagonally across the cover.

And this month's Harper's featured a forum that included Economics Nobelist Joseph Stiglitz and "progressive" economist James K. Galbraith, among others, addressing the issue of "How to Save Capitalism" or "Fundamental Fixes for a Collapsing System."

The list could go on and on, and so do you notice just a bit of a recurring theme here? And it should be noted that that the graphics on the covers of the aforementioned editions of Business Week and Harper's were reminiscent of the propaganda posters one used to see plastered up in countries with command economies or centrally-planned economic systems.

"Le laissez-faire c'est fini." -French President Nicolas Sarkozy-Bruni.

Is the pronouncement by former supermodel and current chanteuse Carla Bruni's husband true? Has Cowboy Capitalism met its match with the current global economic crisis that began with the implosion of the U.S. housing market? And if so, what will the future bring? Little Red Books and Stalinomania? Or somewhere somewhere in between? Let's explore ...

But first, let's get a few things straight: for one, pure free-market capitalism (henceforth simply "capitalism") has never existed; not here in the U.S. or anywhere else. A pure capitalist economy would have little role for government beyond much like that of a referee - to enforce the established "rules of the economic game."

Perhaps the closest example of pure capitalism we have ever seen was Industrial Revolution Era England. And it may come to a surprise to many of you that the U.S. is not the freest economy on the planet ¬- and by freest, I mean the least government intervention in the economy (according to the Heritage Foundation, Hong Kong currently holds that distinction as it has for the last 14 years).

Continued...

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