The "free," or more accurately, invisible, hand isn't free or invisible when the government incents, measures, subsidizes and accepts lobby monies to affect courses of action.
The \"free,\" or more accurately, invisible, hand isn't free or invisible when the government incents, measures, subsidizes and accepts lobby monies to affect courses of action.
I think that is the point! There never has been and never will be a "Free" market and that is why there needs to be regulations (rules) to keep greedy people at the top of these mega corporations from doing precisely what they did in creating our current disaster.
And it wasn't caused by poor people getting mortgages. That is spin crap from the "free market" camp trying to blame the powerless as usual!
^^^ I disagree that the current mess is driven soley by greedy companies. Much of the real estate bust was due to speculation, "The value will always keep going up." Then the bubble goes bang. Where you live in Florida is a very good example of this. I heard many stories of unbuilt, waterfront condos being sold several times over before they were completed. That is an example of greed at an individual level not a company. Now are companies exempt, no. Another example is people for bought houses that were too expensive for them but thought the market would keep going up to they would make money. California, Scottsdale and Vegas fit this to a tee. So I think both sides can be blamed for this mess.
Just because someone offers you something doesn't mean you should buy it. The individual needs to look at their budget and determine it the new item fits and makes sence. It is not the job of the seller to determine that.