Greenspan’s “bubbles”
Economists at the BIS (The Bank for International Settlements is a central-bank for the world) have issued an inane ruling that shows just how clueless they are. They told a Fed conference that “Central banks should tackle emerging asset bubbles head-on rather than wait till they burst and then clean up afterward.” The only point in question with these statists seems to be how much state intervention is necessary to “soften the blow” of these mysterious and seemingly natural and unpreventable “bubbles.” Not much though is given anymore as to whether these bubbles actually exist, and what, if any, is their cause.
Any economist worth a damn would start by asking what traits of the market could cause such “bubbles” to occur. The answer is simple: none. The self-correcting nature of a free market prevents any such “bubbles” from occurring by setting interest rates that accurately reflect the public’s ever-changing time preference for future growth versus current spending. It is only manipulation by the only entity that has the power of a gun – the government – that can create changes large and lasting enough to create the “artificial” changes that cause economic depressions. The government cannot even create the so-called “booms” in the economy – it can only create destabilizing shifts to or from investment and consumer spending that disrupt the normal flow of goods and investment capital. It can also destroy very real economic growth – such as that during the 1920’s and 1990’s — by practicing monetary and regulatory interventionism. I don’t want to launch into a polemic on economics, so if you want to learn more about actual economics rather than pure interventionist propaganda, I recommend Mises.org, or Capitalism.net
