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Capitalism died when they
decided to subsidize railroads for the sake of national prestige in the mid
19th century.
Capitalism died when, to
compensate for the consequences of subsidized railroads, they passed
anti-trust laws in 1890, under which it is illegal to have lower prices, the
same prices, and higher prices than one’s competitors.
Capitalism died in 1913 when
they started taxing income, and created a central bank.
Capitalism died after 1929
under the flailing interventionism of Hoover.
Capitalism died in 1933 when
FDR confiscated the gold of US citizens, outlawed gold ownership, and
defaulted on the domestic gold obligations of the US government.
Capitalism died when FDR
stacked the supreme court, and created a veritable alphabet soup of
regulatory agencies that could write law, adjudicate law, and execute law.
Capitalism died when FDR
created the welfare state replete with a ponzi “retirement
system”.
Capitalism died in 1944 when
the rest of the world agreed to use the US dollar as if it were gold, at
Bretton Woods.
Capitalism died under
Johnson’s Great Expansion of FDR’s welfare state (Medicare).
Capitalism died when Kennedy
removed silver from coins.
Capitalism died in 1971 when
Nixon defaulted on the remaining gold obligations of the US government to
foreign central banks.
Capitalism died when rampant
expansion of counterfeit credit led to a near-death experience for the US
dollar in the 1970′s.
Capitalism died when they
ended the era where investors paid a firm to rate the debt they were going to
buy. Congress enacted a law giving a government-protected franchise to
Moodys, Fitch, and S&P.
Capitalism died when they
decided to tax dividends at a higher rate than capital gains, thus distorting
capital markets.
Capitalism died when they
created Fannie, Freddie, Ginnie, and Sally.
Capitalism died when in 1981
Reagan and Volcker conspired to begin a long boom by a process of falling
interest rates that continues to this very day, destroying inconceivable
amounts of capital with every tick either up or (mostly) down.
Capitalism died when
Greenspan discovered that market corrections could be overruled by another
shot of crack cocaine, i.e. dirt cheap credit effluent, i.e. lowering the
rate of interest.
Capitalism died with the
growth of laws and court decisions granting legally privileged status to some
kinds of employees but not others (and trampling all over the rights of
employers). For example, the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Capitalism died with the
passage of Medicare Part D.
Capitalism died with the
bailouts, stimulus and other lies, deceit, fraud, and theft post 2008.
Capitalism died when Obama
set aside the rule of hundreds of years old bankruptcy law and precedent to
give unions priority in the bankruptcy of GM.
Capitalism died when Obama
socialized medicine.
Capitalism died with every
new regulatory package for financial markets: “Operation FD” in
the late 1990s (as I recall), Sarbanes-Oxley, and now Dodd-Frank. With each
one of these, the process is the same. Congress floats an idea publicly to
“go after” the banks and dealers and brokers. Then the banks must
go to Washington, spend money like water, and 6 months of back-room deals
later, a multi thousand page document emerges as law. Then the regulatory
agency must write regulations, so the banks spend more money, and a year of
backroom dealings later, a hundred thousand page regulation emerges. Then
this is to be enforced by armies of regulators. …
Capitalism died with Zero
Interest Rate Forevah(TM).
Capitalism is long since
dead. Whatever the name for today’s failed system is,
“capitalism” is not that name.
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