Defending the Stimulus

Richard Gibbons wrote an article at Motley Fool which supported the President's stimulus plan. Then he got bombarded by the conservatives and he felt he had to respond. He takes the issues point by point and I think his article is very intelligent. Here's just a taste...

No Marxists allowed
Probably the biggest misperception about the article was that it was a socialist manifesto by a berserk Obama fan. The problem with this rebuttal is that it doesn't actually address the thrust of the article.

Although I said that capitalism has the occasional blind spot, that's far from a condemnation of free markets. Few would argue that when Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) builds a gold mine, it should be allowed to let cyanide leach into the drinking water of nearby towns. There's nothing inherent in capitalism that prevents that sort of behavior. It's a blind spot that we correct through regulation. We have laws because complete free markets neither protect people's rights nor result in a stable society. So, it's unclear why saying that capitalism has blind spots should be controversial.

Click here to read the entire article - it's worth the time.
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