{"id":373,"date":"2009-02-27T17:44:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-27T22:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/000af36.netsolhost.com\/wordpress1\/2009\/02\/27\/the-myth-of-free-markets\/"},"modified":"2009-02-27T17:44:00","modified_gmt":"2009-02-27T22:44:00","slug":"the-myth-of-free-markets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/2009\/02\/27\/the-myth-of-free-markets\/","title":{"rendered":"The Myth of Free Markets"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you listen to CNBC as much as I do, you\u2019ll hear about the beauty, power and moral good of the \u201cfree markets.\u201d  The free market always produces the best outcome for the country.  These same people argue for \u201cpersonal responsibility,\u201d which usually means if you\u2019re poor, on welfare, work for the auto industry, lost your home or otherwise have been slapped upside the head by free market, you need to just shut up and take your lumps.<\/p>\n

Now read this snippet from an article<\/a> about Obama administration\u2019s proposal to discontinue a certain student loan program.<\/p>\n

\n

Since the early 1990s, federal student loans have been implemented through two programs. The program that the administration proposes ending, the Federal Family Education Loan Program, uses private-sector lenders such as Sallie Mae and Citigroup<\/a> to originate and service the education loans, keeping the debt off the government’s books. <\/p>\n

Under this program, the government pays a subsidy to private lenders. Congress sets the interest rate on loans, and the federal government covers nearly all the losses if a student defaults. <\/em><\/strong>(emphasis added)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If only there were \u201cfree markets.\u201d  You and must take responsibility for our bad actions, but businesses (including, you\u2019ll notice, Citigroup, which just gave you and I nearly 40% of itself to \u201ctake responsibility for\u201d), but free enterprises are guaranteed a profit, or at least shielded from any losses.<\/p>\n

Doesn\u2019t sound like free markets to me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you listen to CNBC as much as I do, you\u2019ll hear about the beauty, power and moral good of the \u201cfree markets.\u201d  The free market always produces the best outcome for the country.  These same people argue for \u201cpersonal responsibility,\u201d which usually means if you\u2019re poor, on welfare, work for the auto industry, lost… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}