@RDRDRD1,
well i think this whole subject is very complex and it would be astounding if the various or binary oppositions didn't have something positive and creative to say on how we should live under todays economic and social conditions. Moreover i think i am reading different emphasis of interpretation of the same concepts between the differing factions. ie Freedom, security, wealth, law and above all humanity.
I have just explored some peter schiff videos and they are very thought provoking. Basically it seems to me he is saying that if a business doesn't produce a profit from its services or manufacturing (and that means necessarily without the dimension of massive speculative input) then it isn't sound and will eventually recess or bust. Propping such businesses up is disastrous because it gives unfair competition against leaner and more efficient companies and individuals. He primarily blames the government not the free market, and his argument is that it isn't a free market if the government encourages speculation with cheap money and the underwriting of failure. He claims that Obama is actually even worse than Bush in this respect, because Bush covered up the Clinton mess and Obama is trying to do the same re the even bigger Bush mess. He claims the money borrowed by the USA from china etc. has been wasted on consumerist spending, and real estate speculation far away from sound investment. That money will not be paid back, therefore the rest of the world will uncouple from the dollar, the USA will hit hyper inflation and ......
As a brit i can see many parallels in our country. We don't produce much, we have borrowed billions and billions (soon to be trillions!) and our biggest money earner has been the city for years. Which is the very thing being propped up by the borrowing.
But although PS has predicted successfully what was going to happen and given what appears to be common sense analysis as to why it happened, he does appear to me (not surprisingly) to have a very stock broker centered view of the world. He is obsessed with wealth and profit, albeit apparently outside the ridiculous, irresponsible and avarice based attitudes of others. Whether from consumers, politicians or the city. For example he talks of 'difficulties' and hyper inflation resulting from the necessary recession. A recession that he feels will be a good thing because then we can get back to good business practice and trade. But i haven't heard him actually describe in human terms what these difficulties are going to be. He comes across as enthusiastically cold. The enthusiasm and common sense is intoxicating ..... and in the end it always comes down to 'get government out of the way'. But what about the people? What about the unemployed and sick and poor, however they are connected to the USA?
Now i can sympathise with the government as a stupid and meddling thing a great deal, but not to be replaced by a consumerist world fed by barely regulated manufacturers and city slickers who are somehow forced by the markets to self correct back to 'sound business principles'. Quite apart from the issue of trust ...... where's the humanity? Where is the magic of being alive?
In the end he promotes the machine. He may want to turn down the bass of government and up the treble of free trade, but it is still a cold vision of humanity, however self regulating and efficient. Like a giant ant hill.
