Do you remember when you were a child and your parents told you that sometimes going to the doctor meant feeling some pain, but that was the best way to get well the fastest?
Iceland followed the adult path after their own financial crisis; they took the pain like adults, and now they are getting better.
The way out of a financial crisis is simple: people who make bad loans take losses, assets get repriced at actual, non-bubble prices (much lower), and then they get put back into play. This is how capitalism corrects errors (called malinvestment); if you are stupid, the market beats the crap out of you. If you are smart, the market rewards you. Failed businesses are sold off, and most of the assets are reused by the market at the new, lower price. The new, lower price of the asset (factory, whatever) makes it now profitable to hire people to put the asset to work. It’s really quite simple. See?
When you drive past empty retail space that is now abundant all over Virginia, think about these assets being put back into play and generating cash flow, jobs, and tax revenue. Then think about the politically-connected banksters who use your tax money to bail out their failed business model so that they can keep their assets, and keep them on their books at fantasy inflated values, even though they are vacant and not producing anything at all.
In our crony nationalsocialist system being smart does not mean bringing a desirable and useful product to market at a competitive price. It means “effective lobbying” for subsidies for your business and penalties for your competitors. It means bailouts for the politically connected and for anyone who can successfully make a case that they are “too big to fail,” or “systemically important.” Institutions are important, individuals are not; see?
From azizonomics:
Do you want jobs?
STOP BAILING OUT BANKS. RESTORE CONFIDENCE IN THE MARKETS BY PROSECUTING WALL STREET FRAUD, AND BY CALLING A HALT TO THE ENDLESS PRINTING OF “MONEY”. SHRED REGULATIONS.
In other words, “Restore Capitalism.”
