Saturday, December 4, 2010

The Back of the Rack: Norman on the "Free Market"

Here's an MP3 of Mike from back in February of 2009.  Here, in audio format, he addresses some of the issues related to our "belief" in the "free markets" and whether these beliefs are true, and if they are in fact preventing us from achieving better economic outcomes.

9 comments:

googleheim said...

Exactly Mike and Matt :

Austerity is a form of regulation that brings everyone down.

Austerity is worse than Wall street regulations and very much worse than the taxes on the top 2% of the USA.

Austerity is a regulation and a tax against 98% of Americans.

Kay Bailey Hutchinson can eat crow.

welfarewarfare state said...

Norman,

The problem is that the majority of the American people misidentify state capitalism (I prefer to call it our mixed economy) with free markets. You know damn well that we haven't had a free market for many generations now, but any time something goes wrong the non-existent free market gets the blame. The free market ghost is a convenient boogieman for socialists like you to keep around to scare people about the evils of a free system. It's more than a little self-serving of you to advocate our Federal Reserve's easy monetary policies over the last two decades because this is a direct subsidy to the financial services sector. This not coincidentally happens to be the sector that you are employed.

Matt Franko said...

Welfare,

You obviously didnt listen to it now did you, c'mon...

It doesnt have anything to do with 'easy money' if what you mean by this is monetary policy.

Any time you have a monetary sovereign, like since all of the history of Western Civilization at least back to the beginnings of the Roman Empire, you have a 'managed economy' of sorts... so I dont know what system you generally allude to because it has never existed in now over 2,000 years at least.

welfarewarfare state said...

Matt,

Our original dollar was chosen because it was the most widely circulated medium of exhange in the late eighteenth century. It was the Spanish mill dollar. There was no monopoly issuer in the colonies. There were many circulating media of exchange. The people could freely choose which they preferred as it should be. There was no monopoly issuer of the currency in the 19th century either though there were bad experiences with fiat currency during this period.

And know I didn't listened to Norman's audio the whole way through. I'm not much for masochism. It is a little amusing that he occassionally issues one of his "Ode to Mike Norman" tribute articles, videos, or audios. The guy truly is a narcisist. He's like the 'F' student who comes home to show off his straight 'F' report card to mom and dad. I suspect that he would be composing these tributes to himself even if no one was watching, listening, or reading them save for himself.

The reason that I keep harping on the Federal Reserve system is that it is the biggest single obstacle for this country returning to a free market. So: my post was directly related to Norman's self-aggrandizing video about the horror of a free market system.

Matt Franko said...

Welfare,
I'm the one who usually posts Mike's "blasts from the past"...

I dont think Mike has ever posted these things himself. Mike has a fan base here in the US that often enjoys these types of nostalgic posts. So I try to include them so often.

I think if you listen to the cut, you will find yourself agreeing to about 75% of it at least. Mike knows it is not a free market. In fact, it was Mike that points out the fallacy of the free market and originated the term "free market" as a pejorative into the lexicon here in the US. While everyone else still thinks we have one, that is the main point of the cut.
resp,

Mario said...

amen Mike!! Let's hope and pray and petition that our senators and reps don't jump off us off a cliff after this lame duck sessioN!!!

and I COMPLETELY agree with you about being honest!! I'm personally totally cool with talking and considering ANY idea someone has to offer up...let's just be honest, open, and complete, and really look at it from all angles so we can really see it and understand it and study it and compare it against other ideas...but if that kind of rigorous analysis doesn't happen then man things SERIOUSLY start looking like propaganda...serious, serious (frightening almost) propaganda.

thanks mike!

Mario said...

and thanks Matt too! :D

bubbleRefuge said...

WS. Did you read what wrote. Matt posted the audio not Mike! This is a perfect example of somebody seeing what they want to see and hearing what they want to hear. Its called cognitive dissonance. I gave you a pretty reasonable, albeit high level, explanation about how the Fed does not create money, how that's a myth, (and how you're easy money arguments don't hold water) but rather its the congress creates money via the fiscal policy channel and you totally ignored it.

welfarewarfare state said...

My bad. I didn't notice that it was posted by Matt though Norman is a an ego maniac. I guess my 'cognitive dissonance' was comparable to the 'cognitive dissonance' that many of you showed from your comments on the Nigel Farage video also posted by Matt. Every poster on this site save for googleheim thought that he was one of you guys. BTW, do any of you really think that Norman wouldn't compose his own tributes?

bubbleRefuge,

I don't need an explanation about how our monetary system works. There is a difference between knowing the mechanics of a system while repeating like some brain dead slogan-chanting moonie what MMT says and truly understanding why our monetary system is irrational.

I knew that the Fed was blowing up a housing bubble in the last decade and that it would be an economic tsunami when the wave broke. I knew what Fed policies would mean for precious metals and commodities, too. I remember listening to guys like you who were completely ignorant to what should have been obvious to anyone who actually understands how destructive our monetary system is. You guys were blindsided by it just as you will be blindsided by the bond market/ dollar collapse. When you people get anything write then I will defer to you.