Business Socialism

My Republican friends tell me: you liberals, you just want to redistribute wealth, you just expect government handouts.

Robert Reich —Secretary of Labor under President Clinton— had the proper response, which he wrote this Monday on his blog, before the US government takeover of AIG.

a free-market-loving Republican administration is presiding over the most ambitious intrusion of government into the market in almost anyone's memory.

It's socialism for the wealthy, for business.

As to what to do instead, or rather to forestall this in the future, Reich continued:

Not to socialize capitalism with bailouts and subsidies that put taxpayers at risk. If what's lacking is trust rather than capital, the most important steps policymakers can take are to rebuild trust. And the best way to rebuild trust is through regulations that require financial players to stand behind their promises and tell the truth, along with strict oversight to make sure they do.

We tell poor nations they have to make their financial markets transparent before capital will flow to them. Now it's our turn.

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