海角大神

How crony capitalism lurks in the heart of the health care bill

Why Alan Greenspan might be to blame for the passage of the health care bill.

Much ink has been spilled over the health care bill in the past few weeks鈥 and rightly so, as it鈥檚 鈥渙ne of the costliest pieces of legislation, potentially, of the past 40 years.鈥 However, an article by Bill Fleckenstein sheds new light on the debate, and suggests that it鈥檚 actually Greenspan鈥檚 mistakes since the 1990s that are largely to blame for making its passage a reality.

His actions caused American public anger to build up so much 鈥 and eventually boil over 鈥 in such a way that even a bill this expensive was made possible to pass despite the country鈥檚 dire financial straits.

From MSN Money:

鈥淭o probably no one鈥檚 surprise but against the hopes of many, the House has passed one of the costliest pieces of legislation, potentially, of the past 40 years [...] Over time, this bill is going to be an epic financial disaster. And the accounting by which the Obama administration claims to pay for it sets a new low in financial honesty鈥

鈥溾hus, at a moment in time when the country has immense financial problems, we鈥檝e now got another gigantic one 鈥 funded, such as it is, by another intergenerational rip-off. I don鈥檛 know how folks can advocate the pursuit of these policies and look young people in the eyes, telling them we鈥檙e doing the right thing. Of course, you can also ignore the next generation if what you鈥檝e got is not a conscience but a heavy-duty case of crony capitalism.鈥

Fleckenstein goes on to quote one of his savvy readers who, for him, hits the nail on the head鈥

鈥溾業 personally blame the greedy fake capitalists (Greenspan, CEOs and their lobbyists, and the Wall St. marketing machine) that have been running this country into the ground since the mid-90鈥檚. . . . Had the pendulum not been allowed to swing so far out of balance, there wouldn鈥檛 be such a high degree of anger to tap into and you couldn鈥檛 sell these sorts of things to a normally conservative public.鈥欌

Perhaps, one day, the pendulum will swing back again. In the meantime, maybe it鈥檚 time to start searching for Brazilian, Russian, Indian, and Chinese spouses online鈥 and hopefully you鈥檒l be lucky enough to gain citizenship in their respective booming countries. Just kidding鈥 sort of.

You can read more details in MSN Money鈥檚 coverage of .

------------------------------

海角大神 has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on the link above.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
QR Code to How crony capitalism lurks in the heart of the health care bill
Read this article in
/Business/The-Daily-Reckoning/2010/0412/How-crony-capitalism-lurks-in-the-heart-of-the-health-care-bill
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
/subscribe