This quote is becoming common: "The last time there was (insert problem here), there was a terrorist attack/war between Middle Eastern nations/a major Gulf hurricane."
But something is missing this time around. The following is a case in point.
According to this latest story on the holiday buying season, consumer confidence is at its lowest level since Hurricane Katrina. But where is Katrina now? Or where is the war in Lebanon that spiked gas prices the last time? Or the terrorist attack making everyone hesitant with the credit card like it did after 9/11?
Our problems today are market-driven, such as people selling loans to others who couldn't afford repayment, and our economy burning more fuel than our current supply and refinement capacity allow.
Capitalism is the fastest way to find a solution to a problem, so except for something unexpected, like a natural disaster or irrational outbreak of war, widespread bad times shouldn't happen when the market is working correctly.
Unfettered, it should have fixed this subprime loan issue, or high gas prices.
Someone should have been standing there with a profit-motivated way to get those houses back on the market or with the plan to get us off dependence of light, sweet crude.
But where are they?
So the question is: Is something broken with the market model? Or have we broken too many rules of the market to allow it to work correctly?
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