Damone, your argument style is to constantly redefine things = increasingly progressive waste of energy to me. It's like pulling into a parking spot, then constantly changing spots because the angle that most people see your car at can constantly be improved upon, but unfortunately to the people walking by, it's still the same car.
Bill Maher does this. He memorizes his talking points, then constantly redefines and backs out of a bad position he's taken.
I like how you frame that economics is not about politics, yet you constantly talk about how the gov fucks up the economy by intervening...so then it is political......
BTW, the answer you were looking for is that free markets don't exist, because governments always make decisions which intrude. OK.
I take it that was the talking point your were pivoting from.
If govs don't step in in bad recessions and spend $ on large public projects and regulate things, very little can prevent unemployment from skyrocketing and lasting potentially forever. I suspect a "true free market system" would have millions->billions of deaths in every subsequent recession from unemployed people starving.
To smart-guy: AIG is an insurance company. AIG insured those high-quality AAA-rated mortgages in those CDOs. They failed to realize the scope of the market they were insuring and failed to pay.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_International_Group
Fortunately the gov bailed them out, and didn't allow the web of the insurance industry to collapse and fail.
Also, alcoholic beverages get consumed more in a bad economy. One of the few good industries to invest in during recessions.
