Alan Greenspan tells ABC's Jake Tapper (who will probably get called a socialist by Republican teabaggers furious that he dared raise a question about right-wing ideology) that the financial crisis does not indict Ayn Rand's vision of laissez faire capitalism nor the view that financial markets ought to police themselves:
Transcript
Oddly, despite Greenspan's throaty defense of Rand and unfettered markets, he concluded by saying that to prevent future financial meltdowns, big institutions should be required to maintain much larger capital reserves.
In other words, even Ayn Rand-loving free market disciples like Alan Greenspan recognize that there is a proper role for regulation when it comes to our financial markets.
There's something reassuring about that concession. Despite all the bleating about socialism from nutjobs like Glenn Beck, even some of the most rigid free marketers out there understand that our national prosperity (and the success of capitalism) require a certain amount of government oversight.
It's well-known that over the past half-century, Democratic presidential administrations have created more private sector jobs on average than Republican administrations. Oh, and the stock market does better under Democrats too. (The Dow, which actually fell under Bush, is up a cool 40% under President Obama.)
All this adds up to a simple fact: Democrats aren't just better for the middle-class, they aren't just better for the poor, they aren't just better for America -- Democrats are also better for the capitalist economic system that Republican teabaggers claim to defend.
Funny, ain't it?