WP, E.J. Dionne: The Rebirth of American Capitalism

[DeepModem Mom]

The Rebirth of American Capitalism

I thought it was very gutsy of The (Washington) Post to run a front page news analysis by Anthony Faiola under the headline, “The End of American Capitalism?” It was a good and important piece. He noted that when even the Bush Administration is considering the partial nationalization of the banks, something big is happening. “Given that the United States has held itself up as a global economic model,” he writes, “the change could shift the balance of how governments around the globe conduct free enterprise.” That is certainly right....

Yes, there are a whole lot of changes going on, and in a very short time. Governments are taking socialist-seeming steps to save capitalism. But we have been there before. What’s astonishing is that people keep forgetting that critics of pure capitalism (FDR comes to mind) have often had to save capitalism from the capitalists and from those who claim to love capitalism the most. European Social Democrats and Christian Democrats (with their idea of “the social market”) were also central to making capitalism work in a socially beneficial way in Europe.

Acknowledging an important role for government in social and economic life is -- and always has been -- the American way. American capitalism has thrived in a mixed economy that accomodated a large role for the state. The exceptional period has been the last three decades, when truly radical doctrines took hold. It is actually radical to imagine that the economy will go forward smoothly if the government rips up the rules, deregulates willy-nilly, gets out of the way and stops investing in public goods (education among them) that the market tends to under-finance.

In our history, strong and active government has always helped make capitalism work. It goes back to Alexander Hamilton and Henry Clay’s “American System,” much admired by Abraham Lincoln. Clay thought it essential for the government to invest in “internal improvements,” including roads and canals, and he favored protective tariffs that would allow American industries to grow. Yes, for all the free trade talk today, American industrial might grew behind high and thick protectionist walls. You can argue about the merits of those policies, as Americans did at the time, but they are part of our history and they played an important role in our development as a manufacturing power.

The list of government interventions in the American economy over our history is long....

What’s going away today, in other words, is not “American Capitalism” but a doctrine of pure laissez-faire capitalism that was deeply flawed and not in keeping with the traditionally American approach to markets. We are coming back to how we historically did business. And I am persuaded that we will be far better off with a less doctrinaire approach.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2008/10/the_rebirth_of_american_capita.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

[mediaman007]

1. Amen!

Now to get the "Fairness Doctrine" back into the American media.

[trthnd4jstc]

2. That's Right A Mixed Economy. Stop the Evil Lies of the Fascist Americans. n/t

[snot]

3. I'm not convinced the oligarchs have ever been wedded to capitalism when

it served their interests to abandon it.

[Demeter]

4. Amen!