>>256
Is that in reference to central banking or government regulation? If it's about central banking, you should bear in mind that European nations also suffered economic collapse in the 20s and 30s, so, again, central banking can't prevent such devastating collapses. If anything they cause it by artificially manipulating the market. When the Fed increases the money supply, your value is worth less than it was before. Todays dollar is worth 6 or 7 cents compared to the 1913 dollar -- the year the Fed came into being. Todays dollar is worth less than it was in the Great Depression.
And I'll just be blunt about this: the Fed is going to cause the most disastrous economic collapse we've seen. When creditors lose faith in the dollar and the influx of foreign investment dries up, we're fucked royally.
As for regulation, there are some interesting things about that. A small amount of regulation is acceptable: namely when laissez-fare turns becomes fascism. But short of that I draw the line. Europe and China both have more regulation than we do. And they face some particular problems. Europe has a higher unemployment rate than we do, and, consequently or not, lower productivity. Until recently, China had pegged the yuan to a fixed amount against the dollar. This gave China an advantage in trade, but by artificially manipulating their currency caused economic woes for the people. The more regulation you face, the worse things get until, at the end of the spectrum, you face a 1980s-91 Soviet economy that is based more on wishful thinking and government control than real world conditions. The Soviets were assigning values and setting levels of supply that just weren't cogent with reality. Nazi Germany regulated the economy in such a way that unemployment was brought down but wages fell just as dramatically.
A market can exist without government, with its own little rules and currency and economic factors, and it can survive without government involvement. Bartering. Prisons have their own economic systems, ones not based directly on the dollar yet functioning without government regulation.
Have you ever considered the fact that drug dealers seem to have a better, more realistic grasp of economics than the government? They at least are fiscally responsible -- maybe because if they run up too much debt they'll get shot. In any case, they can still produce a more balanced budget for themselves than the government could ever hope to achieve.
No matter. Regulation amounts to the government wanting the economy to be at such and such a level when the market might not be able to meet such a lofty goal.
Have a good'n.