(09-03-2018, 10:38 PM)jj82284 Wrote: You failed to address any of the negative factors of the FDA and government drug regulation that I clearly listed.  Moreover, licensing cartels and other means of artificially constricting the number of suppliers is ultimately MORE ADVERSE to the consumer than the presence of a bad option in a truly free market.  

And corruption is only part of the challenge.  The federal reserve board is universally acknowledged to have caused the great depression.  It's founding was chartered to stabilize the money supply and minimize panics.  Under their existence we have seen the greatest volatility in the money supply a greater frequency of panics/recessions and two of the greatest economic collapses in the history of the country.  By every measure it has failed in it's original purpose and yet, in the wake of demonstrable unmitigated failure otherwise sane people will still attest to its 'incorruptability' while ignoring it's gross incompetence.  

As I've said Keynes general theory and his vision of economic intervention was DEVISED because he clearly pointed out that a recession in his time was CAUSED solely bby the mismanagement of monetary policy in his own time in his own country.  

And you're right.  It is a matter of history.  History calls us to examine all factors and results, not intentions and rhetoric.  History teaches us that in times of economic recession state intervention usually makes matters worse.  The taxes and ultimate devaluation are real, but the promised benefits are generally not.  1 trillion dollars (counting interest) of stimulus spending and we had the longest run over 8% unemployment since the great depression.  Intentions are nice, results are necessary.

What I'm saying is that, if you take the FDA away, there will still be name brand Advil and you'll be able to count on it having exactly 200 mg of pure ibuprofen that will be potent up to the expiration date, etc., but new drugs will enter the market that won't be as reliable and it will be hard for consumers to tell the difference.  It's possible that the makers of Advil and other trustworthy drugs would create a private cartel to check on each other and make sure that standards and scientific rigor is maintained, but I don't think it would be likely, and even if it happened, I think it would break down pretty quickly.  

I'm not interested in debating the history of the Federal Reserve with you.  We know that the Great Depression and the Great Recession both happened, but I don't think we can prove that either was caused or made worse by any one thing; both are too complicated.  The Fed was never in charge of welfare policies or unemployment insurance.  Its mandate changed in 1977.  There is also the question of, if a bad decision was made, is that the fault of the entire institution, or, just the fault of the people at the institution at the time.  For instance, if Bill Clinton made a bad decision, does that mean that we need to get rid of the whole institution of US President, or does it just mean we need to pick a better President next time?

I am interested to know, if the Federal Reserve is so bad, what you think would be better and why.

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