Monday, November 17, 2008

Spitzer on the Economy

In Sunday's Washington Post, former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has an excellent rundown of the current economic crisis (brought to my attention via Noam Scheiber at the Plank). Spitzer also details a helpful framework that would correct many of the root causes that led to the current situation. I think my favorite passage from Spitzer's piece, is this disarming explanation of government's role in free markets:
Those who truly understand economics, as did Adam Smith, do not preach an absence of government participation. A market doesn't exist in a vacuum. Rather, a market is a product of laws, rules and enforcement. It needs transparency, capital requirements and fidelity to fiduciary duty. The alternative, as we are seeing, is anarchy.
It's unfortunate that Eliot Spitzer's personal problems have prevented him from taking an active role in correcting our current economic ills. However, it is good to see that his ideas are receiving a platform, if only for a day, at the Post.