From the Summit of the Moral High Ground

Historical Archive This article is preserved as part of the historical record of this blog. It reflects the author's views at the time of publication. The content has not been substantively altered, although the HTML, accessibility and formatting have been updated to meet modern web standards. In the second follow-up to my article on Spartan constitutions, I want to look at what lessons can be learnt from modern Greece. From a free-market perspective, I argued that no bank should have been bailed out during the 2008 financial crisis. Businesses take risks, and bankruptcy is one possible consequence of poor decisions. People would undoubtedly have suffered immediate losses, but those losses would have been recognised and the recovery process begun. Instead, three years later, many people had still lost savings, pensions had declined, homes had been repossessed, and the same banks remained at risk of failure while threatening entire nations. Bankruptcy is part of th...

Historical Archive This article is preserved as part of the historical record of this blog. It was originally written by Dr Willie (The Golden Jackass) and is republished here with permission as part of an ongoing effort to preserve historical economic commentary that has since become unavailable. The content has not been substantively altered, although the HTML, accessibility and formatting have been updated to meet modern web standards. Readers interested in Dr Willie's more recent writings can visit www.golden-jackass.com . How can a Greek DEFAULT be a success? Right now, we're seeing much the same global reaction we saw after many of the EU's previous 13 crisis summits: officials are congratulating themselves for doing next to nothing. The media is proclaiming the meetings "successful." So are all stock markets and currencies except for the dollar. So where's the beef behind Europe's latest news? THERE IS NONE! Over the next f...