Joining us for a new season of McCuistion TV, host Dennis McCuistion is joined by:
- Steve Forbes – President and CEO of Forbes Magazine and author of Power, Ambition, Glory: The Stunning Parallels between Great Leaders of the Ancient World and Today . . . and the Lessons You Can Learn
- Thomas E. Woods, JR., PhD – Senior Fellow at Ludwig von Mises Institute and author of Meltdown
During this conversation centering around the financial crisis, Thomas Woods asserts that people are tired of conventional wisdom. Guest, Steve Forbes believes most of the present problem in the breakdown of the free market economic system was caused by huge government errors. Forbes contends that the Federal Reserve printed too much money and made it artificially cheap. In addition lenders such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac underwrote too many junk mortgages.
“If private business makes a mistake they pay for it, if government does, we all do. Wall Street underwrote and securitized, but government distorts the free market.”
Thomas Woods touches on his new book, Meltdown, and the reason he pushed hard to have the book released early. He believes having a free market perspective on the credit crunch is essential for people to understand what has truly happened. He says, “the government and the Federal Reserve’s fingerprints are all over this situation.”
Dennis addresses the Fred Foldvary prediction of a real estate depression in 2008.
They conclude with comments on the speculation in real estate, the magnificent money creation machine government made and how this was an artificial stimulus to speculation.
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1801 – 09.27.09
Tom Woods really understands this situation so well and Steve Forbes is good as too. Great questions in the interview to attempt to challenge them but they just nail it. Von Mises is truly one of the greatest economists of the 20th century. Our problem has long been the Fed and government interventionism. Its sad that political agendas rule over true prosperity and peace of free markets, where consumers rule. Thank you.