Scott talks to David Stockman about the fate of the economy after the coronavirus-induced shutdown and the multi-trillion dollar bailouts being undertaken by the U.S. government. Stockman is much more concerned about the economic ramifications than about the virus itself, and not because businesses are being forced to close for a few weeks, but primarily because we’ve been living under a crony capitalist regime of corporate welfare and unsound money for decades on end. The only solution any of the central planners understand, he explains, is to pump more money into the financial markets, which provides the illusion of short term relief at the expense of real long term damage. The current stimulus will only inflate asset bubbles even further and eventually bring about an even worse crash. All of this, of course, will be blamed on free market capitalism, which is the system most people think we have. Such a backlash is likely to lead to even greater socialization of our government and economy.
Discussed on the show:
- “The Money Printing Gods Have Failed!” (David Stockman’s Contra Corner)
David Stockman is the ultimate Washington insider turned iconoclast. He began his career in Washington as a young man and quickly rose through the ranks of the Republican Party to become the Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan. After leaving the White House, Stockman had a 20-year career on Wall Street. He is the author of Trumped!, The Triumph of Politics, and his history of the financial crisis, The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America.
This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.
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Scott Horton is director of the Libertarian Institute, editorial director of Antiwar.com, host of Antiwar Radio on Pacifica, 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles, California and podcasts the Scott Horton Show from this website. He’s the author of the 2017 book, Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan. Visit https://scotthorton.org