“I hope that [mycomments] are fragments of one intelligible general
position…. The underlying position may be characterized as
severely libertarian or, in the English-Continental sense, liberal.
The intellectual tradition is intended to be that of Adam Smith…
Marshall … and Knight, and of Locke, Hume, Bentham .. . and
Hayek. The distinctive feature of this tradition is emphasis upon
liberty as both a requisite and means of progress…A cardinal tenet of libertarians is that no one may be trusted with much power—no leader, no faction, no party, no “class,” no majority, no government, no church, no corporation, no trade association,
no labor union, no grange, no professional association, no university, no large organization of any kind.”

In general, I trust private organizations over government in most instances–there is no question. But the current crisis reminds me that trust should never be blind. Government intervention to get us back on track may be warranted, but I would not want to replace a privately-run disaster for a government-run disaster. I hope we will get to the heart of the regulatory break-down (perhaps enforcing existing regulations rather than adopting half-ass symbolic measures with no teeth–echoing a post on Professor Becker’s blog a while back).