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Tuesday, July 17, 2007
A Virtuous Free Market? Lending Edition
The free-marketeers say that not only is the market more efficient than government in almost every way, it makes everyone virtuous. People become dependent on the state when it intervenes; the market promotes self-reliance and rewards hard work and discipline.
Well, maybe the free-marketeers ought to pay attention to recent developments in the lending industry. Bloomberg reports that Democrats are pressuring Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to use his authority to crack down on predatory lending. His predecessor, Alan Greenspan, deliberately held back on regulating the subprime mortgage industry, payday loans, credit card companies, and other usurious lenders.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is mobilizing to placate Democrats in Congress who claim he isn't doing enough to crack down on predatory lending.
Bernanke, who begins two days of testimony to Congress tomorrow, has ordered Fed staff to determine whether he has authority to probe mortgage units of financial institutions the Fed supervises. The central bank, which House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank has threatened to strip of some regulatory powers, also plans an overhaul of lenders' disclosure standards.
The steps that Bernanke, 53, is being pushed into amount to rolling back at least part of the free-market legacy bequeathed to him by predecessor Alan Greenspan. During Greenspan's 18-year reign, the central bank was loath to meddle with banks' business practices, relying on guidelines instead of enforceable public rules.
As you probably know, many of these industries are either embroiled in scandal or melting down. Letting the free-market rip turned everyone into paragons of virture, ya think?
Posted by Matt Lewis
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