Originally Posted by loepke72

Capitalism and the free market itself did not get us into this mess, rather it was the actions of certain people that did. Saying the free market did this is like saying guns kill people, or that technology X is evil. The free market, like guns or tech X, is an inanimate object not capable of doing anything on its own. It's what people do with the object that is right or wrong. Sure, these things may make it easier for some to perform the wrong actions, but it's not a reason to outlaw them.

Bernie Madoff and others like him are fraudsters, and they should get what they deserve. Yes, those protections were weakened, and wrongfully so. No, he did not singlehandedly cause the financial meltdown we are currently experiencing. It was a perfect storm of events, mostly precipitated by Wall Street hucksters. Their schemes should have received more attention from Uncle Sam than they did because, although they were working under free market conditions, were antithetical to free market ideals. There was too much fake money floating around chasing too few things of real value. This fake money came from both our government as well as supposed paper profits from various investments. This caused things like $4.00 gas and the real estate bubble. The consumer finally reeled from this double barreled threat at a time when it was no longer possible to borrow their way out.