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When companies act in the short term interests of stockholders and the government assists in that endeavor for their own ends, you have actions that harm the free market.
I agree that the free market, in and of itself, is not the issue. The actions of irresponsible people with the facilitation of the government is exactly what brought us to the precipice. Therefore, the free market, obviously, needs some regulation unless you wish to repeat this behavior in the future.
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I'm not arguing for economic anarchy. I know some level of regulation is required. If I didn't make that clear earlier, my apologies. The question is what sort of regulations? Encouraging people to go into debt, IMO, is poor behavior on the part of the government, no matter what short term benefits may come to be.
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There is nothing wrong with debt. Without it, you'll be a renter for the remainder of your life and have nothing but S/S. The issue is whether the debt is used for appreciating assets or depreciating assets.
Many people cannot run their financial lives. For them, there is always S/S down the road.
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I disagree. To my way of thinking, debt is slavery, and it can be addictive in the case of consumer credit. If something is priced so that it can only be bought on credit, it is overvalued. If that makes me a renter the rest of my life, then so be it. I don't own the house if I'm making payments on it anyway. And if you run afoul of your city by not paying taxes, you'll see just how much ownership you really have. Heck, in some places an HOA can foreclose on you. Even if I am a renter at present, if I live well within my means and save money, it might even be possible to skip the mortgage step altogether. No, I won't play the debt game anymore. I've learned how to get by without credit, and it isn't too bad from my end anyway.