20120301-Stossel-[Money and Banking Evil].Fox Business.CF.avi

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STOSSEL - [Money and Banking: Delivering from Evil] - Fox Business Network
2012, March 1, Thursday

Xvid/MP3 AVI - encoded from medium quality ReplayTV stream

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[excerpted from John Stossel's blog:]

Ok, most bankers aren't evil. Except the ones who who took on too much risk, assuming housing prices would only rise -- then lost billions of dollars and were saved by a taxpayer-funded bailout. They are evil.

Maybe that's unfair. They just chased opportunity. I mostly blame the politicians who grabbed our money and bailed them out. Had they not done that, then the bankers would have just lost their own (and their reckless investors') money, not taxpayers' money.

Most anger toward bankers now centers on the private equity guys who reorganized companies, fired people, and made a lot of money. This political ad, run by Newt Gingrich's supporters, portrays Bain Capital as evil.

The ad is ridiculous.

Fox Business reporter Sandra Smith and investment banker Paul Levy will explain how Mitt Romney's former private equity firm, and others, are part of the creative destruction that is needed for capitalism to work.

They are not "vulture capitalists, " as Rick Perry called them.

John Taylor, the President and CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, says that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do more good than harm. I will vehemently disagree.

Legalize insider trading and abolish the Security and Exchange Commission! So argues Robert Murphy from the Mises Institute. He says that insider information would lead to more accurate stock prices, and that the SEC does more harm than good.

George Mason economist Russ Roberts is disgusted with crony capitalism, but Ben Barber from the progressive think-thank Demos says we can't completely cut government out of business.