By Loyd E. Eskildson

Judge Posner was appointed to a Federal Appeals Court position by President Reagan, and has sometimes also been mentioned as a Supreme Court candidate. During his legal career he has pioneered the inclusion of economic perspectives in interpreting law and now regularly writes a blog on economics. In A Failure of Capitalism he focuses his combined talents on our current economic downturn, and reaches a surprising (for a conservative, "Chicago-school" proponent) verdict. Those most guilty of contributing to the downturn are Alan Greenspan and George W. Bush - Greenspan for keeping interest rates low, fueling the surge in home prices, and Bush for accelerating deregulation of financial markets and then doing little while the economy began crumbling. (Posner also includes the monies China invested in T-bills as a factor holding American interest rates low.)

At the same time, home buyers and their willing enabler mortgage brokers knew the home buyers and refinancers were getting in over their heads. Wall Street, seeing a great opportunity, then leveraged these new mortgages to extreme levels. Thus, both mortgage-takers and Wall Street were in over their heads. (Posner believes home-buyers' failure to save was part of the problem - reality, however, is that they thought they were saving big time through home appreciation.)

Posner's Prescription: More EFFECTIVE government regulation, not just expanding the hodge-podge of overlapping partial management spread over myriad state and federal agencies. This should include limits on leverage, changing how credit-rating agencies operate and are compensated, requiring CDs be fully collateralized, limiting payday loans, etc. Posner also worries about the impact of enormous bailout monies on the value of our currency.

Why the title A Failure of Capitalism? Posner recognizes that competition carries the seeds of capitalism's destruction - bankers, etc. realize that if they don't participate in whatever current fad is popular, they risk becoming unemployed and their firm bought out by others who ride the fad to higher P/E multiples. That's why government regulation is essential.

Posner also believes that the free market is incapable of appropriately setting executive salaries and mutual (and hedge) fund fees due to the inherent biases and conflicts of interest involved. Finally, Posner also points out that current conservative thinking on this subject is vacuous.

5 Stars

A Failure of Capitalism: The Crisis of '08 and the Descent into Depression (Harvard University Press/ May 2009) by The Honorable Richard A. Posner

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