I Say Re-Regulation, You Say Deprivatization

Matt Welch | September 8, 2008

New York Times economics-and-politics columnist Paul Krugman gets all post-modern on the re-regulation of the U.S. housing market.

Private ownership of Fannie and Freddie never made any real sense, and was always a crisis waiting to happen.

So what we're really seeing now is deprivatization. It's not something like the UK government seizing the steel mills; it's more like firing Blackwater and giving responsibility for diplomatic security back to the Marines.

This is, I think, a neat encapsulation of the mindset that may just be on the verge of re-taking Washington. Some things, alas, are just too important to be left to the market. Like, um, bank lending.

Barack Obama approves the Bush Administration's message here, though at least he adds this to-be-sure:

In our market system, investors must not be allowed to believe that they can invest in a 'heads they win, tails they don't lose' situation.