“The media tells us that “deregulation” and “unfettered free markets” have wrecked our economy and will continue to make things worse without a heavy dose of federal regulation. But the real blame lies elsewhere. In Meltdown, bestselling author Thomas E. Woods Jr. unearths the real causes behind the collapse of housing values and the stock market – and it turns out the culprits reside more in Washington than on Wall Street.

And the trillions of dollars in federal bailouts? Our politicians’ ham-handed attempts to fix the problems they themselves created will only make things much worse. Woods, a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute and winner of the 2006 Templeton Enterprise Award, busts the media myths and government spin. He explains how government intervention in the economy – from the Democratic hobbyhorse called Fannie Mae to affirmative action programs like the Community Redevelopment Act – actually caused the housing bubble.

Most important, Woods, author of the New York Times bestseller The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, traces this most recent boom-and-bust – and all such booms and busts of the past century – back to one of the most revered government institutions of all: the Federal Reserve System, which allows busy-body bureaucrats and ambitious politicians to pull the strings of our financial sector and manipulate the value of the very money we use…”

Comment:

That’s the blurb to Thomas Woods’ new book, “Meltdown,” which gives a classic Austrian rebuttal of the notion that lack of regulation of the economy is the sole reason for the current economic crisis, rather than the corrupt nexus between government and business in a managed economy. According to his blurb, Wood correctly assesses the current problem as a problem of cheap money, induced by Federal Reserve policies.

I have Woods’ previous book on the US constitution on my desk since I intend to review it.  I thought it was both mostly right at one level and partly wrong at another.*  I wonder if that will be the case with this book too. Still, as a contrarian and critic of establishment propaganda, I have to pull for any book brave enough to fly in the face of  academic orthodoxy. (Judging by Woods’ popularity, though –  a Google search of his name turns up millions of hits – he has a legion in tow to keep up his courage: here’s a link to his  impassioned speech at the Ron Paul Rally for the Republic (September 2008) on The Stupid Party versus the Evil Party)

“IF YOU WANT TO STOP THE WAR MACHINE, YOU HAVE TO GO AFTER THE MONEY MACHINE.”

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*In that respect, let me link a piece by Cathy Young of Reason magazine. Young’s conclusions strike me as owing more to ad hominem than logic, but they aren’t without merit if you consider the moral issues at stake. On that, more at another time…