THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE SYSTEMS?

Like their defense of the American health care system, wingers think the current version of capitalism is the best in the world. Both are terribly mistaken and a little historical knowledge would set them straight. We've had real panics since the middle of the 19th Century, beginning with the Panic of 1857, which was followed by a more serious panic in 1873. Via Atrios, I learn that Larry Summers has pointed out the increasing frequency of panics, large and small:

• The Latin American debt crisis
• The 1987 stock market crash
• The savings and loan debacle
• The Mexican financial crisis
• The Asian financial crisis
• The collapse of LTCM
• The bursting of the dot-com bubble
• And now the financial crisis that began in 2007.
• One crisis every three years.

We need a serious overhaul of the entire financial system unless we want to become impoverished.