Independence Day: Hayek explains Liberty

While America celebrates its day of Independence, people around the world are embracing the dangerous arms of government and giving up freedoms. Throughout history in times of economic upheaval, government has appeared to run to the rescue of economies in verge of collapse only to make matters worse. The Great Depression saw one of the largest expansion of the US Federal Government and yet despite the huge amount of dollars spent, the US fully recovered only after world war II. To add insult to injury, many do not seem to realize that it is government that heavily contributes to economic collapse. While the media rightly exposes on the disgraceful acts of Wall Street titans, it fails to expose the primary role of government in this collapse: the folly of the Federal reserve to inflate bubbles with low interest rates, the folly of the US Govt to inflate the housing markets through subsidized loans (Fannie Mae & Freedie Mac) and the failure of regulators in over a dozen agencies to properly expose abuse. Politicians tell us now that the failure of the market requires more restrictions of economic freedom and the creation of yet more regulators in Washington. Their solution is tie up small & mid-size businesses in regulations while unemployment explodes while bailing out their friends in large corporations despite these very subsidies have already led to collapse of historic firms such as GM & Chrysler, etc. Amidst this nonsense and the rush to curtail economic freedoms, it is valuable to re-evaluate the importance of liberty, the limits of government and power in the word of masters such F.A. Hayek.