Austrian Bailout

The Voices that Be are widely pro­claim­ing the eco­nomic cri­sis as the fail­ure of cap­i­tal­ism. Wrong: this is a fail­ure in government-regulated mar­kets. We only have very lim­ited and highly reg­u­lated cap­i­tal­ism in the United States, and that quasi-market sys­tem is what has got­ten us into this situation.

The Mises Institute has released the Austrian Bailout.

Austrian Bailout Package–Part A

1. Suspend Basil II reg­u­la­tions (to at least 4/2/09)
2. Cancel FDIC insur­ance on all demand deposits after 1/1/09.
3. Increase FDIC pre­mi­ums on short term time deposits of less than one year.
4. Make inter­est earned (start­ing 1/1/09) on bank time deposits and non-governmental, non-agency, and non-authority bonds tax free (not demand deposits and MMMF).
5. Convert Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s sta­tus from con­ser­va­tor­ship into receiver­ship.
6. Convert AIG’s sta­tus from gov­ern­ment owned to receiver­ship.
7. Cancel the Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF) and the Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF) at the end of the announced pro­gram (January 30, 2009).
8. Announce that the Federal Funds rate will be allowed to “float” at mar­ket rates start­ing January 30, 2009.
9. Announce that the Federal bud­get will be pro­rated begin­ning with the fis­cal year start­ing 10/1/08 includ­ing all defense spend­ing and trans­fer pay­ments.
10. Restore con­sti­tu­tional mon­e­tary sta­tus to gold and sil­ver to act as an alter­na­tive medium of exchange (no cap­i­tal gains taxes).