No freedom without regulation: the hidden lesson of the subprime crisis

224 Pages·2016·0.684 MB·English

by  Singer, Joseph William

No Freedom Without Regulation
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No Freedom
Without Regulation
The Hidden Lesson
of the Subprime Crisis
JOSEPH WILLIAM SINGER
New Haven and London
Copyright © 2015 by Joseph William Singer.
All rights reserved.
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2015930742
ISBN 978–0–300–21167–2 (cloth : alk. paper)
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Where there is no Law,
there is no Freedom.
—JOHN LOCKE
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Contents
1.
The Subprime Challenge 1
2.
Why a Free and Democratic Society Needs Law 26
3.
Why Consumer Protection Promotes the Free Market 58
4.
Why Private Property Needs a Legal Infrastructure 95
5.
Why Conservatives Like Regulation and Liberals
Like Markets 157
6.
Democratic Liberty 177
Notes 183
Acknowledgments 205
Index 209
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1
The Subprime Challenge
All that makes existence valuable to anyone
depends on the enforcement of restraints upon the
actions of other people.
JOHN STUART MILL
S
herlock Holmes and Dr. Watson go on a camping trip.
They set up their tent, have a modest repast, and go
to sleep. In the middle of the night, Holmes wakes
Watson up and asks him, “What do you see?” Watson
looks up and sees the night sky and tells Holmes so. “What does
it mean?” Holmes asks. Pondering this deep question, Watson
answers, “It means the universe is vast and mysterious and our
knowledge limited. It means that we only understand what we
can observe and that—” Holmes interrupts him. “No, you idiot,”
he says. “It means someone has stolen our tent.”1
Things That We Have Taken for Granted
Sometimes it is important to state the obvious, to confront
truths so fundamental we have forgotten to see them. The sub-
prime crisis has forced us to remember things that we have
1