Understanding Macroeconomics and Finance

housing bubble....xsdemand...lax credit...allowing bundling....I agree with all of your post until this:

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We've seen wealth disparity INCREASE, not decrease, during the Bush years.

The question is How?

That's the point, high taxes do block individuals/small businesses from success.

There's plenty of blame to spread around for the housing bubble. The repeal of Glass-Steagall didn't help. My contention is that there was no policy of homeownership as "entitlement". Part of the American Dream, yes. I still say it's a worthy goal but there should never have been such lax lending practices, nor should mortgages have been "securitized". When DH and I bought our first home many years ago, we had to have proof of income and a sizable downpayment.

Consumers are STILL seeing the fallout from sloppy or nonexistent qualifying standards; and the moral hazard of moving the risk (and servicing) of a mortgage to other-than-the-originating lending institution.

In my model of a free market health care system, there would be more providers (the AMA has worked for years to restrict the number of MD's entering medical programs and practice, nor have nursing schools been much better). I propose an expansion of teaching institutions, along the lines of the old land grant universities.

One of the major tenets of capitalism is the old law of supply and demand. Currently the demand is growing apace while supply has been wickedly restricted and cannot keep up. Get the insurance companies out of the model for all but catastrophic incidents. They provide no service and as you point out, their overhead comes right off the top.

"Why don't Republicans support the campaign finance reforms they, themselves, proposed?"

For some reason a lot of liberals have the notion campaign finance reform will somehow magically make corruption go away. Unfortunately campaign finances are only a small piece of the corruption.