What a farce. The Great Recession of 2008 was a direct result of deregulation, so the solution is -- more deregulation? The fact that the American people are swallowing this intellectual swill is a tragedy. Look, here's the facts -- we've had 3 periods of deregulation: the late 1800's (followed by the biggest economic collapse in the country's history up until that time in the 1890's); the 1920s (followed by the Great Derpession); and the thirty years prior to the great recession. Three tries, three failures. In each case, income got concentrated in the top 1%, and middle class consumers didn't have enough buying power to keep the economy growing. It's really simple -- if most of the consumers don't have enough money to buy stuff, the economy collapses; and when you deregulate, wealth gets concentrated at the top. Why can't we the people grasp this simple obvious fact and see deregulation for what it is: a pretext for weakening government so the uber rich can rob us blind?

Richard (RJ) Eskow
Host of 'The Breakdown,' Writer, and Senior Fellow, Campaign for America's Future
The Dumbest 'Bipartisan' Move Since Repealing Glass-Steagall
Posted 22-03-2012 11:35 PM EDT