When economic troubles strike, policymakers are eager to do something (anything) to try to help the citizenry. But, as Prof. Lawrence H. White argues in this brief clip, government doesn't necessarily know how to relieve economic woes, and in fact, often wastes and mismanages resources. Individuals in the market know better what they need in their circumstances, as economist Friedrich Hayek argued during the Great Depression. Critically, he points out, relying on government to fix our economic woes instead of allowing individuals to make decisions for themselves means putting all of our eggs in one basket. Individual decisions in the market won't be mistake-free, but each individual mistake will be smaller and will correct more quickly. The unusually slow and painful recovery that we have seen in this recession surely points to problems with the "government should do something" view.
"Who in his right mind would suggest, 'do nothing'?"... hhmm