NP epitaph of libertarianism

[Doug Millison]

http://www.salon.com/news/col/cona/2002/07/17/bush/index.html?x
Tuesday's startling testimony by Alan Greenspan was more than just another
opportunity to divine the direction of nominal interest rates. Coming from
a onetime acolyte of Ayn Rand and an architect of the Reagan "revolution,"
the Fed chairman's denunciation of "infectious greed" was the epitaph of
libertarianism. (NPR's "Marketplace" had the wit to ask actor Ed Asner, a
lifelong left-wing Democrat, to read Greenspans dryly delivered remarks in
the dramatic tones they deserved.) His words were evidence that even aging
libertarians have to grow up someday.

 Rand's ideas long outlived her. According to the absolutist philosophy
enunciated by the late author of "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged,"
greed is almost always good, and the more "infectious" the better. In her
parody of Marxism, she insisted that unfettered avarice would advance the
greatest benefit for the greatest number. (If you have noticed a similarity
between these infantile ideas and what currently passes for "conservatism,"
then you're catching on.) While Greenspan has moderated his views over the
decades since he sat at the feet of Rand in her New York apartment, he
remains the most prominent libertarian fellow traveler ever to hold high
office in this country.

The Fed chairman seems to have finally shaken off the remaining vestiges of
this creed, which still guides the editorial page of the Wall Street
Journal, the House Republican leadership and innumerable lonely college
students. After expressing his dismay over the vastly increased "avenues to
express greed," he went on to make another startling admission for a man of
such inclinations. Until recently, he explained, he had believed that
market forces alone would provide sufficient discipline to the accounting
profession, and that "regulation by government was utterly unnecessary and,
indeed, most inappropriate." Then he said, "I was wrong."

And with that, Greenspan blew taps for the Republican right. So much for
two decades of ideologically driven dismantling of government protection
for investors, consumers and citizens. Goodbye to all that, and good
riddance. Maybe someday we'll see a revival of the kind of conservatism
that once valued social solidarity along with