That I could live in this world for 40 years before discovering Thomas Sowell is a travesty. He should be front and center in every discussion of public policy.
Feel the same way but he will educate the society to much and that isn't in government best interest. It's easier to control a uneducated or undereducated society.
The fact that even the name Thomas Sowell was not mentioned once in my school Economics class is one of the things that tells me our education today is totally twisted. His insights are fascinating.
The president surrounding himself with highly intelligent people doesn't guarantee anything, except for brilliant rationalizations for failure. - Thomas Sowell
Dr. Sowell's statement on Canuckcare is important. I live in Saskatchewan where surgical wait times have fallen dramatically. 10,635 waited greater than 6 months in '07. Only 980 waited longer than 6 months at the beginning of '16. We lead Canadian surgical wait times. What changed? Our province booted out soul-sucking, socialist bureaucrats and introduced private medical options.
+Chad Fahlman Listening to Trudeau is so hard, it is like reading Karl Marx literature. I hope you guys come out of all of this ok up north. God bless.
Well I think there's something to be said for two tier healthcare. All the best Healthcare systems in the worlds have a thriving private healthcare system alongside the public one. It keeps wait times in public hospitals down and reduces costs on both ends.
I live in the UK. If you dare talk about reforming the NHS people assume the worst, everyone is in denial and putting off the fateful day. One day it'll All be gone because some have a sense of entitlement and others seem to think money is created by magic. The NHS was set up after WWII when people were dying from Flu and common Cold's and people were still having 7 kids knowing half of them will be dead before age 5. It was meant to give people simple advice, stitch people up and set broken bones. CAT scans, for example, were not even conceivable as Science Fiction. There's no reason, I don't think, why we can't offer simple health care for people and draw up some realistic lines for where the NHS can or should go, but sooner or later it'll have to be privatized or people will have to leave the country to get decent treatment. People who think "Oh well that's only rich people who can afford it" disgust me, not only is it not true, not fair or honest, resentful and ugly it is amoral and hateful. As someone who is from South Wales, one of the poorest places by Western standards, I think it despicable and it always seems to be educated, bourgeoisie who have this attitude, not the economically disparaged. The bourgeoisie always seem to criticize the bourgeoisie and always claim to be speaking on behalf of "The Poor", such people don't speak for anyone except themselves and they disgust me!
J Doe, no Wall Street did not make it so expensive. The MOST direct cause of expensive health care is HEALTH INSURANCE! The second, and in certain areas the most effective at increasing costs, is federal involvement. As soon as the consumer of a product or service does not have a direct and obvious connection to the cost of that product or service the price will skyrocket. Health savings plans would likely help a great deal in reducing costs. When one has their own account and can see how medical system use affects to balance in that account then one tends to be more attentive about the cost and even the necessity for service. BTW, this still works for those where their plan is loaded via govt. money. Doctors and hospitals publishing basic charges for services would also help a great deal. And yes, it not only can be done it is being done. Obviously surgery and other service 'pricing' would have to be (and is) for routine care without complication. One of the immediately amazing facts is that organization providing advanced cost information are often orders of magnitude less costly than those that do not provide that information. Some other changes that are necessary include modification of the practices of insurance companies. Most importantly, the insurance company is NOT qualified to determine what care modality is appropriate for a particular patient and that is true irrespective of how many doctors might work for that insurance company. Insurance companies also use a billing, write off, and payment programs that permit gross abuse of the system. Finally, embracing a Functional Medicine (FM) approach to health care would reduce health care costs (death and suffering) more than any other change. FM attempts to determine the root cause of problems and correct those causes. Seldom do FM approaches employ surgery. FM also views pharmaceuticals as an occasionally necessary intervention to be used on a temporary basis. I'll cite the work of Dr. Dean Ornish (who is not AFIK a FM doctor). He has pointed out and backed up with extensive research that his approach for treating CVD not only works better than all 'standards of care' methods but also results in 'cures' for other unrelated chronic aliments. His methodology is now approved for use by Medicare.
I love how Sowell knew that obamas policies weren't going to help the economy recover quickly. Quietly being skeptical, a very humble guy that has his head on straight.
Thomas Sowell has had a profound influence on the lives of countless millions throughout the world. I had the opportunity to study abroad in two foreign countries: Mexico and Argentina. My fellow graduate students had never heard of John Locke, Adam Smith, Turgot, Hayek, Friedman, or Thomas Sowell. All these years later we find that Dr. Sowell's sage insight were prophesy inspired by research and reason. He will go down in history as one of the economic greats.
At 19:24Peter Robinson: "Why? What is it about the New Deal that permits people to sight it as a model with a straight-face eight decades after it was enacted?"Dr. Thomas Sowell: "Because of the widespread belief that it was the New Deal which saved the country and got us out of the Depression."Peter Robinson: "You mean it wasn't?"Dr. Thomas Sowell: "In politics, what matters is not what the facts are, what matters is what people believe. Because people vote on the basis of what they believe, and not on the basis of what the facts are!"Me: "Wow!"
Gary Grimm It was a depression that, up to this point had lasted 12 years. Maybe it just stopped, because it had already been so unusually long. Maybe it also stopped, because the war effort made investments and economic steps plannable again.
Gary Grimm Truth be told if US had managed to stay out of the war they would have made almost as much selling weapons and supplies to the British and Russians. if US wanted to be really clever they could have sold stuff to the Germans and Japanese as well. Wars are great unless you are in them.
luvcheney1 True but by this point the US was the only country that wasn't damaged and in debt they made a calculation that helping out was better than communisim throughout the world. However another example surely would be Switzerland. They sold weapons and stayed out of the war. Winners all round.
I have listened to many things by Thomas Sowell and read a half dozen of his books and many more articles. The thing I like best about him is that he's a genius, but you would never know it. He doesn't use $5 words as my father would call them to show he's smart, he explains things in a very easy to understand method using words that most people know and understand. Love the man.
Dr. Sowell nails it regarding the "creative financing". I bought my first house in 2000 in the L.A. area and the array of finance options offered to me were bewildering in terms of number and unbelievable when it came to terms. The lenders had a loan designed for any sort of buyer, and if they didn't have one, I bet they would create one. I was actively encouraged by lenders to assume loan terms that at the time seemed totally irresponsible and reckless and now seem criminal to me. None of it "felt right" and praise God I had the wisdom to stick to conventional terms despite their incessant pressure. Many sadly didn't and when the crash hit they were stuck and that's how we ended up in the mess we were in.
In a nutshell, the housing boom and bust was the government saying, "More people should own homes. So we're going to make more people eligible for mortgages. And no down payment necessary. And we should disregard the individual borrower's financial history and assets. What could possibly go wrong?!"
I don't feel any pity for the people who took these loans and then lost their homes. I knew a couple of people who thought they were so smart. They were going to buy a home and then flip it. Mind you, they had never done that before. I just laughed when their plans went up in flames. I knew it was too good to be true. Thank you Dr. Sowell
I am only now reading Professor Sowell's book on the housing boom and bust. I concur with much of what he has to say about the manner in which government and regulators have intervened in an attempt to achieve socially-engineered outcomes. I experienced these problems as manager of the residential mortgage lending program for a large commercial bank and later working as a market analyst and business manager at Fannie Mae. Despite the pressure exerted on us at Fannie Mae to meet "mission-driven" objectives expanding minority home ownership, the approach taken up until 2005 (the year I retired) was always quite measured, with one great exception: the decisions almost every year to increase the maximum loan limits in response to rising property prices. In this sense, Fannie and Freddie accommodated the speculation-driven land markets that drive the residential property markets, generally. Professor Sowell has nothing to say regarding the most important reason why the supply of land in some markets falls as prices are rising. As land prices climb fewer and fewer people have the liquid savings to make a sizable down payment toward purchase of a residential property. The financial sector responded by introducing private mortgage insurance as a substitute for cash equity in the purchase. Mortgagors pay the annual premiums to protect the mortgage investor from a good portion of the loss that occurs in the event of default and resale of a property acquired by means of foreclosure. Milton Friedman, referred to in this exchange, know what to do about the problem of the boom-to-bust character of land markets driven by credit-fueled speculation. Friedman echoed the words of Henry George (and Adam Smith) in supporting an annual tax on the full rental value of land. Every parcel of land has some potential rental value that, if publicly collected, would bring down land prices (theoretically close to zero because there is no imputed income stream to be capitalized into a selling price). Tame our land markets of speculation and hoarding, and many of the problems described by Professor Sowell will disappear. Land markets will then be cleared by the price mechanism in the same way as markets clear for labor and capital goods.
Edward Dodson this is interesting. You could make the same argument for any asset, including cash (by introducing negative interest rates for example).
11:00 - "This is the magic thing about politics, you set one goal and you don't worry about the repercusions" This is so true,why is this not the slogan during every election? Do people understand this? I certainly did not, but I hope that I can share this with everyone I know.
What a pleasure to hear Mr. Sowell, and eye opening facts, that continue to shape our country, and still ignored by so many leaders. Thank you for the incredible opportunity Hoover Institute.
This is great. Thank you for this channel! This is why the internet is great, I never heard any of this stuff in my 4 years of university. From the internet though I've read so much and seen so many ideas, don't agree with all but at least I am seeing them! My conversion to limited government only happened after I learned of ideas from Milton Friedman YT videos!
Finally got the book on my kindle, part way through. I think it can be put this way. If someone else, like the taxpayer or as the case was Fannie and Freddie, assumes the risk of default by buying shaky mortgages for which they reduced their standards to do, then why should banks bother to be so scrupulous about the quality of the mortgage? Not the whole world, but enough to explain something of how things could start to go really bad after that.
I am only 1/2 way through this video and I can't believe that they haven['t mentioned the federal reserve's GIGANTIC contribution to the housing bubble. ARMS simply wouldn't be possible with the short term rates being so low. Foreigners involved who usually wanted safe investments were unable to go to bonds beause the bond yield was so low. So wall st responded by bundling mortgages and marking them AAA. But without the low fed rate NONE OF IT COULD HAVE HAPPENED!!
Enjoyed hearing this. I used to do account for WaMu for subprime mortgage backed securities. I was constantly trying to explain to people that these crappy loans were pushed on people by mandates from the government (Real estate Investment ACT), not just the greed of Big Banks. The government provided a safety net (Fannie Mae & Freddy Mac) for the banks. Hence, WaMu started offering the Option Arm loan to new buyers. This loan was originally created for people that had very large down payments on their loans or had lots of equity in their homes.
Bureau of labor and statistics: "Specific concepts of the labor force, employment, and unemployment were developed in the later stages of the Depression of the 1930s. Before the 1930s, aside from attempts in some of the decennial censuses, no direct measurements were made of the number of jobless persons. Mass unemployment in the early 1930s increased the need for statistics, and widely conflicting estimates based on a variety of indirect techniques began to appear. "
"adventurous financing"- a great euphemism. Thanks Barney Frank- thanks a lot. Yet he remained in office another 5 years. speaking of euphemisms, "compassionate conservatism" sounds somehow, like democratic socialism, just that- a euphemism. (A good sounding word, for something bad)
"Not paying" on healthcare may actually be a legitimate choice. If you don't want waiting lists you can choose not to have them but you need overcapacity which costs a lot of money.
@christo930 Get Sowell's Book "The Housing Boom in Bust". In the first chapter he lists the casts of characters. The Federal Reserve System has a general authority to regulate banks across the country as well as specific powers to take actions which affect interest rates and the money supply. Given the great importance of the level on interest rates in the home mortgage markets, the Federal Reserve is a major player in that market....
@keithradamsstatus I agree that mechanically there were many contributing factors, but they could have never converged in the way that they did without the normalizing of irresponsible lending practices in the housing industry brought about by certain social policies. Once this occurred, it opened the door to wealthy speculators and everything else.
That is exactly what I say to liberals prior to engaging in "debates." And they generally say "no", indicating that they've been brainwashed too deeply to have any sense of logic or reality. It's kind of sad...
In my opinion the housing market busted because because people/agencies bought properties for the purpose of selling and making a profit. There were people juggling 2 - 3 homes at a time. This happened because of the creation of (unregulated) mortgage companies (banks were heavily regulated) also because the Bush Administration relaxed rule to the capital gains tax...which allowed house flipping. 3 years later, a 1500 sqft home once $50,000 now $180,000 that people are now stuck with. However, the people who bought the home they wanted for the rest of their live most are still in them today.
Huge fan of dr Sowell but just have a question, what policy "forced" the banks to give out these risky loans? If someone could answer it would be much appreciated :)
I don't think it has crossed Sowell's mind that central banks have a monopoly in printing money and issuing currency. Now if banks were free to do this the credit expansion would be limited by the fact that markets historically have chosen money based on commodities that have some sense of scarcity compared to electronic numbers and pieces of paper. A bank that overissued currency in relation to what they had in reserves had a tendency to lose reserves, and this prohibited banks to inflate the currency supply. Naturally this will restrict the amount of debt the government is able to borrow as well.
Politicians should not be involved in this market for the reason that the interests of the market and the interests of the politicians are at odds. The market wants BETTER home owners, while politicians want MORE home owners. When you push for MORE home owners, the quality of the home owners will decrease. When you push for BETTER home owners, the number of home owners will decrease while the market becomes more structurally sound. Not all are meant to OWN a home, and some SHOULD rent.
Any thought on Sowell denying man-made climate change? I'm all for free-market economic and have 2 of Sowell's marvelous books, but I'm a little hesitant on this. Help!
When Dr. Sowell is talking about unemployment rates in the months after the depression and the passing of the tariff bill, where is the data? I can't find it
In the Housing Boom and Bust book, Sowell says his source for the unemployment info is from page 77 of "Out of Work" by Richard Vedder and Lowell Gallaway. I haven't checked the source myself
I get it how government and banks and the fed are causing the problem but what about the appraiser and realtor who listed and sold these properties for more Than the properties are worth. When I sold my house he realtor and appraisal company push the selling to be approved by lenders. Realtors made out like bandits as well working with buyers and sellers all the while
If you read this Sir, I want to thank you for the Positive impact you have had on me...this is one of the principals which I hire folks to perform work for me..."can you think for yourself " and another which works hand in hand, have you ever worked on a farm. Thank you very much for being such a positive impact on my matured life and the world to all who can think. God bless Iaaiah12:2
My wife needs an MRI for a back problem she has (it's not exactly a pressing health matter, but y'know..). Here in Denmark with 99% socialized medicine she's scheduled for late in the first quarter next year (2013).
Sowell missed the fact that the Federal Reserve contracted the money supply by over 30% in the early 1930's. Not to mention their role in the crash of 1937 by raising interests rates too soon and too fast.
+ThePatrioteer That is very true he didn't mention that. Although I clearly remember him discussing the federal reserve's role in worsening the Great Depression in one of his other Uncommon Knowledge videos.
+ThePatrioteer Exactly and it's that action by the government that prolonged the depression, not the Keynesian policies. The reason WW2 broke the depression is pure Keynes, massive government intervention through expansion of the money supply and an increase in government private expenditures. It also explains the recession post WW2 as the government winded down that spending. The only reason the second half of the 20th century ended up being so prosperous for the US was the baby boom, huge population increase means more stuff needs to be bought, and the fact that the US was practically the only industrial nation in the world that didn't have it's factories wiped out.
To be fair, this discussion was about the 2008 crisis. I would be surprised if Sowell didn't know about... well, *anything* about the history of the FED's misconduct, given his opposition to it.
@stickyback: what do you mean? You contradict yourself. We don't have a free market. True. Therefore, something other than the free market was responsible for this mess. Also true. That's the whole point. Thomas Sowell is one of the wisest and noblest men on the planet today, there is hardly anyone like him, of whom it should be said that most of his books SHOULD be read by everyone. It says a lot about you if you don't like him.
I don't support monetary central planning, anti-trust, or negative income taxes. This makes me much more "conservative" than Dr. Friedman and Sowell combined. Either way, the Chicago school has never been free-market oriented; they were only given this title because they weren't socialists like Keynes, Sraffa, Robinson, et al. Their capital theory has been entirely refuted by Hayek and the Austrians (see, "Mythology of Capital" by F.A. Hayek). And their monetary theory is too simplistic.
@AstroAntaAposAnarch Why not cite the source wiki cites, after accepting the source???? A second hand source from any publication is never acceptable, but wiki is a good and efficient place to get rolling.
@mariner499 he's probably one of the most "real-world" experienced intelectual. Look up a little about his history. And also "real-world", are you suggesting he lives in a fake one?
How did the companies mess up? They made millions of dollars and when the bottom collapsed the taxpayer footed the bill. Maybe the firms were willing to bet (correctly) if something happened the government would bail them out.
Excuse me, but what about Fannie and Freddie leads you to believe his support of Gingrich was a bad choice? Because his firm received consulting fees from them (When they were still private) between 1999 & 2008? You know they also worked with IBM & Microsoft. If a scandal turns up with them is it Newt's fault too? Was Newt wrong/hypocritical for blasting the Dodd-Frank Bill, or was he simply responsible? You people act as if he was still receiving payments from them as he was running for office.
I wonder if his waiting time stats for healthcare (mri's ect) includes the 20% of americans who don't have insurance and don't get mri's or operations at all, let alone after a delay.
You now what? Screw all this needless economic debate. I already have the solution that would put an end to all economic strife to even be spoken of, or should I say, that might otherwise be spoken of. I mean, c'mon folks, all we have to do is just to implement, finally, once and for all, a mandate by law that no enterprise may charge more than, oh, say, 1 penny for any and all services rendered, and now literally _EVERYONE_ will then be able to afford whatever it is they need, AND some. Now honestly, _WHO_ would oppose this?
Logan Waltz lol. "because you are producing for yourself and not for the purpose of simply selling the product, you can sell all extra as your own property without being under the law of the ¢1 for businesses." But once you engaged in trade, that's a form of commerce, so the law would naturally just have to apply to _all_ sales bought and sold with money. As for bartering, well, we might allow that....I'm still on the fence about that one. But surely, for sake of fairness, we would have to mandate that no one could receive in exchange something worth less than the item they trade themselves....But of course, since everything's worth a penny (excluding those things you produce yourself, at least for the purpose of bartering rather than selling for money), I guess they _would_ necessarily be worth the same, because they would cost the same (1 penny), so, it would still work out. _______________ Now, as for the problem you presented with overhead, that was already easily solved by the very genius solution you were intending to refute. Obviously, everything charged to the producer for the overhead would also have to be no more than a single penny. :P
Logan Waltz "The government would abuse their control over money and try to control the system. This is fine by printing more money." Ah, but printing money in this situation would actually be a _good_ thing, as the more money is in existence, the more of it people will have in relation to goods. That means you can buy more stuff. All the more for everyone! "The car would cost 1 penny, but the labor and cost to build the car would be several pennies." Shit....uh...........uh......shit. Well, I hadn't really considered all that. Okay, I got a solution for this: just give tax credits to businesses for all overhead expenses. Easy.
Why would you allow people to over charge so much you greedy capitalist? Surely fractions of a cent would be more "fair" or even better yet "free". #feelthebern
@pragmatismnotidealis That's because the people are stupid and not willing to learn the truth. Yet they want to listen to the people that caused this mess,because they got political. Barney Frank wanted Fannie and Freddie to provide loans to poor people. He was only thinking of his political career with that and nothing more. We need to find away to get this video out and get the truth out.
Questfortruth86 Why are you obsessed with stating there was enough money in the economy? That is not in question (monetary contraction occured after the Stock Market crash of 1929- irrelevant to this). Sowell states that the highly localised issues of particularly high pricing is where it started, 'and it snowballed .'. In any event, the free market was not in operation. Governments set interest rates. Government forces banks to lend to anyone, wholly contrary to a free market.
That I could live in this world for 40 years before discovering Thomas Sowell is a travesty. He should be front and center in every discussion of public policy.
Feel the same way but he will educate the society to much and that isn't in government best interest. It's easier to control a uneducated or undereducated society.
The fact that even the name Thomas Sowell was not mentioned once in my school Economics class is one of the things that tells me our education today is totally twisted. His insights are fascinating.
The president surrounding himself with highly intelligent people doesn't guarantee anything, except for brilliant rationalizations for failure. - Thomas Sowell
Ken MacDonald I was no fan of Obama but you drank the Kool-Aid.
@@SkeletonModel91 i wouldn't say amazing success but he has definitely made some success, only ignorance can deny that
The host is probably the best I’ve seen. Genuinely curious and thirsty for the knowledge and answers that Dr. Sowell provides. Exquisite.
Thomas Sowell is a national treasure, an international treasure, an intergalactical treasure.
I would walk 1000 miles to shake his hand.
Uncommon Knowledge with Dr. Thomas Sowell should be a weekly occurrence!
Dr. Sowell's statement on Canuckcare is important.
I live in Saskatchewan where surgical wait times have fallen dramatically. 10,635 waited greater than 6 months in '07. Only 980 waited longer than 6 months at the beginning of '16. We lead Canadian surgical wait times.
What changed?
Our province booted out soul-sucking, socialist bureaucrats and introduced private medical options.
+Chad Fahlman Listening to Trudeau is so hard, it is like reading Karl Marx literature. I hope you guys come out of all of this ok up north. God bless.
When Mr. Wall is done in Saskatchewan, send him over to Alberta please.
Well I think there's something to be said for two tier healthcare. All the best Healthcare systems in the worlds have a thriving private healthcare system alongside the public one. It keeps wait times in public hospitals down and reduces costs on both ends.
I live in the UK. If you dare talk about reforming the NHS people assume the worst, everyone is in denial and putting off the fateful day. One day it'll All be gone because some have a sense of entitlement and others seem to think money is created by magic. The NHS was set up after WWII when people were dying from Flu and common Cold's and people were still having 7 kids knowing half of them will be dead before age 5. It was meant to give people simple advice, stitch people up and set broken bones. CAT scans, for example, were not even conceivable as Science Fiction. There's no reason, I don't think, why we can't offer simple health care for people and draw up some realistic lines for where the NHS can or should go, but sooner or later it'll have to be privatized or people will have to leave the country to get decent treatment. People who think "Oh well that's only rich people who can afford it" disgust me, not only is it not true, not fair or honest, resentful and ugly it is amoral and hateful. As someone who is from South Wales, one of the poorest places by Western standards, I think it despicable and it always seems to be educated, bourgeoisie who have this attitude, not the economically disparaged. The bourgeoisie always seem to criticize the bourgeoisie and always claim to be speaking on behalf of "The Poor", such people don't speak for anyone except themselves and they disgust me!
J Doe, no Wall Street did not make it so expensive. The MOST direct cause of expensive health care is HEALTH INSURANCE! The second, and in certain areas the most effective at increasing costs, is federal involvement.
As soon as the consumer of a product or service does not have a direct and obvious connection to the cost of that product or service the price will skyrocket.
Health savings plans would likely help a great deal in reducing costs. When one has their own account and can see how medical system use affects to balance in that account then one tends to be more attentive about the cost and even the necessity for service. BTW, this still works for those where their plan is loaded via govt. money.
Doctors and hospitals publishing basic charges for services would also help a great deal. And yes, it not only can be done it is being done. Obviously surgery and other service 'pricing' would have to be (and is) for routine care without complication. One of the immediately amazing facts is that organization providing advanced cost information are often orders of magnitude less costly than those that do not provide that information.
Some other changes that are necessary include modification of the practices of insurance companies. Most importantly, the insurance company is NOT qualified to determine what care modality is appropriate for a particular patient and that is true irrespective of how many doctors might work for that insurance company.
Insurance companies also use a billing, write off, and payment programs that permit gross abuse of the system.
Finally, embracing a Functional Medicine (FM) approach to health care would reduce health care costs (death and suffering) more than any other change. FM attempts to determine the root cause of problems and correct those causes. Seldom do FM approaches employ surgery. FM also views pharmaceuticals as an occasionally necessary intervention to be used on a temporary basis.
I'll cite the work of Dr. Dean Ornish (who is not AFIK a FM doctor). He has pointed out and backed up with extensive research that his approach for treating CVD not only works better than all 'standards of care' methods but also results in 'cures' for other unrelated chronic aliments. His methodology is now approved for use by Medicare.
"In Politics what matters is not what the facts are, What matters is what people believe"
▶ I always feel smarter and better after listening to this man 👌
I love how Sowell knew that obamas policies weren't going to help the economy recover quickly. Quietly being skeptical, a very humble guy that has his head on straight.
I’ve heard Thomas Sowell speak many a times and I must say that find him to be a very sound wise man and great thinker of our time.
Dr. Sowell has been a hero of mine for decades. One wonders why you don't see more of him on network television talk shows.
Thomas Sowell has had a profound influence on the lives of countless millions throughout the world. I had the opportunity to study abroad in two foreign countries: Mexico and Argentina. My fellow graduate students had never heard of John Locke, Adam Smith, Turgot, Hayek, Friedman, or Thomas Sowell. All these years later we find that Dr. Sowell's sage insight were prophesy inspired by research and reason.
He will go down in history as one of the economic greats.
At 19:24Peter Robinson: "Why? What is it about the New Deal that permits people to sight it as a model with a straight-face eight decades after it was enacted?"Dr. Thomas Sowell: "Because of the widespread belief that it was the New Deal which saved the country and got us out of the Depression."Peter Robinson: "You mean it wasn't?"Dr. Thomas Sowell: "In politics, what matters is not what the facts are, what matters is what people believe. Because people vote on the basis of what they believe, and not on the basis of what the facts are!"Me: "Wow!"
Pearl Harbor blasted us out of the Depression. It was, in terms of human life, costly.
Gary Grimm It was a depression that, up to this point had lasted 12 years. Maybe it just stopped, because it had already been so unusually long. Maybe it also stopped, because the war effort made investments and economic steps plannable again.
Gary Grimm
Truth be told if US had managed to stay out of the war they would have made almost as much selling weapons and supplies to the British and Russians. if US wanted to be really clever they could have sold stuff to the Germans and Japanese as well. Wars are great unless you are in them.
luvcheney1
True but by this point the US was the only country that wasn't damaged and in debt they made a calculation that helping out was better than communisim throughout the world. However another example surely would be Switzerland. They sold weapons and stayed out of the war. Winners all round.
Indeed, This man blows truth straight to the center of the Soul...Wow, Indeed!
This man has to teach an internet class that could stay forever for future generations.
Thomas Sowell is one of the best analysts anywhere. Always a privilege to hear him speak
Doctor Thomas Sowell Has forgotten more information than I will ever know. What an amazing human being.
I have listened to many things by Thomas Sowell and read a half dozen of his books and many more articles. The thing I like best about him is that he's a genius, but you would never know it. He doesn't use $5 words as my father would call them to show he's smart, he explains things in a very easy to understand method using words that most people know and understand.
Love the man.
Classic line....."Most disasters are politically understandable"
I just added this book to my amazon wish list.
"When his son started talking about "compassionate conservatism" - which is not compassionate to taxpayers by the way.." - Gold.
Thomas Sowell is always on point. He is amazing. Thanks for the upload.
Dr. Sowell nails it regarding the "creative financing". I bought my first house in 2000 in the L.A. area and the array of finance options offered to me were bewildering in terms of number and unbelievable when it came to terms. The lenders had a loan designed for any sort of buyer, and if they didn't have one, I bet they would create one. I was actively encouraged by lenders to assume loan terms that at the time seemed totally irresponsible and reckless and now seem criminal to me. None of it "felt right" and praise God I had the wisdom to stick to conventional terms despite their incessant pressure. Many sadly didn't and when the crash hit they were stuck and that's how we ended up in the mess we were in.
This was super eye opening. I'm from Los angles and I feel like I finally understand why prices are so crazy, besides everyone wanting to live here.
It wasn't a free market problem; it was generated by the quotas that government was trying to fulfill through bunk mortgages.
In a nutshell, the housing boom and bust was the government saying, "More people should own homes. So we're going to make more people eligible for mortgages. And no down payment necessary. And we should disregard the individual borrower's financial history and assets. What could possibly go wrong?!"
Read carefully as many of this mans books as you can find. His wisdom will be invaluable in the next few years.
I don't feel any pity for the people who took these loans and then lost their homes. I knew a couple of people who thought they were so smart. They were going to buy a home and then flip it. Mind you, they had never done that before. I just laughed when their plans went up in flames. I knew it was too good to be true.
Thank you Dr. Sowell
Excellent. I was wondering where I could find this entire discussion. Sowell is brilliant.
Cool informative and educational video.
Thank you for this informative interview, from Santa Cruz Calif.
I am only now reading Professor Sowell's book on the housing boom and bust. I concur with much of what he has to say about the manner in which government and regulators have intervened in an attempt to achieve socially-engineered outcomes. I experienced these problems as manager of the residential mortgage lending program for a large commercial bank and later working as a market analyst and business manager at Fannie Mae.
Despite the pressure exerted on us at Fannie Mae to meet "mission-driven" objectives expanding minority home ownership, the approach taken up until 2005 (the year I retired) was always quite measured, with one great exception: the decisions almost every year to increase the maximum loan limits in response to rising property prices. In this sense, Fannie and Freddie accommodated the speculation-driven land markets that drive the residential property markets, generally.
Professor Sowell has nothing to say regarding the most important reason why the supply of land in some markets falls as prices are rising. As land prices climb fewer and fewer people have the liquid savings to make a sizable down payment toward purchase of a residential property. The financial sector responded by introducing private mortgage insurance as a substitute for cash equity in the purchase. Mortgagors pay the annual premiums to protect the mortgage investor from a good portion of the loss that occurs in the event of default and resale of a property acquired by means of foreclosure.
Milton Friedman, referred to in this exchange, know what to do about the problem of the boom-to-bust character of land markets driven by credit-fueled speculation. Friedman echoed the words of Henry George (and Adam Smith) in supporting an annual tax on the full rental value of land. Every parcel of land has some potential rental value that, if publicly collected, would bring down land prices (theoretically close to zero because there is no imputed income stream to be capitalized into a selling price).
Tame our land markets of speculation and hoarding, and many of the problems described by Professor Sowell will disappear. Land markets will then be cleared by the price mechanism in the same way as markets clear for labor and capital goods.
he brings up down payments in his book. he dedicates almost a whole chapter to it
Edward Dodson this is interesting. You could make the same argument for any asset, including cash (by introducing negative interest rates for example).
11:00 - "This is the magic thing about politics, you set one goal and you don't worry about the repercusions"
This is so true,why is this not the slogan during every election? Do people understand this? I certainly did not, but I hope that I can share this with everyone I know.
How does this only have 98k views?
What a pleasure to hear Mr. Sowell, and eye opening facts, that continue to shape our country, and still ignored by so many leaders. Thank you for the incredible opportunity Hoover Institute.
I love Thomas!!! You go man!
"What was Barney Frank thinking?" Dr. Sowell's answer was funny, but I can think of several funnier ones.
government is the problem, things are expensive because regulation, deregulate and prices and rent drop fanne freddy are gov agencies
Just a few seconds in. I very much enjoyed the ‘forward slash’ hand gesture!
This is great. Thank you for this channel! This is why the internet is great, I never heard any of this stuff in my 4 years of university. From the internet though I've read so much and seen so many ideas, don't agree with all but at least I am seeing them!
My conversion to limited government only happened after I learned of ideas from Milton Friedman YT videos!
If only more legislators listened to Milton Friedman and Thomas Sowell today
I wish Thomas Sowell was our first Black President! This guy is Awesome..
Really great book for a mainstream (by economics standards) history and analysis of the GFC, highly recommend.
Brilliant rationalization for failure...
Sowell poetry
Pure brilliance #legend#BOSS
Finally got the book on my kindle, part way through.
I think it can be put this way. If someone else, like the taxpayer or as the case was Fannie and Freddie, assumes the risk of default by buying shaky mortgages for which they reduced their standards to do, then why should banks bother to be so scrupulous about the quality of the mortgage? Not the whole world, but enough to explain something of how things could start to go really bad after that.
Great video.
Wonderful!
I am only 1/2 way through this video and I can't believe that they haven['t mentioned the federal reserve's GIGANTIC contribution to the housing bubble. ARMS simply wouldn't be possible with the short term rates being so low. Foreigners involved who usually wanted safe investments were unable to go to bonds beause the bond yield was so low. So wall st responded by bundling mortgages and marking them AAA. But without the low fed rate NONE OF IT COULD HAVE HAPPENED!!
Enjoyed hearing this. I used to do account for WaMu for subprime mortgage backed securities. I was constantly trying to explain to people that these crappy loans were pushed on people by mandates from the government (Real estate Investment ACT), not just the greed of Big Banks. The government provided a safety net (Fannie Mae & Freddy Mac) for the banks. Hence, WaMu started offering the Option Arm loan to new buyers. This loan was originally created for people that had very large down payments on their loans or had lots of equity in their homes.
very good discussion
excellent!
Stupendous!
Thank you
Bureau of labor and statistics: "Specific concepts of the labor force, employment, and unemployment were developed in the later stages of the Depression of the 1930s. Before the 1930s, aside from attempts in some of the decennial censuses, no direct measurements were made of the number of jobless persons. Mass unemployment in the early 1930s increased the need for statistics, and widely conflicting estimates based on a variety of indirect techniques began to appear. "
Amazing . 4 years later and everything he says is happening and worse
Why do you have to pay "property taxes", on a home you already own and have paid off?
"adventurous financing"- a great euphemism.
Thanks Barney Frank- thanks a lot. Yet he remained in office another 5 years.
speaking of euphemisms, "compassionate conservatism" sounds somehow, like democratic socialism, just that- a euphemism. (A good sounding word, for something bad)
"Not paying" on healthcare may actually be a legitimate choice. If you don't want waiting lists you can choose not to have them but you need overcapacity which costs a lot of money.
@christo930
Get Sowell's Book "The Housing Boom in Bust". In the first chapter he lists the casts of characters.
The Federal Reserve System has a general authority to regulate banks across the country as well as specific powers to take actions which affect interest rates and the money supply. Given the great importance of the level on interest rates in the home mortgage markets, the Federal Reserve is a major player in that market....
Would you please explain your stance?
@keithradamsstatus
I agree that mechanically there were many contributing factors, but they could have never converged in the way that they did without the normalizing of irresponsible lending practices in the housing industry brought about by certain social policies. Once this occurred, it opened the door to wealthy speculators and everything else.
Thomas Sowell not being on Twitter is borderline criminal.
@8:00 prior to congress putting pressure on the financial system, wall street put pressure on congress.
That is exactly what I say to liberals prior to engaging in "debates." And they generally say "no", indicating that they've been brainwashed too deeply to have any sense of logic or reality. It's kind of sad...
I think the housing prices in parts of California have more to do with demand than anything else.
In my opinion the housing market busted because because people/agencies bought properties for the purpose of selling and making a profit. There were people juggling 2 - 3 homes at a time. This happened because of the creation of (unregulated) mortgage companies (banks were heavily regulated) also because the Bush Administration relaxed rule to the capital gains tax...which allowed house flipping. 3 years later, a 1500 sqft home once $50,000 now $180,000 that people are now stuck with. However, the people who bought the home they wanted for the rest of their live most are still in them today.
Huge fan of dr Sowell but just have a question, what policy "forced" the banks to give out these risky loans? If someone could answer it would be much appreciated :)
+Josh Davis
That's a nuanced answer, but you can start here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act
I don't think it has crossed Sowell's mind that central banks have a monopoly in printing money and issuing currency. Now if banks were free to do this the credit expansion would be limited by the fact that markets historically have chosen money based on commodities that have some sense of scarcity compared to electronic numbers and pieces of paper. A bank that overissued currency in relation to what they had in reserves had a tendency to lose reserves, and this prohibited banks to inflate the currency supply.
Naturally this will restrict the amount of debt the government is able to borrow as well.
Politicians should not be involved in this market for the reason that the interests of the market and the interests of the politicians are at odds.
The market wants BETTER home owners, while politicians want MORE home owners. When you push for MORE home owners, the quality of the home owners will decrease. When you push for BETTER home owners, the number of home owners will decrease while the market becomes more structurally sound. Not all are meant to OWN a home, and some SHOULD rent.
reference?
Any thought on Sowell denying man-made climate change? I'm all for free-market economic and have 2 of Sowell's marvelous books, but I'm a little hesitant on this. Help!
Public education is a waste of time and money
@keithradamsstatus That and obscure financial instruments i.e. derivatives.
Dr. Sowell is wrong about the limited scope of the original defaults. It was pretty much everywhere in the US.
"general consensus we'll see a recovery in a year - 18 months"
Lol funny how 8 years later...still below 1% interest rates. Some recovery aye?
When Dr. Sowell is talking about unemployment rates in the months after the depression and the passing of the tariff bill, where is the data? I can't find it
In the Housing Boom and Bust book, Sowell says his source for the unemployment info is from page 77 of "Out of Work" by Richard Vedder and Lowell Gallaway. I haven't checked the source myself
@mariner499 Dr. Sowell is well aware of what fannie and freddie did, if you had read Dr. Sowell's book, you would understand that.
I get it how government and banks and the fed are causing the problem but what about the appraiser and realtor who listed and sold these properties for more Than the properties are worth. When I sold my house he realtor and appraisal company push the selling to be approved by lenders. Realtors made out like bandits as well working with buyers and sellers all the while
Is the audio messed up for anyone else?
Thomas Sowell supported Gingrich after going on and on about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I wouldn't trust his judgement over Schiff's any day.
Fox has the top 5 rated talk shows
Okay, political bickering aside how long will it take for government to withdraw and let the free market adjust housing prices closer to real income?
Would you admit that the mainstream media has an overwhelmingly liberal bias? If not, then there's not much point on continuing a discussion with you.
Don't get me wrong. I like Thomas Sowell a lot but this is one point I can't say I concede to. The majority of everything else: well said.
If you read this Sir, I want to thank you for the Positive impact you have had on me...this is one of the principals which I hire folks to perform work for me..."can you think for yourself " and another which works hand in hand, have you ever worked on a farm. Thank you very much for being such a positive impact on my matured life and the world to all who can think. God bless Iaaiah12:2
My wife needs an MRI for a back problem she has (it's not exactly a pressing health matter, but y'know..). Here in Denmark with 99% socialized medicine she's scheduled for late in the first quarter next year (2013).
A few months ago I needed a MRI. I had it done within 3 working days. Of course, I'm in the US.
Sowell missed the fact that the Federal Reserve contracted the money supply by over 30% in the early 1930's. Not to mention their role in the crash of 1937 by raising interests rates too soon and too fast.
But now with your comment, we the viewers haven't missed that fact.
+ThePatrioteer That is very true he didn't mention that. Although I clearly remember him discussing the federal reserve's role in worsening the Great Depression in one of his other Uncommon Knowledge videos.
+ThePatrioteer Exactly and it's that action by the government that prolonged the depression, not the Keynesian policies. The reason WW2 broke the depression is pure Keynes, massive government intervention through expansion of the money supply and an increase in government private expenditures.
It also explains the recession post WW2 as the government winded down that spending. The only reason the second half of the 20th century ended up being so prosperous for the US was the baby boom, huge population increase means more stuff needs to be bought, and the fact that the US was practically the only industrial nation in the world that didn't have it's factories wiped out.
And we had all the gold and the world reserve currency.
To be fair, this discussion was about the 2008 crisis. I would be surprised if Sowell didn't know about... well, *anything* about the history of the FED's misconduct, given his opposition to it.
@stickyback: what do you mean? You contradict yourself. We don't have a free market. True. Therefore, something other than the free market was responsible for this mess. Also true. That's the whole point. Thomas Sowell is one of the wisest and noblest men on the planet today, there is hardly anyone like him, of whom it should be said that most of his books SHOULD be read by everyone. It says a lot about you if you don't like him.
I don't support monetary central planning, anti-trust, or negative income taxes. This makes me much more "conservative" than Dr. Friedman and Sowell combined. Either way, the Chicago school has never been free-market oriented; they were only given this title because they weren't socialists like Keynes, Sraffa, Robinson, et al. Their capital theory has been entirely refuted by Hayek and the Austrians (see, "Mythology of Capital" by F.A. Hayek). And their monetary theory is too simplistic.
@AstroAntaAposAnarch Why not cite the source wiki cites, after accepting the source???? A second hand source from any publication is never acceptable, but wiki is a good and efficient place to get rolling.
@mariner499 he's probably one of the most "real-world" experienced intelectual. Look up a little about his history. And also "real-world", are you suggesting he lives in a fake one?
Thomas Sowell is intelligent and has common sense. The antithesis is liberals
How did the companies mess up? They made millions of dollars and when the bottom collapsed the taxpayer footed the bill. Maybe the firms were willing to bet (correctly) if something happened the government would bail them out.
Excuse me, but what about Fannie and Freddie leads you to believe his support of Gingrich was a bad choice? Because his firm received consulting fees from them (When they were still private) between 1999 & 2008? You know they also worked with IBM & Microsoft. If a scandal turns up with them is it Newt's fault too? Was Newt wrong/hypocritical for blasting the Dodd-Frank Bill, or was he simply responsible? You people act as if he was still receiving payments from them as he was running for office.
I wonder if his waiting time stats for healthcare (mri's ect) includes the 20% of americans who don't have insurance and don't get mri's or operations at all, let alone after a delay.
You now what? Screw all this needless economic debate. I already have the solution that would put an end to all economic strife to even be spoken of, or should I say, that might otherwise be spoken of. I mean, c'mon folks, all we have to do is just to implement, finally, once and for all, a mandate by law that no enterprise may charge more than, oh, say, 1 penny for any and all services rendered, and now literally _EVERYONE_ will then be able to afford whatever it is they need, AND some. Now honestly, _WHO_ would oppose this?
*****
Hey, even better. Now you're thinking like a good liberal ;) Slick Willy would be proud, heh heh...
Logan Waltz
lol. "because you are producing for yourself and not for the purpose of simply selling the product, you can sell all extra as your own property without being under the law of the ¢1 for businesses."
But once you engaged in trade, that's a form of commerce, so the law would naturally just have to apply to _all_ sales bought and sold with money. As for bartering, well, we might allow that....I'm still on the fence about that one. But surely, for sake of fairness, we would have to mandate that no one could receive in exchange something worth less than the item they trade themselves....But of course, since everything's worth a penny (excluding those things you produce yourself, at least for the purpose of bartering rather than selling for money), I guess they _would_ necessarily be worth the same, because they would cost the same (1 penny), so, it would still work out.
_______________
Now, as for the problem you presented with overhead, that was already easily solved by the very genius solution you were intending to refute. Obviously, everything charged to the producer for the overhead would also have to be no more than a single penny. :P
Logan Waltz
"The government would abuse their control over money and try to control the system. This is fine by printing more money."
Ah, but printing money in this situation would actually be a _good_ thing, as the more money is in existence, the more of it people will have in relation to goods. That means you can buy more stuff. All the more for everyone!
"The car would cost 1 penny, but the labor and cost to build the car would be several pennies."
Shit....uh...........uh......shit. Well, I hadn't really considered all that. Okay, I got a solution for this: just give tax credits to businesses for all overhead expenses. Easy.
Why would you allow people to over charge so much you greedy capitalist? Surely fractions of a cent would be more "fair" or even better yet "free". #feelthebern
sk00lb0y
Honestly, how much of this thread did you even bother to read?
@pragmatismnotidealis That's because the people are stupid and not willing to learn the truth. Yet they want to listen to the people that caused this mess,because they got political. Barney Frank wanted Fannie and Freddie to provide loans to poor people. He was only thinking of his political career with that and nothing more. We need to find away to get this video out and get the truth out.
@stickyback HAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA. well put. very erudite.
Questfortruth86 Why are you obsessed with stating there was enough money in the economy? That is not in question (monetary contraction occured after the Stock Market crash of 1929- irrelevant to this). Sowell states that the highly localised issues of particularly high pricing is where it started, 'and it snowballed .'. In any event, the free market was not in operation. Governments set interest rates. Government forces banks to lend to anyone, wholly contrary to a free market.