Here our friend Pat Deneen draws from the wisdom of the anti-Federalists that we have good reason to fear an excessive consolidation of economic power in the federal government, especially during times of economic crisis. One could reasonably argue that governmentally regulated and subsidized monstrosities like Fannie and Freddie are evidence of this consolidation as is much (but not all) of the frenetic bailout hysteria—in both cases the market itself is denied the power to meet legitimate versus speciously contrived demand or to correct itself, and both with the blessing of the people. Part of the problem, though, is not just consolidation, but the growing abstractness of our economy—-capitalism has managed to thoroughly commodify not just property and labor, but also capital itself preparing the conditions for nearly inscrutable things like mortgage backed securities. There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that the average, even well educated citizen finds the entire mess near impenetrable making informed participation, and any reasonable judgement on the economic stewardship provided by our leaders, all but impossible to render. Has our economy become so expansive and abstruse that it is no longer obviously or directly wedded to our material interests as we interpret them? Is this cause for great concern given that we have never been more economically dependant upon our investments (whatever they might be, lumped as they are for most of us in 401k’s and target maturity funds) for our retirement and comfort? Is the real consolidation to come as a result of a new awareness of the real risk in investing plus an awareness of how ill prepared we are to vigilantly monitor our own property?
