Well if the US treasury really did give banks $17 trillion (greater than the entire US Gross Domestic Product and 5 times larger than the entire US annual budget) I'd be a little surprised. But, even assuming they did, that transfer "to" wealthy banks would be primarily a transfer "from" the US taxpayer (and it is of course mostly the wealthy who pay those taxes) and US debt holders (wealthy institutions and foreign governments, mostly). If you want to understand how a free market works -- and I suspect you really don't -- I would suggest you read Adam Smith before Milton Friedman....

If socialism is for the rich, then this must be why George Soros is a big supporter of it and became a multimillionaire because of it.

$17 trillion?? Please cite your source on that. I wouldn't be all that surprised, but that number sounds a bit steep.

Since when did the Patch decide to be in the Stalinist propaganda business? What's next, a blog named "Spotlight on the Hitler Youth?" Most forget that "NAZI" stood for the "National SOCIALIST Party" made up of left wing fascist, much like the "MOVEON.ORG" crowd!

"The ideas of the Milton Friedman free market prophets are being discredited world wide and the ideological pillars of deregulation and privatization are crumbling." yeah, being dishonestly "discredited" by those enemies of freedom who created the economic carnage in France, Greece, the Old Soviet Union, Spain, Venezuela, Cuba and Portugal.

The only ones who got the trend of history right are the Chinese...who've made the greatest "leap forward" in World history by adopting Milton Friedman's capitalist theories. Sorry, commie Torrence, but EVERY socialist ecperiment has made it's people poorer and less free, while that small "elite class" of Nazi sympathizers like George Soros, made their fortunes by corrupting elected officals into adopting policies that destroyed their economies while Soros made a fortune "selling short" on their currencies. Now he's trying to pull off the greatest economic destruction scam in history, and he made great progress in getting his tool Obama elected in 2008. This time that crook is going to be busted in 2012, though, by underestimating the intelligence of the American public by expecting his guy Obama to get RE-ELECTED and finish the job of destroying the American economy and leadership postion in the world.

Mr. Torrence is well known to make untrue statements to advance the political agenda of class warfare in all it's forms. As I have suggested before, he has a multitude of socialist countries he could move to, but yet he doesn't. Hmmmm?

It is funny that their slogan on the image is "This is what Democracy looks like". Especially since we are not a democracy, we are a republic; we all know that democracies fail, and so did the founding fathers. They understood that to make changes at the whim of a majority was the fast track to political, social and moral ruin.

Does anyone besides me wonder what has happened to the Christian values that made this country a shining example to the world? My God has given me commandments ( because he knows my Nature) and one commandment is not to Covet my neighbors goods. If being wealthy is a crime and an evil event, why are so many playing the lottery?
But I would go a little further in this thought..If the most powerful Man in the capitalist world (President Barak Hussein Obama) would propose to me and this great nation that some Men have too much money and he would like to make life more fair, then I wonder what the correct amount of money would be? His salary, I believe, is 450,000 a year and He can't even buy a hamburger or a pair of pants and shoes (they are Free on Us} he cannot buy a gallon of gas or an airline ticket (Free on us) why even the fist lady, his progeny and his mother in law ride free. perhaps That is the amount that the messiah of fairness can grant us as being without "Sin". So the number is 450,000 and all expense paid for you and yours! I don't think this country has seen such base and destructive politics since (KingFish) Huey Long threatened to take all the multi-millionaires wealth and redistribute 1 million of it to every American..His Slogan? "Every Man A King!" God help us all..May God bless America

If government were always wise and altruistic, liberalism might actually work. But, its not. Government is run by human beings, just like big business. Sometimes, its the same people on both sides. You can criticize business people for being greedy and looking out for their own interests at the expense of everyone else. Is government really any different? Every congressman, every cabinet member, etc. is driven by his or her own interests. The CEO does what is needed to ensure a bonus; the Congressman does what is needed to secure another term and more power. The best thing you can do is to not rely on either. That, or align your interests to theirs.

I like your best thing Idea! I am still for the none of the above selection on the ballot. What we could use is some honest small businessmen, if their are any left out there and some family farmers whom most are honest.

How about term limits on all elected officials. 2 terms maximum and all their retirement goes to social security, just like the rest of us. It seems to me to be a simple honest way of doing a retirement package and will erase the dynasty we seem to have in the congress both state and federal. then only the serious people who are really concerned with government in the state and the federal areas will run for office. As I reflect on what I just wrote : Maybe I am a pie in the sky thinker, but that is where our great country started. To bad it has come to the debacle it has become.
I have never been a union member, but think that unions have their purpose. Not nationwide but local. I think that this subject is for another forum.

Mr. Torrence, you apparently hit a very raw nerve by putting into historical context how free markets really work. Like Pavlov’s dogs who salivated at the sight of food the retards instinctively called you a communist, socialist, Nazi or left-wing fascist for suggesting that the free market is not really free. Their inane comments lead one to suspect that the tea baggers in the south suburbs are inbreeding with all its negative consequences.

It is really sad how uniformed and confused are most of the dim-witted who commented on your fine article. They remind me of the prisoners in Plato’s Cave who when faced with the light of reality are frightened and rush back into the cave where they feel comfortable and safe huddling in the darkness. It is amazing how threatening the truth can be.

Of course free markets are an illusion. Just ask former Chairman of the Federal Reserve and free market guru, Alan Greenspan, who publicly admitted in a Senate hearing that his “worldview was all wrong”. His ‘worldview’ of course was Milton Friedman raw - unfettered capitalism, deregulate everything; the market is always right nonsense. Now that old Allan has repudiated that worldview I suppose that also makes him a commie.

So keep writing, Mr. Torrence, much work needs to be done here. Let the sun shine into Plato’s Cave.

Walt, there's NO QUESTION that the "free market" is a LOT freer than anything controlled, or heavily regulated, by the government.
History shows us that EVERY TIME the government gets involved with the economy, the results are disastrous.
The Feds figured that there needed to be a "federal mortgage bank" that would allow local institutions to flip mortgages to avoid the consequences of loaning large sums of money to high credit risks...Fannie and Freddie grabbed the garbage, the banks and mortgage brokers kept dishing them out ot them, and voila! The mortage bubble burst, and it couldn't have happened without government subsidy.

Another case in point is social security. A free market system would allow everyone sho chose to to particpate, or not. Wealthy folks who could
"self insure" would opt out and not burden the system. Costs would be proportional to risk, so they would fluctuate according to cost. The "ponzi scheme" that the government set up is no more than a fraud and intergenerational theft, as well as allowing the Federal government to "borrow" (read"steal") from the "Trust Fund" by making it purchase the Federal debt paper. It was a system designed to go bankrupt, which it will fairly soon.

Also, we have the medicare drug give away by Bush and the rest of the Dems that increased obligations by a huge margin, but because of politics no provision to pay for it was made. Were this benefit given in a free market, the cost would be mathematically determined and fair cost to participate would be established.

Eventually, these programs that the government gives away to pander to voters will have to be paid for. The difference is that in the free market this would determined from the start and a responsible payment plan would be established before it was implemented.

A further example is how the Barney Frank led cabal caused the "housing bubble" that we're still trying to recover from in spite of Obama's ill conceived and destructive policies. Under the "Community Reinvestment Act" Congress could block legitimate bank mergers capriciously and arbitrarily based on political, not economic, reasons. Banks wanting profitable mergers had to show they were good "corporate citizens" by giving a substantial amount of their mortgage loans to unqualifed borrowers based upon their ethnicity, not credit worthiness. The Dems then told them that Fannie and Freddie would buy the mortagages from them, no matter how unqualified the borrowers were or how risky the loans. The banks and brokers figured out that they could make a fortune giving loans to unqualified borrowers of ALL colors, since Fannie and Freddie would not only buy the garbage loans, they'd pay a FEE FOR THE LENDERS TO GIVE BAD MORTGAGES! Eventually the bubble burst, and those in charge of banking since the Dems took over in 2007 plunged us into the deepest depression since the 1930s, then instituted policies that prevented the normal free market "rebound" after the drop. Free markets, without government corruption and cronyism, could've prevented this, but folks like Mr Torrence led us down this terrible path.

Patch newspapers are owned by AOL, and edited by Arianna Huffington, of the Huffington Post, according to today's newspaper.

Jim