Location
Global Economic and Legal Challenges
Level of Education
Undergraduate
Secondary Session
Biblical Perspectives on Government
Keywords
Roger Altman, 2008 Financial Crisis, monetary policy, China
Abstract
Roger Altman published “Globalism in Retreat” in 2009, in which he offers analysis of the 2008 financial crisis, blaming free-markets and globalism as causes of the calamity, only to praise China’s “state-capitalism”, which he believes allowed the Chinese to emerge ahead of the globalists in recovery. This article, despite its age, provides a timeless example of a dangerous tendency in public policy. It demonstrates how policymakers can implement deleterious policies which result in inevitable crisis, and then, they subsequently escape blame by explaining away the crisis with bad analysis and even worse policy suggestions for the future. Policy suggestions, in Altman’s case are as far as mirroring those of Communist China. This tendency, routine adoption of bad policy followed by excuses after failure, not only destroys wealth and harms individual liberty, but also, it raises an important consideration for the biblically-minded policy analyst: Such policymakers are doing something morally wrong and contrary to Christian ethics. If virtue is of any value in public policy, past mistakes must be acknowledged, and such a tendency to deny them must be avoided in discussions of future policy.
Roger Altman’s 2008 Public Policy Analysis: At Fault Without the Blame
Global Economic and Legal Challenges
Roger Altman published “Globalism in Retreat” in 2009, in which he offers analysis of the 2008 financial crisis, blaming free-markets and globalism as causes of the calamity, only to praise China’s “state-capitalism”, which he believes allowed the Chinese to emerge ahead of the globalists in recovery. This article, despite its age, provides a timeless example of a dangerous tendency in public policy. It demonstrates how policymakers can implement deleterious policies which result in inevitable crisis, and then, they subsequently escape blame by explaining away the crisis with bad analysis and even worse policy suggestions for the future. Policy suggestions, in Altman’s case are as far as mirroring those of Communist China. This tendency, routine adoption of bad policy followed by excuses after failure, not only destroys wealth and harms individual liberty, but also, it raises an important consideration for the biblically-minded policy analyst: Such policymakers are doing something morally wrong and contrary to Christian ethics. If virtue is of any value in public policy, past mistakes must be acknowledged, and such a tendency to deny them must be avoided in discussions of future policy.
