In the name of "efficient markets", the right-wing agenda has exploited a gullible public to strengthen corporate special interests:
- Calif's deregulated energy market, led by Enron, scammed consumers in a manipulated price run-up.
- The stock-market meltdown ate baby boomers' retirement savings.
- Newly-created megabanks like Citibank & JP Morgan Chase duped their retail customers and masterminded gross financial frauds for companies like Enron.
- The FCC, the public's trustee of the airwaves, granted still greater concentration for the media conglomerates.
More mundane forms of regulation, too, must be strengthened:
- consumer protection
- environmental watchdogging, e.g. clean water standards, Superfund cleanups, clean air legislation
- much more
We must not forget the genius of New Deal reforms. Social protections and economic well-being are not separate and incompatible but public values that can and should work together. Social values are central to economic prosperity.