For instance, you state
“But only a governmental agency could argue that the best medicine for anxiety caused by too much intervention is more intervention … ”

The Federal Reserve is NOT a government agency – It is not “federal” and it has no “reserves”.

It is set up to bail out its rich banking buddies who indulge a little heavily at times and need to get “bailed out”. Notice how the only entity benefiting from the last “bailout” of Bear Stearns was J.P. Morgan- leaving the taxpayers to guarantee the crappy loans leftover . Big connected corporations win- taxpayers lose.

Most folks do not understand money creation or what really happens in a taxpayer assisted bailout- and that is how the beneficiaries would prefer it – keeping us all dumb and uneducated.

The Federal Reserve , a group of privately held bankers, without any oversight , artificially sets our nation’s interest rates . If they set them too low – everyone runs off and builds and speculates on 5,000 sq. ft. houses they do not need – this is the boom bust cycle that is falsely attributed to a free market economy.

No regulation leads to, for instance, monopolies and predatory pricing, which allows economies of scale to squeeze out certain competetors that may actually be able to give a better/comprable product for a lesser price. That is one example of how no-regulation is antithetical to the free market.

Another example is the fact that pure risk taking is effectively just plain old gamble. That is why, in insurance for instance, you have to have an insurable interest in the item to buy insurance on it. Otherwise, why not just profile older people in poor shape or ships taking off during hurrican season and place an insurance claim on them.

Obviously too much regulation can squelch the “free market,” but here is a doosy that most neo-cons forget about. Too little reglulation can be just as damaging to a maximum growth and value added by the free market system as well. Again, bailouts are usually the culimation of poor regulation and oversight.