'The invisible foot of government'

Can the federal government fix the economy? Reagan biographer Craig Shirley says "no":

There is such doubt in America about government's ability to do anything that the more they do, the worse they make the situation. As far as Americans are concerned government bureaucrats and Wall Street executives working together is simply a perfect storm of ignorance, incompetence and corruption. . . .
Adam Smith wrote of the "invisible hand of the marketplace" and how left alone it would create wealth and opportunity. What we now have is Milton Friedman's send up of Smith, when he spoke of the "invisible foot of government"; whatever government sets out to do---declare war on poverty, make the world safe for democracy---the exact opposite happens.
This mess was cause by bad government policy, starting with the politically correct, but nonsensical notion of putting people with bad credit risks into homes they never should have been in in the first place.The market has dropped almost thirty percent since government came up with their solution to bailout all of Wall Street.

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