Market Failure

There were about 42 million Americans without Health insurance whne George Bush took office. At present, there are about 49 million. From this I conclude that the so-called "free market" ( since Bear Stearns we call them the "free BS markets") for health provision has failed, and cannot provide health care to the Americans who require it. If so-called free markets fail, then they must be replaced. Some may say that the markets did not fail, rather they find no profit in delivering health care to those who cannot afford it at present. Free markets are supposed to fill those needs, to supply the demand, not to carve the nations up into the haves and the have-nots. A free market does not ignore, it finds ways through the genius of the interplay of market forces. Right now, American free markets for health care are BS. What about commodities markets? What about the prices of staple commodities being driven up by speculation in commodities markets? The hedge funds and the speculators making a good deal of money warn against any kind of intervention. The commissioners of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission do so also. (http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,549187,00.html) Do not get me wrong. I am not necessarily in favor of government intervention, but I know a bubble - or a quasi-bubble - when I see one. If government had done some well-timed and fairly intelligent ( ha! ) intervention on past bubbles...who knows? When people riot for food that is so scarce, markets have failed. Period. There is no hedge fund operator, no speculator, no grand panjandrum of the Commission On Bunkum that can change that reality. When Bear Stearns suffers, we are moved to pity. When the people of America suffer, we muse about future palliatives. When the peoples of the entire world starve, we urge restraint on our pity and caution against an over-the-week-end bail-out of hungry stomachs! What absolute trash!