Yes, Mr Hewitt, some of us also ascribe to the strength of market economics, but I think you are forgetting one little reality: that nasty concept of externalities.
Externalities abound in real world market economies of every type. You write as if our world markets are perfectly efficient, operating in a vacuum devoid of externalities. Well, guess what, reality "is what it is." Liberal democracy is all about applying externalties where the collective "good" is thought to be maximized. If you want the mathematics of this, then go to the revolutionary work of Nobel winner John Nash.
Now the interesting part that I’m confident Dr. Martensen would agree with. The Federal Reserve Banking System itself is a marvellous example of a market externality created to serve as a lender of last resort, which incidentally is a mathematical requirement of fractional reserve banking. JP Morgan served as this lender immediately prior to the Fed’s inception. The concept of Central Banking spread as a collective good throughout the world quickly and has served its role for nearly a century. It has served as a manipulator of the true free market in money and credit. Because the Bankers make money by loaning money, the best way to grow earnings in to increase debt. This is done chiefly by creating the concept that inflation is the most desirable economic mode as long as inflation is kept in a 2%-4% per annum range. Inflation at a sustained low rate promotes debt: consumer, corporate, and governmental.
In this way, they are in turn promoting a perpetually growing monetary base. TO INFINITY IF NEED BE. In this manner, Central Banking with set inflation indeed does create a situation where a monetary base has a mathemtically unlimited supply. The only instance where this is bad is if they mismatch the correct rate of growth and you get a credit bubble. But, this is not to say that supply and demand for money itself in this fiat system in any way is constrained by a finite supply in the same sense as other natural resources, such as what Dr. Bartlett was talking about.
I highlight this specific point to make a more general one: substantial external forces created and maintained by liberal political thought will forever skew "true" market economics. You cannot believe that market forces rule the day in these markets where external forces control it. I hope the monetary example proves this, at least for that market.
"There is no telling how long current economic collapse will take to
correct itself. That in itself will curtail growth for an indefinite
time" you say.
I say that the Fed will view the ‘solution’ is to expand the monetary base to fill any holes created by capital bank losses. Growth in the monetary base will not be curtailed.