Can we save American capitalism

[d-ray657]

Can We Save American Capitalism is the title of a column by Steven Pearlstein in which he reviews a number of books addressing the problems currently facing the American brand of capitalism. It certainly served to whet my appetite for reading at least a few of them.

BTW, most of the authors agree with Obama's suggestion, as paraphrased by Pearlstein, that it takes a village to raise a business.

Regards,

D-Ray

[Boreas]

Still reading but I had to post this bit.

Under the heading of ignoring reality, however, it would be hard to beat Edward Conard, who makes the intriguing argument that there never was a credit bubble or a housing bubble, that large and persistent trade deficits are a sign of economic strength, that booms and busts are a good thing, and that what we really need is more income inequality, not less.

It is unlikely that anyone would be giving Conard’s fantasies a moment’s thought but for the fact that he was a Romney collaborator at Bain Capital in the 1990s and that he set up a front company last year to give $1 millionto a super PAC supporting Romney. In “Unintended Consequences,” Conard contends that the past decade and a half was a golden era for American capitalism. Corporations, money managers and wealthy investors poured massive amounts of capital, much of it unrecognized by accounting rules, into new ideas and technologies. This triggered a productivity boom so strong, it allowed the U.S. economy to employ not only all willing Americans, but tens of millions of Mexican immigrants and Asian factory workers.

And while it may appear to the envious that a few people got very rich in this process, Conard’s tortured calculations lead him to conclude that 95 percent of all the economic benefit from this boom spilled over to workers and consumers in the form of higher wages, greater wealth, and cheaper goods and services.

The only way to recapture that golden era of high growth, low unemployment and booming stock markets, Conard suggests, is to eliminate all taxes on the very rich so they can make even more investments in new ideas and innovative new companies. At the same time, we should just give up manufacturing, move all the talented people into high-tech and financial fields, and leave everyone else to tend the children and gardens of the talented.

Okay, all you Right Wingers! Still think Romney's your guy?

John

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by Boreas

...Okay, all you Right Wingers! Still think Romney's your guy?

John

Here's an interesting and fact-based polemic about Romney and Bain by Matt Taibbi:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...pital-20120829

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by finnbow

Here's an interesting and fact-based polemic about Romney and Bain by Matt Taibbi:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...pital-20120829

It was all stuff I already knew about Romney but sitting down to read that article about such a bleak, soulless and sinister man was so hard that I had to take a break halfway through and take the dog for a walk.

If that man becomes president this country will be in very serious trouble. This isn't about Left and Right anymore, not about abortion, gun control and same sex marriage. This is about the survival of the country.

John
John

[bobabode]

Originally Posted by finnbow

Here's an interesting and fact-based polemic about Romney and Bain by Matt Taibbi:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...pital-20120829

Very interesting read. I've always admired Matt Taibbi and still do. Thanks Pat, I think.

[BlueStreak]

My, what wonderful people. Marie Antoinette couldn't have said it better.

Time to sharpen the guillotines.

Dave

[ebacon]

The LBO stuff is still going on. The most recent event occurred with Hawker/Beechcraft in Wichita, KS. Maybe Jay can tell us more about that and how it is good for the economy.

The dirtiest trick these bastards play, IMO, is telling people that what is happening is "creative destruction." Interested voters then do a minute or two of research on the phrase and see, oh, that means a business has run its course and its products are no longer in demand in the marketplace. Makes sense they think.

They are being fooled. True creative destruction occurs when a technology is no longer relevant, such as when automobiles replace horse buggies, or when computers replace paper pads, etc.

The lie that the capital venture industry tells themselves, and they have told the lie so many times that they now believe it, is that destroying existing businesses creates opportunity for new businesses. Nothing could be further from the truth. True creative destruction happens organically at a natural pace. On the other hand, forced destruction by VC is inorganic. It just breaks stuff. Forced destruction cannot make room for newer industries any more than pulling on a tree will make it grow.

It should be common sense that if you blow stuff up faster than people can invent then the natural tendency will be down the economic scale, not up. But common sense seems in short supply.

[ebacon]

Here's a blurb on the Hawker/Beechcraft bankruptcy and execs seeking bonuses.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-w...ft-bankruptcy/

Luckily the Obama administration participated in the proceedings and urged for the execs to get nothing and like it -- and prevailed.

[ebacon]

Just stumbled across this interesting article. It describes differences between Austrian School Economics and Ayn Rand.

The modern Republican party in cooperation with GoldmanSachs/BB&T/Ayn Rand Institute has dubiously stirred the two together and uses the fictional story of Atlas Shrugged to sell the immisciable lot. Their plan, of course, is to burn us to boil off the Hayek ingredient.

After years of discussing politics it has become disappointingly clear that Americans are unaware of different brands of capitalism. Perhaps those that are most surprised are Republicans that don't understand why a voter can be behind Ron Paul while despising the likes of Newt Gingrich, Mitt, Paul Ryan, and their Ayn Rand ilk.

NY Times Blog, Why Hayek Isn't Paul Ryan's Guru
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/20...ul-ryans-guru/

[merrylander]

To go back to the subject of this thread - why bother, it is not worth the trouble.