Vic I find your comments and your link pretty interesting. With due respect to Adam Smith, the Invisible Hand can be quite brutal, not only to the financiers, but to the common folk. Unregulated- the Invisible Hand can bring us economies of scale that result in ruthless monopolies, The Great Depression, The dust Bowl, flight of industries in search of cheap labor leaving a country with no manufacturing base and only two industries- paper pushers and house builders.
The invisible hand brings us doctors who sell expensive medical procedures rather than wellness.
Unregulated, we have short selling that- like unregulated purchasing of commodities futures -is mere gambling rather than investment. It is not ownership in an economy. Shorting stock in some industries is not causing a problem, and yet you are angry about it?? This is free enterprise at its finest under your Adam Smith world. Likewise unfettered investment in derivatives and stock by pension funds, the breakdown of visible industry lines between finance and insurance that has resulted in this calamity-?? More Adam Smith.
It is a fact that all institutions- whether it is baseball, finance, providing healthcare, building roads, or fighting wars -require rules of engagement. Those rules are "government". If you don't like the rules, work to change them. Otherwise- special interests ie. the people who work in those industries, are going to seek rules in ways they believe to be favorable to themselves. They will claim "risk" & "the invisible hand of the marketplace" and "self regulation" will prevent them from bad decisions. Hmmm. I think that has not happened here.
It's a fact that regulations chase the marketplace, rather than precede it. Yes, innovations occur that require different oversight, different rules. Some quick examples that come to mind- tax related- read about any of the BIG FIVE and their history in the last fifteen or 30 years- they provide new tax products that later are declared illegal. Sometimes legislatively, sometimes prosecutorily by your friends the IRS. Every major firm has been involved in this in some fashion. ...or... in the case the shorting of stock, or manipulation of the marketplace by commodities futures brokers- regulations that are going to come into line that require more order to the market place- investors who are investors rather than gamblers... stability. Those regulations will be loosened if the flow of money is stifed to the point innovation is lacking or an industry needs greater capital.
What we are looking for is order in our society-, confidence that it will go on. Rules, structures, regulations... GOVERNMENT... can impose those rules for protection of the greater good. That is not a bad thing, necessarily.
The invisible hand brought us three automanufacturers who put out SUV after SUV. Somebody was buying them, were they not?? While I was researching electric motorcycles and mopeds, knowing the day would come, the market was demanding more 10 mpg vehicles. Governments, as well as private investors, have the ability to invest in ideas that the short sighted supply and demand cannot and will not ask for "yet".
Governments can build roads, schools, can provide dollars for research. Private investors can too....but... many a good "cure" is not on the horizon because it is more profitable to treat the symptoms.
The rag against government is silly and naive. We require governments, we require rules of engagement. We require order.
What you need to ask yourself is what quality of individual do you want making those rules? How involved will you become in learning about these complex issues rather than relying on knee jerk reactions. (Vic this rant isn't directed at you, just the universe at large.)
Sorry this isn't written better everyone. I honestly have a lot to say on this topic, but undoubtedly it will fall on deaf ears. No one wants to get involved. No one wants to try to understand complex issues. We're spoon fed crap by every news organization in the US. (This latest financial crisis may be the first objective, thoughtful reporting I've seen in the last year.)
You all need to take responsibility with your consumer choices and your election choices and most of all, by educating yourselves on what these things are really about and what you want the world to look like. No bogey man and 3 trillion dollar wars (destabilizing a whole region and bankrupting our pocketbooks) to comfort yourself so you don't have to learn about hard topics, write a thoughtful letter, go to a town hall meeting, hold your congressman and senator responsible. Hate and blame is easy. Thoughtful participation is not.
If you don't get involved in the governing process you are just going to get more crap. Plain and simple.
The invisible hand brings us doctors who sell expensive medical procedures rather than wellness.
Unregulated, we have short selling that- like unregulated purchasing of commodities futures -is mere gambling rather than investment. It is not ownership in an economy. Shorting stock in some industries is not causing a problem, and yet you are angry about it?? This is free enterprise at its finest under your Adam Smith world. Likewise unfettered investment in derivatives and stock by pension funds, the breakdown of visible industry lines between finance and insurance that has resulted in this calamity-?? More Adam Smith.
It is a fact that all institutions- whether it is baseball, finance, providing healthcare, building roads, or fighting wars -require rules of engagement. Those rules are "government". If you don't like the rules, work to change them. Otherwise- special interests ie. the people who work in those industries, are going to seek rules in ways they believe to be favorable to themselves. They will claim "risk" & "the invisible hand of the marketplace" and "self regulation" will prevent them from bad decisions. Hmmm. I think that has not happened here.
It's a fact that regulations chase the marketplace, rather than precede it. Yes, innovations occur that require different oversight, different rules. Some quick examples that come to mind- tax related- read about any of the BIG FIVE and their history in the last fifteen or 30 years- they provide new tax products that later are declared illegal. Sometimes legislatively, sometimes prosecutorily by your friends the IRS. Every major firm has been involved in this in some fashion. ...or... in the case the shorting of stock, or manipulation of the marketplace by commodities futures brokers- regulations that are going to come into line that require more order to the market place- investors who are investors rather than gamblers... stability. Those regulations will be loosened if the flow of money is stifed to the point innovation is lacking or an industry needs greater capital.
What we are looking for is order in our society-, confidence that it will go on. Rules, structures, regulations... GOVERNMENT... can impose those rules for protection of the greater good. That is not a bad thing, necessarily.
The invisible hand brought us three automanufacturers who put out SUV after SUV. Somebody was buying them, were they not?? While I was researching electric motorcycles and mopeds, knowing the day would come, the market was demanding more 10 mpg vehicles. Governments, as well as private investors, have the ability to invest in ideas that the short sighted supply and demand cannot and will not ask for "yet".
Governments can build roads, schools, can provide dollars for research. Private investors can too....but... many a good "cure" is not on the horizon because it is more profitable to treat the symptoms.
The rag against government is silly and naive. We require governments, we require rules of engagement. We require order.
What you need to ask yourself is what quality of individual do you want making those rules? How involved will you become in learning about these complex issues rather than relying on knee jerk reactions. (Vic this rant isn't directed at you, just the universe at large.)
Sorry this isn't written better everyone. I honestly have a lot to say on this topic, but undoubtedly it will fall on deaf ears. No one wants to get involved. No one wants to try to understand complex issues. We're spoon fed crap by every news organization in the US. (This latest financial crisis may be the first objective, thoughtful reporting I've seen in the last year.)
You all need to take responsibility with your consumer choices and your election choices and most of all, by educating yourselves on what these things are really about and what you want the world to look like. No bogey man and 3 trillion dollar wars (destabilizing a whole region and bankrupting our pocketbooks) to comfort yourself so you don't have to learn about hard topics, write a thoughtful letter, go to a town hall meeting, hold your congressman and senator responsible. Hate and blame is easy. Thoughtful participation is not.
If you don't get involved in the governing process you are just going to get more crap. Plain and simple.
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