Corporatism Redeux

Just like Gary Becker agrees with me on the Efficient Market Hypothesis, now I see that the inimitable Charles Krauthammer agrees with me on Corporatism as an evil to be avoided. Here's a quote from a recent television appearance (emphasis mine).

"Now, what's troubling here is not that the administration is only trying to get companies to . . . hide the fact that [Obamacare] is going to cost, [that] it's not a free lunch as it has been pretending — but it's the attitude of the Democrats in Washington. It [Washington] takes over businesses: Chrysler, G.M. it takes over student loans, it nationalizes it [the student loan business] without a debate at all. And then there is also this attitude that Chairman Waxman will call on the carpet a corporation CEO to explain its actions as if corporations aren't independent entities who produce a product to make a profit but agents or wards of the government who have to answer for every action.

It's the kind of corporatism you see in Europe."

These guys are getting smarter every day.

Nobody's Arguing for Taking It Back

I once heard a preacher say "Some say Christianity has been tried and failed. I believe that Christianity has been found difficult and not tried."

How does that related to Capitalism? Being of a libertarian bent, I believe in truly free markets. The government in a truly free environment exists to provide three things; the physical security of its citizens, the sanctity of the contract between individuals, and the protection of private property rights. Many say that free markets have failed and I say that truly free markets have been found difficult and not tried.

No government has ever lived to this ideal - maybe the closest was Hong Kong before it was absorbed by China a decade ago. Even so, hobbled Capitalism exists in many places and even a partly free market is still a fabulous economic engine for wealth creation.

Here's an interesting interview with Nobel winning economist Gary Becker who apparently agrees with me (what a smart guy!), "Or look at developing countries," he says. "China, India, Brazil. A billion people have been lifted out of poverty since 1990 because their countries moved toward more market-based economies—a billion people. Nobody's arguing for taking that back."

Free Markets are the Best Way to Prosperity

I've heard of this organization before and watched a couple of their presentations. In general, they're mostly politically correct topics. Swedish physician Hans Rosling, though, has a super-spiffy graphics package combined with some killer data.

My take on this is that free markets (or maybe even just free-er markets) are the best way to prosperity.

Squeak, squeak

I bought a new pair of shoes yesterday; very nice shoes but they have a little bit of a squeak. I hope this goes away with wear but I did a quick search on squeaky shoes and ran into this gem.

Time to Short ABC

I try to limit my remarks to Information Technologies and general finance topics. This, however, is too tempting.

If ABC were sold as a separately traded stock, I would be shorting it now. Christiane Amanpour will be leaving CNN and joining ABC. Unfortunately for me, ABC is part of Disney and Disney is much to broad and diverse to be brought down by this. So, shorting Disney is pointless.

But for ABC, let the ratings slide begin!

Do Regulators Believe in Free Markets?

Here's an article at Conglomerate Blog that raises an interesting question. Do financial market regulators believe in free markets? They discuss it as a reflection of the Efficient Market Hypothesis. In short, in an efficient market, no one player will make extraordinary returns over a long period of time. Only through market manipulation of some sort can exceptional returns over a long time be realized.

Why didn't regulators look at organizations with exceptional returns like, oh, Bernie Madoff, AIG, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. Seeing an exceptional return should be a bright light shining on a suspect practice. The article quotes Ray Ball of the University of Chicago with the money quote, "If regulators had been true believers in efficiency, they would have been considerably more skeptical about some of the consistently high returns being reported by various financial institutions."

And What Will We Do In Our Spare Time?

Why the New Normal Could Kill IT. The money quote is "This new world order calls on CIOs to meet its demands in three explicit ways: '"They will have to make the IT function dramatically more productive, use IT more effectively to meet larger corporate goals, and embrace disruptive technologies that will shape the new economic terrain,"'.