Crony Capitalism Comes Home
27th October 2011
At last — somebody at the New York Times gets a clue.
It’s readership (as reflected in the comments), on the other hand, remain stuck in another universe.
But, in recent years, some financiers have chosen to live in a government-backed featherbed. Their platform seems to be socialism for tycoons and capitalism for the rest of us. They’re not evil at all. But when the system allows you more than your fair share, it’s human to grab. That’s what explains featherbedding by both unions and tycoons, and both are impediments to a well-functioning market economy.
And let’s ask how many of these folks are registered Democrats, shall we?
The upshot is that financial institutions boost leverage in search of supersize profits and bonuses. Banks pretend that risk is eliminated because it’s securitized. Rating agencies accept money to issue an imprimatur that turns out to be meaningless. The system teeters, and then the taxpayer rushes in to bail bankers out. Where’s the accountability?
There’s no room in the box — the ambiguity has put on weight.
October 27th, 2011 at 12:51
I notice that one of his prescriptions is that capitalism should reduce inequalities. Once again, we get into equality of outcome, rather than equality of opportunity.