Friday, May 30, 2014

Capitalism Eating Its Children

NY Times    Guildhall at the heart of the City can be a lulling sort of place after a long day. The statuary and vaulted timber ceiling of the medieval great hall lead the eye to wander and the mind to muse on Britain’s strangest quirk — its centuries of continuity. Grace is said, claret is served, glasses clink and dreaminess sets in. A keynote speech from a central banker is all that is required to complete the soporific effect.

Or so one would think, until Mark Carney, the Canadian governor of the Bank of England, lays into unfettered capitalism. “Just as any revolution eats its children,” he says, “unchecked market fundamentalism can devour the social capital essential for the long-term dynamism of capitalism itself.”

All ideologiesa, he continues, are prone to extremes. Belief in the power of the market entered “the realm of faith” before the 2008 meltdown. Market economies became market societies. They were characterized by “light-touch regulation” and “the belief that bubbles cannot be identified.”

Carney pulls no punches. Big banks were too big to fail, operating in a “heads-I-win-tails-you-lose bubble.” Benchmarks were rigged for personal gain. Equity markets blatantly favored “the technologically empowered over the retail investor.” Mistrust grew — and persists.

“Prosperity requires not just investment in economic capital, but investment in social capital,” Carney argues, having defined social capital as “the links, shared values and beliefs in a society which encourage individuals not only to take responsibility for themselves and their families but also to trust each other and work collaboratively to support each other.”

9 comments :

  1. He's right. I work in the heart of unfettered capitalism, Wall St. I can tell you from decades of experience that it is a horrible place that does horrible things to the world. It's all greed and ambition, betrayal and deceit. Don't believe the glossy pamphlets about how wonderful they are, these people all crooks. They'd take a rattle from a new born and would brag about it.

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  2. So what would you propose in its place? Do you mean the unfettered Leftist Communism and Socialism being spread by the cuirrent administration which supports unprofitable ventures and wastes the money of hardworking and decent people? Do you like their attacking their ideological and political.enemies by destroying the ability to produce coal energy and by attacking Gibson guitars on a flimsy pretext due to political opposition?

    How about wonderful socialism which pushes most of its population into poverty to maintain their voting base due to the dole that they give out. This system ultimately collapses due to the unfettered printing of money unsupported by economic output.

    Do you like the current degradation of the American economy?

    Do you favor the Soviet style of Communism which was a dismal failure and was hated by all inside and outside of Russia?

    The Commies and the Socialists are the biggest rattle snatchers.

    In capitalism, there are plenty of greedy people but there is also plenty of opportunity for the average person to rise. The Torah also respects personal ownership and does not promote any google eyed non viable multi sharing system.

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  3. In capitalism there are some winners and some losers.
    In socialist there are only losers and also gulags. Which is better?

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  4. wow..... FactsofLife!
    Did you notice that MyturnatBat mentioned UNFETTERED capitalism?!?!

    All extremes are bad - That's why the Torah has numerous Mitzvohs to protect the weak.

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  5. Dood,

    Should I cower since you used the C word? Oh wait you also used the S word. I am of course intimidated and now believe everything you say.

    Interesting that you didn't mention the latest pole taken in Russia that shows the majority wanting to go back to communism, because they were better off. It appears that communism wasn't really the loser there, was it?

    It is interested that we're getting trounced by China and it is a communist country. Not totally communist, true, but we're not totally capitalistic either. It was the socialist institutions that saved the country when the Wallstreet Fiasco took us over the cliff. All truth be told, neither system is the answer. The country that "wins" will be the country that uses the best "Hybrid" system. The days of Capitalism as a religion are done.

    The current degradation of the economy is the result of the "unfettered capitalism". Wake up, smell the coffee. It would have been much worse if not checked by the government. The failure of capitalism in this case is becoming more and more well understood.

    What will we do tomorrow? Unfettered Capitalism will take all the jobs to China or elsewhere and who will buy their crap? Why didn't this free trade (religion) pay off and create many many more jobs here? All of the tax breaks since Reagan transferred a Trillion dollars to the elite? Where are the Jobs?????

    They won't be hiring Dood, because the demand is not there.,(Econ 101) Fortunately the Gov will save your butt. Create demand by reinvigorating infrastructure and investing in our children's education and research as the previous great generations have done. No one else is going to do it, Certainly not Bill Gates. Facts Dood, there is no substitution for facts.

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  6. Rabbi Michael TzadokJune 1, 2014 at 7:24 AM

    Israel is a socialist nation. No gulags.

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  7. Kule Juan,

    You think that you've won with your crude misspelling of the D word. It carries no weight in this forum and either do your arguments.

    I don't know where you found the latest Pole (should be poll) that said that most Russians want to return to the dregs of Communism. I thought that Russia is at peace with Poland now. Those that want the return to the bad old days are mostly the old and ignorant who can't take advantage of the current non Commy system that provides them with much more opportunity and freedom. Putin himself has been rebuking America for following the mistakes of the previous Communist leadership.

    We're getting trounced now because China has moved to a Capitalistic economy according to the Cato institute and is no longer following the loser path of Communism http://www.cato.org/policy-report/januaryfebruary-2013/how-china-became-capitalist

    America is unfortunately becoming more and more Socialistic and Communistic. The mortgage crises was caused by non economic policies foisted on the public by the radical leftists which forced banks to issue mortgages to people who couldn't pay for them due to non viable socialist idiocy.

    You 180 degrees of course in your interpretation of the failure of the economy in recent years. The unfettered wastefull spending of the liberals in charge to prop up deadbeat liberal policies such as destroying the energy sources of the country such as coal and pursuing non viable alternatives such as Solyndra have wasted much of the country's capital and resources. The anti business climate and overbearing regulation have put a huge damper on the Capitalist business engine.

    Your lies and leftist propaganda about Reagan notwithstanding, the economy boomed in his time and he developed the economy to the point the Clinton lived off the residue of Reagan's accomplishments. The greatest tragedy has been the misleadership of the pseudo Conservative Bush family that have adopted many of the Leftist loser programs.

    "They won't be hiring Dood, because the demand is not there.,(Econ 101) Fortunately the Gov will save your butt. Create demand by reinvigorating infrastructure and investing in our children's education and research as the previous great generations have done. No one else is going to do it, Certainly not Bill Gates. Facts Dood, there is no substitution for facts."


    The demand is there if the government would stop killing it with hand outs and programs that support unproductive lifestyle and drain money from the producers.


    The phony demand of shovel ready jobs which produce nothing and just drain existing capital and the anti work pro handout brainwashing of the children and the total lack of research or support for advancement of meaningful programs of the current pro Socialists will just lead to ruin. The loss of the American space program and the insane delay of the Keystone pipeline are just 2 small examples.


    Only people like Bill Gates and other innovators and developers of the economy can save us from being dragged down to the Occupy Wall Street sewer. These are the facts kule one. Learn the truth for a change instead of leftist propaganda/

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  8. Your 100% accurate in your points but this whole post is from a ny times article.enough said.

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  9. whats the west bank?

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