My dear and self-proclaimed ‘Capitalist/Objectivist’ friend Steve has again challenged my thinking. In a Facebook discussion about the behavior of ‘Wall Street’ and ‘the bankers’ Steve reminded me that “They serve to make money; They don't make money to serve.” True indeed. He later wrote, as a good and honest believer in free-market economics, “Capitalism fails when it is perverted by outside influences.”
Weighty and complex issues. My exchange with Steve made me think of one of the most basic prinicples of our economic system, something called the Invisible Hand. This basically says
Continue reading "The Invisible Hand in your pocket" »
Thanks to a huge snowstorm, Washington, D.C. has come to a total standstill. Is Mother Nature providing us with a metaphor that we need to listen to?
On Saturday's New York Times website I saw these two introductions to two opinion pieces:
Regardless of what one thinks of the New York Times or its regular columnists - you don't even have to read these columns, I haven't - one can't deny the truth of the overall points that Collins and Herbert are apparently making.
Time is indeed perhaps running out on
the economy – short, intermediate and long term – and the legislative branch of government, with the Senate deliriously far in the lead, has become totally dysfunctional. And it is not functioning primarily due to the dysfunctional behavior of its members.
That our representatives and senators can behave the way they do - while the
country is in the throes of many serious crises, all with long term implications
- is absolutely reprehensible. It’s outrageous. It’s hard to believe that our
elected congresspeople have slid so far. But they have.
National crisis and a dysfunctional Congress. Not a pretty combination. But worse than that,
yes, there is something worse than that.
Continue reading "When Washington Shuts Down" »
