economic freedom

We need more capitalism. Not less.

That’s the title of an article from AgainstCronyCapitalism.org – We Need More Capitalism, Not Less. More Freedom. Not Less.

From the article:

Never forget, the financial crisis which we are suffering through is not the creation of capitalism. It is not the creation of a free market. It isn’t because businessmen were too free in their dealings that everything fell apart the way it did.

The financial crisis was and is a failure of central planning.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Government protected monopolies and subsidies hinder progress – Were the so-called Robber Barrons actually anti-monopolists?

I’m slowly catching the idea that there is far more good news about Robber Barrons than conventional wisdom allows. Most of what I recall from school was criticism of those horrible, terrible, disgustingly evil men who used poor children as a breakfast garnish and then roasted their parents for dinner-time appetizers. They assuaged their horrendous guilt by building a couple of public libraries or something with a few spare bucks they couldn’t use up on conspicuous consumption.  That’s a mild exaggeration of what I recall the books were saying.

Actually, I’m beginning to realize we owe much of our prosperity and economic capacity to those men.

T. Kurt Jaros has a nice series on Cornelius Vanderbilt. The Men Who Built America: Cornelius Vanderbilt is the introduction.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Here’s a picture of life without evil capitalism – you may not like what you see

What would life be like without those greedy, evil, money-grubbing capitalists trying to make a buck off consumers? Maybe an Edenic paradise flowing with economic equality and abundant consumer products for everyone?

Not quite.

Check out this view of life without the profit motive, meaning no one has an incentive to provide you with anything.  The video is a play on the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, wherein George Bailey gets to see what the world would be like without him. In this movie, our hero gets to see what’s left over when the profit motive disappears.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwH3Xr6uyG0&feature=player_embedded]

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Does too big to fail, too big to punish, and too big to manage mean you are too big?

(Cross-post from my other blog, Attestation Update.)

George F. Will suggests the answer to the question is “yes”: When banks get too big to fail, they are too dangerous to leave intact

One of the U.S. senators on the left end of the political spectrum thinks it is time to break up the too-big-to-fail banks.

Look at the concentration of assets in the TBTF range and the long history of TBTF: (more…)

By Jim Ulvog, ago

What economic system has lifted humanity out of the dirt?

That would be capitalism.

I, for one, am thrilled to not live as my great-great-grandparents did. I’m not into subsistence agriculture, loosing half my children in their infancy, or facing a life expectancy of 30 years.

John Mackey has expanded that idea in his book, Conscious Capitalism.

Carpe Diem has a quote from the author in their post, Quotation of the day: Capitalism has lifted humanity out of the dirt and is greatest value creator in history of the world (more…)

By Jim Ulvog, ago

Role of the government in generating the financial crisis

“[…] many of the financial institutions that contributed to the problem were crony capitalist. Business leaders can have confidence in the working of free markets. It is government interference in markets that they should fear.”

John A. Allison

 That’s the opening quote in Pablo Paniagua’s review of Mr. Allison’s book, The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why Pure Capitalism is the World Economy’s Only Hope

Mr. Allison was a long-serving CEO of BB&T Bank. He saw the interference of government in the banking industry up close and personal.

Those icky, greedy bankers and icky greedy Wall Street financiers played a role in our current mess, but minor compared to the interference and misdirection and forced distortions arising from various federal agencies.

An overview of the mess we are in: (more…)

By Jim Ulvog, ago