Adam Smith, often regarded as the father of capitalism, probably worried much more about the moral consequences of capitalism than the Goldman Sachs and Bernard Madoffs of our day. So, must we bail out of the free enterprise system alltogether because of the recent bailouts or is capitalism's moral crisis better understood as a part of a general failure of our culture to teach that the business of business may be business, but the business of life is not.
Writes Taibbi, "The bottom line is that banks like Goldman have learned absolutely nothing from the global economic meltdown. In fact, they're back conniving and playing speculative long shots in force — only this time with the full financial support of the U.S. government. In the process, they're rapidly re-creating the conditions for another crash, with the same actors once again playing the same crazy games of financial chicken with the same toxic assets as before." [read more]
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts served as an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during the Reagan Administration and is a former editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and Scripps Howard News Service, earning fame as a co-founder of Reaganomics. Roberts, a pro-American traditional conservative, has been sharply critical of both Democratic and Republican administrations, and is especially critical of the so-called "neo-conservatives" of both parties.
Roberts, along with Congressman Ron Paul, has faulted the Federal Reserve system and the federal income tax. In May 2005 he wrote an article calling for Bush's impeachment for lying to Congress about the case for war on Iraq. He is also a sharp critic of mainstream media, saying "Americans who rely on the totally corrupt corporate media have no idea what is happening anywhere on earth, much less at home."
According to wikipedia.org "Roberts has testified before the US–China Commission and written many articles pointing out that the offshoring of high productivity, high value-added jobs in manufacturing and professional services is dismantling the ladders of upward mobility that made the U.S. an opportunity society." Says Roberts, "During our great growth period we had high tariffs. We did not develop on the basis of free trade." He has also criticized the excess of the War on Drugs which he termed the "militarization of local police."
In April 2010 Roberts was interviewed by talk show host Alex Jones. We repeat excerpts below.
Venture capital is shifting away from Information Technology for now. But will it come back? [read more]
"Events are turning out pretty much the way we thought they would. We've been talking about how markets on Wall Street are rigged to fail because it's a rigged market," Max Keiser.
Oh, no way, Max! How dare you discredit our beloved free market? But wait, you're saying it's not free, it's rigged? Hmm. If it's a rigged market, then it's not a free market...Or, maybe it's a rigged free market?
Federal prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation into whether Goldman Sachs or its employees committed securities fraud with its mortgage trading. Jamie Heller, Peter Landers and Evan Newmark discuss. Also, David Wessel and Evan Newmark discuss the announcement of 1st Quarter GDP. And, Warren Buffett says that he expects to "give extensive and complete replies" to Goldman-related questions at this weekend's Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting.
May 6, 2010
Stocks took a major plunge today, at one point dipping more than 900 points before rallying back strongly.
The plunge was so steep (almost 9 percent) that it almost triggered a halt in trading as mandated by current New York Stock Exchange rules. The rules halting trading have often been questioned by free-market advocates who argue that plunge protection and free markets are incompatible. [read more]
WASHINGTON (May 9, 2010) — Federal regulators have got to address the "casino environment" on Wall Street where computerized high-frequency trading can trigger market-shaking turmoil, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd said Sunday.
Dodd, D-Conn., pointed to the new phenomena of computers buying and selling stock in nanoseconds as a possible cause of last Thursday's meltdown. The market fell nearly 1,000 points within minutes before rebounding.
May 06, 2010 — Citi group has admitted that they made a mistake that caused the Dow Jones to plummet over a thousand points. Webster Tarpley believes that Citi is just covering up for a lot of other problems on Wall Street.
“When I talked to Bernanke last time in the Committee he said they had no intention of bailing out Greece but they are, through the IMF as well as opening up these swap lines to all the central banks, so it is on the shoulders on the burden of the American taxpayer and our dollar so all we’re doing is perpetuating a very very bad system and this is not a solution at all,” says Congressman Paul.
“I was stunned,” Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Singapore. “This means that they’ve given up on the euro, they don’t particularly care if they have a sound currency, you have all these countries spending money they don’t have and it’s now going to continue.” [read more]
