Sunday, April 13, 2008

Capitalism's Enemies

No, no, no. This is not about those pesky Marxists. It's about the true enemies of capitalism and the free market- big corporations.

Why are they capitalism's greatest foes? Because the have the money and the influence that your average Marxist econ prof does not.  You want examples? Here's just two-
1) NAFTA
2) Bear Stearns

I am still waiting for someone to explain to me how NAFTA is free trade. Now, unlike some of my more liberal colleagues, my critique of NAFTA comes from (dare I say) the right. NAFTA is not free trade; it is managed trade. And it is managed to maximize profits for large multi-national firms. NAFTA has nothing to do with promoting open and free exchange among Mexico, Canada and the United States. If it was, would it really take thousands of pages of rules?

Ahh.. Bear Stearns.. time to bail out the Masters of the Universe (Tom Wolfe reference). After all, we can not let anyone on Wall St. collapse or suffer. So, the Fed gives out a nice $29 billion "loan" to JP Morgan to acquire Bear Stearns. Yet, hard working Americans who are losing their homes through the subprime crisis get next to nothing from the federal government. Joe and Jane Average are just not important enough to merit a bailout.

There is not any doubt that corporations and their enablers in the GOP (and many Democrats, too) pay nothing more than lip service to free market economics. The only time we hear anything about the glorious free market from these folks is when there is talk of a tax increase or some new regulation. Otherwise they live by the adage that he who was the best lobbyists in DC wins.

Need I shout it from the rooftops? Crony capitalism is NOT free market economics!

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