Bernancke: Time Magazine Person of the year

[MaggieMae]

Hey, if they can give Obama the Nobel for doing zip.

What's wrong with giving Bernanke man of the year for doing squat?

It isn't a "hero" award. Person of the Year is for whomever Time believes had the most influence in the world, good or bad. It was even awarded to Hitler once, as did Stalin.

 

[MaggieMae]

Ethical capitalism? An interesting concept.

Translation in today's world: I got mine, so fuck you.

 

[MaggieMae]

TIME still has some credibility? Last I checked, their subscribers were sinking like the Titanic...

Only because you can read it online. I didn't resubscribe to Newsweek either for that very reason. Hell, I wouldn't even take my local paper if I didn't work part time for it.

 

[MaggieMae]

Ethical capitalism? An interesting concept.

My definition of "Ethical Capitalism" means simply you have standard capitalism that is reined in by the following concepts:

Anti-Fraud: You can't lie or cheat the public. Truth in Advertising and full transparency for everything but trade secrets pretty much as we have today.

Labor Protection: We're talking child protection, worker safety and working hours here. Not wages, benefits or entitlements. That is all in the negotiation.

Competition Enhancement: Anti-competitive, monopolistic or moves to create trust or manipulate the marketplace unfairly to extort the consumer or prevent competition would be blocked.

Consumer Protection: You can't make hazardous, fraudulent or defective products. There is assumption of risk on the part of the purchaser, but not the bullshit lassiez faire "caveat emptor". A return to our common law heritage mostly. Don't forget also some basic REASONABLE pollution laws. I don't want to go back to dumping PCBs into the river and having Sulfur Dioxide mucking up the rain again. At the same time, I don't want ever tightening restrictions because the government's running out of stuff to do.

The rest is left to the market to decide. No subsidies for one industry over another or tax breaks. Capital is allowed to flow freely and find it's own level. Then again, I'd also want to institute "equal world free trade". By this I mean free trade with nations that economically are on the same level as the US like Britain, Germany, Japan, Australia, Canada and the like. I'm not into bootstrapping "developing" nations like China and India and Mexico. Let them do it the way we did: Hard Work. And if for some reason they unfairly enter the market and start hurting industry (government subsidies making their products artificially low) I'd tariff those products equal to the subsidy and give a tax break to consumers in this nation equal to that level.

But that's me. Strong, broad guardrails, clear traffic markings and let people go forth.

All that's well and good, but how do you turn it all upside down again after decades of subsidies, tax breaks, welfare and corporate welfare brought about by both conservatives and liberals? You can't just say, "Well, when WE get in power, we're gonna throw it all away and start from scratch." You'd need local, state and federal government agencies just to clean up the debris (including more than a few dead bodies). Even Ron Paul's stance on eliminating the fed would destoy the economic situations of every nation on earth. Nice idea, but not workable anymore. We're stuck with the House that Jack Built (now a looming castle with all the rooms filled).

 

[Contumacious]

Fed's Bernanke named Time magazine's Person of the Year - USATODAY.com

NEW YORK (Reuters) — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who helped steer the U.S. economy through its darkest days since the Great Depression, was named Time magazine's 2009 Person of the Year Wednesday.
."

Now you see why our economy is FUBR.

.

 

[Big Fitz]

Ethical capitalism? An interesting concept.

My definition of "Ethical Capitalism" means simply you have standard capitalism that is reined in by the following concepts:

Anti-Fraud: You can't lie or cheat the public. Truth in Advertising and full transparency for everything but trade secrets pretty much as we have today.

Labor Protection: We're talking child protection, worker safety and working hours here. Not wages, benefits or entitlements. That is all in the negotiation.

Competition Enhancement: Anti-competitive, monopolistic or moves to create trust or manipulate the marketplace unfairly to extort the consumer or prevent competition would be blocked.

Consumer Protection: You can't make hazardous, fraudulent or defective products. There is assumption of risk on the part of the purchaser, but not the bullshit lassiez faire "caveat emptor". A return to our common law heritage mostly. Don't forget also some basic REASONABLE pollution laws. I don't want to go back to dumping PCBs into the river and having Sulfur Dioxide mucking up the rain again. At the same time, I don't want ever tightening restrictions because the government's running out of stuff to do.

The rest is left to the market to decide. No subsidies for one industry over another or tax breaks. Capital is allowed to flow freely and find it's own level. Then again, I'd also want to institute "equal world free trade". By this I mean free trade with nations that economically are on the same level as the US like Britain, Germany, Japan, Australia, Canada and the like. I'm not into bootstrapping "developing" nations like China and India and Mexico. Let them do it the way we did: Hard Work. And if for some reason they unfairly enter the market and start hurting industry (government subsidies making their products artificially low) I'd tariff those products equal to the subsidy and give a tax break to consumers in this nation equal to that level.

But that's me. Strong, broad guardrails, clear traffic markings and let people go forth.

All that's well and good, but how do you turn it all upside down again after decades of subsidies, tax breaks, welfare and corporate welfare brought about by both conservatives and liberals? You can't just say, "Well, when WE get in power, we're gonna throw it all away and start from scratch." You'd need local, state and federal government agencies just to clean up the debris (including more than a few dead bodies). Even Ron Paul's stance on eliminating the fed would destoy the economic situations of every nation on earth. Nice idea, but not workable anymore. We're stuck with the House that Jack Built (now a looming castle with all the rooms filled).

That's the problem. It's what I'd like to see. How to get it there... As all things in reality they're not run in a vacuum. Really we'd have to have a revolution that basically dismantled the current extra-constitutional power structures. I don't know if that's going to happen. We need a "US Constitution v1.2".

The problem is with the house that Jack built analogy is that it's condemned and collapsing. We need to evacuate it in an orderly fashion and then knockdown what is remaining, renovate or build fresh. But it's coming down regardless. The question is one of whether or not we're inside it when it does.