Profiting From Market Failure: How Today's Capitalists Bring Bad Things to Life

[xchrom]

Last edited Tue Jul 10, 2012, 07:27 AM - Edit history (1)

http://www.alternet.org/economy/156140/profiting_from_market_failure%3A_how_today%27s_capitalists_bring_bad_things_to_life/

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The long-running General Electric slogan sums up what capitalist cheerleaders love to say about markets: "We bring good things to life."

But is it really true? In reality, some capitalists have figured out how to profit by actually bringing bad things to life.

Today, market forces organize, select and direct the production of goods and services in ways that would amaze and startle our ancestors. Consider the automobile: designed, engineered, provisioned, manufactured, marketed, sold and serviced by webs of hundreds of different organizations across the planet. Amazing. And a tribute to what’s possible through market successes.

But markets fail, too. All of the time. They are inherently unstable and inefficient. Cheerleaders of capitalism attribute failure only to government, to individuals and occasionally, to organizations – but never to markets. Yet except in the dream worlds of fact-free economists, markets are always out of balance and screwing up.

The same forces that so brilliantly coordinate resources in a global automotive market have also operated to plan obsolescence, to impede the provision of safety belts and air bags, and to obstruct the pace of fuel-saving innovation.

Clearly markets often fail in bringing us the things that make our lives better. Which raises the question: How do capitalists respond to market failures?

[marmar]

1. Hopefully the veil of "market efficiency" has been lifted.....

..... I suppose it is very efficient at creating misery.

[xchrom]

2. +1

[Zalatix]

3. Capitalism isn't the only creator of good things. See: the Open Source movement.

As for how capitalists respond to market failures? They blame everyone else but themselves.

[unblock]

4. what the h?

there's an "h" missing from your link

[xchrom]

5. thanks -- fixed it. nt

[DCKit]

6. Disaster Capitalism... what else needs to be said?

They profit when times are good, they seem to profit more when they crash the world down around us.

[raouldukelives]

7. It's one big 1920's casino full of all the cliche tactics.

Oh sure they have fancier names now instead of marked cards, loaded dice or fixed fights but its all the same. The house is slanted to win, the smart players are the ones who have an angle. Everyone is trying to get better angles every day. They pay respects to "Don" Dimon and work out little schemes behind the scenes. Devising ever more devious and elaborate cheats that are guaranteed to benefit them mightily.
But heck, even that wouldn't be so bad if the chips they were using weren't our oceans, forests, health, water tables, animal & plant species, climate etc.
Those things demand to be treated with respect. They deserve to be treated better. We used to have people in the country who demanded it. Instead our best & brightest are now hooked on the game. Busily betting with our money. Mortgaging everyone's future for a quick buck and a box seat at a Knickerbocker game.

[Huey P. Long]

8. Mainstream Economist: We Might Need to Hang Some Bankers to Stop Criminal Looting

Mainstream Economist: We Might Need to Hang Some Bankers to Stop Criminal Looting
Posted on July 8, 2012 by WashingtonsBlog

Even Nouriel Roubini Says We Need to Jail or Hang Some Bankers
Nobel prize winning economist Joe Stiglitz – and many other experts – have said nothing will change unless dishonest bankers are jailed.

Former trader Max Keiser has been calling for years for crooked bankers to be hanged, to send a message that crime won’t be tolerated.
But Nouriel Roubini is a lot more mainstream than Keiser – or even Stiglitz – being very close to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. See this and this.

Roubini told Bloomberg that nothing has changed since the start of the financial crisis, and we might need to throw bankers in jail – or hang them in the streets – before they’ll change:

Nobody has gone to jail since the financial crisis. The banks, they do things that are illegal and at best they slap on them a fine. If some people end up in jail, maybe that will teach a lesson to somebody. Or somebody hanging in the streets.

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I noted 7 years ago:
I am NOT calling for the overthrow of the government. In fact, I am calling for the reinstatement of our government. I am calling for an end to lawless dictatorship and a return to the rule of law. Rather than trying to subvert the constitution, I am calling for its enforcement.

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The best way to avoid all types of revolution would be for the government to start following the rule of law. I passionately hope it will do so.

The fact that even mainstream economists like Roubini are talking about hanging bankers shows that this is the last chance for the justice system – the only thing which stands between criminals on Wall Street and pitchforks – to work.


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http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/07/mainstream-economist-we-might-need-to-hang-some-bankers-to-stop-illegal-behavior.html