Are you employed by one of the venerable financial institutions that is currently bankrupting the US economy?
Nope not employed by them, even worse, I have stock in a bank and a credit card company. I've always been one of those people that don't trust analysts or pundits that talk on tv so I've always looked at the actual data instead. For instance I read the quarterly SEC filings for any company's stock that I own or are about to purchase because it's the only way to see what companies are really doing without being an insider. I've read the Wall Street Journal every day since I was a teen, yet I'm a democrat that things pure capitalism is fundamentally flawed.
I don't blame the financial institutions for the current situation because they were just doing exactly what they were suppose to, pursue capitalist greed. I blame republicans and the constant calls for deregulation in all industries since Carter and Regan, even when every example of deregulation leads to corruption and ruin. Enron was result of deregulation in energy. Cable tv rates skyrocketed and service declined after deregulation in '96. Deregulation in airlines was the first to happen under Carter and has resulted in crazy fares, lower service, and bankrupt airlines. The savings and loans crisis of the 80s and 90s was a direct result of deregulation. And now the current crisis in the banks. The fact is that unrestrained/unregulated capitalism brings ruin because it is pure greed in its basic form that is a "tragedy of the commons".
Hadin in the 60's came up with the basic economic concept of the "tragedy of the commons". The basic illistration is to imagine a field (the commons) that is open to everyone's use. Everyone is a shepard that uses the commons to allow their flocks to graze. Individuals are motivated to add to their flocks to increase personal wealth. Yet, every animal added to the total degrades the commons a small amount. Although the degradation for each additional animal is small relative to the gain in wealth for the owner, if all owners follow this pattern the commons will ultimately be destroyed. And, being rational actors, each owner ads to their flock, thus bring ruin to all.
The only solution for this, and capitalism in general, is for the government to regulate the use of the commons. This is not the same thing as communism or socialism despite the constant cries on Faux News to the contrary.
