Germans wrong to shoot the short-selling messenger. 6 People Who Single Handedly Screwed Entire Economies. In the vast, infinitely complex world of the international economy, what difference can one man really make? Even billionaires don't have enough cash to really make a difference -- if Bill Gates went nuts and tried to crash the stock market somehow, other billionaires, banks and world governments would be there to stop him. Yet throughout history there have been times when everything came together just right for one single person to ruin everyone's shit. #6. Steve Perkins' Half-Billion-Dollar Drinking Binge Getty The Man: A random oil trader who got really, really drunk. The Impact: Single-handedly raised the price you pay for gasoline in a drunken bout of trading. GettyThere's a fridge full of booze behind every great financial disaster. What's the most damage you've ever done while drunk?
If you did that last one, your name is probably Steve Perkins. GettyAbove: Perkins, his features and preferred brand obscured to protect the exceedingly guilty. GettyOr a truly exceptional martini. #5. . #4. Employee Ownership: The Road to Shared Prosperity. Employee ownership plans carve a path toward what could be called responsible capitalism. Several years ago I met Drew Morris, the CEO and primary owner of a 500-person solenoid manufacturing company, at a restaurant within sight of his factory just outside Rochester, New York.
At the time he was approaching retirement and had just begun the process of selling his successful business to his employees through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP. As we waited for lunch to be served, a television nearby displayed a Wall Street ticker and a well-coiffed anchor prattling on excitedly about the latest financial news. During a pause in our conversation, Morris, most assuredly not a man of the left, suddenly jabbed his finger at the TV. “That’s not capitalism!” He sneered. We Recommend True economic recovery will require creative solutions to deeply rooted problems. About the Author Christopher Mackin Christopher Mackin is the Ray Carey Fellow in Democratic Capitalism at Rutgers University. What conservatives ignore in Adam Smith's message is killing our economy. In virtually all current political debate concerning the requirements of American prosperity, the classic argument of Adam Smith remains the fashionable mainstay of conservatives.
It was Smith, after all, who reasoned capably and persuasively that a system of private property, although naturally unequal, would nonetheless permit the poor to live tolerably. Skip to next paragraph Subscribe Today to the Monitor Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS ofThe Christian Science MonitorWeekly Digital Edition Rejecting Jean-Jacque Rousseau’s fully contrary position that, in commerce, “the privileged few...gorge themselves with superfluities, while the starving multitude are in want of the bare necessities of life,” Smith saw in capitalism not only rising productivity, but also the ultimate condition for political liberty. Significantly, perhaps, Adam Smith published his “Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” in 1776. RELATED: Can Adam Smith save your marriage?
Adam Ferguson. Thomas Jefferson on Patents and Freedom of Ideas ~ Moving to Freedom. Adam smith. Gatto Fuller Rousseau Dewey Dreikurs Whitehead Weisel R. Buckminister Fuller (1895-1983) attributed much of his inventive genius to the fact that he was a generalist, striving to synergetically integrate ideas from many diverse disciplines into a harmonious whole that was not only novel, but efficient, beautiful, and environmentally friendly. He often wrote and lectured about the limitations of our present educational system. From his essay: "Education Automation," I learned that our present educational system is geared towards specialization, which often leaves the solution of society's most pressing problems to those least able to solve them. The famed mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) joined Harvard University at age 63, after teaching at the most elite institutions in England, such as Trinity, Cambridge, University College, Imperial College of Science and Technology, among others.
So where did this idea of specialized training originate? Aha! Mandeville From the fable of the bees: Or, private vices, publick benefits. Retour à la rubrique Mandeville. Bernard Mandeville From the fable of the bees:Or, private vices, publick benefits[1714] A Spacious Hive well stock'd with Bees, That lived in Luxury and Ease; And yet as fam'd for Laws and Arms, As yielding large and early Swarms; Was counted the great Nursery Of Sciences and Industry. No Bees had better Government, More Fickleness, or less Content.
They were not Slaves to Tyranny, Nor ruled by wild Democracy; But Kings, that could not wrong, because Their Power was circumscrib'd by Laws. These Insects lived like Men, and all Our Actions they perform'd in small: They did whatever's done in Town, And what belongs to Sword, or Gown: Tho' th' Artful Works, by nimble Slight; Of minute Limbs, 'scaped Human Sight Yet we've no Engines, Labourers, Ships, Castles, Arms, Artificers, Craft, Science, Shop, or Instrument; But they had an Equivalent: Which, since their Language is unknown, Must be call'd, as we do our own. But who can all their Frauds repeat! The MORAL. Ron Paul - Presidential Candidate Ron Paul on Lesbian and Gay Issues. Ron Paul - Texas Congressman: As a Texas Congressman, Ron Paul served in the United States House of Representatives from 1976–1977, again 1979–1985 and currently from 1997-present.
He ran for president in 1988 as the Libertarian Party candidate, even though he remained a registered republican. Employment Non-Discrimination: Ron Paul is opposed to Employment Non-Discrimination Bill that is inclusive of gays, lesbians and transgender. Hate Crimes: Ron Paul opposes a transgender-inclusive hate crimes bill. Same-Sex Marriage/Civil Unions: Ron Paul believes the government should stay out of marriage. Gay and Lesbian Adoption: Ron Paul voted to support a ban of gay adoptions in Washington, DC in 1999. More About Ron Paul: In a candidate debate on CNN in 2007, Ron Paul said about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell": "I think the current policy is a decent policy. About Gay Marriage In May 2011 he was asked at a presidential debate on Fox News, he was asked to clarify the above statement. Victor Kravchenko. Victor Andreevich Kravchenko (Ukrainian: Віктор Андрійович Кра́вченко, Russian: Ви́ктор Андре́евич Кра́вченко; 11 October 1905 Yekaterinoslav – 25 February 1966 New York) was a Soviet defector who wrote of his life in the Soviet Union as a Soviet official in his book I Chose Freedom published in 1946.
He also wrote about his experience under American capitalism. In 1944 he abandoned his post and requested political asylum in the United States. The Soviet authorities, however, demanded his immediate extradition, calling him a traitor. Ambassador Joseph E. Kravchenko began living with an American woman, Cynthia Kuser-Earle. When Kravchenko defected he had a Russian son, Valentin (born 1935), and a Russian wife, Zinaida Gorlova. Kravchenko wrote a memoir, I Chose Freedom, a best seller both in the US and Europe containing extensive revelations on collectivization, Soviet prison camps and the use of penal labor which came at a time of growing tension between the Soviet Union and the West.
Max Keiser Truth About Markets USA 08.28.2010 part-1. The Free Market: The Sad Legacy of Ronald Reagan. The Mises Institute monthly, free with membership Volume VI, No. 10, October 1988 by Sheldon L. Richman On August 2, 1988, President Ronald Reagan announced that he had changed his mind about the pro-union plant-closing bill. Ronald Reagan's faithful followers claim he has used his skills as the Great Communicator to reverse the growth of Leviathan and inaugurate a new era of liberty and free markets. Yet after nearly eight years of Reaganism, the clamor for more government intervention in the economy was so formidable that Reagan abandoned the free-market position and acquiesced in further crippling of the economy and our liberties.
Let's look at the record: Spending In 1980, Jimmy Caner's last year as president, the federal government spent a whopping 27.9% of "national income" (an obnoxious term for the private wealth produced by the American people). Even Ford and Carter did a better job at cutting government. Foreign aid has also risen, from $10 billion to $22 billion. Taxes Regulation.
The Reagan Myth — Mises Economics Blog.