I just love the way “free markets” work. Here is a classic example of price “stickiness.” In Ontario I have the privilege of purchasing my gas from an independent supplier under a fixed term/fixed price contract, or at a fluctuating price from my distributor, Enbridge. The rational economist in me tells me that it should make no real difference whether […]
Read moreFrom Joseph Stiglitz’s NYT review of The Shock Doctrine: Klein is not an academic and cannot be judged as one. There are many places in her book where she oversimplifies. But Friedman and the other shock therapists were also guilty of oversimplification, basing their belief in the perfection of market economies on models that assumed perfect information, perfect competition, perfect […]
Read morehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2177006,00.html An interesting column – roots of the crisis are seen to lie in the continual injections of financial liquidity required to keep growth going in a global economy with a serious underlying deflationary bias, the result of excess capacity in manufacturing. “Merely cutting the cost of borrowing will do little to remedy the long-term weaknesses of the advanced economies” […]
Read moreI’ve pasted in below quite an interesting analysis of the current financial crisis, by Pierre Habbard of the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD. The Charts have gone missing but are not essential. Financialisation and the “sub-prime†financial crisis – Issues for future regulation TUAC Secretariat Paris, 5 September 2007 The phenomenal growth of the derivative […]
Read moreYesterday, I picked up Naomi Klein’s new book, The Shock Doctrine. It is something I’d been hearing about for some time, as I work with her brother, and Naomi gave a teaser with the keynote at our annual fundraising dinner this past February (video here). I’ll leave the summary to what is on the website, and point only to an […]
Read moreThanks for Harper’s for reminding us what the grandfather of economics thought about groups like the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, the Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Trade, the Recording Industry Association of America, PhARMA and all of the other thousands that are part of the “business industry”: The proposal of any new law or regulation which comes from […]
Read moreGuilty. The trial is over, or at least this lengthy phase is. The Globe has a good summary of why he was found guilty (see The Independent, too), and an insider look at how the jury made its decision. Below is a (lengthy) retrospective based on various post-trial commentary and analysis in the media, with a focus more on the […]
Read moreAn interesting story in The Tyee that picks up on evidence from the Conrad Black Trial (from a story in the Globe as blogged here), and runs with it. It is a telling insider story, one that nicely clears up the difference between the notion of competitive markets and the real world of capitalism and Big Media conglomerates: How Black […]
Read morehttp://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2100771,00.html Interesting piece on the fortunes being made at Blackstone as the private equity kings take themselves public. CEO Schwarzman made $398 Million last year, and will trouser $449 Million when they go public on top of his continued stake in the business, valued at a staggering $7,700 Million.
Read moreIt seems pretty simple to me: if you do not want to have to deal with pesky shareholders and all of their questioning your personal use of the company’s private jet and New York condo, take “your company” private. Then you can fill your boots on the company account as much as you want because it is your company. You […]
Read moreBased on conversations among Canada’s top capitalists (and their heirs), the Conrad Black trial revealed this interesting insider look at their rather incestuous dealings. Much of the article is written around takes on then-PM Chretien, but I find most interesting what this tells us about the real economics of media empires (original here). In the end, Black and Asper turned […]
Read morePrivate equity has raised more concerns on the other side of the Atlantic than in North America. Andrew Jackson made some comments on the topic on RPE a month ago. Whether David Dodge has been dropping in on RPE is not clear (we will FOI his browsing history), but at any rate, it is welcome for him to weigh in […]
Read moreLike many people, I admire the entrepreneur. Risk-taking, hard-working, value-adding, employment-creating – such are the virtues of entrepreneurs. I wish our schools taught people more about how to be entrepreneurial, as opposed to “business” degrees that teach people to be middle-managers in big corporations. We too often are lectured about the need to impose supply-side remedies to boost entrepreneurship – […]
Read moreROB columnist Eric Reguly is off to Europe. I’ve always enjoyed his rather iconoclastic business commentary, and will miss it (far too rare in the Globe.) Today’s parting shot identifies the culture of corporate Canada rather than public policy as the source of our poor performance in terms of global business leadership. What ails Canada: My parting shot It is […]
Read moreThere has not been nearly enough Canadian discussion of this hot issue, especially given the spate of activity in Canada. Here’s info from a recent critical UK report (with thanks to Joel Harden). On 26 March the UK-based Work Foundation released a report on the social impact of private equity investment in the UK: “Inside the dark box: shedding light […]
Read moreA jury is supposed to be comprised of one’s peers, but Conrad Black’s “Peers” are in the House of Lords and among the global elite. Naomi Klein reports on the class dimensions of jury selection at the Black trial (hat tip here): Class War in Conrad’s Court by Naomi Klein During the jury selection process at the Conrad Black fraud […]
Read moreAs a teaser for the PEF’s new John Kenneth Galbraith Prize, to be inaugurated at this year’s Canadian Economics Association meetings by his son James Galbraith, here is a short piece the latter did for The Nation last April, as one of several contributors on the theme, “taming global capitalism anew”: Taming Predatory Capitalism JAMES K. GALBRAITH In 1899 Thorstein […]
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