Comments on: Recovery Flops!

By: Hyperion

Hyperion — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:39:25 +0000

JMR that isn’t a transfer of wealth when a retailer buys in bulk and sells to consumers. They are adding value through a change in location and division of that bulk order. They allow the consumer to travel to a store near them to purchase one item instead of having to go to the point of manufacture and purchase 10,000 units. That is a very valuable service to consumers, which is reflected in the prices they pay.

Central control over an economy is simply unsustainable. The free market works the best by allocating resources in the most efficient manner through the use of prices as signaling mechanisms. Central planning simply cannot compete with that efficiency. No matter how much people hope it can.

It may sound great to an uneducated ear that the government needs to come in and “control” things, but such action always produces unintended consequences that always hurt society in the long run.

These boom and bust cycles would not last nearly as long if the government would just stay out of it and let the system weed out the malinvestments and transfer capital to more productive industries.

Every stimulus just prolongs the eventual recovery by funneling more money into unsustainable endeavors, just like counting people doesn’t actually add any value or solve a real problem for an individual.

By: JMR Alan Greenspan

JMR Alan Greenspan — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:58:54 +0000

Wealth can be “stored”, v.g., paper money, gold, silver, oil, etc. Ergo, it CAN be transfered without necessary destruction; in fact, sometimes the transfer INCREASES that wealth (ask any retailer, who buys in bulk and sells to Joe Doe by twice that price).

By: 99 cent Nation

99 cent Nation — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 15:10:57 +0000

A. Smith: Yep, there are those that just love the rat race and will do anything to keep the fantasy going. Perhaps it is the only “form” of reality they can imagine or will tolerate.

like .99 cents is so much lower than $1.00. Pathetic

By: Adam Smith

Adam Smith — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 06:01:22 +0000

@99 Cent Nation.

The “form” of capitalism that you claim to have failed is precisely that–a “form,” more precisely “a deviation form.”

Statist economist-kings seek to take control of the free market and credit themselves for its successes, when in fact they done nothing but begin its forced decline.

When the market they have taken over finally, and inevitably, fails, the same statists then act like spectators and bemoan the failure of the “free” market.

They then get even more power to take over whatever it left, and the cycle continues.

By: Silent Snake

Silent Snake — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 17:40:06 +0000

If we can solve the economic downturn then we can solve the economic upturn. All economic activities will be under due control. Up and down, business cycle, boom-and-bust will be unfamiliar.

I believe what has to happen then it has to happen. Not even the almighty one can prevent it.

By: Tiu

Tiu — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 17:05:12 +0000

One conundrum which hasn’t yet been broached by any of our great leaders is just how we are going to rebuild the wealth given that a lot of was created on the backs of people who might not be keen on letting ‘western’ corporations back in: e.g. Asians, coupled with the technological revolution which has wiped out many jobs and processes on which the wealth was also made… or perhaps we all become web-designers and data-miners?
What I would give to come across Tony B Liar, the man who’s reign spans the worst of the recent deregulation which everybody else had little choice but to compete against by also deregulating. Short-term profit by a short-sighted PM who wasn’t working for his nations benefit.

By: 99 cent Nation

99 cent Nation — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 14:42:42 +0000

Sterling Too: Interesting take on the concept to wealth.
“The term transfer of wealth actually means destruction of wealth.” Does transfer of wealth include the stealing of wealth? This seems to be what happened when the banks pulled off the biggest heist in the history civilization.

like .99 cents is so much lower than $1.00. Pathetic.

By: karl

karl — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 07:07:47 +0000

excellent analysis.
The free market should be allowed to work
then the prudent and industrious can take over the imprudents assets and progress
can begin again.
I hope justice can prevail at some point

By: Sterling Too

Sterling Too — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 03:22:23 +0000

You cannot transfer wealth. Wealth is not a thing. It is an activity comprising physical components such as buildings, infrastructure, machines, and supplies; a system of manufacturing that takes inputs and has outputs, a set of procedures that employ the components to run the system; and educated, trained, and experienced people that carry out these procedures. If you try to confiscate this wealth and give it to others who know nothing about how it works they inevitably will destroy that wealth. Ergo. The term transfer of wealth actually means destruction of wealth.

By: 99 cent Nation

99 cent Nation — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 22:02:27 +0000

“Readers are urged to focus on the hilarity of the scene,” it is funny in the sense that for 40 years a few people have been telling others that the form of capitalism we practice is not sustainable and have been called doom and gloomers. Now that the chickens have come home to roost a few people are still warning of the pending collapse of the great capitalist growth fantasy and still people are talking about the great recovery soon to happen. funny.

like .99 cents is so much lower than $1.00. Pathetic