4 ms·

The argument is really simple. Big banks (and the bigger of the enterprises) benefit disproportionately from cheap or free money. These businesses are receiving

by iwwr 16y ago

The argument is really simple. Big banks (and the bigger of the enterprises) benefit disproportionately from cheap or free money. These businesses are receiving real goods in exchange for "printed" money. Tyler Cowen's argument is less strict than that though: big banks (or related enterprises) benefit disproportionately from taking high risks. Individuals or small companies would go bankrupt, while big companies are saved with printed money. This money will displace regular consumers from the market, making them relatively poorer (than otherwise).

presidentender 16y ago
Privatize profit, socialize loss, blame the free market, and strut like a boss.
- flatline 16y ago
  "I've abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system." - George W. Bush
  - arethuza 16y ago
    At least Bush never presented himself as an expert on economics, what about this classic: "we today in our country have economic stability not boom and bust" - Gordon Brown
    - borism 16y ago
      said on March 28 2002, speech to the TGWU conference, Manufacturing matters. When this might have well been the feeling. For everyone.
- JonnieCache 16y ago
  Some relevant reading around this notion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism_for_the_rich_and_capitalism_for_the_poor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism_for_the_rich_and_capi... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privatizing_profits_and_socializing_losses http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privatizing_profits_and_sociali... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_welfare http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_welfare Game theory at work, on many levels.
mdda 16y ago
That is an argument. However the article doesn't have that conclusion. It concludes: "I'm with Matt Yglesias, who writes that it's hasty to blame the nation's financiers for literally stealing from the middle class' wages. It seems much more likely to me that a smorgasbord of both conscious public policy decisions (like outsourcing, free trade agreements, and low interest rates) and unintended phenomena (rising education and health care costs) combine to make the rich richer and the poor no richer."

by iwwr 16y ago

presidentender 16y ago

Privatize profit, socialize loss, blame the free market, and strut like a boss.

flatline 16y ago
"I've abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system." - George W. Bush
- arethuza 16y ago
  At least Bush never presented himself as an expert on economics, what about this classic: "we today in our country have economic stability not boom and bust" - Gordon Brown
  - borism 16y ago
    said on March 28 2002, speech to the TGWU conference, Manufacturing matters. When this might have well been the feeling. For everyone.
JonnieCache 16y ago
Some relevant reading around this notion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism_for_the_rich_and_capitalism_for_the_poor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism_for_the_rich_and_capi... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privatizing_profits_and_socializing_losses http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privatizing_profits_and_sociali... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_welfare http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_welfare Game theory at work, on many levels.

mdda 16y ago

That is an argument. However the article doesn't have that conclusion. It concludes: "I'm with Matt Yglesias, who writes that it's hasty to blame the nation's financiers for literally stealing from the middle class' wages. It seems much more likely to me that a smorgasbord of both conscious public policy decisions (like outsourcing, free trade agreements, and low interest rates) and unintended phenomena (rising education and health care costs) combine to make the rich richer and the poor no richer."