Ben Stein on Corporate Governance
Last week I wrote about the significance of the pending election of Eliot Spitzer who is running ahead in the race for Govenor of New York.
The remarkable Ben Stein, in Sunday’s New York Times, lectured Henry Paulson on corporate governance mentioning how aggressive Spitzer had been in taking on very powerful interests in Corporate America.
Since the column is behind a subscription wall, I’ve created a page to share the wit and message of one of America’s pithiest business authors.
There is very little evidence that what Corporate America needs deregulations to enhance its ability to compete.
While New York’s Martin Act is a very blunt instrument, Spitzer saw to reforming the whole Insurance industry and he nailed the largest securities firms for dubious practices without going to trial.
I think the significance of Stein’s critique of the current Treasury Secretary as both misguided and wrongheaded is that he, too, is taking on powerful people and doing it transparently during the end of an mid-term election.
Wisdom from the Past
“Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen: all know how to die. But the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytising faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science - the science against which it had vainly struggled - the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.”
Sir Winston Churchill
ht:LGF
Watch New York
The people of New York state are on the cusp of electing a new governor. Eliot Spitzer is riding a wave of reform into office. His ruthless use of that state’s Martin Act, brought far reaching changes to business in America, and by extention, the world.
For those of you who haven’t been following his career, the Attorney General of New York’s ruthless and bold use of state law changed the way business is done in America.
He has vowed to change the way Albany works and is targeting Health care reform that will make Massachusetts Govenor Mitt Romney’s controversial “universal” health care reforms look pedestrian.
Here in Iowa, as has been so bluntly outlined in the blog State 29, Iowan’s seem to favor a “big lug.” This state needs, and deserves, better. And that is neither an endorsement for the big lug’s current sparring partner. The former Congressman who would be Govenor has run a lack lustre campaign despite a target as broad as barn to hit.
The tired refrain of non-issues and partisan pet peeves have worn me out. The Democrats elected the wrong man in the primary. Ed Fallon may also have spewed the same banal non-issues likeminimum wage, stem-cell research and pro choice but he isn’t bought and paid for and he clearly isn’t an empty suit.
Beccy Cole: We need more artists like her!
She is a great patriot and this is a video not to be missed.
Australia’s diggers are not to be forgotten. Nor is NATO and the Allies in the war.
Business and Politics and the Nobel
It isn’t often I want to comment on economics, the dismal science, but an essay by this year’s Nobel Prize for Science, Edmund S. Phelps so intrigued me I couldn’t help myself!
In fact, since the piece is buried behind a subscription wall, I created a page on this blog to reprise it.
I know this post will annoy the anti-globalists and cynics but that doesn’t bother me. In fact, I take the view that North America is unique in that its institutions enabled dynamic capitalism to the point of success that imperialism became unnecessary, at least in a 19th century definition of imperialism.
The cant of the anti-capitalists, anti-globalists and social democrats leads to an idealized state dominated by elites our so-called betters. There is little doubt that top down systems of any sort are about control.
How can it be argued that citizens, free people with unalienable rights, require a super set of rules, over and above common laws or codes, to determine outcomes. It is the conceit of many that outcomes can be or should be manipulated.
Wisdom on Current Canadian Politics
John Robson makes as awful lot of sense on the recent breathless coverage the Liberal Party’s first “super primary” for Leader in Canada’s National Paper.
I sat on the plane last week and read the front page coverage and thought much the same.
ht:sda