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Questions on the Present ‘Crisis’

I know next to nothing about finance and economics, but since stock prices which had previously been ridiculously inflated are now falling to their actual value: isn’t that a good thing? Shouldn’t we be glad the correction is finally happening and shouldn’t we have wished it had come sooner? Isn’t this something that should provoke a sigh of relief? Doesn’t all this panic on Wall Street make the financiers look like a bunch of little girls?

Of course in the old days, you had men in charge. J.P. Morgan was the head of J.P. Morgan, and by gum that meant something. There was someone to be accountable to. Nowadays, no one person owns anything, which is to say, everything is owned by everyone. As the American Loyalist of old oft said: “I would rather be ruled by one tyrant a thousand miles away then by a thousand tyrants not one mile away.” When you had a giant like Morgan around, he could invite everyone round and sort things out. Now, CEOs come and go and are accountable, not to one man, but to “shareholders”, who are apparently legion, and not terribly keen on holding their henchmen to account during the times when the profits are flowing in. The same goes for finance ministers and the central bankers.

Out with them all, I say, and bring back Mr. Morgan!

Mr. Morgan did not appreciate having his photograph taken.

Published at 9:17 pm on Wednesday 15 October 2008. Categories: Politics Tags: , .
Comments

Andrew,

You and your readership might find the parable of the unjust steward (from Luke 16:1-14) most à propos:

http://www.miserere.org/m/archivedposts/383

— Alessandro 15 Oct 2008 11:53 pm

Andrew, with all my respect, stay on literature and arts, please.
Mr. Morgan and the few like him (the Rockefellers, Rostchild, etc) are still behind the crowd of shareholders. More than that, the investors are usefull idiots.
http://www.asalbuchi.com.ar/?p=82
Again, excuse my english.

— Arn 16 Oct 2008 11:27 am

I have a (true) story that I’m working on. JP and I used to sit under the very same apple tree….

— Mrs. Peperium 16 Oct 2008 5:44 pm

Oh, and you do know he was from Connecticut and not NY?

— Mrs. Peperium 16 Oct 2008 5:45 pm

Nothing has changed, the few are still fleecing the many. Every “crisis” ends up transfering wealth from the middle class to the top 5% – the gas crisis, the tech stock crash, the S&L scandals in the 80s. The money doesn’t vanish, it just moves upwards.

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against the wealthy. I’d just like to be one of them.

— Tom 17 Oct 2008 12:47 am

Mr. Morgan did not appreciate having his photograph taken because of his deformed nose.

Two books that I strongly recommend to one and all during these uncertain times are; Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. and The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance both by Ron Chernow.

— Peter L. Kraus 17 Oct 2008 10:32 am

Mr. Morgan was instrumental in establishing the Federal Reserve, to which we owe the low interest rates of past years. That fed the real estate bubble,
until it burst and the current credit crunch followed.

The Case Against the Fed
by Murray Rothbard
http://mises.org/books/fed.pdf

— bedwere 17 Oct 2008 3:25 pm

“I know next to nothing about finance and economics…”

I recommend Henry Hazlitt´s “Economics in One Lesson.”

http://jim.com/econ/contents.html

— Dino 20 Oct 2008 8:12 am
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