My Progressive Principles

As we near the election -- although those of us with progressive leanings may lose -- I thought I would document the political principles I believe in. What the heck?

- The welfare of the human race and real people can never be measured in dollars and cents. The welfare of one human life is worth more than billions and billions of dollars.

- Money is "distributed" by a marketplace that is far from perfect and rewards disproportionately to people's contributions -- sometimes exponentially.

- Markets make great servants, but terrible masters.

- Tax breaks to the rich rarely pay for themselves. Government spending creates jobs.

- America was founded by immigrants and is a country of immigrants. That is its strength.

- Socialism is the ownership of all means of production by the state. Social Democracy is a system of government where private industry, the govt, the unions and other social organizations cooperate for the welfare of society. We could use a little dose of Social Democracy now and then.

- A person's accumulation of dollars should not determine the size and volume of his/her voice in the political process and government.

- The value of the next marginal dollar to a billionaire is far less than the value of that same dollar to society as a whole.

- The poorest persons access to healthcare, education, food and shelter trumps the richest person's access to his or her next dollar.

- Our nation has been polluted by people trying to discredit the source of messages contrary to their views instead of by addressing the issues themselves. These people are outright vile, mean spirited, and untruthful. I call this "Rovian Propaganda" and it is one of the very worst practices in our political arena and one of the biggest threats to our liberty.

- "Progressive" and "Liberal" are tremendously good words. Jesus Christ, Ghandi, Franklin, Lincoln, Galileo, Einstein, Mother Theresa, FDR, Martin Luther King and many more -- that's pretty damn good company and I'm proud to be counted as one of their followers!!!!

Are the top US tax rates too high?

I was recently asked whether I thought the top US income rates are too high. Here is my answer:

First of all, my issue is more with wealth accumulation than income. However, the two are pretty closely linked. Nonetheless, I will address the issue from more of a wealth perspective than an income one.

In order to address the issue, there are several basic questions to ponder, among others:

1. Is our society inherently fair? Do virtually all Americans have access to the services that will "level the playing field" (i.e. food, shelter, education, healthcare). Are entrepreneurs fairly incented to provide growth and innovation? Do all Americans have access to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"?

2. What is the current skew of income and wealth in the US? What are the long term ramifications of this skew? If negative, what can be done address it?

3. What is the value of an incremental dollar to one of the wealthiest Americans vs. the value of that incremental dollar to society as a whole?

Okay, here's my short answers to those questions (I could probably write a book on them, but this will have to suffice for now):

1. Is society inherently fair?

I'd have to say no. Too many people don't have access to health care. Too many people are falling below the poverty line. Too many people don't have adequate retirement funds. Too many of our schools do not provide the quality of education necessary for our kids to have a shot at the "economic brass ring"

On the flip side, are entrepreneurs fairly incented? I would say yes and would also note that our economy seemed to do pretty well in terms of innovation and growth when the top tax rate was still significantly higher.

In terms of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, I would have to say that those at the very top have the opportunity to more fully experience life and participate in our society. With skads of money in the bank, one has more opportunity to take financial risk, drive up prices of "cherished goods" like housing, land, automobiles etc, and the freedom to pursuit almost anything their heart (and ego) desires.

I think even at the middle end, this access to LLPH is constrained -- not only in terms of material goods, but also in our ability to participate in our government. How many millionaires are there in the congress and senate (as a percentage of the total compared to the percentage of millionaires in the US as a whole)? Is it an oddity that the very richest person in NYC is mayor (this is not a criticism of Bloomberg whom I think is great, just a statement of fact)? Does a plethora of dollars from the very wealthy during elections "crowd out" the voices of a concerned majority?

Obviously, there are major inequities here.

2. What is the current income/wealth skew and what are its ramifications?

I know I'll sound like a broken record on this one, but the top 1% controls 42% of financial wealth (36% of total wealth, including housing). The average salary of a CEO today is 400 times that of an average worker vs. 40 times in the 1960s.

If we allow this to continue unfettered, the skew will only get worse. With middle income families only earning enough to "scrape by" and the very high end families having the luxury to save because of their high income (I read an interesting article by an economist comparing savings to a luxury good), I think it's pretty easy to read the tea leaves.

The ramifications? As more and more wealth gets concentrated in the hands of an elite few, we run the risk of becoming a "high tech banana republic." If that ever happens (and I hope not), the masses will begin to feel economically ostracized and will conclude that if the "rules" of society are unfair, why should we follow them? The rest is self evident.

3. The marginal ultility/value to a wealthy individual vs. society as a whole?

I think it's fair to say that the incremental utility/value of the "next dollar" (or million) to a billionaire is much lower than the utility/value of that dollar to society as a whole. To the billionaire, that dollar just represents "monetary gravy" and incremental cushion (to a certain extent encouraging risk, which is a good thing). Given a society with the healthcare, poverty, education and retirement issues that we have today, I would say that that incremental dollar could be put to much greater use.

So, yes, I believe that we do not tax enough at the high end.

My solutions:

- I'd rather tax wealth than income. A dual income household might only make the top income category for several years in their lifetime, after having worked very hard to get there for years.. They should have the right to use it to share in the bounty of our economy/society and just to pay for necessities like college education. However, once their savings accumulates to a certain point (incremental utility of dollar to them < incremental utility of dollar to society as a whole), there should be some sort of taxing mechanism, including, but not limited to an estate tax.

- I would eliminate the corporate income tax completely to spur investment

- I would lower the payroll tax to increase employment opportunities.

- I would surtax any funds earned in the US by US citizens that are transferred overseas.

I can't tell you what is the appropriate mix of these things and what their optimal levels are, but those are the types of economic overhauls I would consider

Battle Hymn of the RepublicansII.mov

To My Fellow Democrats and My Independent Friends

I want to urge you to get out and vote Democratic this year. Why? Number One: we need to support our President. Number Two: after 8 years of the Bush/Cheney "reign of terror" we finally have a President we can be proud of. Think about it: he's made more legislative achievements since anyone named LBJ. Were they controversial? Yes. Were they beneficial to middle class America? A resounding Yes. And he's been subjected to more ridicule, subterfuge and mistruths than any President in my lifetime.

Let's examine the issues. Is govt "taking over" healthcare? No. But today children with pre-existing conditions are covered and soon adults will be. Was the stimulus effective? Not as much as it could be, but the only reason is, is that the tea partiers have been on this crusade to say that deficits are "bad" in general. Are they? No. (someone please study Macroeconomics and, please read Keynes) When you build new infrastructure, you hire construction workers, architects, engineers, surveyors, who, in turn, spend their money at supermarkets and dept stores, who, in turn, need to hire more people and buy more inventory etc etc. The only problem with the stimulus, is it should have been significantly more. (Think about it in simpler terms. When your parents took a mortgage for $40K to buy a $50K house, they were probably nervous; when they sold that house for $150K 20 years later, the now reduced 40K mortgage was not that big a deal)

Has Obama been perfect? No. IMHO he should have held out for the public option and the stimulus should have been bigger. But you know what? With the party of NO saying NO just for the mere sake of saying NO, it wasn't easy. After two years, was Bill Clinton the Bill Clinton most people admire today? No. After two years, was Ronald Reagan the "saint" conservatives revere today? Of course not.

Democrats need to vote this November to give Obama some tailwind. Independents: I ask you this question? Despite the bad economy, do you really think the GOP and tea partiers have real answers. No! Their policies (i.e. reduce the deficit NOW and repeal Healthcare) will only make things harder for the middle class and, therefore, most of America.

Again,finally we have a President we can be proud of. Despite the vengeful rhetoric, we need to support him.

Is the deficit and debt necessarily a bad thing?

I keep on hearing people complain about how we’re living off the backs of our children by creating an insurmountable level of debt that they’ll never be able to pay off destroying America as we know it.

Scary thoughts.

As, a matter of fact, the flames of our beloved Tea Partiers are largely fanned by the words “deficit” and “debt.”

So I decided to take a look at some of the underlying numbers.

First, some facts:

· The current budget deficit stands at about 11% of GDP, about 1 percentage point more than in the last year of Bush’s administration. The percentage of deficit to GDP has risen as high as 28% during WWII, obviously a less-than-normal time in terms of fiscal policy. Right now we’re carrying on two wars (one that’s winding down, thank God) and are hopefully recovering from the greatest economic meltdown since the Great Depression – I think that qualifies as a “less-than-normal” time and justifies higher than usual spending. Historically, the percentage of deficit to GDP has fluctuated in both directions; it will go down again.

· Over the last several decades, much of America’s economic growth has been fueled by deficit spending. During the Reagan years, for instance, GDP grew by 83% while total federal debt grew by 187%; during Clinton’s administration we experienced 45% GDP growth and a 24% increase in debt and during George W Bush’s eight years GDP grew 45% while total debt grew 75%.

· When my parents bought our house for a grand total of $21,000 in 1962, they were scared to death of the $16,000 mortgage they signed up for. 20 years later they sold the house for almost $100K and paying off the mortgage was a non-issue. LESSONS LEARNED: the economy grows, prices go up (hopefully through productivity growth, not rampant inflation), debt is fixed.

· The current federal debt is approximately $15Trillion; it’s hard to get a definitive number for unfunded entitlements through 2050, but I hear that it’s somewhere between $50-80Trillion. If we take total 2010 tax receipts at $2.17Trillion and increase them by 2% per year (about the projected productivity growth for the intermediate term) through 2050, we generate cumulative tax receipts of about $130Trillion over that time (at 3% annual growth in tax receipts, it would be a cumulative total of $163Trillion). Entitlements come out of the budget, so by my simple reasoning we should be able to cover those “unfunded” entitlements as well as pay back the $14Trillion in current debt. Obviously, we would eventuallyhave to get back to a balanced budget or nearly balanced budget for this scenario to play out.

Now let’s ask the converse of the question: what would have happened to our economy 2008-2010 WITHOUT the bailouts, the govt “takeover” of the US auto industry, and the modest stimulus package?

Here’s my prediction:

· Well, if the current unemployment rate is 9.6% WITH all of the above, one would have to predict that it would be significantly higher WITHOUT all of the above. Same for the “real” unemployment rate which most people estimate is somewhere between 15-20%. So let’s say the official unemployment rate goes up to 15% and the “real” unemployment rate to 25-30%. The consequences would be disastrous.

· First of all, tax receipts would plummet and welfare payments, especially unemployment payments, medicaid and medicare payments would rise dramatically. In effect, by not spending we would in effect be creating the very deficit that we were trying to avoid.

· The housing market would take a major nosedive – worse than it is now. People would literally be put out on the street, leading to many social/law enforcement issues. Jobs of anyone employed in construction, the banking industry, the mortgage industry and other related industries would be in severe jeopardy.

· Due to low consumer demand, companies would lay off more people exacerbating the unemployment rate and all of the effects thereof.

· There would be a major sell-off of the dollar.

· The Chinese would probably demand a significantly higher interest rate to buy our debt (if they were willing to buy it at all). This, of course, would increase the amount of the federal budget devoted to interest payments and further exacerbate the “involuntary” deficit we created.

· The balance of trade might actually tip in the US’s favor because of generally less demand, depressing imports. Over time, though, if enough US production capacity was closed down in response to less domestic consumer demand, this situation could reverse, maybe dramatically – hard to tell.

· Multinationals with production capacity in the US (companies like Toyota, Sony, Siemens) would probably shut down over time due to lack of domestic US demand. Instead they would most likely choose to import their products to the US, further weakening the US balance of trade and the value of the dollar

· Public school budgets would be slashed, leading to classroom sizes of 50+ kids in most areas. Same for budgets for law enforcement, sanitation, and public works maintenance.

· Despite, the self-inflicted deficit, the wealthy would scream for a tax cut, which would be counterproductive because 1) they would probably NOT spend the money, but hoard it (most likely they would convert it to non-dollar currencies, further weakening the balance of trade in our Short Term Account) and 2) a tax cut would benefit hardly anyone else because X% of nothing is still nothing.

Perhaps in Milton Freidman’s world all of this is necessary to allow the free market to “adjust” the economy. Yes, eventually the dollar will weaken to such a level where there is incentive to buy US goods, increasing employment and consumption blah…blah…blah….However, I personally would not want to live through such a prolonged “adjustment” period. (According to Keynes, "in the long run we're all dead).

In effect, by not increasing the deficit in the short term with the intent of lessening the burden of debt passed onto our children, we might in fact not only unintentionally increase the level of total debt passed onto future generations but more so be lessening the quality of the America that we pass onto them – if, in effect, America as we know it would exist at all.

A Response to the GOP's "Pledge to America" - Part 1

The following is a verbatim copy of the preamble to the GOP's "Pledge to America." I've added my comments/responses bold and in parentheses:

America is more than a country.

(Unfortunately, for the last several decades, American has been an oligarchy – a country controlled by and run for the very wealthy)

America is an idea – an idea that free people can govern themselves, that government’s powers are derived from the consent of the governed, that each of us is endowed by their Creator with the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. America is the belief that any man or woman can – given economic, political, and religious liberty – advance themselves, their families, and the common good.

(Wonderful in concept. However, government policies, particularly during the Bush administration, have made it harder and harder for the lower and middle class to benefit from the resources and opportunities of our great country:

• The Bush administration passed an unnecessary tax cut for the rich, which only served to increase the ridiculous and unhealthy disparity of wealth and income in our country.
• As a result of the tax cut and an unnecessary war, the Bush Administration ran up record deficits, stifling our economy and, consequently, opportunity.
• Republicans zeal for deregulation allowed Wall St to speculate with housing derivatives, which caused the greatest economic downturn since the great depression with disproportionate negative impact on the lower and middle classes.
• Republicans have allowed the bank industry lobbyists to write their own rules, creating laissez-fair “trick and trap” practices in the credit card industry, enabling them to hide behind small print and charge usurious interest rates on an already suffering middle class for specious, arbitrary reasons.)


America is an inspiration to those who yearn to be free and have the ability and the dignity to determine their own destiny.

Whenever the agenda of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to institute a new governing agenda and set a different course.

(The agenda of the government from 2001-2008 WAS, indeed, destructive of these ends. The Obama administration has done everything in its power to address the destructive policies initiated by Republican policies. We’ve already set a new course and the Republican spin-doctors are – and unfortunately succeeding in – twisting the facts, banking upon the fact that it will take time to reverse the excesses of the Bush administration given the vast damage it afflicted on our country, economy and our society and trying to blame it on Obama. In effect, they are trying to create a “Looking Glass” world where up is down and down is up.)


These first principles were proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, enshrined in the Constitution, and have endured through hard sacrifice and commitment by generations of Americans.

In a self-governing society, the only bulwark against the power of the state is the consent of the governed, and regarding the policies of the current government, the governed do not consent.

An unchecked executive, a compliant legislature, and an overreaching judiciary have combined to thwart the will of the people and overturn their votes and their values, striking down longstanding laws and institutions and scorning the deepest beliefs of the American people.

(Last time I checked, the Supreme Court had a conservative majority)

An arrogant and out-of-touch government of self-appointed elites makes decisions, issues mandates, and enacts laws without accepting or requesting the input of the many.

(Yes, but thank God, we’ve already voted out Bush and Cheney)


Rising joblessness, crushing debt, and a polarizing political environment are fraying the bonds among our people and blurring our sense of national purpose.

(See comment above)

Like free peoples of the past, our citizens refuse to accommodate a government that believes it can replace the will of the people with its own. The American people are speaking out, demanding that we realign our country’s compass with its founding principles and apply those principles to solve our common problems for the common good.

(Again, see comment above)

The need for urgent action to repair our economy and reclaim our government for the people cannot be overstated.

(The only people that your policies reclaim your government for is the very wealthy; you’re hiding behind specious arguments in a vicious, convoluted attempt to convince everyone else it’s in their best interests as well)

With this document, we pledge to dedicate ourselves to the task of reconnecting our highest aspirations to the permanent truths of our founding by keeping faith with the values our nation was founded on, the principles we stand for, and the priorities of our people. This is our Pledge to America.

(Our nation was founded on the principles of equality of opportunity and equal justice under the law. Tax policies that favor the rich, take health care away from the uninsured and compromise Social Security and Medicare are NOT consistent with these values)

We pledge to honor the Constitution as constructed by its framers and honor the original intent of those precepts that have been consistently ignored – particularly the Tenth Amendment, which grants that all powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

(Okay, that’s reasonable. But why don’t you feel the same way about the Fourteenth Amendment, which you want to repeal – you know, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander)

We pledge to advance policies that promote greater liberty, wider opportunity, a robust defense, and national economic prosperity.

(What has the Obama administration done NOT to promote these goals? They’ve provided much needed stimulus funds to the economy, extended healthcare to the uninsured, and protecting our interests in the middle East.)

We pledge to honor families, traditional marriage, life, and the private and faith-based organizations that form the core of our American values.

(Your economic policies do not honor most American families; it causes their economic destruction – quite the opposite. Most people in “traditional marriages” don’t care about same-sex marriages and, certainly, by the time the younger generation becomes the majority, this issue will become a non-issue. )

We pledge to make government more transparent in its actions, careful in its stewardship, and honest in its dealings.

(Does this mean that the GOP is going to stop conducting most its business in back-office meetings with highly paid lobbyists from the banking and oil industries? If so, bravo!)

We pledge to uphold the purpose and promise of a better America, knowing that to whom much is given, much is expected and that the blessings of our liberty buoy the hopes of mankind.

(The very rich – our “country club Republican “ friends – do virtually nothing to help our society. They hoard their money; they outsource jobs in the workplace, and create economic devastation across our country. They feed off the backs and misery of their fellow citizens with much lower relative wages for those who are still employed, charging them usurious rates when they get behind in credit payments, and they are trying to privatize Social Security which would be disastrous and destroy Medicare – all so that their taxes can be lower!)

We make this pledge bearing true faith and allegiance to the people we represent, and
we invite fellow citizens and patriots to join us in forming a new governing agenda for America.

(There already is a “new” governing agenda for America, but like anything it needs time to work. What this document is espousing is a return to the “old” government agenda that failed big time)

Building Pyramids

I heard an anecdote the other day. It was about Roosevelt and Keynes. Roosevelt allegedly asked Keynes what to do with the public works monies in the 1930s and Keynes answered and I paraphrase: “Why not build pyramids? Americans like pyramids.”

Okay, on the surface a frivolous use of money. But what would happen if we “built pyramids” today?

- First of all, we’d have to find a place. I nominate somewhere in Michigan outside of Detroit. Immediately we put let’s say 10,000 people to work building our mythical pyramid. At $50K a piece that puts $500 million in the local economy (and saves the government a significant amount in unemployment). So now the local Walmarts, Home Depots and McDonalds et al have to hire more workers too to accommodate the extra demand. And, of course, order more inventory from their suppliers from all around the country. And guess what? Local tax receipts will go up, saving jobs for teachers and public servants. And the real estate market will probably pick up from people coming into the area.

- Of course we need stone to build a pyramid. How about the quarries of Indiana? Now we’ve added a few thousand jobs there. The local businesses prosper. Now the same effect we saw in Michigan is beginning to happen in Indiana on a smaller scale.

- How about cement? From what I understand there’s a very big plant in Texas. Time to up production. More jobs. More money in the local economy.

- Then we need tractors, trucks, tools etc. That means jobs at the Caterpillar plant in Illinois, at the GM , Ford and Chrysler plants in Michigan and the Midwest, Stanley Tool works in Connecticut - and, of course, all the vendors for those companies – the tire companies, electronic companies, sheet metal companies, etc will have to stock up. And more jobs, revenues for the local delis, supermarkets, gas stations, convenience stores in all those areas

- Of course, since all this manufacturing activity will generate greenhouse gases, we’ll need to develop systems to make this growth sustainable. More jobs, more R&D, more ancillary services.

- And once our pyramid is done, now we have a tourist attraction smack in the middle of Michigan. That means hotels, motels, food franchises, convenience stores, etc

- Without doubt, the teamsters and trucking companies will be happy about toting all these needed materials around the country. And, then, we’ll need workmen’s comp – so the insurance companies in CT will get a nice hit, not to mention the financial services industry to finance some of this added growth.

- And what’s happening in the public sector. Tax receipts are going up, unemployment disbursements are going down, maybe some of these workers are even deferring their “retirement” beyond 65, so they continue to pay their payroll taxes and delay their receipt of entitlements.

HOLY COW! WE’VE STARTED A FULL BLOWN RECOVERY JUST BY BUILDING A STUPID PYRAMID.

Now, the reason for this diatribe is not to give everyone a lesson in Econ 101, but rather to counter all those posts that say government spending is necessarily bad. Yes, we need to make the stimulus funds work more quickly, but you can’t argue that they’ll create jobs.

Consider the alternative. Do Nothing? Now you’re looking at an unemployment rate (not counting the underemployed) of about 15%. Do a tax break to the wealthy instead? Well, it would help some, would probably result mostly in luxury good consumption and/or savings/debt retirement. Savings aren’t bad – as long as the banks are willing to loan out the money – in this environment a dubious assumption.
So, if building a “stupid pyramid” can result in all that growth, think what building something really needed might do.

Why the Recent Supreme Court Ruling is Anti-Democracy

I am still pained by the recent supreme court decision which allows corporations to spend unlimited dollars in political advertising under the supposed protective shield of Freedom of Speech. What was once the country where "all men are created equal," is rapidly becoming the country where "all dollars are created equal."

What do I mean by this?

By this ruling, the court is creating an unlevel playing field in an individuals right to participate in government and civic affairs. Instead of individual having an inherent equal right to participate in our democracy, the court is defining a persons or entity's ability to participate by the number of dollars they have. Not only is this not "Freedom of Speech," it actually stifles freedom of speech because the wealthy few can drown out the unwealthy masses with their dollars. This is not what the framers of the constitution had in mind, I assure you. Right now, Jefferson and Franklin are turning in their graves.

Our democracy is rapidly becoming anything but a democracy; in fact, we are becoming an oligarchy -- where those individuals rewarded disproportionally by the vagaries of an imperfect market are having a disproportionate impact on our government and way of life.

What a shame.

What's Wrong with American Business Today. Part 2: Immediate Gratification

Last time I talked about The Compartmentalization of Markets and Human Values. This time it’s about Immediate Gratification. Here we go:

2. Immediate Gratification Short Term Focus
It’s true, we live in an immediate gratification society. Unfortunately, it’s even more true in American Business. It’s all about the quarterly numbers and top management’s stock options. So, when the topline isn’t doing well, Sr. Execs make the bottom line look better by cutting staff and programs, like R&D, employee benefits, marketing plans, etc. This begs the question – is eliminating or diluting part of the firm’s human capital (some of whom have been around a long time – longer than the usually transient CEO – and are literally the hearts, soul and minds of the company) and important projects that may spur future growth, really in the best long term interests of the firm? In my estimation, usually not. But it does lead to seven and eight figure bonuses for some top execs. Sometimes a company just has to take the short term hit for the long term good. Unfortunately, management is incented to do exactly the opposite. What a shame.

In upcoming posts, I’ll discuss:

3. Financial Sector as Lord and Master
4. Consumer Schizophrenia
5. Creative Destruction Destroys Creatively.
6. The Rise of “Professional CEOs”
7. The “small business fallacy”
8. The 401K Con Job
9. Bigger is Better and Disruptive Market Power
10. Merger Mania, Leveraged Buyouts and Other Destructive Habits.
11. The Asymetrical Rewards and Punishments of the Business Cycle
12. The marketing afterthought
13. International Sanctuaries for Tax Evaders

What's Wrong with American Business Today? Part 1: Compartmentalization of Markets and Vaues

I’ve been very critical of American business and its role in the meltdown in many on-line forums, particularly the Wharton forum (and, as a result, have been anointed “Wharton’s Resident Socialist” – which is cute, but I’m definitely not). I am, though, what I would call a “compassionate capitalist” (to paraphrase one of my least favorite politicians). So I thought I would jot down some thoughts on what I think is wrong with American business. I’ll try to send one out every day or so. Okay, here’s the first:

1. The Compartmentalization of Markets and Human Values

Way too often business leaders “compartmentalize” between their business sides and human sides and never in the twain shall they meet. It’s like Bill Clinton, Elliot Spitzer and Tiger Woods compartmentalizing their trysts completely out of their public personas. I think, in many ways they actually think there are two of them ! The same goes with many business leaders. In the workplace, they march to the beat of Adam Smith and the “Invisible Hand.” Out of the workplace, most try to be respectable members of the community and some even Bible-toting churchgoers. But here’s the problem – the decisions they make in the boardroom, when they are driven by the pure profit motive affect the community and society as a whole – many times in a negative way. But in the office they hide under the cover of “profit maximization”, using it as a shield. I’m sure those Enron folks who robbed their employees of their 401Ks - -- or the Citigroup execs who brought the company down but still think they’re entitled to big bonuses -- were good church-going citizens, but it certainly didn’t factor into their business decisions. They’re decisions many times leave people homeless, without health insurance and/or pensions, while the corporate execs live the “high life,” even after they’ve failed miserably. Capitalism without a social conscious is an empty vessel.

Some topics I’ll cover in subsequent posts:

2. Immediate Gratification

3. Financial Sector as Lord and Master

4. Consumer Schizophrenia

5. Creative Destruction Destroys Creatively.

6. The Rise of “Professional CEOs”

7. The “small business fallacy”

8. The 401K Con Job

9. Bigger is Better and Disruptive Market Power

10. Merger Mania, Leveraged Buyouts and Other Destructive Habits.

11. The Asymmetrical Rewards and Punishments of the Business Cycle

12. The marketing Afterthought

13. International Sanctuaries for Tax Evaders