As of 10:20 p.m
pacific time, January 15, a google search on genius of capitalism and enron
returned 453 hits. Following the below news item from AFP, I've added a few more
pre-enron allusions to the genius. I do believe Secretary O'Neill has spoken
thephrase that willsomeday appear inhis
obituary.
Top Bush official
savaged over Enron comment
Washington: US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill was savaged by
leading members of Congress today for describing the biggest corporate collapse
in US history as "part of the genius of capitalism".
O'Neill, appearing on the Sunday talk show circuit along with Commerce
Secretary Donald Evans, distanced the Bush administration from the collapse of
the company, which left tens of thousands of employees holding worthless
pensions while top executives reportedly cashed out for hefty profits.
Speaking on the CBS show "Face the Nation", Senator Joseph Lieberman, a
former Democratic vice-presidential candidate, described O'Neill's comments as
"outrageous".
"With all respect to Secretary O'Neill, those statements are outrageous. I
hope that they're - they sound more cold-blooded than he means them to be," he
said.
"Those are statements that might have been made by the secretary of the
treasury in the 18th century, but not in the 21st century."
"The death that Enron experienced was not a natural death. We know enough to
know that now," he added. "This was not capitalism as we want it to be."
More cullings:
The genius of capitalism is that markets, not regulations or politics, force
the admission and correction of mistakes.
The genius of capitalism is that suppliers have to both compete and also to
collaborate to survive and that in the end they get their money from satisfied
customers or not at all,so the marketplace may work for the public even though
the standards committees fail.
Pollution problems could be solved by the genius of capitalism.
With capitalism in trouble, the fascist demagogues will need scapegoats, and
the myths and legends of the Jews as the evil genius of capitalism are too
tempting and too well established and elaborated to be dispensed with;
anti-black racism has limited uses.
The genius of capitalism - the wage-contract - means that capital never has
to notice that there's a person and not just a worker on the other end of the
contract - even if the worker has body piercings.
The "genius" of capitalism was in its giving outlet to human creativity to
deal with the prevailing circumstances without the burden of the past.
A society that relies merely on legally coercive contracts and consumer
carrots rather than a range of covenantal trust relationships in voluntary
associations incurs increasing legal costs for enforcement and undermines the
very freedom that is the genius of capitalism.
Indeed, the primary genius of capitalism is not its miraculous powers to make
things work; it is what Joseph Schumpeter called "creative destruction," i.e.
the ability to drive out firms that cannot compete.
The genius of capitalism is that it allows people to oppress themselves
Although the genius of capitalism is indeed production, the genius of
socialism is indeed distribution.
Tom Walker
