Types of Graft

Both David Altig and Mark Thoma pursue an article in the WSJ about the costs of regulations on financial markets performance. Mark does not seriously comment on the article, simply lets the article speak for itself. David takes the position such regulations are harmful for Markets’ performance. I take the contradictory view, thinking the elimination of fraud, advertent and inadvertent, is worth the time-delay and Accounting Costs. Altig’s views are formed in the Profits dramatization of a financial boom, but the downturn of the Housing market and deteriorating aspects throughout the rest of the financial markets may outline the value of established assets in determination of Investment advantage. It is in a way like this Post by Dean Baker on the Inflation-Scoring of actual Oil prices. Everything Dean say is the truth about Oil prices in that actual increase in Oil prices is only about 70%, but he leaves out the Inflation-Adjusted direction of Production Costs for Oil over the intervening Period; this leaves up in the Air the question of whether Oil production are obtaining economic profits in the Process.

William Polley and Ben Stein may have it right in their claim that Greed can only flourish if there is a limit to that Greed. Corporate CEOs and Hedge Fund managers may have to learn this lesson the hard way. I possess an old-fashioned Mutual Fund, originated to please my now-deceased parents, but kept for reasons of nostalgia. The fact is it has not grown in Years, though I still make contributions to it on a monthly basis; the rationale behind this is the ever-increasing Managerial fees charged by the Fund. It is obvious I should sell my Holdings, and a few more Statements of such derogatory Accounting may lead me to take action. Such Fund managers, and CEOs towards their Stockholders, rely on the inertia of Investors to maintain the current system. Their Customers, like myself, find such behavior becoming so egregious We may have to divest ourselves of such chicanery. This is what William Polley and Ben Stein perceive, and on which I agree.

Brad DeLong tries to define the long-term Health Care Cost Drivers. The truth states he is wrong, but only because basically his focus is fallacious. He would support the basic Status Quo of Health Care, which We all realize is endemic in fault. Where is the disease in Health Care? It is again Greed, and again at all levels. Everyone wants economic profits at every level. Doctors will not accept Set Salaries and/or standard Workweeks. Health Care Providers and Insurers insist on huge administrative staffs, rather than a common Schedule of Payments for provided Services. Drug companies insist on unlimited royalties for Drugs, often which work no better than unpatented Drugs, and buy a medical staff to proscribe them by underhanded graft provision to Doctors. Hospitals resent Demands that they present an Averaged Day Cost for Hospital Services in total, as it would prevent inline Accounting Profit-taking. Does this Situation fit in with the rest of this article? lgl