Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search
 

rhett o rick

(55,981 posts)
Fri Jul 3, 2015, 11:04 AM Jul 2015

Ayn Rand Hits the Fan, or What the Hell Happened to American Businesses

Ayn Rand Hits the Fan, or What the Hell Happened to American Businesses

In 1963 Alan Greenspan said,

“Capitalism is based on self-interest and self-esteem; it holds integrity and trustworthiness as cardinal virtues and makes them pay off in the marketplace, thus demanding that men survive by means of virtue, not vices. It is this superlatively moral system that the welfare statists propose to improve upon by means of preventative law, snooping bureaucrats, and the chronic goad of fear.” (1)
What I hear Mr. Greenspan, a devout follower of the Ayn Rand god, saying is that if government (the inherent evil) would just leave the capitalists alone, their virtues, not vices would prevail and their companies would succeed. Of course per AynRandism if corporations succeed everyone would benefit (all boats rise...yada yada). Well, Saint Greenspan would be in for a shock in 2008. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Some excerpts from an article from "I, Cringely" (3)
In American business, especially, one key theory says that the purpose of corporate enterprise is to “maximize shareholder value.” Some take this even further and claim that such value maximization is the only reason a corporation exists.
It’s not even a very old theory, in fact, only dating back to 1976. That’s when Michael Jensen and William Meckling of the University of Rochester published in the Journal of Financial Economics their paper Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs and Ownership Structure. (3)

Their theory, in a nutshell, said there was an inherent conflict in business between owners (shareholders) and managers, that this conflict had to be resolved in favor of the owners, who after all owned the business, and the best way to do that was to find a way to align those interests by linking managerial compensation to owner success. Link executive compensation primarily to the stock price, the economists argued, and this terrible conflict would be resolved, making business somehow, well, better. (3)

Link management compensation to stock price and all will be good, right? We all know that stock prices are a direct reflection of the strength of the company, right? Not really. Managers are masters of manipulating their companies stock prices and know full well how to personally profit from those actions.
Back to the article:
Maximizing shareholder return has given us our corporate malaise of today when profits are high (but are they real?) stocks are high, but few investors, managers, or workers are really happy or secure. Maximizing shareholder return is bad policy both for public companies and for our society in general. That’s what Jack Welch told the Financial Times in 2009, once Welch was safely out of the day-to-day earnings grind at General Electric: “On the face of it,” said Welch, “shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world. Shareholder value is a result, not a strategy… your main constituencies are your employees, your customers, and your products. Managers and investors should not set share-price increases as their overarching goal. … Short-term profits should be allied with an increase in the long-term value of a company.” (3) 

But the problem is that if you take the suggestions of Jensen and Meckling to the end, you get the corruption when -
management just cooks the books and lies. And so shareholder value maximization gave us companies like Enron (Jeffrey Skilling in prison), Tyco International (Dennis Kozlowski in prison), and WorldCom (Bernie Ebbers in prison). (3)


So where are we. In 2008 “Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, finally took some responsibility (sort of) for the crisis. He told Congress:
"Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholder's equity – myself especially – are in a state of shocked disbelief…”

Translated, IMO he means he did not think bank bosses (or corporate CEO's) were so greedy as to drive their companies into bankruptcy for personal gain, but he admits he was wrong. Ayn Rand's John Gault was just a fantasy.

And whether irony or just corrupt stupidity, in 2008 those that worshiped Ayn Rand and demanded that the government stay out of their businesses, were begging for a bail out. If Ms. Rand were truly a god, lightening would have struck these weasels that thought they were the mighty capitalist John Gault. They had to bow to the gods of socialism and accept their hand-outs.

(1) The Assault on Integrity, 1963
(2) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/quotes-of-2008-we-are-in-a-state-of-shocked-disbelief-1220057.html
(3) http://www.cringely.com/2015/06/24/the-u-s-computer-industry-is-dying-and-ill-tell-you-exactly-who-is-killing-it-and-why/

16 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies

KT2000

(20,567 posts)
1. the dye has been cast
Fri Jul 3, 2015, 01:28 PM
Jul 2015

Jack Welch has "trained" a generation in self-interest and shareholder value.
The ethos of business is what you can get away with - that is the norm now.
Besides the big players, private equity firms have quietly robbed middle American manufacturing businesses blind and we get stories about their beautiful mansions and art work purchases.

 

rhett o rick

(55,981 posts)
2. Actually it's the whole American culture. The new American dream is to get wealthy
Fri Jul 3, 2015, 03:24 PM
Jul 2015

the easiest way possible. Why do so many Americans "play" the stock market? They dream of hitching their star to someone that knows how to scam the system. They are ok with the scams if they get their piece.

 

demwing

(16,916 posts)
3. Unfortunately Americans are ignorant of our own history
Fri Jul 3, 2015, 10:35 PM
Jul 2015

and way too few people could tell you the difference between Black Tuesday and Black Friday

merrily

(45,251 posts)
5. And charter schools will dumb down America even more.
Sat Jul 4, 2015, 04:41 AM
Jul 2015

As will Texas, which basically controls the content of textbooks.

As will the evangelical revisionist version of the founding of this country, which makes its way into schools.

The less we know, the more bad info we have, the easier it is for the plutocracy/plutonomy to control us.

merrily

(45,251 posts)
16. Good one, demwing.
Sun Aug 23, 2015, 09:42 AM
Aug 2015

What time did stores open on Black Tuesday?

Too few Americans know the difference between Black Tuesday and Black Friday. Very true and very well put. Fewer still can put Black Tuesday (and the New Deals that resulted it from it) within the context of world history: World War I, the Russian Revolutions, etc. Including me. However, the more I think about it, the more it seems to me that the New Deals and the Great Society were not so much indicia of liberalism within the Democratic Party as they were programs conceived from the idea that, pushed far enough, people just may revolt--and get the military to go along with them.

Once, Democrats were considered the party that took the nation to war. Next, both Houses of Congress were filled with Democratic veterans of the Korean War (Ted Kennedy, for one) and Vietnam, while Republicans who voted for war were known as chickenhawks (Bush v. Kerry is a perfect example). Now, the military is predominantly RW and Democrats are trying to win it back. Throughout, the left has been deemed a risk to the government. Weird.

merrily

(45,251 posts)
4. After years of bs, Andrea Mitchell's husband, Alan Greenspan, finally
Sat Jul 4, 2015, 04:40 AM
Jul 2015

admitted that "the market" is not either pure or omniscient. Even wrote a book to tell us that.

Gee, thanks, Alan. Sorry I won't be buying your book, though, because I saw the film Wall Street. Didn't you? I mean, it was released the very same year St. Ronnie made you Fedhead. Weren't you curious?

Is missing the film the reason why you missed that "the market" is driven by the greed of individuals and pressure from stockholders?



 

rhett o rick

(55,981 posts)
6. I didn't buy his book but tried to read the library's copy. Garbage. He tried like
Sat Jul 4, 2015, 03:59 PM
Jul 2015

crazy to justify his "John Gault" fantasies.

merrily

(45,251 posts)
7. As Upton Sinclair wrote,
Sat Jul 4, 2015, 07:15 PM
Jul 2015

Last edited Fri Oct 2, 2015, 06:53 AM - Edit history (1)

I used to say to our audiences: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!"

I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked (1935), ISBN 0-520-08198-6; repr. University of California Press, 1994, p. 109

http://billmoyers.com/content/a-senators-prophetic-words-then-and-now/

Rep. Sanders, Rep Dingell and Senator Dorgan, among others, predicted what would happen if Gramm, Leach, Bliley passed. The other day, eridani posted about Sanders on this. Bill Moyers covered Dorgan.
http://billmoyers.com/content/a-senators-prophetic-words-then-and-now/

Dingell:





House: 151 Democrats voted yea, only 55 voted nay, with 5 not voting

House vote: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/106-1999/h570

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/1999/roll570.xml (shows who did not vote)



Senate vote: Originally, only one Democratic Senator, Fritz Hollings, voted yea and 44 voted nay.

Senate vote https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/106-1999/s105

But, I seem to recall that there was another vote for some reason, with more Senators voting yea. That does not seem to make sense, but I remember having been corrected on this point when I claimed only one Democrat had voted for it.

"Talk" about the wiki article on Gramm, Leach, Bliley indicates both that GLB was responsible for economic collapse and that the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, also signed by Clinton, was what allowed mortgage derivatives and credit default swaps, which many saw as the reason for collapse. It also states that, at some point, Bill Clinton said that Summers and Rubin had been wrong about the CFMA and he had been wrong to take their advice on it.

The wiki for the CMFA cites that, but also cites a quote in which Clinton defended the CMFA. It cites a source saying Clinton lied. In fact, the Clinton White House had lobbied for passage. The act had an allegedly veto proof majority, which the Clinton White House often lobbied Democrats hard for. It's what he often cited during his post-presidency, as though that somehow excused his signature. In fact, the only way to tell if a vote is veto proof is to veto the bill.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_Futures_Modernization_Act_of_2000

For some reason, I cannot find the votes on the Act in the form that passed the Senate. All I can find in Thomas is the vote on a bill that did not pass the Senate, the last action shown being receipt by the Senate. The House version, for which Sanders did vote, did not include the compromise that allowed mortgage derivatives and credit default swaps. Greenspan admitted to having been wrong on this.

https://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2009/04/01/read-the-bill-the-commodity-futures-modernization-act/


ETA. See also http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-blumenthal/how-congress-rushed-a-bil_b_181926.html
 

rhett o rick

(55,981 posts)
8. "Bill Clinton said that Summers and Rubin had been wrong about the CFMA and he had been wrong to
Sat Jul 4, 2015, 07:53 PM
Jul 2015

take their advice on it." And yet who did Obama look to for economic help? The three stoogies. And who will H. Clinton undoubtedly look to for economic advice? My bet is the same three stoogies. While we the people think they were wrong, Wall Fracking Street were happy as hell. Goldman-Sachs can't wait to have HRC give them some more speeches.

merrily

(45,251 posts)
9. IIRC, they were indeed among the 200 plus advisors she hired to help her figure out
Sun Jul 5, 2015, 03:47 AM
Jul 2015

what to say to the masses to sound populist, without hurting the feelings of the rich. One piece of advice I bet they gave: "Don't talk about wealth inequality as Bernie does, talk about income inequality. The masses probably won't notice or think about the difference, but talking about income inequality won't scare the wealthy as much as wealth inequality."

Sperling was also a Clintonite hired by Obama--and by "self-avowed socialist" Lawrence O'Donnell btw. (If O'Donnell, who has been very dismissive of Sanders, is a socialist, I'll eat every tape of the West Wing.)

Anyway.....Sperling came up with the sequester, then lied about that repeatedly, until Woodward outed him with his (Sperling's) aemails. After being outed, Sperling's retort was to the effect that Congress had not adopted the sequester exactly as he had proposed it: The wicked Republicans had made changes. So......he never proposed the sequester.



By that standard, Obama never proposed Obamacare.

merrily

(45,251 posts)
12. Gee, if only Bill had been a Rhodes scholar or the smartest politician I've seen in my life.
Thu Aug 13, 2015, 08:02 AM
Aug 2015

Then he might have been able to follow the bouncing ball while Summers and Rubin were talking and drawn his own conclusions.

Or, too bad he wasn't smart enough to know the difference between a DLC/Third Way economist and someone like Stiglitz, at least enough to get a second opinion.

Or, too bad he wasn't smart enough to appoint people who wouldn't pull the wool over his eyes, like he claims Summers and Rubin did on money issues and he claims Colin Powell did on DADT.



Bubba has two standard excuses. "I signed it because it was veto proof anyway." and "The people I chose to advise me and whose pay I controlled duped me."

Neither one washes. He wanted legislation Republicans wanted anyway and he and his White House lobbied Democrats hard to get those allegedly veto proof majorities. So, obviously, he anticipated that he was going to have to do some Presidentsplaining some day. If he didn't want the bill, why the hell did he and his White House lobby hard for it, instead of against it? And no majority can be truly called veto-proof until the veto occurs. Not many Democrats would have voted to override his veto, unless he persuaded them to.

Sorry, but ,to paraphrase Lincoln, Slick Willie is just not Slick enough to fool all of the people all of the time.

 

rhett o rick

(55,981 posts)
13. Bill and Hillary live in the 1% bubble. They see the problems the 99% are having
Thu Aug 13, 2015, 11:20 AM
Aug 2015

and they probably sympathize, but they did not / will not support legislation that will hurt their close friends. There is a reason that Goldman-Sachs prefers H. Clinton, and it's not because of her work for social justice. Bill Clinton and his close friends Summers, Rubin and Geitner, helped solidify Wall Street's hold on our economy and government. There is no reason to believe that H. Clinton won't do the same.

merrily

(45,251 posts)
14. In 1999-2000, according to Hillary, the Clintons had no money and many legal bills.
Thu Aug 13, 2015, 12:45 PM
Aug 2015

Bill Clinton was looking forward to a lucrative post-Presidency for which he needed money; he was looking forward to building a Presidential library, for which he needed to raise money; Hillary was running for the Senate, for which she needed money; and, IMO, she was running for the Senate with an eye to running for the Presidency, for which she would need money.

sabrina 1

(62,325 posts)
15. The very idea that the ONLY function of a corporation is to 'maximize profits' should shock anyone
Sun Aug 16, 2015, 01:31 PM
Aug 2015

believes this country to be of, for and by the PEOPLE.

They have changed the very reason for the existence of this country in the first place.

And how in the name of anything that is SANE, did a nutcase like Ayn Rand come to have so much influence over our government?

The woman was in dire need of deep therapy which should have been obvious to any thinking person.

So to see this unfortunate individual posing with Presidents in the WH?

I can't think of words that would adequately express the way I feel about that.

Latest Discussions»Retired Forums»Populist Reform of the Democratic Party»Ayn Rand Hits the Fan, or...