25 Images Of Markets "Regulating Themselves"

Alan: The purpose of "self-regulatory markets" is to concentrate wealth at The Top while imposing economic degradation on the underclass, the working class and, increasingly, the middle class.

Such degradation occurred during "The Roaring 20s" and more recently in the run-up to The Great Recession.

"Self-regulation" benefiting "the wealthy" and degrading "the poor" is "baked in the cake" of unregulated "free" market capitalism. 

What we call The "Free" Market is the domination of markets by The Ungodly Rich for purposes of self-aggrandizement and correlative minimization of wealth for "los de abajo" (a Spanish language phrase that, sadly, has no English language equivalent. Literally "los de abajo" means "those from below" but translates more accurately as "those who have been relegated to the bottom.")  

A central credo of American secular religion is that we live in a classless society, and persevere in this belief even when the world's most successful capitalist tells us the contrary is true.

Since 2009, the Top 1% Got 93% Of Income Growth As Rich-Poor Gap Widened

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-10-02/top-1-got-93-of-income-growth-as-rich-poor-gap-widened

"Of The 1%, By The 1%, For The 1%,"

Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/02/of-1-by-1-for-1-nobel-laureate-joseph.html

Currently, as capital concentrates in fewer banks, an increasing percentage of capitalism's "profit" goes to The 1%. 

"Three Disturbing Trends In Commercial Banking," Reuters

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2012/03/13/three-disturbing-trends-in-commercial-banking/

https://www.communitybanking.org/documents/Session3_Paper2_Prescott-Summary.pdf

The "self-regulating nature" of "The (Supposedly) Free Market" posits the centrality of "self-interest for near-term personal gain," ignoring the possibility that "producers" and "consumers" mistake the meaning of self-interest.

"The Pitchforks Are Coming For Us Billionaires"

Amazon Financier, Nick Hanauer

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us.html

Capitalism has converted "The Seven Deadly Sins" into "The Seven Irresistibly Luscious Temptations," positing new behavioral norms based on "feel good" prurience, norms that focus instant gratification to the near exclusion of long-haul "self-interest," particularly those critical aspects of self-interest that necessarily coincide with The Common Good and any sort of Social Contract that ennobles. 

The atomizing effect of sating self-interest with little attention to social, economic, political, physical and metaphysical health immerses people in momentary "feelies" divorced from the long arc of full lives meaningfully led.  

"Things go better with bacon" but self-indulgent concepts of "good, better, best" hit momentary "sweet spots" at the expense of long-haul morbidity, dysfunction and early death.

The "left side of the aisle" is flabbergasted that "people vote in their own worst interest" when, predictably, capitalism and consumerism converge to stupefy people through besotted materialism, a ubiquitous American characteristic that sees no behavioral trajectories longer than young bucks' blinding passion to "get into Big Tits' pants."

Compendium Of Pax Posts: "The Seven Deadly Sins"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/03/compendium-of-pax-posts-on-seven-deadly.html

Capitalism's strategic intent is to stultify consumers with material pleasure so that the acquisition and use of "baubles" and "toys" precludes any analysis that would reveal "the man behind the curtain."

In "Christian" America, The Nicene Creed has been supplanted by the central dictum: "S/he who dies with the most toys, wins."

"Americans are fucked. They've been bought off. And they come real cheap: a few million dirt bikes, camcorders, microwaves, cordless phones, digital watches, answering machines, jet skis and sneakers with lights in 'em. You say you want a few items back from The Bill of Rights? Just promise the doofuses new gizmos."  George Carlin

Favorite George Carlin Shticks

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/03/my-favorite-george-carlin-shticks.html

"Plutocracy Triumphant"

Cartoon Compendium

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/05/plutocracy-triumphant.html

"Politics And Economics: The 101 Courses You Wish You Had"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/01/politics-and-economics-101-curricula.html

Compendium Of Best Pax Posts: Plutocracy, Economic Inequality & Collapse Of Conservatism

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/03/compendium-of-best-pax-posts-on.html

25 Images of Markets "Regulating Themselves"

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When economists talk about how a market "regulates itself," what they mean is that markets reach an equilibrium between supply and demand.

This says nothing about whether or not this equilibrium will be a good thing for society. It simply states that if consumers choose what to buy and producers choose what to sell and how to produce it, the market settles on a product distribution and prices.

Lately, many people I know have argued that "free markets" mean something more. They see markets as ethically right or ethically moral, meaning pursuit of profit always somehow leads to a greater good.

Unfortunately, morality isn't built into markets.

Markets were fine with child labor and slavery. Both were viewed simply as cheap sources of labor. It wasn't until people fought against child labor and slavery that these things became unacceptable in a market (at least in most Western countries).

This is why markets must be subject to other forces such as ethics and government if we want them to work for the benefit of the many (not just a select few).

Now you may know all this and if that's the case, you're ahead of the game.

However, many of us know people who have either bought into the claim that government is the only thing standing between us and a truly "free" market or are on the fence about the role of government.

Here are a few examples I've found that make a convincing case for regulations and good government.

2014 Oxfam report "85 people own more than the poorest 3.5 billion people on the planet"

This statistic from Oxfam is staggering. Just 85 people, the top 0.00000001 percent, own as much as the poorest 3.5 billion people on the planet.

Oxfam's concern is not only that wealth is concentrated at the top, but that it will remain this way, passed down from generation to generation like royalty.

According to Nick Galasso, co-author of the report:

"High levels of inequality actually corrode democratic processes.  What we have seen across the globe and what the report documents is how wealth concentration is used to influence the political process to create laws and regulations that benefit the rich over everyone else."

2014 West Virginia chemical spill

Freedom Industries allowed to act freely (left alone by the EPA for 20 years) lets 7,500 gallons of MCHM (4-methylcyclohexane methanol) into the Elk River. 300,000 lose water for days.

“Montani semper liberi,” Joe Manchin III, West Virginia's junior senator said arguing for "freer markets" at an event sponsored by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity after the spill, “Mountaineers are always free.”

2013 Bangladesh garment factory collapse

1,132 people killed, 2,500 injured, 300 missing
Minimum wage for garment workers = $40/month

Months later, little has changed and the South Asian country continues to mourn the deaths of workers in other avoidable incidents.

2013 West Fertilizer Company explosion in Texas

15 killed, 160 injured.

Texas law allows fertilizer storage facilities to operate without any liability insurance, even when they store hazardous materials.

2012 Libor price fixing scandal

Possibly the biggest price-fixing scandal ever affecting upwards of $500 trillion of financial instruments.

By the time litigation is through, its estimated 16 banks may face up to $35 billion in civil settlements in addition to other regulatory fines.

2012 Pink Slime

We find out that what we're eating in our beef looks like this:

The name used in the meat industry is lean finely textured beef (LFTB). Hmmm.

2012 HSBC launders Mexican drug cartel money

And this is only the second biggest banking scandal of 2012 because of the Libor price fixing. JP Morgan losing $5.8 billion on a derivatives trade was a distant third.

2011 Newscorp hacking scandal

Newscorp employees engage in phone hacking and police bribery to get stories.

2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

11 dead. 4.9 million barrels of oil spilled into Gulf of Mexico.

$37-90 billion in cleanup costs. Billions more estimated in economic and environmental impact.

2010 Chilean miners trapped in collapsed mine

Between 2004 and 2010, the firm accumulated 42 fines from various Chilean safety bodies for failing to protect its workers.

"They never carried out the most fundamental adjustments needed to avoid disasters like what we're seeing today," Vincelot Tobar, risk assessor who resigned in 2009 because the company failed to carry out his recommendations.

2009 Queensland Oil Spill

Improperly stowed cargo dislodged from the deck damaging other cargo and containers onboard causing various substances to spill into the ocean.

Cost: $34 million (Australian dollars) cleanup, economy impact $10 million

2008 Lehman Brothers collapse, sub-prime mortgage crisis, and global recession

8 years after Graham-Leach-Bliley legislation deregulates the financial services industry.

Cost: $475 billion authorized in TARP payment, global recession, continuing “too big to fail” philosophy

2007 Aqua Dots Recall

The toy's coating contains a chemical that, once ingested, converts into the toxic "date rape" drug GHB, or gamma hydroxybutyrate causing children to become comatose, develop respiratory depression, or have seizures.  

Spin Master, the company making Aqua Dots, identified the problem on October 17, 2007 after several reports of kids getting sick.

They continued selling the product until November 7, 2007, when the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) contacted them after receiving reports. At this point, Spin Master issued a "voluntary" recall.

2006 Trafigura Dumps Toxic Waste on Ivory Coast

In 2006, the Dutch oil and shipping company Trafigura, chartered a ship called the Probo Koala, to offload toxic waste at numerous sites around the city of Abijan, Ivory Coast. Trafigura was seeking to avoid paying a £1,000 per cubic meter disposal charge in Amsterdam.

Gases released by these chemicals claimed the lives of 17 and injured more than 30,000. Injuries ranged from mild headaches to severe lung and skin burns.

2006 E. Coli outbreak from contaminated spinach

Following the outbreak in 2006, the California Leafy Greens Handler Marketing Agreement (LGMA) was established in the spring of 2007. The LGMA, operating with oversight from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, provides a mechanism for verifying that farmers follow established food safety practices for lettuce, spinach and other leafy greens.

2005 BP Texas City Refinery Explosion

After the accident which killed 15 and injured 170, both the BP and the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board reports identified numerous technical and organizational failings at the refinery and within corporate BP.

Organizational failings included:

corporate cost-cutting, a failure to invest in the plant infrastructure, a lack of corporate oversight on both safety culture and major accident prevention programs, a focus on occupational safety and not process safety, a defective management of change process (which allowed the siting of contractor trailers too close to the ISOM process unit), the inadequate training of operators, a lack of competent supervision for start-up operations, poor communications between individuals and departments and the use of outdated and ineffective work procedures which were often not followed. Technical failings included a blowdown drum that was of insufficient size, a lack of preventative maintenance on safety critical systems, inoperative alarms and level sensors in the ISOM process unit and the continued use of outdated blowdown drum and stack technology when replacement with the safer flare option had been a feasible alternative for many years.

It's a good thing BP learned their lesson after 2005.

2002-2004 Merck Vioxx

By the time Vioxx, approved by the FDA in 1999, was pulled off the market in 2004, nearly 25 million Americans had taken the drug.

Internal Merck documents show that the company knew about the problem at least as early as 2000, but continued to market the product as safe. Merck even provided an obstacle handling guide to counter doctor concerns of heart risk.

2001 Enron collapse

Enron hid failed deals and projects for years through the use of accounting loopholes and special purpose entities.

The collapse of Enron led to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This legislation increased penalties for defrauding shareholders or tampering with records. The act also increased the accountability of auditing firms to remain unbiased and independent of their clients.

2000 Firestone recalls 6.5 million tires

March 11, 1999—In response to a Ford concern about tire separations on the Explorer, Bridgestone/Firestone sent a confidential memo to Ford claiming that less than 0.1 percent of all Wilderness tires (which are used on the Explorer) had been returned under warranty for all kinds of problems.

August 9—Firestone announced that it would recall about 6.5 million tires that were then on light trucks and SUVs because they had been implicated in more than 40 fatalities.

What to do with this

Extensive lobbying, advertising, and education on behalf of certain business organizations is pushing the idea that markets have a built-in morality.

Here's a great example from a site called Students for Liberty:

The task before us, then–if we wish to actualize the truly free social system that is laissez-faire capitalism–is to provide and defend its moral justification. We must convince fellow students that capitalism is not just the most efficient system, but a virtuous one as well.

Anyone who questions this morality is a liberal or in the view of some:

I've found, however, that it's pretty easy to make the case for regulation and ethics if you illustrate through a few examples (and keep partisanship out of it).

To start with all you have to do is ask: what's the goal of a business?

Obviously, it's to turn a profit.

What's to prevent pursuing a profit at all costs? Especially if no regulations, enforcement, or penalties exist.

We're frequently told: If only we could release business from the shackles of government and stop "forcing" them to obey regulations and laws, then the market would magically make everything better for people.

However, when government deregulates or fails to properly enforce regulations, evidence overwhelmingly suggests that pursuit of profits trumps ethics, morality and the greater good. Not surprising given that this is the #1 stated priority.

We simply need to recognize that markets have no implicit moral authority.

We need to have a debate about the moral limits of markets. And we need to recognize that appropriate regulation, enforcement and good government are all components of aworking capitalism.

Read the full Oxfam report (or summary of recommendations here) for other recommendations on how to create a working capitalism including progressive taxation, cracking down on financial secrecy and tax dodging, and curbing the power of the wealthy to influence elections.

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David Akadjian is the author of The Little Book of Revolution: A Distributive Strategy for Democracy.

Follow @akadjian