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A Quick Look at Bloomberg News's Opinion Section for March 8, 2012

"The economic power that some in the financial community attain bothers many
people deeply," writes Robert Shiller. "It offends our ideal of a society
that aspires to respect, appreciate and support everyone. The pursuit of
power that often drives financial capitalism seems contrary to the concept
that finance should be about the stewardship of society’s assets. Yet
successful societies develop elites partly because they need leaders with
the power to get things done. We have to make it possible for a relatively
small number of people to use their personal judgment to direct our major
activities. A system of financial capitalism will eventually imbue those in
possession of such faculties with wealth and power." Read the fourth and
final op-ed installment of Shiller's search for ways to "humanize finance"
at the[2] link.
Links:
2. http://bloom.bg/wZgwRk

Meanwhile, the Koch brothers are trying to dehumanize libertarianism -- by
trying take over the Cato Institute -- says columnist Ezra Klein. "The Koch
brothers have long supported Cato, which they helped found in Washington in
1977," Klein explains. "Recently, however, they have come to consider their
creation politically unreliable ... I am not exactly a libertarian. I’m a
technocrat. I believe in the government’s ability, and occasionally its
responsibility, to help solve problems that the market can’t or won’t
resolve on its own. I find much of Cato’s hard-line libertarianism -- to the
point of purging Will Wilkinson and Brink Lindsey, libertarians who explored
making common cause with liberals on select issues -- naive, callous and
occasionally absurd. And yet, it’s among a handful of think tanks whose work
I regularly read and trust." [3]Link.
Links:
3. http://bloom.bg/ysbt5w

"U.S. exports have been a rare bright spot in an otherwise sluggish economy,
increasing by about 20 percent over the last two years and driving about
half of all economic growth," note the View editors. "It’s curious, then,
that some U.S. companies, conservative groups and lawmakers are arguing
against reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank of the United States, whose
sole purpose is to help strengthen the economy and create jobs by supporting
the nation’s exports." Well, has the bank helped? In many ways: "Its role
seems small: Out of $2 trillion in U.S. exports last year, it provided $32
billion in loans, loan guarantees and other support for about $41 billion
worth of sales. But it helps enable deals that might not happen otherwise,
including the purchase of General Electric Co. locomotives in Pakistan and
decorative wall coverings made by Wallquest Inc., a small, family-owned
Pennsylvania company looking to expand overseas." [4]Link.
Links:
4. http://bloom.bg/ydIsHo

And, with news of another economic bright spot, comes View columnist
Caroline Baum: "Those arguing that recent job gains -- an average monthly
increase of 185,000 in private payrolls in the past year -- are statistical
anomalies have an increasingly wobbly leg to stand on. Start with the plunge
in weekly jobless claims, a tally of real people lining up at real state
unemployment offices to file real claims. The Labor Department publishes
both unadjusted and seasonally adjusted numbers. Take your pick. Both
measures are near a four-year low, reflecting the improvement in the labor
market. Then there’s the small matter of income earned from employment. When
the Bureau of Economic Analysis took a second look at fourth-quarter gross
domestic product last week, it found an additional $82.4 billion of wage and
salary disbursements in the third quarter for a total increase of $107.2
billion. Wages and salaries are compensation for work performed, not phantom
jobs."[5] Link.
Links:
5. http://bloom.bg/yqwVMx

Also, the View editors have thoughts on credit-default swaps; op-ed
contributor Charles Millard exposes pension-fund shenanigans; and Business
Class blog contributor Lubos Pastor sees a bright future for actively
managed funds.


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