Sunday, October 30, 2011

"a by-product of the activities of a casino"

""When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. The measure of success attained by Wall Street, regarded as an institution of which the proper social purpose is to direct new investment into the most profitable channels in terms of future yield, cannot be claimed as one of the outstanding triumphs of laissez-faire capitalism – which is not surprising, if I am right in thinking that the best brains of Wall Street have been in fact directed towards a different object. These tendencies are a scarcely avoidable outcome of our having successfully organized “liquid” investment markets. It is usually agreed that casinos should, in the public interest, be inaccessible and expensive...The introduction of a substantial Government transfer tax on all [stock market] transactions might prove the most serviceable reform available, with a view to mitigating the predominance of speculation over enterprise in the United States.""

JM Keynes.  OWS homie? Probably not but opposed to the casinos of finance capitalism.  

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