George Will is grooving on modern economy

George Will appears in The Anniston Star with Rhythms of modern economy for a combination of conservative apology and argument. He claims Americans are "sensibly placid about ... the substantial investment by sovereign wealth funds — government owned and run investment funds — in financial institutions needing cash." George, first of all most Americans are clueless. Those that understand modern capitalism and finance are likely well placed to benefit from such financial arrangements. Those that do "get it", and either don't want to or aren't primarily motivated by the opportunities, yet still try to speak out hardly find it easy to get that message out to the masses. Given the increasing concentration of corporate media ownership we shouldn't be surprised by that reality.

To his credit, Will goes on to advise "vigilance, because they pose potential problems concerning transparency and possible political purposes." George also writes, "By buying minority interests in U.S. financial institutions or other companies, wealth funds are gaining money-management expertise." I'm not so sure I like the idea of anyone learning on my/our money but the main thing is that I'm not so sure these minority shares are that minor. Mr. Will also correctly points out, "The blurring of the line between government and private economic activity is potentially troublesome." So would regulation and disclosure and all sorts of Progressive ways of dealing with this not be wise? Or do we follow the conservative ways that George regularly advances?

Salon's Andrew Leonard explains some of how "sovereign wealth funds" work and also reminds us, "Less than two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the West's gleeful jig dancing on the grave of communism, state capitalism is suddenly threatening the autonomy of the global "free" market." He writes in part the following:

... it would be more accurate to say freer markets lost the day. The root of Wall Street's woes leads back directly to their own strategic missteps, greed, speculation-run-amok, and lack of appropriate supervision. The brightest minds in finance had exactly what they wanted, a playground where the monitors were looking the other way, and they blew it. When the China Investment Corp. pumps in $5 billion to Morgan Stanley, we are not witnessing the triumph of state capitalism, but rather, the embarrassing, humiliating failure of Reagan-Thatcher style unregulated capitalism.

George Will however writes, "Because U.S. policy endorses the free flow of capital around the world, inflows of foreign investments should be welcome — if the motive of the nations operating sovereign wealth funds is profit-maximization rather than political power." George doesn't ask why the policy is so. He doesn't ponder what interests groups benefit from said policy. Nor does he offer alternatives. Again, just like trade, there are plenty of differences between what is "free" and "fair". Again and again, there's hardly a hint of questioning the tenets of George's precious "conservatism".

I love this .... George Will writes, "Today's Americans, their pain threshold lowered by the successful modulation of business cycles, now regard recessions as not mere misfortunes but as violations of an entitlement to perpetual economic serenity. In the 50 years prior to 1945, contractions were frequent and ferocious enough to fray the social fabric." What is a succesful modulation George? I thought serious conservatives like yourself thought differently about regulation and all that nasty New Deal stuff?

He then closes with, "even markets make mistakes and recessions, aka corrections, are, by definition, constructive." Ignoring the fact that for poor or even merely struggling folks this "construction" from free wheeling financiers and profiteers getting all sloppy and greedy from deregulation and the free flow of capital in the globalized world seems hardly fair. Trickled down again? We know you don't seem to care enough about the low income earners in this nation to even get your facts right on the minimum wage. We'll also leave George Will's wealth, and even his connections to Lord Conrad Black, alone for now.

George Will spend some time this summer trying to figure out the newly elected French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Yet, perhaps he need to explain himself. Is George Will a Davos Man or not? I know he and his wife Mari Maseng (a registered foriegn agent in the past and perhaps even now via her Maseng Communications PR shop) are part of the elites, and given Will's high handedness, that might be enough for some. Truly I can't reconcile George Will's conservativism with this opinion piece. I understand he and his are paid tons of money for services and speaking and ... and surely the ones paying for all of this are in tune with the rythyms. For the rest of us, George Will doesn't offer many answers or even much sympathy. P/W