Results for "Capital markets"

Why Capitalism Has an Image Problem: Charles Murray examines the cloud now hanging over American business—and what today’s capitalists can do about it.

Mitt Romney’s résumé at Bain should be a slam dunk. He has been a successful capitalist, and capitalism is the best thing that has ever happened to the material condition of the human race. From the dawn of history until the 18th century, every society in the world was impoverished, with only the thinnest film of wealth on top. Then came capitalism and the Industrial Revolution. Everywhere that capitalism subsequently took hold, national wealth began to increase and poverty began to fall. Everywhere that capitalism didn’t take hold, people remained impoverished. Everywhere that capitalism has been rejected since then, poverty has increased.

Washington’s Knack for Picking Losers: Former Obama adviser Larry Summers warned the administration against federal loan guarantees to Solyndra, writing in a 2009 email that ‘the government is a crappy venture capitalist.’

Like the mythical monster Hydra—who grew two heads every time Hercules cut one off—President Obama, in both his State of the Union address and his new budget, has defiantly doubled down on his brand of industrial policy, the usually ill-advised attempt by governments to promote particular industries, companies and technologies at the expense of broad, evenhanded competition.

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Weaponizing the Law

The indictment of former U.S. president Donald Trump for crimes invented by his political opponents is the most egregious example yet seen of the weaponizing of the law. The United States is now full of examples. However, in Canada, we also see the law being...

Does Short Selling Sell Us Short?

Does Short Selling Sell Us Short?

Paraphrasing a remark by American philosopher Nicholas Murray Butler in 1931, John Newbern once said: “People can be divided into three groups: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened.” Each of those classes is...