Yes, It's Willy again!

Will Hutton has decided to lecture us again.

It is no longer plausible to argue that markets as systems do not make mistakes, or that governments are condemned to fail.

No one has ever argued such a damn fool thing. Of course markets make mistakes and of course governments do not always fail. What we are arguing about is which system corrects mistakes faster and in which fields and spheres markets and or governments are likely to fail less often.

It's pretty much only David Friedman now who argues that free markets will provide us with a reasonable...

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Disney and Capitalism

Danny Finkelstein has a piece defending Walt Disney and capitalism. Hmm, OK.

Yesterday was the 80th anniversary of the first public showing of Steamboat Willie, the first commercial cartoon with sound, and of the first appearance of Mickey Mouse in American cinema. And I want to defend Walt Disney. I want to proclaim that Walt Disney was one of the great men of our era. That Walt Disney helped to make our world a better place. That Walt Disney was a genius.

That's fine, I've no problems there. However, there's a decent set of criticisms that can be made...

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This is snigger worthy

As so often, the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing or has done.

So, the Government decides that it would like a new investment fund. One that will specifically invest in businesses run by women. Ho hum, but at least it's only a few millions they're piddling away on this nonsense.

However, under their own anti-discrimination laegislation, they're not actually allowed to preferentially invest in buisinesses owned by women.

The problem is that the Government has been advised that it can't exclude men from pitching for the funding under discrimination law.

Worthy of a small snigger at least, don't you think?

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The dangers of high spending

The Independent's Hamish McRae - who's been on the money more often than most commentators during this downturn - today outlines the reasons to be wary of a Government spending boom in the PBR. They're worth quoting in full:

"The first is international. Trust is vital and there is a danger of a systemic loss of confidence in British financial management. Already sterling has fallen by as much as it did in 1992 when it was ejected from the ERM. We are going into this downturn with an exceptionally high budget

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Yes, that's the damn point!

Ross Clark has a nice piece about how appallingly run the nationalised industries were. OK, no need really to rehash that argument, but the comment that's been left on the piece amused me.

"Can't you invest in more rolling stock and try to expand the business? I asked. No, he said: that wasn't part of BR's remit."

Surprisingly enough, that is what the Tories TOLD them to do: run down the railways. Actually, BR did a relatively efficient job, considering how money-starved it was.

Let's assume that this is true (I've no idea actually, but...

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