On Visiting Myopia

This week on Facebook: I add this as part of my 2019 April posts on political and economic themes, in which there are two reprises that are not quite the same as the originals. However, in this post, both the article on Friday and Ian Buckley’s essay Learning from Adam Smith quote the following caution from economic historian John Kenneth Galbraith.

Corporate executives and their spokesmen who cite Smith today as the source of all sanction and truth without the inconvenience of having read him would be astonished and depressed to know he would not have allowed their companies to exist.

My first reprise has minor alterations and  he original can be read here, what follows is essentially as it was written.

Drucker & Social Responsibility

This week on Facebook: Last week in It’s only money! I quoted Peter Drucker, for those who may not be familiar with his works, and perhaps the younger millennials in particular, this week is devoted to my take on the man. On his death (aged 95) in 2005 he was described by a Bloomberg Business Week article as The Man Who Invented Management, I much prefer the subheading ‘Why Peter Drucker’s ideas still matter’.

Larry the Liquidator

Larry the liquidator

I remembered a film that I had seen some time ago, which was also called Other People’s Money. The film is based on the script for a play written by Jerry Sterner who I am sure would wish to be called a ‘playwrite’, but who nevertheless wrote this play based on his experience as a financier.  In 1989 the the play became an an off-Broadway hit in New York. The film, billed as a ‘romantic comedy’ is worth watching for its portrayal of the corporate investment world and its characterization of the players in this story.  The film contrives a ‘happy’ yet feasible ending to the story, whereas the original play reaches a more realistic and plausible conclusion. The post Other People’s Money: A Tale of Capitalism and Creative Destruction by Edward W. Younkins provides a good synopsis of both the film and the stage version of ‘Other Peoples Money’. With the benefit of hindsight in the form of market crashes and especially in the light of the current financial crisis, I see the story itself and especially the role of ‘Larry the Liquidator’ as an allegory in the context of these.