Social capitalism: The bail-out index
Sounds like it might have been a bit of business from a novel by Bruce Sterling or Charles Stross:
Nasdaq OMX Group said on Friday it will launch options trading on its three-week old Government Relief Index, which tracks the performance of companies bailed out by U.S. taxpayers.
Heroic Randian capitalists — masters of the universe, if you will — will save us.
[Image: Tony the Misfit; story tip: Atrios]
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:16 pm
I honestly don’t understand the value of this sort of thing.
It’s the same deal with carbon credits – if you can build a international system of treaties to regulate and monitor a cap and trade system why not just bite the bullet and put an international revenue-neutral VAT on fossil-fuel use?
In this case the stupidity stems from a mistaken belief that individuals working in a free market are uniquely capable of coming to rational conclusions as to the future value of assets, compared to governments, bloggers, or some random witchdoctor.
/Eyeroll
January 25th, 2009 at 10:22 am
Do all our Congressmen and Congresswomen own bank stock? Nancy Pelosi wants more TARP money than the 700 billion already wasted