Social capitalism: The bail-out index

grammSounds 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]

2 thoughts on “Social capitalism: The bail-out index”

  1. 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

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