Why Uncle Sam Will Never Get Out of the Stock Market

This is Bill Barr's (not to be confused with Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party candidate) latest submission on Leviathan in the markets.
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Uncle Sam will never get out of the stock market.

That would be because of the political class in imperial America, spiritual descendants of the Praetorian Guard. Remember them? Highly politicized, they were the special force of bodyguards in Rome which finally quit pretending and just auctioned off the emperor's job from the steps of the Senate.

Count on it to happening here within the lifetime of your children.

"Historically, politicians are loathe to give up power they managed to steal. Indeed, it is my hunch that from here on out, whenever a sector starts to dip below 'acceptable' levels, they too will have their hand out and the government foxes will be only too happy to guard the sector's hen house." Attorney Sandra Hamilton makes this shrewd point in her blog at lewrockwell.com this week.

Moreover, "When businesses have the ability to force the government to steal money from the people to give to them if they fail, you get businesses that are incredibly risky", she discerns. Accordingly, "what benefit do you have (in) being a carefully well-run company?" Hamilton goes on to demand.

In this era of Crony Capitalism, Hamilton underscores that "Lehman Brothers was not well connected" at all when compared to rival investment bank Goldman Sachs. Thus, we find a clear moral to the story.

Crony Capitalism, born from the union of plutocracy with the managerial revolution, means that lucrative investments in securities are made by the investors who "know which of (the) companies has the most political connections". That's the only way to realistically hope for a return on your money in "a game where the rules change hourly", Hamilton concludes, pointing out the indispensability in government "reform"--changing the rules when the wide boys want them changed.

Ms. Hamilton is too reserved to say it, but is this very incestuous promiscuity, this financial interconnectedness, not the indispensable element in our political and economic system? And without it, would the global economy lie revealed as a house of cards?

--William Barr (Katy, Texas)

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Thanks again Bill!