Capitolism

Michael Crittenden and Barry Eichengreen had a fascinating debate over the future of the US dollar in last week’s edition of the Wall Street Journal.  Crittenden avers that the dollar, despite talk to the contrary, will remain the global reserve currency because nothing presents itself as a legitimate alternative to the dollar at this point.  However, the US will experience diminishing returns for the status of the dollar.  On the contrary, Eichengreen posits that the US dollar will lose its global reserve status due to long-term deficits and competition from China’s renminbi and the Euro. Read the rest of this entry »

The Middle East, from the Persian Gulf to the Maghreb, is currently in the throes of revolution.  Western journalists, in my opinion, suffering from myopia, are celebrating these revolutions as “the next 1989,” a series of revolutions that overthrew the political order in an entire region—the Eastern Bloc—and created a new world order in its place.  Let us examine this claim, with an eye toward institutions. Read the rest of this entry »

In part I, I argued that Max Weber’s “sociology of legitimacy” helps us understand the authority claims of modern bureaucracies.  Weber argues that authority generates itself by social construction founded upon universally accepted norms and beliefs.  This culminates in three main forms of legitimacy—traditional, charismatic, and legal authority—and corresponds best to affective and rational social action.  However, Weber’s theory is insufficient to explain how legitimacy pervades the public consciousness, becoming part of an intersubjectively or interdependently shared structure of public beliefs. Read the rest of this entry »

Emily Maltby writes an article today detailing some of the challenges small companies have in obtaining Federal contracts. The last two paragraphs worry me:

“Mr. Lebolo, however, is shifting his firm’s strategy to primarily focus on government work. “I made a determination to look hard into the federal market because it was the only place with money,” he says.

“He says he’s not frustrated by the relatively small price tag of his first government assignment. Now that the process of landing a contract is behind him, he says there is no going back to commercial construction. He hopes to grow and begin hiring again by the end of this year. “This is a long-term decision,” he says.”

When the government becomes the sole or dominant market for several sectors in the economy, what will happen? Will that prove beneficial to the economy? Will that situation increase or decrease innovation? Will it stimulate creative solutions to business and human problems?

I’ll have more to say about these questions, and this increasing trend of reliance on government for business’s economic well-being. But I don’t think it bodes well for the economy, creativity, innovation or America’s competitiveness in the global marketplace.

As usual, John Tamny writes an excellent analysis of the Chinese yuan issue. A must-read this weekend.

In today’s Washington Post, Toyoda Akio, Toyota’s president, promises a number of changes and improvements to its car manufacturing processes and safety. Toyota has faced widespread criticism of its safety defects, and especially of its response. Unfortunately, Mr. Akio’s op-ed will not likely blunt this criticism. Read the rest of this entry »

I have revised the About page, to more fully explain what Capitolism is, er, about. I have elucidated upon the goals of Capitolism and the issues in view. As I mentioned in a previous post, I am in the process of drafting a strategic plan for Capitolism in 2010, and will share that on the blog when I complete the plan.

About Capitolism:

Capitolism addresses, explores and focuses on issues concerning business, trade, leadership, management, economics and small business. Issues at the intersection of these topics will attract Capitolism’s particular interest. In probing these matters, Capitolism will rely on lessons from philosophy, history, literature, current events, great speeches, newspapers, magazines, sports, academia, science, theology, military history, poetry and the authors’ own experiences, as appropriate. The aims of Capitolism are threefold:

1. To explore challenging and even subterranean issues pertaining to business, economics and leadership

2. To offer a hopefully interesting and unique perspective on these issues to readers

3. To create a venue for wide-ranging, thoughtful, penetrating discussion on these issues

You, the reader, will judge how well or poorly Capitolism achieves these aims. We encourage your comments, whether you agree, disagree or violently disagree with our writings.

As a Toyota owner and admirer, the recent quality issue has disappointed me, as it has millions others. And, more than disappointing, it has endangered lives. Just a couple comments.

First, how like a Greek tragedy that Toyota suffers this stumble almost at the exact moment it had become the largest and most-respected car company in the world? But, this fall from the peaks of grace seems to happen again and again and again.

Second, I see the long arm of the unions on Secretary LaHood’s tough stance on this issue. The unions have not received as much attention or prominence as they expected from this Administration. If we could peer behind the curtain, I bet we would find the unions hammering on the Administration to come down hard on Toyota.

A few years ago, I read Adventure Capitalist by Jim Rogers. That book so intrigued me that I wanted to read his first book, Investment Biker, about his 1990 to 1992 travel across the globe. Other books intervened, and I only just finished reading this book. Even though it relates events from two decades ago, I found it enlightening, punchy and fascinating. Read the rest of this entry »