Thought this might have some relevance to issues of corporate accountability:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14004846
Whenever I see approaches to the power corporations are wielding now to command and control the economy and the US political/economic framework, I'm reminded of this incident. For the link-phobic in 1907-8 the US economy had a major panic caused by issues of credit going bust. Now, panic, for those not in the know, is a euphemism for the tendency of the pre-constrained economy to have revolving doors between prosperity and sudden nosedives that wiped out entire families at rates much less predictable than they were now. This particular panic is unusual for one reason: it was solved by the efforts of only one man, J. Pierpont Morgan, who single-handedly bailed out the US government and with it the economy. This reflected that before the rise of the income tax and with the kind of ruthless business practices standard in the age of the Robber Barons it was extremely possible for one man to amass wealth, and with it power, all out of proportion to the influence any one man should wield.
This is a cautionary tale to me of what happens when business, or wealth, gain unlimited power and the means to wield it.
Whenever I see approaches to the power corporations are wielding now to command and control the economy and the US political/economic framework, I'm reminded of this incident. For the link-phobic in 1907-8 the US economy had a major panic caused by issues of credit going bust. Now, panic, for those not in the know, is a euphemism for the tendency of the pre-constrained economy to have revolving doors between prosperity and sudden nosedives that wiped out entire families at rates much less predictable than they were now. This particular panic is unusual for one reason: it was solved by the efforts of only one man, J. Pierpont Morgan, who single-handedly bailed out the US government and with it the economy. This reflected that before the rise of the income tax and with the kind of ruthless business practices standard in the age of the Robber Barons it was extremely possible for one man to amass wealth, and with it power, all out of proportion to the influence any one man should wield.
This is a cautionary tale to me of what happens when business, or wealth, gain unlimited power and the means to wield it.