In his article The Betrayal of Capitalism, Felix G. Rohatyn writes: "As of the end of 2001 about 15 percent of all shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ were foreign-owned. They had a value of approximately $2 trillion. We must keep in mind that we require about $1 billion per day of capital inflows to finance our trade deficit."

What does Rohatyn mean? It means so many different things to so many different people, but for me for example it means that capital inflows (for instance from Argentina) into the U.S. go to further inflate stock prices; it means sustaining the U.S. economy while consumer savings are down and foreign trade deficits are chronic; it means to overvalue the American dollar and to devalue foreign currencies (for instance Argentina's peso); it means sustaining the U.S. economy while undermining other countries' economy (for instance Argentina).

And how integral is the North American financial market? Big companies use subsidiaries to inflate revenues and hide debts; big companies inflate their profits by not using General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP); investment firms and Wall Street traders tacitly (as per Adam Smith's understanding) collude with banks to deterministically and progressively inflate stock prices while senior executives and traders rob shareholders at large; after robbing the public at large senior executives and financial gurus either have their big companies go bankrupt or they arrange for ever bigger mega mergers for the sake of improving efficiency into the economic system. And all this robbing occurs under the Gospel of the Free Market, under the claim that the so called increases in productivity is raising the standard of living of people at large, under the claim that we have to save our freedom by waging a never ending war against terrorism.

Economist Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot were right in publicly recognizing the bubbles of our economic system and stating that the average American workers experienced a wage increase of 0.5 percent a year in the last 10 years. In the meantime, we have Minister of Industry Allan Rock saying "Our quality of life has been declining over the past 20 years in comparison with the United States. That's something we have to reverse." The ignorance and negligence of our leadership is mind boggling!

Today I learn that Gary Winnick founded Global Crossing in 1997, took it public the next year and sold shares worth $734 million before the company collapsed. Today I learn that Michael Cowpland, founder of Corel Corporation, has been found guilty of insider training. Today I learn that Terry Hungle of Nortel is stepping down in the latest insider trading scandal.

We have a social and economic crisis all over the world, yet our leaders hide themselves behind the BIG LIE of the Free Market.

References

Pertinent articles in Ensign

The Betrayal of Capitalism, by Felix G. Rohatyn http://www.nybooks.com/articles/15140

The Bubble That Wasn't SEC Probe Exposes Investment Banks' Dirty Dealings During Boom Times, Gregg Wirth http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5074

"New Economy" Cycle Ends, But Myth Persists, by Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot, November 27, 2001. "Wage growth [between 1991 and 2001] for a typical worker was a paltry 0.5 percent a year" http://www.commondreams.org/views01/1128-04.htm

Rock unveils skills and innovation blueprint, CBC Canada, February 12, 2002 http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2002/02/12/innovation020212

How Executives Prospered as Global Crossing Collapsed, By GERALDINE FABRIKANT with SIMON ROMERO, New York Times, February 11, 2002 http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/11/technology/ebusiness/11GLOB.html

OSC nixes settlement with Cowpland, CBC Canada, February 12, 2002 http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2002/02/12/cowpland_020212

Nortel CFO quits; faces regulatory scrutiny, CBC Canada, February 12, 2002 http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2002/02/11/nortel020211 we