Brandeis — a contemporary of FDR, a progressive, but not a New Dealer — believed that no single business should be allowed to grow larger than its CEO could understand and explain completely

Brandeis — a huge name as a legal practitioner and solver of many large business and labor issues — was not a New Dealer. He disagreed with the notion that a large central government could solve all economic problems.

Please consider his contributions to the economic turmoil of his times.

I have not been able to find much on the role of corporate philanthropy in the Depression.

Thanks

I consider myself a free-market capitalist and I somewhat agree with Margaret. But I think the way to do it is to get rid of the corporation as a legal entity. Markets and capital (property and financial instruments) exist without corporations. Corporations only seem to lead to the protection of ill gotten gains and the consolidation of wealth. Perhaps they were needed for 18th/19th century industrialization but to my mind they are the last vestige of Mercantilism and the age of Kings.

Let me get this straight. There is a credit crunch. This means that banks will not LEND money to consumers and businesses. So the American people (businesses and consumers) lend money to banks in order to encourage the same banks to lend it back to us at interest. God we need to wake up.

As long as America continues to print money out of thin air this will be a problem. Unfortunately, the worst is yet to come. The US is projected to lose its international credit rating in 2012 going from ‘AAA’ to ‘AA.’ And projected to decline hence, the whole truth needs to be told or declining instruments of credit will be the least of America’s problems.

Our government is corrupted. The very government promotes freedom and democracy commits crime itself. I am a furious and frustrated taxpayer citizen!

Our government committed this financial crime by neglecting this foreseeable huge problem, a bunch of incompetent congress. Why do United States has to run a country based on ideology instead of common sense.

Ideology is only a tool for not going to extreme, it shouldn’t interfere practicality and common sense, please, governments around the world, wake up!

Wadell,

All good things come to an end. I doubt that American dominance and supremacy was permanent. It’s the yin-yang principle at play. In the past, superpowers have reached their zenith and declined. I believe USA is not exempt from that natural phenomenon of ‘what goes up must come down.’ It’s just that the downhill ride is not so pleasant.
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Mark D.,

Couldn’t agree more with you. The way some free-marketers worship corporations, it seems that the concept of corporation was handed down by some god and needs to be blindly followed. What they forget is that it’s a human construct, and when its negatives will start outweighing its positives and be difficult to ignore, either the concept of corporation will undergo a change, or will be left behind for a different concept. After all, people still bought and sold stuff, and there were traders and businessmen much before corporation was conceptualized.

I personally think that the corporations have been given way too many rights than are necessary, and that has resulted in them becoming quite powerful, to the detriment of the individual. So, that needs to change.

But I think the way to do it is to get rid of the corporation as a legal entity.

What would you replace it with?

What corporations excel at is marshalling large amounts if disparate resources to deliver a planned-for results, and then to build-on and support that result afterwards.

Consider the resources it takes to create a Toyota Prius. It takes vast amounts of human talent in everything from mechanical engineering to electrical engineering to combustion engineering, (and many other engineering disciplines), plus manufacturing, design, human factors, accounting, human resources, financial management, purchasing, transportation, legal, etc. Hiring, managing, motivating, and coordinating the efforts of 10’s of thousands of workers on many continents, speaking many languages and with many cultures is an impressive accomplishment.

Then there are the manufacturing resources, inventory conrol, quality control, shipping, storing, warehousing, etc.

And then there are the resources it takes to support and document the product, and to market, promote, and sell it.

And then there’s the corrdination it takes to maintain relationships and parts-streams from literally thousands of suppliers.

And then, of course ther’s the VAST amounts of capital it takes, not just to buy materials and factories, but to pay workers for YEARS before the product actually ships, and to lock in long-term sources of supply for materials or components (e.g., batteries).

No other human institution has even been developed which does these kinds of things as well as a modern corporation. I work for a large multinational in a different industry and I get to see these amazing achievements firsthand every day.

Tom,
I am a hugh fan of your show because you bring alternative voices to complex subjects. But today’s show was lacking in that regard. What we need now is alterntive voices on the economy, not the old school orthadoxy. What about Deen Baker, Max F. Wolff, Robert Sheer, Jared Bernstein, to name a few?

This program was very interesting and informative.

I got censored by restating Warren Buffet’s comment that these financial tools were ‘weapons of mass destruction’ in different words? And by asking for restitution for the money that has gone to private accounts?

Are only certain ideas welcome here?

Is this Fascism?

Peter,

When you give credit to corporations for their excellence (shouldn’t that be people though?), you’ll also have to accept the brickbats that come with the actions and fallout of corporations like Enron, WorldCom, Union Carbide/Dow (1984 Bhopal disaster), Lehman Brothers, AIG, Monsanto intimidating farmers, Tobacco companies and their lies, DuPont muddying the debate during CFC-ozone hole issue, pollution at Superfund sites, some auto industries refusing to increase the fuel-efficiency of their cars and then asking for a handout to escape the consequences of free-market/economy, WR Grace, oil companies presenting their “side” of the scientific debate regarding AGW/climate change, lies and obfuscations, and complicity in subverting the democratic process.

What you mentioned re: Prius and getting so many different engineering departments to work together is true, but the other side is that granting personhood to corporations has also caused much havoc and problems, and tilted the balance of power in favor of corporations.

(Just wanted to add that not all corporations are the same or have the same agenda, though they do get lumped together.)

As for other entities achieving similar results, is NASA a corporation?

[...] Bailouts, Then and Now | WBUR and NPR’s On Point with Tom Ashbrook 100608: On Friday, it was exhausted smiles and relief in Washington as the massive bailout package finally went through. [...]

I know I will be beat down when I comment, but we must go back to what the real deal is. If we will open our minds as we read, and think, we will have to come to the conclusion that we are “not struggling against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms”. Ephesians 6:12 Of course there’s alot more reading than just that. I haven’t always been on the Jesus Bandwagon but there’s too much in the Bible that is what we have seen, and what we are seeing again. Take a little read every now and again. And if you don’t understand run it by your Pastor or by a Bible-based ministry Pastor.