When My Stocks Come Tumbling Down, by Fields & Hall, 1930s

Transcription

1 When My Stocks Come Tumbling Down, by Fields & Hall, 1930s I m the chump you ve heard about There s more like me without a doubt When stock reports are given out Oh, what a sucker! My stock come tumbling down My stock come tumbling down I buy on margin, don t you see I m a great big scale, but holy gee And then I lose my do re mi My stock come tumbling down I bought tin can at a dollar and a half And squeaky squawky phonograph At a price that would make a donkey laugh So I stood to make a million My stock come tumbling down My stock come tumbling down When I listened to the ticker tick I figured I could get rich quick But the bunch of bears were too darn slick My stock come tumbling down My bootblack boy bought gunk preferred He told me not to say a word The price of gunk was so absurd So I bought a thousand shares My stock come tumbling down My stock come tumbling down I met my broker on the floor He said go on and buy some more But I m broker now than I was before My stock come tumbling down My laundry man bought Subway Jam And a hundred shares of Chowder Clam His stock went up on Amsterdam So he bought himself some shoestrings His stock came tumbling down His stock came tumbling down He jumped right in the deep blue sea I was scared as I could be I looked to see if that guy was me His stock came tumbling down The iceman gave me a tip on coal He told me not to tell a soul He said that coal was down the hole I thought that was a hot one That stock came tumbling down That stock came tumbling down There s one thing that I won t forget That stock was water, you can bet And now I know that stock s all wet My stock come tumbling down

2 Commerce and American Society Part I

3 The Current Financial Crisis

4 What do we want from an economic system? Equity Efficiency Choice

5 Free Markets and Democracy Requirements for a Democratic Society: Narrow gap between rich and poor Adequate food, housing, health care for all Sense of equal opportunity for all Necessary Precondition: Economic Growth

6 Market Weaknesses in a Changing World

7 Imperfect Information Exchanges are made that are not beneficial because they are not based on good information.

8 Government Interventions Court system FDA regulation Safety labels

9 Monopolies Monopolies restrict exchange to raise price and profits, leaving some beneficial exchange unmade.

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11 Government Interventions Anti-trust laws Regulatory agencies (ICC) Attempts to foster competition

12 Public Goods Goods are consumed in common, where consumption by one individual does not diminish the amount available to others. Consequently, individuals do not have an incentive to provide a public good.

13 Government Interventions Provide public goods (national defense, navigation tools, etc)

14 Externalities Exchanges in which some costs and benefits go to third parties not involved in the exchange. Exchanges are sometimes made that are not beneficial because some costs are ignored. Likewise, some beneficial exchanges are not made because some benefits are ignored.

15 Government Interventions Define property rights Provide a court system Gulf Oil Spill April 2010

16 Economic Instability/Recession Resources (labor, raw materials, machinery, etc.) are left unused even though full employment/use of resources would be beneficial.

17 Government Interventions Fiscal policy Spending, lowering taxes Monetary policy Regulating money supply Influencing interest rates

18 John Maynard Keynes ( ) vs. Friedrich August Hayek ( ) More bottom up, or more top down?

19 Economic Injustice Society decides that the distribution of income or other economic benefits generated by the market economy is unfair. US Tops Developed World in Income Inequality

20 Government Interventions Equality of opportunity Education Anti-discrimination laws Equality of result Social Security Progressive taxation Medicare, Medicaid Welfare Affirmative Action

21 iclicker quiz: Does the government have a moral obligation to address economic injustice? A) Yes B) No

22 Free Market vs Government Intervention Innovation Competition Security Protection

23 The problem with markets Amoral: The market rewards productivity and nothing else The example of Walmart

24 To what extent should we stand aside,... and do all we can to squeeze out yet more inefficiencies, and to what extent should we lean against the current for the sake of values that global markets can t supply? Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat, p. 204