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JP Morgan screws California

2012-07-18 20:12:35.848387+00 by Dan Lyke 2 comments

Oh, look, California's energy consumers have been further funding the leeches on Wall Street: LA Times: Manipulation of California energy market gives consumers a jolt:

What's worse, it shows that we haven't learned anything from Enron's bogus energy trading, the disclosure of which helped destroy that firm in 2001 and land several of its executives in jail. To the extent it was designed to exploit loopholes in energy trading rules, experts say, the scheme allegedly perpetrated by JPMorgan Ventures Energy Corp. is cut from the same cloth as Enron's infamous "fat boy" swindle, which cost the state's ratepayers an estimated $1.4 billion in 2000.

(Via MeFi)

I've been thinking recently about why I'm no longer an Ayn Rand quoting Objectivist libertarian. One of the reasons is that I've found precious few examples of the independent capitalist innovator who doesn't vote Democrat nor embrace an engagement with an economic system, the other is that most of those successful are simply leeches on the system. Seems like this is yet another example of that.

[ related topics: Politics Objectivism Libertarian Consumerism and advertising Television California Culture Economics Real Estate ]

comments in descending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2012-07-19 16:17:34.072122+00 by: Dan Lyke

Yeah, given the recent "Bane/Bain" thing, I've been playing with mappings of Rush Limbaugh to Ellsworth Toohey.

#Comment Re: made: 2012-07-19 12:27:02.529802+00 by: Larry Burton

I would suggest that the independent capitalist innovator is voting Democrat because to vote Republican would be to embrace a form of capitalism that Ayn Rand railed against. Democrats embrace a social market economy which is much closer to the free-market, laissez-faire capitalism than the corporate or crony capitalism being embraced by the Republicans. James Taggart would fit right in with today's Republican party, he was a crony capitalist, while his sister would most likely be a moderate Democrat who left the Republican party to support Clinton in his second term.