Has "The Invisible Hand" Given Us The Finger?

'Tis the season to be jolly. The economy is giving off the cheery glow of meltdown. Today's free market advocates have one word of advice for the unemployed (and those about to become unemployed): "Suck it up!" The not-so-true believers in the free market are throwing money into the whirlwind, hoping that The Invisible Hand will be satisfied. Instead of "In God We Trust," the watchword of the day should be "Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here." If this is (fair & balanced) nihilism, so be it.

[x Wikipedia]
"The Invisible Hand"

The invisible hand is a metaphor coined by the economist Adam Smith (1723-1790). Once in The Wealth of Nations (1776) and other writings, Smith demonstrated that, in a free market, an individual pursuing his own self-interest tends to also promote the good of his community as a whole through a principle that he called “the invisible hand”. He argued that each individual maximizing revenue for himself maximizes the total revenue of society as a whole, as this is identical with the sum total of individual revenues.

[x Salon]
This Modern World — "Attack Of The Invisible Hand," Part I
By Tom Tomorrow (Dan Perkins)

Click on image to enlarge.

Tom Tomorrow/Dan Perkins

[Dan Perkins is an editorial cartoonist better known by the pen name "Tom Tomorrow". His weekly comic strip, "This Modern World," which comments on current events from a strong liberal perspective, appears regularly in approximately 150 papers across the U.S., as well as on Salon and Working for Change. The strip debuted in 1990 in SF Weekly.

Perkins, a long time resident of Brooklyn, New York, currently lives in Connecticut. He received the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Excellence in Journalism in both 1998 and 2002.

When he is not working on projects related to his comic strip, Perkins writes a daily political weblog, also entitled "This Modern World," which he began in December 2001.]

Copyright © 2008 Salon Media Group, Inc.

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The Objectivist Shrugged, Tanta Didn't

Before he was the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (1987-2006), Alan Greenspan was smitten with Ayn Rand (Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum), the Russian-born novelist of We The Living, The Fountainhead, The Anthem, and Atlas Shrugged. Rand wrote a number of polemical tracts that included: The Virtue of Selfishness, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, and Philosophy: Who Needs It?. Rand called her belief system Objectivism.

Alan Greenspan holds degrees in economics, ranging from B.S. to Ph.D., from New York University. Greenspan served as an economic policy advisor to Republican presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan. Dutch appointed Greenspan to the Chair of Federal Reserve System in 1987 when Dutch was able to hide his own Easter eggs.

Doris (Tanta) Dungey was a career worker in the mortgage industry who foresaw the disaster in that business sector; her blog, prior to her premature death at age 47, attracted more than 75,000 visitors each day as the crisis worsened. Tanta was done too soon.

Marcy Shaffer is the successor to the mantle of Tom Lehrer as the premier musical wit in our midst. This lawyer-cum-parodist, unlike Tom Lehrer does not write original music, but she writes great lyrics. If this is (fair & balanced) musical caricature, so be it.

[x Versus]
"The Cinders Of Ayn Rand"
TO "Winter Wonderland"
(Words By Dick Smith/Music By Felix Bernard)
Parody Lyrics By Marcy Shaffer

Dedicated to Tanta of Calculated Risk
... Doris Dungey (1961 - 2008) ...
whose brilliance, wit and verve were greatly appreciated
and will be greatly missed.



DEAR MR. GREENSPAN:
I'D LIKE TO INQUIRE.
AYN RAND.
WHY WAS IT SHE LIT YOU ON FIRE?
NOTIONS SHE WOVE.
YOU STROVE TO MAKE ARCHETYPAL.
LIKE: SELF-REGULATION WAS ALL FOR THE GOOD.
GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT?
THE DEADEST OF WOOD.
CURIOUSLY, FURIOUSLY,
YOU BECAME HER DISCIPLE.

HOW'D YOU TAKE
YOUR CONVICTIONS?
FROM A FLAKE
WHO WROTE FICTIONS?
A HOTSHOT LIKE YOU.
DESERVES A POTSHOT OR TWO.
WALKING IN THE CINDERS OF AYN RAND.

LAY-OFFS UP.
HIGHER PRICES.
YOU'RE LIKE: "YUP.
THERE'S A CRISIS."
WELL, I'M KIND OF BUGGED.
THAT ATLAS JUST SHRUGGED.
WALKING IN THE CINDERS OF AYN RAND.

WHEN YOU LED THE FED, OH, MR. GREENSPAN.
CUT FROM LIBERTARIAN-LIKE CLOTH.
DID YOU EVER DREAD WE'D SEE A LEAN SPAN?
AND DID YOU JUST COMPARE YOUR DREAD TO "FROTH"?

WHAT YOU HYPED OUT OF HER, PLUS.
WHAT HAS WIPED OUT THE SURPLUS.
AGHAST MASTERS FRET.
AT THE BLAST THAT YOU SET.
WALKING IN THE CINDERS OF AYN RAND.

DID YOU GO TO JOE STIGLITZ, MR. GREENSPAN?
THAT JOE WHO HAS A NOBEL TO HIS NAME?
OR SCREEN A TEENY BIT OF ROUBINI?
FOR A KEEN SCAN.
OF THE WOE YOU OWE YOUR OLDEST, COLDEST, FLAME?

YOU WERE ONE OF HER MEMBERS.
NOW YOU'RE ONE OF HER EMBERS.
NO JOKE WHEN YOU CHOKE.
ON MIRRORS AND SMOKE.
WALKING IN THE CINDERS OF AYN RAND.
IT'S SHOCKING IN THE CINDERS OF AYN RAND.
WALKING IN THE CINDERS OF AYN RAND.


[Janis Liebhart - lead vocal; background vocal
Scottie Haskell - background vocal
Gary Stockdale - background vocal
Greg Hilfman - music director]

℗ © 2008 RMSWorks LLC. Lyrics © 2008 RMSWorks LLC.

Get the Google Reader at no cost from Google. Click on this link to go on a tour of the Google Reader. If you read a lot of blogs, load Reader with your regular sites, then check them all on one page. The Reader's share function lets you publicize your favorite posts.