Friday, October 31, 2008

“Under our…system the government undertakes enterprises only when private initiatives fail.”

James Suroweicki on The Balance Sheet:

"Reading “The Tradition of the New,” a collection of essays by Harold Rosenberg (the critic who coined the phrase “action painting”), I came across this line:

“Under our…system the government undertakes enterprises only when private initiatives fail.”

This is how, really, it’s always been in the U.S., to a greater or lesser degree. It’ll be interesting to see if this massive failure of private initiatives in the financial realm changes that. (If I had to bet, I’d say it won’t.)"

The problem is also that private enterprises know this and count on it. Failure is part of the risk, bailout is part of the calculation.

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