MORE LAWS ON CORP WRONGDOING ONLY PUNISH HONEST BUSINESSMEN - Ayn Rand Institute

PHXnews - Arizona's Conservative News Site ^ | 07-10-02 | Ayn Rand

[AZ Righty]

By: Ayn Rand Institute

IRVINE, CA--“The recent problems at WorldCom and Enron are being used by anti-capitalists to impose more crippling regulations on innocent businessmen,” said Dr. Onkar Ghate, resident fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute.

“The only laws needed to deal with actual corporate wrongdoing,” Dr. Ghate said, “already exist, namely, laws against breach of contract and fraud. But the anti-capitalists are not demanding that existing laws be applied against individuals who may have committed fraud. They are clamoring that the SEC and other government agencies be granted even more power to dictate to all businessmen--most of whom are honest--how they must run their business.

“The unjust premise at work here,” explained Dr. Ghate, “is a secularized version of Original Sin: as a selfish profit-seeker, a businessman is branded as guilty before he even acts. So the government must step in and, despite having no specific evidence of wrongdoing against a businessman, force him to be “good.”

“But the truth is the opposite,” said Dr. Ghate. “The selfish pursuit of profit is a noble activity. We should get out of the way of the real producers by repealing the regulations which stifle them. Then the true wealth creators will once again enjoy the freedom that has made America the world’s most prosperous country.”

[AZ Righty]

Just like gun laws....

[bvw]

Hooray for some common sense!

[weikel]

Bookmarked

[GreenEggsHam]

So does this mean that Bush is anti-capitalist? I'm confuzed.

[Shermy]

It's paid-for agitprop to further the "belief" that making corps follow standard accounting guidelines and not transfer shareholder wealth to the pockets of executives with tricks and pompous promises is somehow "anti-capitalist." Lots of this garbage is floating around.

[bvw]

It isn't 'xactly an expression of confidence in free markets, now is it?

It is more regulation *ughh*!

The real fix would be to unhamstring the free markets ability to police and self-correct -- to remove the SEC, to de-regulate, but also to *use* the already well-established laws of fraud, agency and fiduciary duty.

[bvw]

To be more clear: "[Mr. Bush's proposals, also the Leahy proposals] aren't 'xactly an expression of confidence in free markets, now are they?"

[Mr. Jeeves]

“The only laws needed to deal with actual corporate wrongdoing,” Dr. Ghate said, “already exist, namely, laws against breach of contract and fraud."

Get unconfused.

This is just another big government power grab, cloaked in phony outrage by Senators who, if their own dealings on the Federal Budget were held to the same level of scrutiny they are demanding of corporate executives, would come out looking awfully bad by comparison.

[CHICAGOFARMER]

YEP Just like gun laws.

---

Why should I trust a citizen, bias news outlet, who doesn't believe in all the Constitution and Bill of Rights?

---

In the United States the Bureau of Justice research shows inmates serving time in state
prisons during 1997 said they obtained their guns from the following sources in percentages:
Purchased from a retail store 8.3 percent
Purchased at a pawn shop 3.8
Purchased at a flea market 1.0
Purchased in a gun show 0.7
Obtained from friends or family 39.6
Got on the street/illegal source 39.2

* Well Damm there goes the gun show loophole argument*

[Shermy]

Get unconfused

Oh, please! They've fixed the rules to slip under "contract" and "fraud" or lobbied to "deregulate" the rules that define and help define "fraud" in the first place. The money is mostly frittered and stashed away. Why don't you give these execs some credit!

[Voltage]

Honest businesses have a recourse...they can buy back their publically traded stock from time to time as they can afford it and go private. As a private company they can operate more efficiently, with less government mandated expenses in the form of lawyers/accountants. Privately owned business have no need to run two sets of books, one to look good, one for reality.

The publically traded companies who live off of stock sales..they will still be availble for risky investment!

[Mr. Jeeves]

I would feel better if we didn't have rats telling raccoons how not to scrounge through the garbage!

[weikel]

Plz explain why objectivist are not conservative again?

[stands2reason]

What's so confusing about that?