Here’s another question for you — is Wall Street worthless? I think I’ve asked this before, but I came across two items this week that take this head on. On the pro-market side, we have Russ Roberts over at Cafe Hayek wondering why he never noticed the rampant cronyism between Wall Street and Capitol Hill:
I am increasingly pessimistic about the fake nature of Wall Street as part of the capitalist system. It is part of the crony capitalist system. I am ashamed at how long it has taken me to notice this. But once you start paying just a bit of attention, it’s hard not to notice.
He then adds fuel to the fire by wondering whether the Bootleggers and Baptists apply to Wall Street generally. Don’t know the Bootleggers and Baptists story? Check it out here.
So while Roberts gnashes his teeth, John Cassidy at The New Yorker spills out 10,000 words on the general worthlessness of Wall Street, concluding that most of what it does is socially worthless.
This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to you: Professor Finkler cites it here and I posted something about it here. We have also seen John Cassidy in the thick of the economics profession here.