Durham's Bull

The Best Paragraph I Read Today

"The separation of power from profit and the embedding of profit-maximization in a limited sphere of economic activity is highly sophisticated and very peculiar. And if we are to understand what actually happens in our world, we have to understand just how peculiar this is. I am not saying that capitalism is immoral or that it does not encourage and develop valuable moral qualities. But I am saying that profit-maximization does not of itself create a thriving capitalist society. Only powerful constraints on its application do so. Those constraints have next to nothing to do with corporate social responsibility. They are far more fundamental than that."

From Martin Wolf's recent post on the magnificent Creative Capitalism blog.

Anyone Need a Long, Paid Vacation in Brazil?

Engineers wanted. 

More interesting from an economist's perspective are the ways in which self-interested capitalism spurs other desirable outcomes like education.

"That reality is leading thousands of Brazilian companies into the education business. Some teach basic literacy and arithmetic to janitors and manual workers. Other more advanced courses help factory and production line workers better understand math, science and composition. And major companies are increasing the amount of on-the-job training they give to engineers and professionals."

In reality, this is nothing new.  In spite of all of the talk of "new social compacts," and "corporate social responsibility," otherwise "greedy" people have been quite socially progressive for a long time thanks to the rigors of the iron cage. 

GMU Economics Professor Peter T. Leeson has an entire research agenda focused on elucidating the inherently progressive nature of capitalism.  His recent work has focused on how the demands of piracy broke down existing social barriers like racism, sexism, etc. long before the Martin Luther King or Susan B. Anthony.  "An-arrgh-chy: The Law and Economics of Pirate
Organization," was the first non-mathematical article published in the Journal of Political Economy in over a decade.

Creative Capitalism

A blog where several top economists evaluate the notion of creative capitalism/corporate social responsibility. 

Well worth the read.