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Gold/Mining/Energy : CPN: Calpine Corporation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (460)	9/28/2002 12:42:31 PM
From: Clement	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 555

Raymond, I had no idea, you knew how to use a thesaurus. Why bother going for that MBA? Heck, they should give it to you right now, because apparently you know it all already. Frankly, you're a bit boring and arguing with you is childsplay. Let's say for the sake of argument there was widespread manipulation. Who do you suppose prevented plants from being built in California for the something like 10 years prior? Surely you recognise that if there had been more choices and greater alternatives, manipulation would have been more difficult. Would you have us do away with stock markets because there's some manipulation now and again? Incidentally, guess who elected the lawmakers to draft the laws? A company does not capitalism nor free markets make. By your esteemed logic, you'd rather that taxpayers bear the burden of energy prices - instead of the people who use the energy. (And you claim to be worried about "environmental impacts" - by your logic, the Soviet Empire should have been a paragon of environmental progress). By your logic, because Enron is a company, and Enron has crooks, all companies are run by crooks. By your logic, giving people the right to choose will result in failure - by extension, we shouldn't even let them vote. Heck, I bet if you had your choice, you'd make yourself king. Sorry ray, you're going to have to do better than that. Regarding globalization - I think I'll take your dare, try Hong Kong, Vietnam, Uganda (where I volunteered), Ireland, and now even New Zealand (despite ag subsidies elsewhere in the world). Noteworthy even in the countries you cite, they have benefited greatly from technological advances where free markets reign. You make your arguments highly suspect by disallowing the possibility that the people in some of these countries are to blame - ie were you aware that cosmetic surgery was paid for by the government in Argentina? You're right that governments are corrupt in many developing countries - but then again, you kind of missed the fact that most FDI (try > 95%) is spent in developed countries where rule of law is dominant. If these corrupt governments were so friendly to companies, then you'd think they were havens to invest in. Let's also not forget that the US was built by people like Rockefeller who bribed half of congress and the senate. From last I heard, the US ain't doing too bad. It's part of growing up for nations - and I for one believe that we can help them do it. Being isolationist is not really that wonderful an option. Again, sorry ray, get your facts straight and maybe we can get something of a coherent argument out of you. Your "anger" is apparently only clouding your judgement. re: "inclement" - somewhat unoriginal <g>. The kids in primary school were able to do better. As an aside, I've been watching Black Adder - clever insults galore. Regards, Clement PS If you decide to measure out negative externalities in economics, you can't forget the positives as well. Also don't forget to measure the sum of the parts - as a whole, humanity is living longer and better lives. Fewer people are hungry, and fewer people are poor. That's not to say that things are all great and hunky dorry which is why I continue to volunteer in the area of economic development for an NGO, but give credit to where it's due and try to have a balanced debate. Market failure does happen, but it only gets worse when governments step in (e.g the American healthcare system is a prime example of perverse incentives).