Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: derek cao who wrote (23537)	8/28/1998 4:38:00 PM
From: Clarksterh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

derek - It is obvious that a lot of Asian markets are not free market. So proves what? Huh? Earlier we defined a free market as one without government intervention, and I was pointing out that government intervention (SEC rules on GAAP) is necessary to provide some things to help the market along. Companies don't just naturally do it - as indicated by the direct correlation between poor transparency and lack of government regulation in countries around the world. Do you now want to change the definition (of free market) to one of 'maximum transparency(sp?)'? When the government give AT&T the monopoly, it also have mandates. Why should AT&T give opportunities to other companies while it had the sole responsibility of the government mandates? NO, but this is not historically accurate. AT&T became a monopoly thru the use of Alexander Graham Bell's Intellectual Property Monopoly. By the time they expired there was no chance for any of the competitors so the government stepped in to regulate them to prevent gouging. And, as for the regulation, lets assume that there was no regulation. Do you really think AT&T would have said 'sure, I'll give you access to my switching stations to attach your own network so that you can take my customers away'? No, they would have denied them access entirely except for the government forcing the issue - of course they still tried to stone-wall by saying 'well we think $2000(?) per circuit is fair'. Saying that 'because the government makes mistakes (too much welfare, ...) we should go to Randism' is logically identical to the many Russians who say that 'because our experiment with capitalism/democracy is so bad, communism must be the answer'. Life is rarely so simple, but that's what makes life interesting. All JMO Clark