The term "conventional wisdom", even though its now used broadly, was coined by John Kenneth Galbraith in The Affluent Society to deride main stream thinking in economics. I think that book is a work of genius and it should be required reading for anyone who studies business, engineering or social science in college. I really puts a spotlight on the kind of libertarian-style capitalism that we have leaning toward for a half century now. And, using analyses from as far back as the fathers of modern economics, especially Ricardo and Malthus, explains why the only possible result of unregulated capital markets is essentially feudalism. Its policies like stock speculation that make Galbraith look especially prescient. Would anyone in their right mind claim that they created value if they had a good day at the craps table? No. You got a piece of someone else's pie through good luck. On a side note, Forbes has been on a role lately. I have hated their opinion pieces for a long time, but in the last several months, they've started to publish some sensible articles. I never thought I would see that day.
Kidding. I don't think that's it. I think Forbes has made some serious editorial choices. They'll still throw shit like this http://hubski.com/pub?id=9728 and this http://www.forbes.com/sites/billflax/2011/09/01/obama-hitler... (Hitler was actually a left winger, and capitalists are now persecuted just like the like Jews!) at you from time to time, but I think that their readership maybe isn't as ideologically conservative as they once thought. They seem to have made an effort to center it up a bit.
When stocks are bought and sold, both sides are satisfied after the transaction. Does that make a difference?Would anyone in their right mind claim that they created value if they had a good day at the craps table? No. You got a piece of someone else's pie through good luck.
That's clear. It's also obvious that the "someone else" would be happy to reverse the transaction if they could.