Capitalism without owners

German President Joachim Gauck is the first world leader to announce a personal boycott of the Sochi Winter Olympics. It is understood to be a response to the Russian government's violations of human rights. Gauck has been in office since March 2012 and has declined all offers to visit Russia.



Back in 1953 famous composer/musician Leonard Bernstein tried to renew his passport and found the FBI had a few questions. These questions were similar to the ones many of his colleagues in music, theater, and film faced when before Joseph McCarthy's House U-American Activities Committee. Newsweek documents the harassment Bernstein faced over the next 20 years. That included a memo sent by Nixon (or his staff) claiming that the music Bernstein wrote for the opening of the Kennedy Center in 1971 would be anti-war and would embarrass the government.

But why is it news now? One reason is Bernstein's humiliating apology for past associations has been published as part of The Leonard Bernstein Letters. Another is to remind us that the NSA, with all its data, can abuse its power and harass citizens under the guise of protecting us from dangers.



At the moment, food labelers can use the word "natural" to describe a food with any level of processing, which makes it meaningless. There is now a movement to give the word an official definition, similar to what was done for "organic" several years ago. Yes, there is a battle brewing on what "natural" means.



When a person owns stock he or she has a (likely small) voice in how the corporation is run. I have lots of investments, all in mutual funds. Which means I have ceded my voice in the corporation to the mutual fund manager. While I might be interested in employee rights and environmental sustainability, the fund manager is only interested in making money. And that means the corporation (such as Twitter, newly into issuing stock) listens to the fund manager (likely a member of the 1%), and not to me.

This "capitalism without owners" is one reason why CEO pay is so high. Stock markets full of big fish means the big fish can finagle the market with their strategies to the detriment of the small investor. So unless the individual has a lot of time and knowledge the market becomes riskier and should be left to the big fish. Which gives them more weight to throw around.



Transparency International has released their Corruption Perceptions Index. It features a score and ranking on how corrupt a country's government is perceived to be. Denmark, Finland, and New Zealand are at the top with a score of 90 out of 100. United States is 19th with a score of 73. 70% of the 176 countries have a score below 50. Afghanistan, North Korea, and Somalia are at the bottom with a score of 8.

I note this measures how corrupt a country is perceived to be, not how corrupt it is. Yes, I'm aware that second value might be hard to compute. I bring this up because I think the United States is scored too high. Now, gov't officials might not be taking a lot of bribes as defined by the methodology of these rankings. But to my eyes, all that secret (and not so secret) campaign money amounts to the same thing.