My wife and I are quite fond of the forensic scientist shows such
as CSI, NCIS, the other NCIS, Body of Proof and the like. Now we also realize
in real forensic science things can’t move so quickly and so reality may get
stretched quite a bit, but they are very entertaining and we like them. We also
like certain copy shows and evidenced by Lamont thinking he is like Castle and
ruggedly handsome.
Bill Moyers recently published a piece by Joshua Holland on his
blog about economic sleuths. Criminology has advanced considerable since I took
a course in it in college. A major reason for this is all the data we have
today as well as studies. You know, the things that are totally ingored by folk
who just want revenge, jail everyone, and want to beat criminals and carry guns
to reduce crime despite any evidence to back up there claims. But I digress
again.
Holland makes the point that economists today are good at digging
through the data to find out where market corruption is coming from and those
who just plane cheat and the patterns they create. The article mentions one
study that found a lot of stuff being smuggled from Hong Kong to China to avoid
taxes. Thus the import taxes encourage these materials to “disappear in transit.”
Steven Levitt of Freakeconomics
reported that “a prostitute is more likely to have sex with a police officer
than to be arrested by one.” Not unlike how our government is run.
Big money in politics clearly leads to corruption in politics. If
the law makers are buddies with a big business who generously gives them money
to get elected, those businesses don’t get much scrutiny in terms of law
breaking. In fact, laws may get changed so they get breaks the rest of us
don’t.
We also know that lawmakers when not in office often end up in
cushy jobs in the industries they were supposed to regulate; can you say,
“conflict of interest?” Who is in control and their relationship with business
directly affect he stock market.
These connections may vary from country to country. For example
John Moore, the chairman of Rolls-Royce was appointed to the House of Lords,
but that did not affect the value of Rolls-Royce stock. However, in Italy when
Fiat chief Giovanni Agnelli was appointed to the senate Fiat’s stock jumped
3.4% created millions for that company.
Hoffman concludes that unfortunately we are more like Italy than
the U.K.
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