1978, when borrowing money could cost you 22% interest, and everyone could still remember Nixon's wage and price controls. When the EPA and the Clean Water/Air Acts were shiny and new, and after the oil shock delivered by OPEC there was serious discussion of nationalizing a couple oil companies.
Not gonna claim Mobil was right, but they did have their reasons.
1978, when borrowing money could cost you 22% interest, and everyone could still remember Nixon's wage and price controls. When the EPA and the Clean Water/Air Acts were shiny and new, and after the oil shock delivered by OPEC there was serious discussion of nationalizing a couple oil companies.
Not gonna claim Mobil was right, but they did have their reasons.
True, but what struck me was how quickly and easily "We've gone too far regulating our corporations, it's time for the pendulum to swing back" became the new conventional wisdom. I remember that case being made, for example, by Max Lerner, probably the most liberal columnist in the very liberal New York Post. (Not a typo; there must be somebody else who's old enough to remember when the Post editorial page was maybe the left-most in the nation.)
Those reasons are pretty much related to not making as much money as they could and that their only responsibility was to deliver shareholder value -- a primary idea of the idiot Milton Friedman
1978, when borrowing money could cost you 22% interest, and everyone could still remember Nixon's wage and price controls. When the EPA and the Clean Water/Air Acts were shiny and new, and after the oil shock delivered by OPEC there was serious discussion of nationalizing a couple oil companies.
Not gonna claim Mobil was right, but they did have their reasons.
True, but what struck me was how quickly and easily "We've gone too far regulating our corporations, it's time for the pendulum to swing back" became the new conventional wisdom. I remember that case being made, for example, by Max Lerner, probably the most liberal columnist in the very liberal New York Post. (Not a typo; there must be somebody else who's old enough to remember when the Post editorial page was maybe the left-most in the nation.)
(Outside of The Village Voice; sorry, Roy.)
Ah yes, the Dorothy Shiff era. BTW, "conventional wisdom" seems to have turned into "eternal wisdom" in their copybooks.
Those reasons are pretty much related to not making as much money as they could and that their only responsibility was to deliver shareholder value -- a primary idea of the idiot Milton Friedman