Sunday, May 24, 2009

Stockmann's Law

The rate of diffusion of capital ownership leads, and is directly proportional, to the diversification of the income of the former capitalist owners into labor differentials, alternate capital structures, and influence-enabled government rent seeking.

Why I think so: the economic elite has enormous advantages, including education, position, resources, and comparative cohesion and agility. Members (on average) will strive to maintain and increase their relative advantage over the mean. If the ownership of equity or bonds or land becomes widespread, they will attempt to find other ways to promote this relative advantage. The notion that by the time any information has become public, it is largely worthless for investing purposes can be expanded to the idea that over the long run, this is true of investments themselves. They become Ponzi-ized as the original capital holders sell to the masses and invest elsewhere.

What evidence do I think is relevant: compensation differentials between corporate levels; executive compensation through incentives that do not reflect return to equity holders; special interest legislation that benefits privately- or narrowly-owned companies; hedge funds and similar capital structures that employ leverage and contra-capital (derivative) structures that exploit agility and sophistication; the reduction of clearly undervalued enterprises as investment opportnities.

Do I really think this: well, not exactly - I believe that true linear relationships in economics are largely imaginary, and that real functions have gaps and leaps. And this is also a pretty broad generalization.

What this means: the price of any value that involves active and adaptive opposition is eternal vigilance. Liberty is just a subset of this.

8 Comments:

At 10:59 AM, Blogger Feodor said...

You mean, "*this* is a subset of liberty."

I know it's not what you think you mean, but it's what you mean if you want to use the word, Liberty, in any way that has relevance.

Hayek and Posner! Please... God... no.

 
At 4:06 PM, Blogger TStockmann said...

Relevance to what? is this the positive/negative liberty thing?

Anyway, I think you're in bed with Hayek on this one. My post was narrowly tailored to capital holders being bit more watchful of the hired help and rent-seekers on my usual grounds of self-interest. Treating the rights of capital as a foundation of liberty sounds very Hayek.

Non-sequiter: it's amusing to try to channel Ayn Rand on the subject of Angelo Mozilo. That i just typed that sentence is deeply troubling.

 
At 6:13 PM, Blogger Feodor said...

You would know Hayek better than me.

Never trust anyone from Pepperdine.

 
At 11:34 AM, Blogger TStockmann said...

Now you tell me about Pepperdine. Where you back when?

 
At 9:43 AM, Blogger Feodor said...

Was I what back when?

 
At 5:17 AM, Blogger TStockmann said...

When I was all involved with that person from Pepperdine

 
At 8:46 AM, Blogger Feodor said...

You were at Countrywide?

 
At 1:34 PM, Blogger TStockmann said...

No, ANOTHER person from Pepperdine and involved in a nonfinancial way. Malibu scatters its bad seed widely.

 

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