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[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Spanky
I think both the deregulation of the phone industry and the airline industry was a good thing.

And that has what to do with how the SEC balances the interests of businesses and investors?

I actually know cox pretty well and trust his judegment.

I have much respect for Cox, but he has strong views about the securities regulation that make me, as an investor, concerned. Setting aside what you know about Cox personally, have you not seen any of the coverage about why Bush dumped Donaldson and picked Cox? I'm talking about the business press here.

Yes but an accurate one.

Of some Democrats, maybe. But not all Republicans are Christian fundamentalists, either, as I'm sure you appreciate.

Small business are the back bone of the economy. That is where the new jobs come from and also the future Microsofts. They are also the most attached to free trade. Almost every Chamber of commerce in the Bay Area is a Republican strong hold. Most small business owners I have met, their biggest complaint is liability. Fear of Lawsuits. Any reform in this area is always obstructed by the trial lawyers. The California Chamber of Commerce and the National Chamber of commerce almost always back the Republicans. And that is because Republicans are most pro-business.

What you have here is a set of Chamber of Commerce talking points, but telling me that small business owners who are active in the GOP want tort reform is a long, long way from establishing that trial lawyers are a major threat to the free market. Try again.

As far as unions are concerned almost everything they support I am against. When Davis was Governor they passed laws that did not allow Silicon Valley companys to have a four day work week (with ten hour days). They pushed through a bill that would not allow Costco to sell food (luckily even Davis couldn't stomach that one), and they are always trying to limit the state governments ability to do competitive bidding for contracts. In addition, on a national scale the biggest road blocks to free trade deals (NAFTA, WTO and not the Central American Free Trade act) are the Unions. Unions don't care about creating new jobs, they just care about holding on to the ones that exist - no matter what the cost.

OK, and likewise businesses support an awful lot of measures that are harmful to competition even as they serve the narrow self-interest of those businesses. Government should strike a balance between the interests of labor and capital. A government that errs too far to either side (e.g., California state government, and the current federal government) will give us less than optimum markets.

Privatising Social Secuirty is the biggest free market issue of the day. And we know which side the Democrats are on in that.

Privatizing Social Security has very little to do with whether market participants are able to transact freely with each other. It's about whether consumers are able to obtain a sort of social insurance that the market is unable to provide. People like Social Security. It's a funny sort of free-market doctrine that tries to tell people that they can't have a government program they overwhelmingly support.

• Deficit spending's effects on interest rates
  The effects of rising oil prices
  Health care costs
  Pension regulation (or the lack thereof)

On the above issues I don't see how the Dems are any better than the Republicans.

You have the current crop of Republicans and their drunken-sailor spending policies to thank for the deficits.

I have a hard time faulting the GOP for rising oil prices, but would not that both prongs of the Admininstration's energy policy vis-a-vis oil -- invading Iraq and drilling in ANWR -- are terrible policy.

On health-care, please go back and compare the GOP drug benefit to the (cheaper, and more effective) alternative the Dems were pushing. The GOP plan was all about subsidizing big pharma -- exactly the sort of corporate giveaway that your party is now all about. Meanwhile, they have no plan to do anything about health care costs.

And the next time we meet, I'll see if you can tell me with a straight face that Republicans are just as interested as Democrats in forcing companies to properly fund pension plans.