I have a few interesting emails the past week that, combined with what I've been writing, made me think about the direction of the country. When you take a few steps back from the day to day, it really is amazing how involved government now has their hands in almost everything. I used to snicker (pre 2007) by all those who preached America is about "free market capitalism" and now I think anyone who speaks like this has simply reverted to some idealistic text book world. He/she looks at what America with an asterisk (or perhaps longs for some long forgotten era)... i.e. well if you just don't count these 87,000 programs we're full on free market capitalism. As we wrote in this post, even the champions of US Industry understand there is very little free market capitalism going on anymore - it's all about handouts and favorites and being positioned beautifully under the teat of the government.

And yes, each of those countries did a bevy of government incentives which is anathema to our (ahem) "free market ideology" (I say that chuckling under my breath based on what we've been seeing for 2 years) Even the CEO of General Electric (GE) was out this week saying that in the U.S. "it is not a free market, it never has been" when he was talking about his decisions to go after the money the government is offering left and right. Personally I much prefer when the truth is spoken, even if it's ugly - versus the dogma that dominates our media and national mindset. Thanks Mr. Immelt for speaking reality.

It's never been a free market; it's never gonna be a free market. That's just the way it is. The fact that I'd like GE to work in concert with where government policy is in the U.S. doesn't mean that I'm a traitor or a bad guy, I think it's just being practical that that's gotta happen.

As Doug Kass you cannot be moralistic if you want to profit from the actions going on. So one must sit and think, if it won't change... and in fact it is accelerating, how can I - aside from participating in the handouts themselves, benefit from the wealth transfer from future generations of unborn to the "so deserving" today? That's our jobs as speculators whether we like what is going on, or not. Step 2 is to stop the denial - our corporate leaders long ago dropped the denial; most of what is left is sitting within the dogma of one of our political parties and their associated media outlets. Step 3 is realizing even more opportunities are cropping up by the (seemingly) month; not only is thr growth of programs increasing - frankly it is at a historic, rate. (Jun 5, 2009: 1 in 6 Dollars of Income Now Via Government; Highest Since 1929) (May 5, 2009: Federal Aid Surpasses Sales Taxes as Top Revenue Generator for States) Frankly it is no different than our current economy as a whole or the stock market. We've taken from future generations to support ourselves today - to drive economic activity and stock market returns. Complain all you want (I certainly have) but people are profiteering at a rampant pace and certainly most appear to have no qualsm in the country.