Redistribution of wealth? good luck with that...

i suppose the few people that read my blog may have gathered that i have had the economy on my mind lately. not surprising, i would guess most people in the world have that on their minds more often these days. but i have to address another issue that is irking me.

lots of people are looking forward to the current administration's attempt to 'right the wrong' that is the unfair distribution of wealth. I could point out that the majority (not all... we have Paris Hilton to consider... ick!) of those that are ultra wealthy, paid their dues and in my opinion deserve their HARD EARNED wealth. the lesson we should learn is that if we work as hard as they do we can be wealthy too.

but that is an aside. my real topic is this. IF you want to redistribute the wealth of this nation, putting greater regulation on the industry is counter productive. sounds strange? here let me explain my reasoning.

our current economy is marked by lots of "Delevering" and "Deglobalization," these are natural consequences to an over bloated market that was fed by the very government that is now attempting to "fix" it. these are good things because they are correcting the market naturally. the economy is also marked by lots of re-regulation and new regulation. this is not a natural consequence. this will create an "inefficient market" (which is actually the whole point of the regulation). instead of rewarding the smartest and hardest working person, you can force (through regulations) a "fair" price, etc. fairly simple to understand.

here is where i start to smile to myself (more of a smirk, really). the reason that many investment banks made a KILLING in Eastern European countries, India, China, Brazil, etc. is BECAUSE they are inefficient markets. i mean for crap sake, i work for a "alternative" investment bank that specializes in this! we are practically licking our chops waiting for this to happen here in the US. inefficiency is what creates the opportunities to make money. so even though you are trying to redistribute the wealth, who do you think is going to be capitalizing on these markets? I can assure you that it will be the wealthy and they are going to remain wealthy.

so my advice: stop with the jealous whining and stop waiting for government handouts. they aren't helping any of us.