pandemically yours, gideon covideon.

Even if the industrial supply chain is more complicated in our day than it was in Veblen’s, it is still possible to catch the economic saboteurs at work. Returning to the Times story, the original bid-winning company was bought up by another, larger company called Covidien, which begged the federal government for more money, shuffled key employees around the firm (effectively gumming up the gears), and then demanded to be released from the contract. As a result, they received millions of public dollars but provided not a single unit. Veblen would insist that this was not a failure of the free market “price system.” On the contrary, the price system had worked according to its basic laws.

Free Market Genius, i guess. Everything for Nothing. Reward for Culling the Herd. Jolly Roger that. It's the life of the private enterprise pirate, mateys, it's The Pirate Life. Get a life, Get your own pirate life, if you can, good luck and thanks for your patient patronage, have a nice rest of your day, umkay?