Comments on: Intermission Over http://virtualstoa.net/2008/04/22/intermission-over/ Chris Brooke's Weblog Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:40:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Joseph Harder http://virtualstoa.net/2008/04/22/intermission-over/comment-page-1/#comment-204962 Joseph Harder Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:48:39 +0000 http://virtualstoa.net/2008/04/22/intermission-over/#comment-204962 Dear me, such terribly simplistic, medievalist, commie nonsense. This “Macintyre” person is clearly unenlightened about our glorious capitalist sytem.The ‘global finaincial crisis” this alarmist is babbling about is simply another example of the Spontaneous Order fashioned by the Invisible Hand.

]]> By: Richard A http://virtualstoa.net/2008/04/22/intermission-over/comment-page-1/#comment-204938 Richard A Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:55:32 +0000 http://virtualstoa.net/2008/04/22/intermission-over/#comment-204938 Well you may have missed this excellent letter from Alasdair MacIntyre in the FT a week and a half ago…

What marks this crisis from the rest

Published: April 10 2008 03:00 | Last updated: April 10 2008 03:00

From Mr Alasdair MacIntyre.

Sir, The salient fact that distinguishes this global financial crisis from its predecessors has been insufficiently noted. Those who constructed and traded ingenious derivatives for Long-Term Capital Management knew exactly what they were doing. They made mistakes, but in retrospect it is perfectly clear what those mistakes were.
No such clarity is likely to become available about the actions of those who have traded the more complex recent derivatives, if only because so many who engaged in such trading did not understand what they were doing. Capitalism is bad enough when run by the intelligent and the wide-awake. When run by the hypnotised and the sleepwalking, it should frighten even capitalists.
Alasdair MacIntyre,
Philosophy Department,
University of Notre Dame,
Notre Dame, IN 46556, US

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

]]>