And the winner is.... Marx!!?

Many of the economists today are asking the same question over and over again: "What is happening to the capitalism this days" or "What's wrong with the capitalism"....

If we want to find answers of these questions, or similar to them, we must analyse the whole system itself. Starting from the basic components to the more complex ones, or looking the system as one and "degrading" it to the very basic foundations. No matter what method we use the results will be somewhat disturbing....

Well look today's economy!!
We saw in the past how the USA was handling the world crisis, by injecting huge amounts of cash into their economy. The car industry, the heavy industry, travelling industry ( referring to the air companies), banking industry etc.
Today the same thing is happening in the EU, where Germany and France are injecting cash into the Greek economy so they can maintain the stability of their national banks. This is due to the fact that the Greek debt consists mostly from German and French bank loans.

I just mentioned in short those events, just to give you a glimpse of the situation in the past and in the near future, just to see the facts. And what are the facts? Well today we can see how THE STATE is doing whatever it can to prevent bankruptcy of some companies which are leaders in one or another sector. Today's governments are doing everything in their power to save those companies or states (in the example of Greece).

Wait!!!

So if I understood it correctly THE STATE is trying to do something that is by me forbidden in the "capitalism in the purest form"?! Tell me how can I as a true capitalist can explain the huge governments help that some companies are given?! Help which came from my own pocket, from my tax pay...?! And not only mine but everybody else!?

Hey buddy what I've been told, today if you cannot take the pressure from the competition, if you cannot cope with the prices and cost-expenses, if you can't pay your taxes, salaries etc. then YOU'RE GOING DOWN!!!.

What are YOU (government aided companies) more important than the rest of us?! Can anyone see the irony in this? Us who are making profit, us who pay their taxes, us who are keeping the economy on it's feet are left behind and those which are "clumsy", those who are poorly managed and somehow their managers are receiving HUGE bonuses are rewarded?!

This indirectly means that the government aided companies are one way or another a state companies. Well THE STATE will always say that they are doing this to prevent firing 10,000 , 20,000 or more thousands of workers from work or to prevent some bank from collapsing as the result of the bankrupt company... Yes I can't argue... There will be an unemployed, and some market disturbance but it will be on short term! Why?! Because the collapsing "giant" will make a "market gap". Gap which will be a great opportunity for the other companies in the same sector. Companies which deserve to take the place of the "clumsy giant".

So if we sum all of this we can see illogical state interference in the open market. Yes we can interfere in the economy or at a specific sector but only if by all means it's logical and the intervention will affect the whole sector not some companies as we see nowadays. That kind of intervention where we actually don't have an open market, where the state is "telling " you what's gonna be produced and by whom, where the state indirectly owns the whole sector or the whole economy hugely reminds me more of something else rather than capitalism...

It reminds me of a socialism!!!

Yes, today I cannot analyse and justify some government actions from the capitalist perspective but if we analyse the same actions from the socialistic perspective they make sense... Sad but true my friends... Indeed....

I only can imagine if Carl Marx was alive or by any chance is looking us from some heaven or hell how he is laughing with a sinister smile...

Well Marx - capitalism : 1-0 and we better change something until the match is over and we loose ....

Capitalism: The beginning and the end

Searching the adequate definition for this word across many different dictionaries (in which I found almost the same answer) I would like to write here the definition from the Oxford English Dictionary in which this word is defined as:
• noun an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.

The origins of modern capitalism and markets can be traced back to the Roman Empire, at it's simplest form, from where it evolved to today's form as we know it. Throughout history many different authors emerged and gave their contribution in the economy field and paved the road for today's economic systems and their variations which are implemented all over the World. It's enough to look at the highly developed countries as USA, Japan, Germany ( which all of them have one or another form of capitalism) to realize, though all of them are open market countries, it's unlikely to find the same ( or close to same) open market rules and regulations in which this markets ( demand and supply) work and thrives. However all of them have one in common and that is highly developed stock exchange markets where you can trade with stocks, bonds, financial derivatives, etc.. Nowadays you don't need to have diploma in Economics to own, buy or sell stocks or bonds, today common workers own stocks at the companies in which they work ( or in some other as well) or put their money in some thrust funds to do that job instead of them.

Every day new companies emerge on one or another stock exchange offering their stocks and bonds for trading to the public as well as the current companies do with new blocks of stocks/bonds. The question stays: Why any company offers stocks? And the obvious answer would be: One company publishes stocks to gain some liquid assets ( dollars, euros, etc..) which is so much needed for their current or future investments. It's very simple actually... When one company needs money to do it's basic operations or for some investment it has two options to gain that so much needed dollars: to sell stocks or to sell bonds ( also it could combine this two operations e.g 60% of the funds to collect from bonds and 40% from stocks). For those who still don't realize what is bond and what is stock i would like to write here the definitions of stock and bond taken from the Oxford English Dictionary:
Stock:
• noun
1. the capital of a company raised through the issue and subscription of shares.
2. (stocks) a portion of a company’s stock held by an individual or group as an investment.
(it had other definitions as well but these are the one that are relevant to know what stock means in economic terms)
Bond:
• noun
1. a certificate issued by a government or a public company promising to repay borrowed money at a fixed rate of interest at a specified time.

Knowing this now the question is how is determined the price of some stock or bond? ( sure someone can say just look at the local stock market and that's it!! but here I'm talking about all those elements who form the price of some current stock). So the price of some stock reflects the current condition of that company, (in lames terms how good that company stands nowadays!!) e.g. is that company liquid, is it investing and in what fields, how much bonuses the managers are receiving yearly, is the company expanding in new markets, does it have some legal problems etc. Oh well... it should be like that... but is it!? Today the company's stocks are everything but mirrors of their condition!! Nowadays investing in stocks are more and more becoming nothing more than gambling and for all of those who will criticize me just remember what happened to ENRON, I can't remember now but I saw somewhere a list of top ten companies who will last forever and ENRON was on that list too. Is there anyone who gained huge profit with trading stocks today, because and only because of his own intellect and individual effort to project where that company will be in the near and distant future? I think that era, the era of Warren Buffett, is over. Today you can make huge profit only if you have some inside information and with speculation ( as I would like to say: "raping the market")