Cartooning Obama's economics

Talbott, a former investment banker who has been a visiting scholar at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, proclaims at the outset that he "was guided by a philosophy practiced by Barack Obama, namely, it does little good to try to assign blame for our current problems." He then proceeds, over the next 200 pages, to blame a series of one-dimensional boogeymen for our nation's troubles. Chief among them: the big businesses that are "bribing our public officials with campaign donations."

Now, God help Corporate America when I'm the one thrust into the position of rising to its defense. More than a couple of executives have accused me over the years of being reflexively "anti-business" after I've written pieces expressing the need for a government-prescribed "living wage" or urging the adoption of some pro-union policy.

However, I would never go so far as to assert, as Talbott does, that companies are so completely focused on the bottom line that "there is no room for community, environmental, charitable, employee, neighborhood or patriotic concerns. Profit maximization is it." One can certainly argue that there is too much emphasis on short-term profits and not enough on social responsibility (aside from hollow sloganeering). But "no room" whatsoever?

I can rattle off plenty of companies -- such as Procter & Gamble, Google, Timberland and Costco -- that have demonstrated a genuine commitment to their employees, their communities and the environment. Are these enterprises perfect? No. Do they all face pressure to maximize profit? Absolutely. But are they as malevolent as Talbott would have you believe? Not even close.

At times, Talbott seems so determined to condemn the business sector that he goes off half-cocked. For example, he rants about the "monopolies and collusive behavior" in our "corporate-dominated economy," decrying the "price wars" in which giant companies "match each other's price increases dollar for dollar." Hmmm. Most of the price wars I'm familiar with occur when companies match each other's markdowns dollar for dollar.

Indeed, while the last few decades have been dreary in many respects for American workers, they've been generally fantastic for consumers, who today enjoy an unprecedented array of choices, and sizable savings, on a variety of goods and services. Cars, computers, TVs, refrigerators, airline tickets, telephone calls -- they're all markedly cheaper than they were 20 or 30 years ago (using constant dollars).