The Big Three Market DriversLearn Capital Flow AnalysisDo Companies Cheat Shareholders?Buybacks: The Fraud of the CenturySocialism vs. Free EnterpriseDo You Believe Official Statistics?Globalization: Good or Bad? | Subject: Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (properly pronounced /k?r?ne??i/, but commonly /?k?rn??i/ or /k?r?n??i/)[1] (25 November 1835 – 11 August 1919) was a Scottish industrialist, businessman, entrepreneur and a major philanthropist.
He is one of the most famous captains of industry of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
He emigrated to the United States as a child with his parents. His first job in the United States was as a messenger boy, and he progressed up the ranks of a telegraph company. He built Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Steel Company, which was later merged with Elbert H. Gary’s Federal Steel Company and several smaller companies to create U.S. Steel. With the fortune he made from business, he later turned to philanthropy and interests in education, founding the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Carnegie Mellon University and the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.
Carnegie gave away most of his money to establish many libraries, schools, and universities in America, the United Kingdom and other countries, as well as a pension fund for former employees. He is often regarded as the second-richest man in history after John D. Rockefeller. Carnegie started as a telegrapher and by the 1860s had investments in railroads, railroad sleeping cars, bridges and oil derricks. He built further wealth as a bond salesman raising money for American enterprise in Europe.
He earned most of his fortune in the steel industry. In the 1870s, he founded the Carnegie Steel Company, a step which cemented his name as one of the “Captains of Industry”. By the 1890s, the company was the largest and most profitable industrial enterprise in the world. Carnegie sold it to J.P. Morgan in 1901, who created U.S. Steel. Carnegie devoted the remainder of his life to large-scale philanthropy, with special emphasis on local libraries, world peace, education and scientific research. His life has often been referred to as a true “rags to riches” story. (Wikipedia Jan 2010) Blood in the Streets: By John Schroy, on May 20th, 2010 |   Markets can be inefficient for different reasons and persist for long periods. The transition between one type of inefficient market to the next is usually a period of strife and uncertainty which may last five to fifteen years. Looking back at how the economy emerged from previous transitions, I note that in each new period, equity prices started at reasonable levels. This was true at the beginning of the Roaring Twenties, the Post WW II Period, and the Reagan Era. It is as if markets, recognizing prior inefficiencies ‘reset’ and start over. However, for the current market to ‘reset’, it will be necessary for equity prices to fall considerably, which will have dire consequences. What would Adam Smith say? By John Schroy, on March 11th, 2010 |  Most corporate executives of giant companies today are, in actuality, mere employees (‘workers’ in communist jargon) and are not capitalists or entrepreneurs at all. Their extraordinary remuneration schemes are provided without executives having employed or having risked any of their own capital and is often paid, even as a corporation slides into bankruptcy. Adam Smith recognized self-interest as a useful trait, but one that should not be allowed to override the nobler virtues. Stock repurchases By John Schroy, on January 23rd, 2008 |  On September 17, 2007, Capital Flow Watch called the top of the Buyback Bubble, issuing a warning that stock prices might be in for a sharp fall. Throughout the last quarter of 2007, stock prices fell as funding for buybacks began to dry up, while executives rushed to exercise stock options before they were ‘under water’. Equity sales by households are expected to continue, until executive options are ‘under water’ or until corporations run out of funding for stock buybacks, whichever is first. Featured articles on inside pages | Site navigation Capital Flow Watch has hundreds of articles on economics and investments. Articles have excerpts on the front pages, and on tag, category, search and archive pages.
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