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From: mms1646@acf4.UUCP (Michael M. Sykora)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: "ELECTABILITY" CRITERIA: today's guest MIKE SYKORA!
Message-ID: <1340155@acf4.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 5-Jun-85 11:30:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: acf4.1340155
Posted: Wed Jun  5 11:30:00 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Jun-85 01:10:55 EDT
References: <2895@sdcc3.UUCP>
Organization: New York University
Lines: 31

>/* ec120bgt@sdcc3.UUCP (ANDREW VARE) / 11:25 pm  May 31, 1985 */

>> No way he could have been elected on political merit?  What other kind of
>> merit could one be ELECTED on?

>Reagan was elected to his first term on an economic platform that
>lacked what most call "merit".

I was interpreting the word "political" to mean electoral.  This
was probably a mistake.  I apologize.  I did not intend to make
any judgements as to the merits os Reagan's policies.

> . . . Like the business world
>where corporations are run according to short run profits, in order
>to keep stock prices up and discourage take-overs, American politics
>are about as farsighted as a ostrich with its head stuck in the
>ground.

As I understand it, the theoretical price of a stock is the value of
its future earnings discounted to the present.  One would therefore
think that in order to keep stock prices up, corporate directors
would have to consider both long term and short term returns.
The weightings of these returns are determined by the rate of interest
and rate of inflation, both of which are essentially controlled by
government.  Maybe government management of the money supply is
providing businesses with an incentive to concentrate on the
short term.

>ANDREW T. VARE

						Mike Sykora