Incorporate Responsibly

Here are some links related to our second consensus session topic on corporate responsibility:

• A concise article on Milton Friedman, from a free online economics encyclopedia. (How many free online encyclopedias do you think I know about?)
• Friedman played a big role in making libertarianism and laissez-faire economic policies seem cool again...
  
• ... although the current financial collapse might be killing libertarianism.

What's this current financial collapse all about, anyway? Here's a bunch of pretty good stuff on it:

• How did the subprime mortage crisis happen? The radio show This American Life gives a great explanation, and radio host Terry Gross asks Michael Greenberger to explain it.
• Why did the mortgage crisis lead to the collapse of huge financial companies? This American Life gives another great explanation. OK, Greenberger does, too.
  
• There's also this short play on the role that credit default swaps and netting (or hedging) played in the collapse of those huge financial companies.
  

Finally, we wondered in class which members of a business are required to be socially responsible. Should we focus on the owners, or the management, or the employees? The following scene from Clerks suggests that Kevin Smith believes we should focus on all of them.