[ExI] The CC-PP game

[Stathis Papaioannou]

2008/11/24 BillK <pharos at gmail.com>:
> I read that Citigroup has now been nationalized (in all but name) by
> the US government.
> And I have also realized that what is going on is a new financial game
> called the CC-PP game.
>
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonize_costs-privatize_profits_game>
>
> Quote:
> The Commonize Costs–Privatize Profits Game (or CC–PP Game) is a
> concept developed by the ecologist Garrett Hardin to describe a "game"
> (in the game theory sense) widely played in matters of resource
> allocation. The concept is a formalism of the closely related
> phenomenon known as the Tragedy of the commons.
> Players of the CC–PP Game aim to commonize the costs (or
> externalities) generated by their activities across the wider
> community, while privatizing all profits (financial or otherwise) to
> themselves.
> In political discourse, the flow of financial resources within society
> has been described in similar terms, such as privatizing profits and
> socializing losses.

As I understand it it isn't quite as bad as that, since the government
is acting only to support depositors, and shareholders' funds would
have to be depleted completely before the the government takes a loss.
Also, the government will have a say on executive salaries and
bonuses... which as we know those bankers deserved, since they were
awarded them by the free market, the ultimate arbiter of worth.


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou