I kept hearing the same phrase over and over..."those guys were great engineers, but they weren't very good businessmen." Well, maybe, but when they brought the beancounters aboard, you knew the firm's days were numbered.

This is what I've been harping on since I've come to this board, entrepreneurial capitalism isn't just the absence of socialism, it is based on technical experts with business skills who make things happen. But the managerial class is primarily bureaucratic...and parasitic. They don't start a firm to make the world's best widget and to put their name on it. To them a company is just a machine for making money, a host they can infect. They never buy, they just lease, and they have a tendency to economize by never changing the oil.

The roll-up-your-sleeves Ayn Rand captain of industry is an idealized heroic figure. I'm not saying he doesn't exist, he just is limited in size and numbers. He is the corner lemonade stand evolved to its ultimate point. After that comes the corporate welfare state. And you know what, there ain't a Commie in sight. Everybody calls themself an entrepreneur these days. This is where the crisis of capitalism originates, not external enemies, but internal decadence.