I have never been an enemy or opponent of the free enterprise system, I have always argued for capitalism moderated by socialist values, never a pure socialism where all economic activity was administered by the state. I have always felt that what makes capitalism so powerful, its innate ability to self-regulate itself (at least to a point) and the desire of the average person to work his butt off and take enormous risks if he can see a payoff for himself in the future, are charactersitics so self-evidently valuable that only a fool would dismiss them.

I simply believe that the benefits of capitalism cannot be expected to materialize by simply leaving it alone, that there is a tendency for the strong to become stronger, manipulate the market, and to continue to grow in power and influence even while they become increasingly inefficient and tyrannical by crushing their economic rivals, the consumers, the investors and the workers.

I consider myself as a centrist, although I recognize that I would probably be considered more left of center by most Americans. In Great Britain, I would probably vote Tory and have been a Thatcher fan. But there is no way anyone can consider me a far leftist, as your contrasting me with TB seems to suggest. It is this attempt to cast me as some kind of mustachioed radical bomb-throwing anarchist has provoked some of my most bitter responses on this board. I do believe it has been done in an attempt to discredit everything I have had to say, and that perhaps, in over-reaction, I have responded a bit too strongly.