PrintJuly 23, 2008
Eliminate the Middleman
Once again villainous speculators have emerged as a scapegoat. There's a lot of history to this practice.Those who are familiar with the work of economist and social commentator Thomas Sowell, if asked, could easily find the common link between groups as diverse as Jews, the overseas Chinese, Armenians, and the Ibos. They are all middleman minorities. Such groups have served as segregated components of a larger society who also provide essential economic services, typically somewhere between production and consumption, that benefit the areas they live in. For example, Jews, the most prominent historical example in the Western world, engaged in usury during the Middle Ages. They were exempt from canon law that proscribed lending money at interest by members of the Roman Catholic Church [1]. The Lebanese, in several nations, grew to prominence in the clothing trade by starting as bottom level peddlers, and from there working to form enduring brands such as Haggar and Farah....(Read Full Article)
