Robert Kraft

[gkmacca]

He was just on TalkSport confirming how close he was to buying LFC from Moores. The salary cap finished the deal: 'I want to compete on an even level, and if there's no salary cap I'd rather give the money to charity than to players'. What a pity we missed out on him, he sounds a good man.

 

[Fallon]

Yeah, cos he's looked after Cadbury's, and their staff, so well.

 

[furyoo]

Yeah, cos he's looked after Cadbury's, and their staff, so well.

Thats a joke, no?

 

[Jack D Rips]

I heard they were a bit cheesed off with him ok

 

[peterhague]

I'm not sure I wouldn't prefer to see fans' money go to players rather than a billionaire owner.

 

[svennis]

It's funny that americans of all don't believe a free market when it comes to sport.

 

[red_maradona]

It's funny that americans of all don't believe a free market when it comes to sport.

interesting - the paradox of capitalism is that whilst it encourages creativity and innovation, it inevitably feeds monopolies which undermine competition. sport thrives on competition more than anything. so for sport to be a financial success it needs to enable competition. I think...

 

[peterhague]

interesting - the paradox of capitalism is that whilst it encourages creativity and innovation, it inevitably feeds monopolies which undermine competition. sport thrives on competition more than anything. so for sport to be a financial success it needs to enable competition. I think...

I'm not sure that's true. Milton Friedman said the only example of a long-term monopoly he ever found that wasn't caused or sustained by government support was the De Beers diamond monopoly.

 

[gkmacca]

I'm not sure that's true. Milton Friedman said the only example of a long-term monopoly he ever found that wasn't caused or sustained by government support was the De Beers diamond monopoly.

Of course, old Milty didn't search very hard.

 

[red_maradona]

I'm not sure that's true. Milton Friedman said the only example of a long-term monopoly he ever found that wasn't caused or sustained by government support was the De Beers diamond monopoly.

all, if not most, of the main industries in the world are composed of a few number of co-operaitons - we've allowed it to enable for economies of scale, but we have not opted for a full capitalistic model as we regulate these industries through anti-trust/monopoly legislation. a form of regulation. i think the balance is almost right (except for the financial sector which has grown too big to regulate) - the US have adopted a similar model for their sports.

 

[peterhague]

None of which actually addresses the point.

 

[Judge Jules]

I respectfully disagree. In a competitive situation there are winners and losers, and the winners get bigger and more powerful while the losers dwindle and/or disappear. Maradona points out, rightly IMO, that in many cases society has chosen to intervene to prevent those winners from exercising their economic power totally unrestrainedly. Friedman didn't see it because he didn't want to, not because it hasn't happened.

 

[tony]

Yeah, cos he's looked after Cadbury's, and their staff, so well.

He is not THAT Kraft !

 

[peterhague]

Even if were to admit that the situations where governments intervene could fairly be described as naturally occurring monopolies, that act of a government intervening in a monopoly doesn't make that monopoly an inevitable consequence of every market situation, any more than the Germans electing Hitler in 1933 makes tyrrany the natural result of democracy.