डेनिएल चीसी: अनैतिक शिकार

I have not been blogging for the last month in order to devote my full time to an historically important violation of Business Rights. Now that I have the basic facts in mind, I hope to write more here--beginning with the Galleon case.

Femme fatale Danielle Chiesi (pronounced kee-AY-zee) has decided to plead guilty in the Galleon insider trading case. In my opinion, she a guiltless victim of our anti-capitalist regulatory system.

I do not deny that Chiesi appears to be a thoroughly immoral person. So far as I can tell, she prostituted herself in order to obtain financial information. Such behavior should be no part of an heroic capitalist system. Yet I cannot conceive on what basis such immorality should be considered a crime. The men, such as Robert Moffat of IBM, who fed her financial information in exchange for sexual favors betrayed both their wives and their companies. But that is, in both cases, a private matter: between a wife and her husband, between a company and its employee. There is no reason for the government to get involved. And even if, for some reason, the personnel relationship between Moffat and IBM were thought to be worthy of judicial attention, why does Chiesi’s use of the information Moffat freely gave her involve her in a crime?

The only theoretical basis for charging Chiesi with a crime, so far as I can see, is the notion of perfect competition, according to which all market participants are supposed to be possessed of equal information. That notion is not just absurd, it is an attack upon reality. The attempt to make market participants adhere to such a standard, under penalty of prison, is currently one of the most oppressive assaults against the free market.

In conclusion, I would note that Chiesi has apparently not agreed to cooperate with the prosecution in exchange for leniency in her sentencing, thereby showing more class than many who have been persecuted in this case. Apparently, some hookers really do have a heart of gold.