Hello Alberto,

First, thank you for the high praise for the piece. I felt compelled to write this piece because I think the life blood of capitalism is innovation, and since 2009 most of the innovation being expressed at companies is in the form of financial engineering (debt refi, stock buybacks), and not of the 'how do we grow our top-line' kind,

Second, I am sympathetic to the Austrians' fascination with free-markets. But, in practice and in my opinion, it is a Utopian ideal (and the polar opposite of the Utopian-ideal of pure socialism) that will never be achieved. This is a much broader conversation than I am prepared to fully express in the comments section, too. But I will say that my initial assumption about markets is that they are not truly free, not truly a perfect pricing mechanism, and they are frequently manipulated by various authorities. Some of the authorities are central banks and bureaucratic entities, but still others are market enthusiasts themselves (see: LIBOR, for example). Given this assumption, my goal as a financial professional is to recognize when markets are far from a normal range of typical distortions, and to then use adjustments. I think this is an elegant solution to an imperfect world.

Again, thanks for making me smile today!

Jason