analyst then uses as a tool to determine his, or her, version of economic truth and economic reality." As an example of the difference in these perspectives, he discussed the current () controversy over whether stock options ought to be expensed using "fair value method" or "intrinsic value method" and points out that the issue of stock dilution is "a stockholder problem, not a company problem". He pointed out that to a creditor there is "a world of difference in the credit-worthiness of an issuer who... pays out... $200 million per annum in cash for executive compensation... [and one who] issues stock options on a non-dividend-paying common stock with a "fair value" of $200 million" (the point being that the latter is of almost no concern to a creditor). In particular, he cited as wrongheaded an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal of April 27, 2004, which argued that "financial statements exist to help investors make informed investment decisions". He responded, "That statement is just plain wrong from either a public policy point of view or a creditor's point of view. Financial statements exist to fulfill the needs and desires of many constituencies: managements, creditors, governments, customers, etc." (italics in original). Economic views Although a strong advocate of capitalism, Whitman was a critic of free markets in the sense advocated by Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek. For example, in a discussion of John Maynard Keynes, Friedman and Hayek, Whitman wrote that the three "…great economists… missed a lot of details that are part and parcel of every value investor's daily life." While calling Hayek "100% right" in his critique of the pure command economy, he wrote "However, in no way does it follow, as many Hayek disciples seem to believe, that government is per se bad and unproductive while the private sector is, per se good and productive. In well-run industrial economies, there is a marriage between government and the private sector, each benefiting from the other." As illustrations of this, he points at "Japan after World War II, Singapore and the other Asian Tigers, Sweden and China today… Government has a necessary role in determining how control persons [management, boards of directors, etc.] are incentivized… He argued, in particular, for the value of government-provided credit and of carefully crafted tax laws. Further, Whitman argued (explicitly against Hayek) that "a free market situation is probably also doomed to failure if