The Piper Payer
President Barack Obama Thursday furiously slammed Wall Street titans who raked in billions in bonuses while taxpayers bailed out their industry as "shameful" and guilty of acute "irresponsibility."
Normally, my response would be to ask how this is any of Obama's business. But as long as the government is giving these companies money, this is the kind of slam they'll have to expect. Here's hoping no one gets used to it--business or government.
PS I don't know what the AP stylebook has to say, but man do they try to make it clear Obama is really mad. From the first three sentences: "President Barack Obama Thursday furiously slammed Wall Street titans," "Obama, anger flashing across his usually calm countenance," "The president's ire."
posted by LAGuy @ 12:12 AM
3 Comments:
Just a like a politician can never go wrong proposing enhanced sentences for crimes (or ctiticizing welfare cadillacs for that matter), you can never go wrong criticizing the greed of rich folks especially during bad economic times when Bankers are on the dole. Even the free marketeers have been bashing greed -easy targets (and what do bankers care they can lose 99% of their worth, take a few public hits and still be better off than 99% of the country)
The bailout of banks was, among other superlatives, very controversial. In order to build support, the recipients can't be doing things that will be immensely unpopular to the immensely less well-off public.
Of course as I have said before the problem is not greed. No one complains when greed drives a boom. The problem is stupidity- investing in an unsustainable system-not a good strategy for long-term greed [unless you think you'll die soon and don't care what comes later]. Well-managed thoughtful greed could have avoided this crisis. No one should should mistake markets being more efficient than planned economies for markets being that efficient. The rational man does not exist and market forces are nothing more than average persons, ignoramuses and geniuses together, making decisions which could be right or wrong in any given instance.
The trouble is the criticism can end up being counterproductive. Let's say the government starts passing laws preventing certain types of compensation to CEOs of these troubled companies. Sounds good to the public, but what it does is help guarantee the most talented people will avoid the most troubled industries when, in fact, they need these people the most.
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