Posted by
rycK on Tuesday, August 04, 2009 10:56:55 AM
Rewarding Bad Actors
by More Bad Actors and Higher Taxes: A Krugman Gem
Abstract: Krugman of the New
York Times maintains his reputation by focusing only on higher taxes and more
regulations or ‘rules’ from government.
He offers anecdotes with condemnations on speculation and big profits
but seems to ignore the salient fact that many liberals also make big bucks
too. He ignores that salient fact that
many liberals make huge profits and escape target taxes.
The assembly
of propaganda piecesand other blends of disinformation are
designed to sway the reader with some guarantee of money, justice or, more
appropriately: the notion that justice will claw-back some of the ill-gotten
money or hides of evil doers and capitalists.
Victims must be identified, praised and the wrongdoers punished, at best,
with higher taxes or more legislation.
Today,
for our amusement, our esteemed non-economist from the New York Times, who is known
affectionately as Dr. Paul Krugman of the Walter Duranty Papers,
squeezes off another propagandistic offalette
sanctioning the enduring confiscation of more private loot by suggesting that
we truncate remuneration in the investment banks, or what is left of
them, on Wall Street.
To wit:
“Americans are
angry at Wall Street, and rightly so. First the financial industry plunged us into
economic crisis, then it was bailed out at taxpayer expense. And now, with the
economy still deeply depressed, the industry is paying itself gigantic bonuses.
If you aren’t outraged, you haven’t been paying attention.”--
Rewarding Bad Actors By Paul Krugman Op-Ed Columnist Published: August
2, 2009 [Emphasis is mine in all quotes.]
Could we
recall that Franklin Raines too away gigantic bonuses after cooking the books at Fannie
Mae and was not condemned for this by
the NTY or investigated, rewarded with some unknown function in the Obama
election committee and received only praise from Maxine Waters?
Krugman appears to be blissfully unaware that the CRA [the phony Community Communist Reinvestment Act] forced banks to lend out money at a loss and that
this contributed to the collapse of the credit markets. The phony mortgages
were bundled and sold as ‘investments.’ Fanny Mae was the toilet where bad loans could be
flushed and Franklin Raines
made a cool $90,000,000
dollars off this scam. Oh, he is black and works for Obama? Oh, yes.
Is Raines a fat cat under your definition Paul? This was all a vision of Greenlining.[12]
Maxine at her very best:
“Maxine Waters: "We do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac
and particularly Fannie Mae under the outstanding leadership of Frank Raines."—[comment
by Waters during a hearing in 2004 ] http://blog.beliefnet.com/reformedchicksblabbing/2008/09/maxine-waters-we-do-not-have-a.html
Monday September 29, 2008 [Note the video showing Maxine
was removed under threat of legal action.] Too bad the media has to be so crass
as to filter out stuff like this.
Maxine at her second best:
“This liberal will be all about socializing….ah ah
….ah …taking over…….government running all of your companies…. ah … ah. .. ”—Maxine
Waters on stage in a video.
We wonder
how Krugman
might sanction this criminal action and justify the huge bonus for Raines?
Two
pointless Krugmaniacal
anecdotists follow on the issue of “profits from high-frequency trading” and “speculates on oil and other
commodities.”
“yadda yadda yadda”-- Rewarding Bad
Actors By Paul Krugman
Could we
wonder where we could have lost Krugman’s reference to George Soros here and comments
in his currency speculations?? Did he try to sink the British pound? Oh! His
actions do not belong in this article about greed and high profits and
speculation! I understand.
Oh! This must be it:
“Just to be clear: financial speculation can serve a useful
purpose. It’s good, for example, that futures markets provide an incentive to
stockpile heating oil before the weather gets cold and stockpile gasoline ahead
of the summer driving season.”-- Rewarding Bad Actors By Paul Krugman
And what can we predict Krugman will advise as a ‘solution’ to these ills?
“What should be done? Last week the House passed a bill setting rules for
pay packages at a wide range of financial institutions. That would be a step in the right direction. But it
really should be accompanied by much broader regulation of financial practices
— and, I would argue, by higher tax rates on supersized incomes.”-- Rewarding Bad Actors By Paul Krugman
Does this
theme bypass Warren Buffett and George Soros?? I think it does. These are
‘friends of the left’ thus immune to abuse or condemnation or targeted taxes.
“Neither the administration, nor our political system in
general, is ready to face up to the fact that we’ve become a society in which the big bucks go to
bad actors, a society that lavishly rewards those who
make us poorer.”-- Rewarding Bad Actors By Paul Krugman
This last
sentence references a routine propagandistic turn-of-the-crank message alluding
to the zero-sum theory where those whose assets are above the median must have
gotten them unfairly. How many starve in Africa because Oprah or Michael Jackson
or Barbara Streisand or made 100-+250 million per year or so?? How many starved
in America when Joe Kennedy ran booze during
the depression and made millions while escaping taxes and justice?
Krugman fails to mention that many
traders in the speculative world have low salaries or work on a contract
basis and will get little or nothing if they don’t perform and deliver high
profits. Strangely, the NFL and NBA, hookers on 8th Avenue, fisherman and most lawyers
operate in a similar manner. The illogic
of selecting certain careers and blandishing them with selected social abuse labels
fails to demonstrate to us a level playing field and undermines the notion of a
progressive tax for all.
The
underlying message here is that the ‘enemies of liberalism’ require a punitive tax and
that ‘friends
of liberalism’ may continue making millions in the meanwhile.
rycK
Comments:
ryckki@gmail.com
Krugman Applies Protosimian Logic
to Health Care. Big Government and Higher Taxes! Of Course!
“Bear
Stearns made the first public securitization of Community
Reinvestment Act (CRA) loans started in
1997.[6] Editorialists in some American
newspapers[7][8] and US Congressman Ron Paul[9] say the CRA loans were lent to
otherwise un-credit-worthy consumers in the name of ending discrimination,
although an analysis of actual lending patterns does not generally support this
conclusion.[10][11][12]
On June 22, 2007,
Bear Stearns pledged a collateralized loan of up to $3.2 billion to "bail
out" one of its funds, the Bear Stearns High-Grade Structured Credit Fund,
while negotiating with other banks to loan money against collateral to another
fund, the Bear Stearns High-Grade Structured Credit Enhanced Leveraged Fund.[13] The funds were invested in thinly
traded collateralized
debt obligations (CDOs)
found to be worth less than their mark-to-market value. Merrill Lynch seized $850 million worth of the
underlying collateral but only was able to auction $100 million of them. The
incident sparked concern of contagion as Bear Stearns might be forced to
liquidate its CDOs, prompting a mark-down of similar assets in other
portfolios.[14][15] Richard
A. Marin, a senior executive at Bear Stearns Asset Management
responsible for the two hedge funds, was replaced on June 29 by Jeffrey
B. Lane, a former Vice Chairman of rival investment bank, Lehman Brothers.[16]
During the
week of July 16, 2007,
Bear Stearns disclosed that the two subprime hedge funds had lost nearly all of
their value amid a rapid decline in the market for subprime mortgages.