GOODY TWO SHOES: Let Them Eat Steak!: Part II
Economist and Ayn Rand acolyte George Reisman, Ph.D. writes a capitalist excess manifesto on his blog defending Wall Street bonuses, corporate jets and redecorating executive offices with pricey antiques – though he does somewhat begrudgingly admit that “[g]overnment bailouts put everything in a different light. They give everyone in the country the right to second guess every decision of the firms that have received the bailouts, on the grounds that the money used by those firms is theirs, the taxpayers”:
Understandably, the taxpayers become furious about things like bonuses, corporate jets, and expensive office remodelings. They see themselves simply as being made to pay for these things. This is because, unlike the shareholders of a private company, the taxpayers will never have any possible financial benefit even if the expenditures might actually be perfectly reasonable and well made if they took place in the context of a privately owned company.
And unlike the shareholders of a private company, they were never given a choice about whether or not they wanted their funds to be turned over to this or that company. Their funds were simply seized in order that others might have the means with which to pay bonuses and financially profit from and/or personally enjoy such things as corporate jets and expensive offices.
While Caroline Baum’s Bloomberg News op-ed is closer to The Stiletto’s line of thinking (“Americans are angry at Wall Street for gambling with other people’s money … at having to pay for the extravagances of others while they lived within their means … at a system that privatizes profits and socializes risks”), Reisman’s post also slams Maureen Dowd for a column she wrote a couple of weeks back, “Wall Street’s Socialist Jet-Setters” - which refreshes an otherwise passé item just enough for The Stiletto write her own post about Dowd’s new-found populism (which, frankly, she didn’t get around to until now because more important breaking news developments kept diverting her attention).
In the column that got Reisman hot under the collar (he likens her to a modern-day Madame Defarge), Dowd wrote:
Now that we’re nationalizing, couldn’t we fire any obtuse bankers and auto executives who cling to perks and bonuses even as the economy is following John Thain down his antique commode? …
The former masters of the universe don’t seem to fully comprehend that their universe has crumbled and, thanks to them, so has ours. Real people are losing real jobs at Caterpillar, Home Depot and Sprint Nextel; these and other companies announced on Monday that they would cut more than 75,000 jobs in the U.S. and around the world, as consumer confidence and home prices swan-dived.
This same Maureen Dowd - whose employer is borrowing its operating capital from Mexican robber baron Carols Slim and is forcing the “little people” to stop putting bar crawls on the company tab, to book “in plan” coach flights (no nonstops) with Egencia and to get pre-approval for hotels costing more than $250 a night - was obtuse enough to find an excuse to stay at “the opulent Canyon Ranch Miami Beach” at her publicly traded company’s expense – shareholders be damned.
Note to Dowd: Go easy on those expense account charges, because - though you’re in denial - you’re fast approaching retirement age and the pension you save could be your own.
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