The symbiosis of Wall Street and the US Treasury has been hidden in plain sight, and now the veil is being pierced. A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith
The symbiosis of Wall Street and the US Treasury has been hidden in plain sight, and now the veil is being pierced.
It's been a wake-up call for a lot of people whose life styles were crumbling - and they weren't sure why, because they were following the officially approved work ethic rules.
I think there's a lot more anger to come as people realise how badly they've allowed themselves to be screwed over.
The bailout debate is the overture, not the main performance.
CEO pay matters for several reasons: such high pay generates incentives for others to earn as much, and skews motivations towards management-income maximization rather than company income maximization; more deviously, by making such figures, and their incomes, into representatives of success, it pushes forward the narrative of success = money and poverty = failure, which is the single most important driver of conservative policies (you're on your own, etc...); by letting a small, but influential class earn huge amounts, it bring about massive lobbying power against taxes and in favor of deregulation, the exact consequences of which we see today; Ultra high incomes, and growing inequality are bad things for society, and they need to be tempered by high taxes oe strong regulation - but regulation is fatally weakened when rich people can buy access to politicians and pundits and co-opt them. So CEO pay is actually at the vey heart of the problem.
So CEO pay is actually at the vey heart of the problem.
This is like watching the French Revolution unfold. What was unthinkable two days ago is policy today and will be hopelessly outdated and superseded in another two days. As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
