When, as a small child, I became ill and had to take a pill, my parents would crush it into a powdered form, hide it in the middle of a spoonful of ice cream, and feed it to me. Like skilled magicians, they were thus able to distract my attention from what they were trying to accomplish.
The same legerdemain is being practiced by those seeking to slip yet another taxpayer-subsidized transfer of wealth to corporate interests. The “ice cream,” in this instance, takes the form of (a) creating the bogeyman that corporate executives might receive multi-million dollar bonuses from the proposed bailout, and (b) that such possibilities will be specifically precluded by the bailout legislation. “We will take care of that problem right now,” the politicos promise. It is thus hoped that Boobus will be sufficiently distracted from a $700 billion act of grand theft, by the assurance that a few million dollars will not be going to CEOs and other execs.
The economic ignorance that underlies government intervention into the marketplace is remarkable. I was teaching at a university in the Midwest in the mid-1970s when the so-called “New York City financial crisis” was at the center of attention. New York corporate interests had been successful in getting the state to build what quickly turned into a matched pair of white elephants: the World Trade Center buildings. New York City banks had purchased large numbers of the bonds used to construct the buildings. When revenues were insufficient to make the bond payments, “New York City” was said to be in a “crisis.” The reality was that the banks that had been the major promoters of the WTC were suffering losses. The taxpayers must be milked, once again, to save the Rockefeller interests!
One of my colleagues was literally brought to tears when, at a faculty meeting, he spoke of the “loss” of New York City. It was where he and his wife had spent their honeymoon, he informed us, as he went on to reminisce about Central Park, Broadway plays they had seen, etc. “Where do you think New York City is going?,” I asked him. “Do you believe that Arab bankers” – the bogeymen of the day – “are going to tie a rope to Manhattan Island and tow it to the Middle East?” The “ice cream” that enveloped the pill he was swallowing came right out of Coney Island. His response to this make-believe “crisis” reminds us that Boobus often comes with a trail of graduate degrees!
