Oh, yeah, here is something else to ponder: Geithner Aides Worked With AIG for Months on Bonuses
"AIG bonuses spawn a new era of reviling business leaders" by Peter S. Canellos, Globe Staff | March 24, 2009
WASHINGTON - President John F. Kennedy barreled out of a 1962 meeting with the chairman of
Another reason his head had to be shot off.
Kennedy's feelings about corporate executives, coming 33 years after the stock market crash that set off the Great Depression, were entirely understandable to most Americans. In fact, in an ensuing battle over steel prices, the public overwhelmingly backed Kennedy - whose tactics allegedly included using the FBI to investigate steel executives' private compensation - rather than the industry, which preached faith in the free market.
Well, you know; gotta fight fire with fire. Besides, they won; they blew his head off.
For a half-century after Black Tuesday, Americans hated businessmen. Most adults of the period had direct memories of the crash, recollections of the Depression that followed, or were well-schooled in both by their parents. And the culprits in the catastrophe were absolutely clear to everyone: Greedy, dishonorable, self-interested Wall Street executives and financiers.
Like now!!!
The anger that exploded last week over the million-dollar bonuses to AIG executives was well beyond that of the usual congressional show trial. Representative Barney Frank, chairman of the Financial Services Committee, threatened to name names even after the AIG chief suggested that exposure could risk the lives of the executives who received the bonuses.
All in all, the proceedings seemed to portend another generation or more of distrust of American business leaders. Of course, a relatively quick turnaround could soften the blow.
I wouldn't count on it.
A renewed commitment to oversight by the Securities and Exchange Commission might help restore confidence in the markets. And the American people might once again adopt the pro-growth, antiregulation attitudes that recently prevailed....
Well, I've just adopted them, but they are in no mood for more lootings!
Suspicion of business continued to dominate politics until 1980; even the Republican presidents of the era were careful not to align themselves too closely to Wall Street. Dwight Eisenhower's concerns about the influence of big business were inherent in his warning against the military-industrial complex.
No wonder I have always thought and felt the way I did/do.
Ronald Reagan changed the tune. And Democrats, starting with Bill Clinton, also began to preach faith in the markets. Many post-Clinton Democrats were proud to declare themselves pro-business, aware that even middle-aged Americans, lacking any link to the Depression, did not have the broad-brush antipathy toward the executive class that prevailed in the mid-20th century.
Yeah, they are a BIG PART of the PROBLEM!!!
Perhaps the distrust was excessive. Perhaps some of the high-tax, high regulation policies it spawned served to choke off economic growth.
Perhaps, Pete? Take a break from shoveling, will ya?
But as all Americans saw last week, hatred of big business wasn't a political trick invented by Roosevelt and his fellow New Deal Democrats. It was the product of bitter experience.
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