Obama is Clueless - Krugman's Blog
Clueless
Excerpted from Paul Krugman's NYT blog:
"I’m with Simon Johnson here: how is it possible, at this late date, for {President Barack} Obama to be this clueless?
The lead story on Bloomberg right now contains excerpts from an interview with Business Week which tells us:
President Barack Obama said he doesn’t “begrudge” the $17 million bonus awarded to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon or the $9 million issued to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein, noting that some athletes take home more pay....
Oh. My. God.
First of all, to my knowledge, irresponsible behavior by baseball players hasn’t brought the world economy to the brink of collapse and cost millions of innocent Americans their jobs and/or houses.
And more specifically, not only has the financial industry has been bailed out with taxpayer commitments; it continues to rely on a taxpayer backstop for its stability. Don’t take it from me, take it from the rating agencies ....
The point is that these bank executives are not free agents who are earning big bucks in fair competition; they run companies that are essentially wards of the state.
The difference between athletes and CEOs is that athletes don't get huge bonuses for losing games--only for winning. But CEOs get huge bonuses win or lose. Adam Smith would barf.
Posted by: Ehkzu | February 16, 2010 at 06:31 PM