Regular readers probably know that I'm an avid reader each morning of the New York Times and that I'm a native of Louisiana. I read with great interest Bob Herbert's column this morning (being from the state, I'm inclined to pronounce his surname A-Bear, as opposed to Her-Bert, but I'm not sure).
In it he discusses Obama's embrace of personal responsibility (which I applaud) for the BP disaster, but he doesn't wholeheartedly praise Obama's declarations. Obama states his error was believing that "oil companies had (their) act together when it came to worst-case scenarios."
Herbert eviscerates this notion piece by piece. He considers this pronouncement disingenuous, since surely Obama is not so naive to think that these "greedy merchant armies" were piously planning out the best ways to protect the environment.
I urge you to read the entire column, since it's a very good piece, particularly with respect to the "unholy alliance" between government and giant corporations (AIG, FNM, FRE, and GS all leap to mind). I support capitalism, but when a government "saves" a failing business, that is a bastardization of the ideology. When a government supports or becomes integrated with a business – – as with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – – it likewise is a corruption. It disgusts me that the nation is bleeding out hundreds of billions – – with no end in sight – – to FNM and FRE for the sole purpose of "supporting" the housing market (which simply means that the natural course of declining prices is being perverted and thus prevented).
The shame of it all is that what's happening is making the capitalist system look bad, and our reward is going to be one or two decades of increasing socialism. The reason I rag on the likes of Blankfein isn't because of Lloyd the man. He's smart, he worked himself up from the lower social classes to the top, and he works his tail off. All of these are admirable, and all of these are very American.
What galls me about these kinds of leaders is that their organizations are all for laissez-faire capitalism until such time as things blow up in their face, at which time they go rushing into the loving arms of the taxpayers. They are taking advantage of the profound…..and I mean profound……ignorance of the population as a whole. 95 out of 100 Americans have no earthly idea how badly they are being screwed over by the system. And Lloyd is a big part of that system.
Anyway, the point of this rambling post is to encourage you to read Herbert's column. It's worth five minutes of your day.
