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Ivan and Boris Again (Thomas Sowell)
Creators Syndicate ^ | November 25, 2008 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 11/25/2008 2:48:10 PM PST by jazusamo

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To: jazusamo
What say we lobby President-elect 0 for a federal law that no athlete or entertainment figure could earn more than the president of General Motors?

How do you think Oprah would like that?

41 posted on 11/26/2008 6:19:54 AM PST by Hawthorn
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To: jazusamo

Even better is the Russian story where God promises to do something to reward Ivan, but because he is a better person he will give double that amount to Boris.

So Ivan tells God to make him blind in one eye.....


42 posted on 11/26/2008 6:23:58 AM PST by Kozak (USA 7/4/1776 to 1/20/2009 Requiescat In Pace)
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To: P-Marlowe
If a corporate executive makes 100 million dollars a year, I could care less, unless that corporate executive happens to be standing before congress begging for tax dollars to keep his stupid company afloat. In that case, I want his goat to die.
The same principles apply to entertainers, of course.
43 posted on 11/26/2008 7:22:05 AM PST by dbz77
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To: Mr. Blonde
I can’t imagine the Ford and GM stock holders think they are getting a good deal on their execs currently.
Their deal is as good as the deal that the producers of Gigli got from hiring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez.
44 posted on 11/26/2008 7:23:15 AM PST by dbz77
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To: P-Marlowe
How can a company that is loosing 2 Billion dollars a month justify giving it's CEO 25 million dollars a year in bonuses?
The same justification the producers of the movie The Postman had for paying Kevin Costner, I guess.
45 posted on 11/26/2008 7:24:54 AM PST by dbz77
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To: shibumi

self-ping


46 posted on 11/26/2008 7:36:44 AM PST by shibumi (...so if it's organic, where are its organs?)
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To: beckett

“’deregulated,’ or at least improperly regulated”

Two TOTALLY different things!

You are correct that the unregulated mortgage backed securities were largely at fault, but you aren’t digging deep enough. Why were all those created? It was largely a reaction to the forced issuance of bad loans under the CRA.

Here’s how it works: The libdolts regulate the cr@p out of some part of the economy, here mortgages, making them unviable. The private sector responds by offloading the risk into a less regulated area, here the mortgage backed securities. The risk doesn’t vanish, though, it just shifts and eventually explodes.

If the libs would have regulated those securities, the private sector would have moved the risk to something else.

The only way to stop this through govt oversight is to regulate EVERYTHING. That’s called socialism, communism, or facsim, depending on the manner used and extent of regulation. Of course, that doesn’t work either, and the whole thing collapses that way, too.

The solution? Stop govt from trying to make business decisions at all. And also stop govt from trying to force the hands of the private sector. Regulate to stop fraud, monopoly, etc., then stay out of the way. The free market will then handle risk in the right places, and corrections will happen sooner with much smaller impact.

PS If the underlying mortgages were OK, MBS’s and those other instruments would have been OK. Actually would have been useful for risk management to handle nomal defaults, etc. The problem was they were built on a faulty foundation, namely bad mortgages that the banks were forced to write due to CRA and the like.


47 posted on 11/26/2008 7:48:41 AM PST by piytar
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To: dbz77
The same principles apply to entertainers, of course.

The General Motors CEO is begging Congress for a taxpayer bailout. The idiot producers of Kevin Costner movies are not. A least not yet.

When money is involuntarily being taken from my pocket by the IRS to line the pockets of Corporate CEO's or to bail them out of their bad decisions, then their compensation package becomes MY Business and your business.

So since the CEO of GM got a 25 million dollar bonus for driving his company into the toilet, and is now asking me as a taxpayer to bail his sorry @$$ out, I want his goat to die.

I hope I make myself clear.

48 posted on 11/26/2008 8:10:11 AM PST by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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To: dbz77; Mr. Blonde
Their deal is as good as the deal that the producers of Gigli got from hiring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez.

You don't understand either economics or the movie industry.

The producers of Gigli did not get bonuses for their stupid decisions. They lost money. Lots of money. They didn't go to the taxpayers and ask the taxpayers to bail them out. They did not get multimillion dollar bonuses from their investors for losing money and then go to congress and beg the taxpayers to undo their stupid decisions.

49 posted on 11/26/2008 8:16:37 AM PST by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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To: P-Marlowe

“beg the taxpayers to undo their stupid decisions”

Something a lot of you are forgetting is that the govt - the people we elect to handle our tax money - FORCED a lot of the bad decisions. For example, with the Big 3, the govt FORCES them to deal with with UAW rather than let them manage their own employment practices. So I can understand why those same CEOs whose hands are forced by the govt then turn to the govt for a bailout when the decisions turn to cr@p.

Does that mean I am for the bailouts? Heck NO! The bailouts are just the next stage in nationalizing the private sector.

Here’s the process: (1) Regulate an industry to death. (2) Blame the private sector for mismanagement when those regulations wreck the industry. (3) Bail out the industry, making sure to get control under the excuse of “watching out for the taxpayers’ money.” (4) Take the industry over completely when it continues to fail due to (3). (5) Lather, rinse, repeat.

We are past (2) and well on the way with (3).

PS Alternative to (3) is just take over the industy. That’s the model being used for health care.


50 posted on 11/26/2008 8:43:29 AM PST by piytar
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To: piytar
Something a lot of you are forgetting is that the govt - the people we elect to handle our tax money - FORCED a lot of the bad decisions.

Honda, Nissan and Toyota all play by the same rules when building and selling cars in America. They make money. GM, Ford and Chrysler all lose money. The only thing that can save them at this point is Chapter 11. They need to cancel all those union contracts and supplier contracts and everything else, and retool and start basically all over. To bail them out would be to postpone their failure for another day.

And what we are talking about here is CEO compensation. No company should pay it's CEO more than minimum wage when they are losing 2 Billion dollars a month.

For example, with the Big 3, the govt FORCES them to deal with with UAW rather than let them manage their own employment practices.

Bull. They can make a smart business decision to simply go bankrupt, cancel all union contracts, fire every union employee and open up a non-union shop the next week and hire anybody willing to work for $48 an hour, like Toyota and Honda.

PS Alternative to (3) is just take over the industy. That’s the model being used for health care.

No the alternative is for these overpaid CEO's to make a smart decision and declare Chapter 11.

51 posted on 11/26/2008 9:27:23 AM PST by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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To: Hawthorn

I could live with that. :)


52 posted on 11/26/2008 4:10:03 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin ('Taking the moderate path of appeasement leads to abysmal defeat.' - Rush on 11/05/08)
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To: P-Marlowe

Good points. However, I don’t think the CEOs will do chap 11 if they have the alternative of a govt bailout. And if they did, their shareholders would sue on the grounds of the CEOs failing to take available measures to salvage the stock. So the reality is that the Big 3 are working under different rules than Honda, Toyota, etc. Also, the foreign owned companies really cab “take their ball and go home.” Their govt will back them, too. The Big 3 can’t, and our govt is and has been the one actively screwing them over.

This also shows that the bailout isn’t of the Big 3. It is a bailout of the UAW. Without it, chap 7 or 11 is the only option, and that would kill the UAW. Gee, wonder why the donks are all for this “corporate” (union) welfare?

BTW, though, my points were for how libs/socialists take over an industry. Your point was (CE0 goes chap 11) is a way to block them.


53 posted on 11/26/2008 4:52:52 PM PST by piytar
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To: P-Marlowe
It is not the general public that singles out corporate CEOs for so much attention. Politicians and the media have focused on business leaders, and the public has been led along, like sheep.
54 posted on 11/26/2008 10:23:54 PM PST by rvoitier
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To: rvoitier
When a man flies in on a private jet and stands before the taxpayers with his hat in hand begging for money, he deserves the ridicule that is heaped upon him.

Those CEO's should have taken Greyhound like all the other beggars.

55 posted on 11/26/2008 10:28:14 PM PST by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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To: P-Marlowe
In Dr. Sowell's own words @ the 2:06 mark.
56 posted on 11/26/2008 10:44:58 PM PST by rvoitier
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