KRUGMAN zaps Norquist, Cory Booker and the Heartland Institute

[cthulu2016]

Last edited Tue May 22, 2012, 12:46 AM - Edit history (3)

Awesome Blog Post!

"...people are so eager to please the paymasters that they lose any sense of
what it sounds like to those not already answering to the same paymasters."

May 21, 2012, 11:42 pm
Paul Krugman
Godwinization



So the Heartland Institute seems to have blown itself up with its billboard equating climate change researchers to the Unabomber. Of course, anyone who believed that the right-wing”think” tank was objective in the least was a fool; but now even the fools have been put on notice. But how could they make such a stupid mistake? I think there’s a process going on here, in which wealth and power creates a bubble in which people are so eager to please the paymasters that they lose any sense of what it sounds like to those not already answering to the same paymasters.

You can see the same thing with Grover Norquist’s comparison of anyone trying to stop wealthy Americans from using abandonment of citizenship as a tax dodge to Nazis — hey, remember Steve Schwartzmann comparing attempts to close the carried interest loophole to the Nazi invasion of Poland?

And my guess is that the Cory Booker thing is ultimately related; I didn’t know this, but apparently Booker is so close to his Wall Street donors that it never occurred to him that echoing their over-the-top reactions to Obama’s very mild populism would destroy his own political future (which I believe it has).

And no, the same thing doesn’t happen on the left, at least not that part of the left that is remotely serious about actual results. Right-wing apparatchiks, living in their billionaire-funded bubble, can forget that not everyone shares their extremism; progressives don’t have that luxury.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/21/godwinization/

[hifiguy]

1. Professor Krugman consistently gets more things more right

than damned near anybody. The man is a national treasure and a consistent voice of logic and sense.

[cthulu2016]

2. I feel priveliged to be able to read his blog.

For real.

Knowing that somebody who probably knows the right answer about some economic/policy controversy will post it and explain it (Sometimes in technical depth)in real time... and for free.

[fishwax]

3. right again -- k/r

[Iwillnevergiveup]

4. Krugman, Kristof and Blow are heros

and after the departures of Frank Rich and Bob Herbert from the NYTimes, we need them even more.

K&R

[cthulu2016]

24. yup

[SunSeeker]

5. Krugman is spot on. I am so sick of this false equivalence crap.

Tonight on Rachel, Booker--in between groveling--still slipped in a "they both do it" line about how the "left" and the "right" go overboard.

Rachel did not call him on it and I was very disappointed about that. I wish Booker would show us ONE office-holding Democrat that has gone overboard to the left. Just one. I'm not holding my breath.

[JayhawkSD]

6. Krugman is right?

More than 80% of the companies hiring in San Diego right now are biotech companies, and they are, every single one of them, startups funded by venture capital firms exactly like Bain Capital. Show me the evil there. Show me.

[eggplant]

8. This is a false comparison.

Bain bought distressed companies and stripped them. Companies that are hiring (and taking VC money) are still on the early part of the curve.

[xtraxritical]

14. Bain was a vulture vampire capitalist corporation, not venture capital at all.

[Bandit]

9. Are you being deliberately obtuse?

Of course there is a place for private equity firms such as Bain Capital. That is not what was being discussed.. Romney is running on his experience at Bain as the one and only reason why he should replace Obama as President.. It is only logical to check and see if what he did there actually is a qualifier or a detriment.. However the argument concerning Booker is not whether Bain is bad but whether Democrats and Republicans are equally culpable for extremely negative and off message ads.. Democrats believe it is a completely one-sided activity and unless you can come up with any ad run by Obama that falls into that category I tend to agree.

[JHB]

11. Show me how many of those venture capital firms did NOT provide startup funds...

...but instead took control of already-existing companies to drain their resources and dismantle the company for the benefit of the equity firm and bondholders. And not necessarily "distressed" companies, but also (maybe even mainly, it's been a while since this was more intensely covered, at least in some quarters, in the 90s) companies what were doing ok but had assets (property, cash reserves) that made it attractive for raiders to swoop in and gut them.

If those firms you speak of do these things so that they are "exactly like Bain Capital" then I don't have to show you the evil, it's right there.

And if they are NOT gutting getting control of businesses in order to loot them, then they're NOT "exactly like Bain capital", are they?

[gratuitous]

12. How are they "exactly like Bain Capital"?

Show me.

[cthulu2016]

13. He is not commenting on the merits of venture capital

[gratuitous]

16. The continuing non-response is illuminating, no?

Some markets aren't doing so well . . .

[Cosmocat]

19. Bain had two shops

there was a venture capital function to Bain.

The bigger part of Bain was good old fashioned, Gorden Gecko style, greed is good, dismantling of companies for profit.

[bonniebgood]

22. Jay you will see if you open your eyes and mind

and define the difference between vulture and venture. Then you will see and know.

[unkachuck]

23. I believe wall-street and most corporations....

....are inherently fascist and evil....take Nazi collaborating companies like, Kodak, Bayer, Allianz, Volkswagen, Ford, Standard Oil, Chase bank, IBM, etc....didn't they create jobs and hire too?

http://www.11points.com/News-Politics/11_Companies_That_surprisingly_Collaborated_With_the_Nazis

[cui bono]

26. Not the same thing at all.

Bain was doing that is being criticized is leveraged buy outs, which the right wing has renamed as private equity. They were buying companies, stripping them of their assets and putting that in their pockets, running up debt on them then going bankrupt, leaving the people who worked there with little or no pensions for all their hard work. Pensions that were there when the company was bought.

So you might want to look into what you think is so similar about those companies when compared to Bain, you might be surprised. Yes, Bain did do some of that, but they did a lot of evil, greedy buy outs which is how they made so much money. And the govt. had to pick up the tab for a lot of what had to be paid out to workers and such, so they fleeced us all in the process. Corporate socialism is just fine by all those ranting about socialism.

[qb]

7. LOL the billboard makes it look like Kaczynzski is the Heartland spokesman!

[caveat_imperator]

15. Wait...

You're saying he wasn't?

[AtheistCrusader]

25. That is exactly what I thought when I saw it

[myrna minx]

10. K&R n/t

[Bake]

17. I hope he's right about Booker!

That is, that his little stunt destroyed his political future--as a Democrat, at least.

Bake

[DesertDiamond]

18. I'll be sad if Cory Booker turns out to be what Norquist is saying. I really like that guy.

[yurbud]

20. Now if Obama could put some more daylight between himself and Wall Street...

[freshwest]

21. Thanks so much, excellent piece.