Public backlash against banking CEOs embedded in nation’s populist culture
By DAVE HELLING
The Kansas City Star
Who would want to be a millionaire?
President Barack Obama calls some millionaire bankers “shameless.” Sen. Claire McCaskill says they’re “idiots.”
CEOs face relentless grilling on Capitol Hill, forced to defend their million-dollar-plus salaries, business perks and multibillion-dollar bonus funds.
Corporate chieftains, from auto companies to investment firms, mothball their private jets, cancel retreats at plush resorts, and reimburse stockholders for $35,000 toilets.
OK, a million bucks is a million bucks. Still…
“In every economic crisis, people look for villains,” said Michael Kazin, author of The Populist Persuasion and a Georgetown University history professor. “And there’s a long tradition in America of big bankers and investors as villains.”
So far, Kazin and others say, the public backlash against the wealthy seems limited to millionaires directly connected with collapsing banks and other industries.
If the economic downturn continues, though, or gets worse, look for a more broad-based assault on the well-to-do — in movies, songs, cartoons and books, as well as on Capitol Hill.
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