The Vilifying of Corporate America
I don't know about you, but over the past few months I've heard enough vilifying of corporate America and capitalism to last a lifetime. Last time I checked, corporate America includes tens of millions of hardworking executives, managers, and employees ... and most of you.
This morning's CNBC interview with former N.Y. Governor Eliot Spitzer sort of put me over the edge. Here's my transcript of Spitzer's opening rant (yes, it was pretty much all one sentence):
... I've been willing to offer my views on a financial cataclysm that could have been prevented had there been a regulatory framework that was robust where people did their job, had there been a sense of responsibility in the corporate boardroom instead of a sense of greed; what we've seen is a breakdown of capitalism ... that was absolutely destructive to the life savings of middle class Americans who believed the rhetoric coming out of Wall Street and Washington, and they have been the victims; and what we're seeing today continues to be the victimization of the middle class, the middle class is still subsidizing the big banks that are burning our money, the big corporate CEOs who are burning our money, not one bank CEO has been removed even though we've given them a trillion dollars --I admit to having mixed feelings about Spitzer's diatribe, since some of it is obviously on the money. But in typical silver-tongued political fashion, he manages to jumble facts with politically-motivated sentiment. To set the record straight, here's my take on his rant which was indeed reflective of what I hear coming out of Washington these days:
- Six years ago as N.Y. Attorney General, Spitzer negotiated a landmark $1.4 billion settlement with Wall Street's biggest investment banks over conflicts of interest. Never mind that it was a drop in the bucket for the banks, that Spitzer failed to indict anybody on any civil or criminal charges, or that it put him on the fast track to the governor's mansion.
- The financial crisis originated in the housing and banking sectors that were regulated by House Financial Services and Senate Banking Committees as part of a political agenda to drive affordable housing.
- The last time I checked, corporate America was made up of 9,000 public and countless private companies with hundreds of thousands of managers and executives and tens of millions of employees whose only role in our economic crisis was to work their tails off to make a living.
- Everyone is impacted by the financial crisis, upper and middle-class alike. And we're all still subsidizing the banks and other institutions because the federal government gave them and continues to give them taxpayer money.
[Image of Eliot Spitzer courtesy of N.Y. State]