Bob Herbert: Why "Too Big To Fail" Is A Bailout For The Rich

nytimes.com:

Why should the general public have to constantly worry that a misstep by the high-wire artists at Goldman Sachs (to take the most obvious example) would put the entire economy in peril? These financial acrobats get the extraordinary benefits of their outlandish risk-taking -- multimillion-dollar paychecks, homes the size of castles -- but the public has to be there to absorb the worst of the pain when they take a terrible fall.

Read the whole story: nytimes.com

Comments

[wha wha wha]

I agree that too big to fail is stupid excuse. We should of bailed out AIG but cut it up like a Thanksgiving Turkey as soon as they got the money.

[gypsy508]

The rich can't live if they have to tighten their belts. They are too spoiled and lazy.

[raskefing]

America is not a Democracy but a colony of the International military industrial complex and Banksters.
This Orwellian society has been kept in line by the promotion of the Judeo- christian concept of a chosen people and the right of the chosen to exploit, conquer or eliminate any group of people who does not belong to the clan or tribe.
This is further strenghtened by the concept that only the strong must survive and the misery of another simply means that they are weak and must therefore perish. as Cain said " am i my brothers keeper ? "
All those who worship the Military and support the exploitation and murder of other nations and peoples under the guise of spreading democracy is surely building their own prisons and coffins.
One day when resources are tighter and Americans protest , the very military held up as gods will be used against them in the " land of the brave and the free "
The labor of the middle class and poor is no longer needed in this information age and the lost jobs will never come back to America.
The manipulation of fiat and debt based currency is the manufacturing plants and slave plantations of the past.
Americans must join with fair-minded people of the world and know that we are all first Human Beings and nationalities second . the military - industrial complex and banksters understand this so should we .

[LeroyJenkins]

What he meant was "Too White to Fail"

[desertman]

I thought we all new this?.... Here's a humorous perspective:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWDdcD-1xoo

[LoudCitizen]

If you like Bob Herbert, you'll love T.A. Frank, a columnist who's read even less than Bob (if that's possible).

Read "Why Is Bob Herbert Boring?" here:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2007/0710.frank.html

[winningticket]

Thank you Bob for standing up against these vulture capitalists.

[jennylynn]

When are you moving to Russia?

[Social Construct]

Really? So the commenter believes that Too Big To Fail is a sound structure of the American, and increasingly western globalized, financial system? The commenter then must believe that the Hobbes-ian notion that these corporations have the "divine right of kings"; that they have earned the right, through their Too Big To Fail acquired wealth, power and influence to operate as only they see fit, no matter the consequences to the rest of the nations and societies they claim to be a part of? The commenter has complete confidence that these behemoth juggernauts need no regulation for they have attained a status of capitalist gods?

[hardesty]

Even a simple minded person knew that "trickle-down" economics would be a disaster. George H W Bush called it "voodoo economics" and he was the VP! We are only reaping what the Reagan administration sowed.

[Jimboy17]

And that the Clinton administration watered.

[jennylynn]

This is BO's mess. Nice try.

[jmpurser]

Yes, the economic history of the United states began 10 months ago.

[Eoin45]

If anti-trust laws were properly enforced companies could never get too big to fail.

[ibsteve2u]

From Herbert's piece:

[bq]
We’ve spent the last few decades shoveling money at the rich like there was no tomorrow. We abandoned the poor, put an economic stranglehold on the middle class and all but bankrupted the federal government — while giving the banks and megacorporations and the rest of the swells at the top of the economic pyramid just about everything they’ve wanted.
[eq]

Which is both the simple truth and why I get...irate when a rightie accuses anybody from the middle or the left of displaying "class envy" or practicing "class warfare".

The class war started under Reagan, and most of America is looooossss­sssinggggg­.....

[Punkynsnow]

fanned.

[desertman]

Which president repealed Glass-Steagall?

[IntellectuallyHonest]

President Summers.

[jmpurser]

Agreed and well said. I remember when Buffett said "If there is a class war then my class is winning."

[Jimboy17]

Because freedom demands we reward only one percent of the population, maintain the illusion that we all somehow someday will enter this hallowed segment of society, and dream in technicolor of instant celebrity, lottery wins and rapture. All this while hurricanes, market failures, unemployment and rampant obesity and illness sweep us up in their ever loving arms. America the beautiful indeed.

[bola47]

every great empire eventually comes to an end. these wall street greedy ba****ds are just trying to hasten the demise of a once great united states.

[IntellectuallyHonest]

Or maybe run away with cash to the Third World when the civil war starts.

[EqOrbit]

I couldn't agree more with Herbert. Time to break up those behemoth industries, and jump start our economy. Nothing spurs more economic activities than a break-up of old aging greedy behemoth industries. The sum value of its parts is more than its whole alone. Here is our opportunities to take it into the next millenium, and don't blow it.

[jennylynn]

BO is trying to put the small businesses under? So who is going to take on these industries?

[sposton]

We should deal with the fundamental issue of businesses too-large-to-fail but we ought not stop there. At the root of our problem is the way we create money and who creates money in this country. Federal Reserve ought to be effectively abolished and we should stop creating new money by debt. Without dealing with this issue, we will always return to the crisis in which we find ourselves, no matter what you do with Goldman and all the other thieves. The very engine of what is wrong with us is to be found in the structure of Federal Reserve system.

[TopJack]

Herbert has evolved into one of America's finest columnists: in tune, eloquent and logical.

As far as his question regarding why people aren't more outraged, they're too busy trying to reign in the vamp!res who are threatening their healthcare, keep their jobs and avoid foreclosure.

Goldman Sachs and its like are getting away with this because the public is so distracted by other problems that are affecting them directly. But make no mistake, anger is percolating and columns like this one will help stir this legitimate furor.

[IntellectuallyHonest]

People are livid, but they are also trying to avoid jail. I agree with you. The powers that be are asking for another 1789.