The lately published list of the honorariums received by Lawrence Summers for
lectures delivered in 2008--at firms like J.P. Morgan, McKinsey and Company,
Goldman Sachs (twice), Citigroup (twice), Lehman Brothers (twice), American
Express, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Skagen Funds (twice)--shows the practical
meaning of an aristocratic class. The amounts received by Summers from these
banks and brokerage houses and consulting firms covered a range from $59,400
per lecture (Skagen) to $135,000 (McKinsey). Other outfits paid still more.
Summers also received a salary of $5.2 million in 2008 from the hedge
fund D.E.
Shaw after having brought substantial pressure to institute the
radical policy
of deregulation that affords an unparalleled species of financial
protection to
hedge funds.
The point about such a private counselor who becomes a public servant is not that he is corrupt. He need not be. Rather, he is predictable within the world
he knows and believes in, which is the world that honors him. He does not have
to be told what to do. When he thinks of the American family, these banks and
investment groups, and the too-big-to-fail insurance colossus, are in fact his
extended family. They are the people he talks to and jokes with and eats with,
the people he thinks of in his spare time. They are the people he knows.
One sees in the recent career of Summers--and not least, in his ascent to the
position of economic adviser to President Obama--how subtle, consistent, and
pervasive are the means by which an aristocracy perpetuates itself. How it doles
out its rewards to maintain its power. How it buys the talents and shapes the
careers it needs, so that even a general crisis brings only a second layer of
bribed servants, and the medicine is administered by doctors whose judgment is
bought and paid for. One sees, too, what drove the rage against such a
class in
earlier times--the feeling that its power is a monstrous imposition; the fear
that no cry or protest will ever penetrate from outside the closed circle.
Is Obama--apparently now wedded to the Bush Bank Bailout--not setting himself up to be a new Hamlet? Or merely Bush's third term--or both??
If Summers should Fall, can Spring be far behind?
You cannot get there with Pr0gressivism... time to become a classical liberal.
Make the government a "referee" not a player...
this concept is so simple... why do you think the leftists don't like it?
There has been an increase or consolidation of wealth and class power in America since the 1970's. The evidence is the increasing inequality in wealth not only in the US but throughout the world. The bailout and the stimulus are designed to keep those assets intact while the rest of us pay.
By the policies of the current administration favoring the banks and the bankers, while sticking it to the people, the profits have been privatized while the losses are socialized. Americans are intentionally being confused between the concepts of "individual liberty" and "freedom of the markets." Free and unregualated international flows of finance capaital have nothing to do with "freedom." And there is no moral hazard for these insiders - the Oligarchy. Command over commodities and natural resources by this financial oligarchy based on these principles and absolute control over labor resources requires consolidation of the financial sector between 4 major banks. Each pre-selected or ordained financial institutions by "Summers, et al. to survive the "stress tests," i.e., continuing the deception over negative balance sheets - those toxic assets aren't that toxic!
Summers' policies are "neoliberal" and the effect is to consolidate class power by an Oligarchy both in the US and internationally.
Most people are greedy, judgmental, not completely honest, easily embarrassed, etc. So obviously then, we will see these qualities in the implementation of power by our institutions.
The military, the banks, religious groups, politicians, etc, will exercise power as individuals exercise theirs.
Our government and our institutions will be, and have to be, like us. When we evolve beyond our negative and selfish thinking and doing, so will they.
The best thing anyone can do at this point is stop seeing anything in any other terms than a mere reflection of a manifestation of our inner selves. Bickering and fighting about our judgments of each other is counter productive. However, the ironic thing about all this is, that we can do nothing to quicken our evolution because change "precedes" our awareness. The thoughts and feelings we have, which determine our behaviors, always manifest in our minds first, before we are affected by them. Try seeing what your next thought will be before it comes to you, or try knowing what your next feeling is going to be, before you feel it. Impossible!
This is why the future is unknowable, and we are mere observers, not doers. If we survive, hopefully it will not continue to be simply as slaves to our egos.
Just guessing, but that seems about right to me...
People on both sides of the blue red divide are now realizing the artificial distinctions and that they have been played against each other by the kleptocrats.
No amount of soaring rhetoric is going to fix this; only transparent honest actions.
Whether it's gays, country folk, auto workers, war, or wall street; this administration already has a consistent record of throwing the little people under the bus.
Professor, do you mean that Summers is a part of "aristokratia," or "the rule of the best"?
The apt definition is probably PLUTOCRACY or rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth;
Or, maybe an OLIGARCHY or a form of government where power effectively rests with a small elite segment of society distinguished by royalty, wealth, family, military influence or religious hegemony.
But, the general public will most likely describe this class of revolving door servants as part of a KLEPTOCRACY or a government that extends the personal wealth and political power of government officials and the ruling class (collectively, kleptocrats) at the expense of the population, sometimes without even the pretense of honest service.
La propriété, c'est le vol! or in it's vulgar English, Property is theft.