Indy Telecom & Industrial Media

In Buffet: Making of an American Capitalist, Roger Lowenstein states how every time the economy did badly, Congress did one thing — they conducted hearings.

And this time around, with the economy in the doldrums, Congress did just one thing that they do best — they conducted hearings on executive pay.

Of course, one but needs to look at news headlines on where they are headed with all this — 2 Realities: Rich CEOs, Homeless Americans - Subprime CEOs Explain Why They Made Millions While Americans Lost Homes.

I could go on and on about how idiotic I think this whole exercise is, but every time something like this comes along, I’m reminded of Atlas and how he should sometimes shrug and move on.

Congress:

“There seem to be two economic realities operating in our country today,” Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, the committee chairman, said as the hearing opened Friday morning. “Most Americans live in a world where economic security is precarious and there are real economic consequences for failure. But our nation’s top executives seem to live by a different set of rules.”

…

Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat from Maryland, noted that “We’ve got golden parachutes drifting off to the golf course and have people I see every day who are losing their homes and wondering where their kids will do their homework.”

…

(Loosely translated: You make a lot of money when there are a lot of poor people (and stupid people, who lost their houses because of their greed).

Executives:

Who is John Galt?

(Loosely translated: Umm, this is capitalism. Survival of the fittest. We’ve worked hard to get where we are and we deserve it. Go away.)

Update: I’m quoting a friend here - “Socrates was right, but they still made him drink hemlock. That’s something american business often forgets.”