There was an interesting article on MSNBC.com a few months back about how government regulations were largely responsible for the rise of CEO pay. I will try to find it (no luck so far), but basically it spelled out how repeated attempts to make the process more transparent and eventually limit pay caused just the opposite affect. One rule in particular meant to limit pay caused the rise of stock options.

This is not meant to question Hamilton’s post, but I wonder how many people realize the role government regulation played in boosting these salaries to the levels that they are now…

How about keeping the government out of this completely and letting the markets decide? I wouldn’t invest my money in a company that lets its managers pay themselves exorbitant salaries and do a lousy job of running the company.

Open Letter to David Nicklaus, Sean Hannity, TrueConservative, Rex Sinquefield(aka The super-rich Republican Show-Me Institute), et al: When are you Ayn Rand lovers going to own up and take responsibility for the global economic meltdown? You all railed for years against government regulation and/or oversight and now, look we were are at! Time to wake up, folks!

Whiterosesociety,

Please give us a specific instance of deregulation that caused the current downturn? Government oversight (a.k.a., Fair Housing, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac) along with the Fed playing with interest rates is what caused the current problems.

TrueConservative–try reading up on economics sometimes instead of drinking the Fox “News” kool-aid served up by far right wing former bar tenders like Sean Hannity! Fannie and Freddie lobbied for and were granted deregulation due to the machinations of the Cheney-Bush regime! The entire Milton Friedman/Ayn Rand/Heritage Foundation/Cato Institute ideology, which has held sway in our beloved country since Reagan, is easily summed up as being anti-regulation, anti-oversight! Norquist infamously said that he wanted to shrink government to the point where it could be easily drowned in a bathtub! Try reading Krugman, Naomi Klein, or Kutter if you really want some information about this! You love the so-called “free” market–but I think of your freedom like this: the rich and poor are equally “free” to sleep under bridges! Come on, my far right wing friends, try a cup of fresh, hot locally-brewed java and put down the Fox “News” kool-aid!

Whiterosesociety,

First of all, there is no reason for a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac except that the government couldn’t keep itself out of the free market.

Second, it is my recollection that George Bush asked for additional regulation of both “government-sponsored entities.” But he was rebuked by your hero Barney “There’s No Problem Here” Frank.

Third, by guaranteeing bad loans Fannie and Freddie specifically multiplied the problem exponentially.

Fourth, the government forced banks to reduce their lending standards or face charges of redlining when trying to merge, open new branches, etc.

And fifth, the only cool aid being drunk is that of your whiterosesociety.org. I perused your Liberal/Progressive talk radio archives and realized that just about every single one of them is off the air now. I guess they couldn’t compete in a “free” market. No doubt you and your ilk will do exactly what the original White Rose Society fought against — have the government reinstitute the “fairness” doctrine which is basically the equivalent of the nazis deciding what germans could and could not read, listen to, etc.

TrueConservative–I have no connection to the website you cited. I use that moniker because I admire the German Resistance Movement, of which the White Rose Society was but one part. (A nonviolent part, to be sure.) Thanks to Reagan, Friedman, Ayn Rand, and the far right wing think tanks(like the super-rich Republican financier(Rex Sinquefield)’s Show-Me Institute)our beloved country was slipping into stalinist/fascist state corporate control. But no longer! America has awoken!

Whiterosesociety,

You need to take a deep breath and realize that the only fascists running around are all liberal democrats. The anti-smoking, anti-drinking, anti-trans fat, anti-everything related to business crowd (i.e., anti-capitalism) is liberal democrat, pure and simple. And now we have a liberal democrat in the white house along with a completely liberal congress. Soon we won’t be able to do anything without the state telling us it is okay. That is the definition of fascism my friend.

whiterose, the government forced Freddie and Fannie to lower the typcial standards for home loan approvals in order to increase the number of lower-income people that could qualify for the “American dream” and buy a home. Some of these people opted for ARMs (presumably for the lower interest rate) and couldn’t afford them once the rate adjusted upwards. This caused those loans to go bad, but since they were bundled up in securities no one knew for sure where and how many there were. It really isn’t even the number of bad loans out there so much as it is that no one really knows which investment bundles have these boad loans in them. So panic takes over the market and ALL the bundles drop in value even if there isn’t anything wrong with them.

There are other factors in the economy of course, such as the speculation-driven oil prices earlier this year, damage from Midwest flooding, and so forth.

Instead of ranting away, could you please list some specific information such as I have done above to illustrate your point? What govenment deregulation do you think caused this recession?

To TrueConservative and Tim: First–despite lightweight “scholar” Jonah Goldberg’s faulty defintion of fascism, learned people know that fascism is a rightwing creature, basically corporate control of the government for the super-rich elite, typically characterized by authoritarian measures, such as warrantless wiretapping, spying on citizens at libraries, etc. Stalinism(or Maoism)is authoritarian government, ostensibly with the goal of maintaining a social safety net and a corrupt elite.

Here is but one link describing the rightwing efforts to deregulate since the Reagan era began about thirty years ago: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaganomics. There are many others: simply google it. You might try reading a few books or articles by true intellectuals like Krugman or Naomi Klein.

I salute you, my hard right wingers, who, like the fighters in the Japanese caves on remote Pacific islands, are still hanging on!