Robert Kuttner has an interesting op-ed in this morning's New York Times. Trumpworld, he writes, is controlled by what are euphemistically called "financial engineers:"
This is an administration run by and for financial engineers. The president’s policies have sought to gut what remains of the Dodd-Frank Act and other legislation that protects consumers from financial wrongdoing, most recently in his assault on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Mr. Trump’s administration rewards what we might call an “extraction economy.” Rather than adding value, financial engineers often extract as much as they can — from operating companies that they buy, strip and sell as well as from consumers, borrowers, workers and other taxpayers.
Private equity epitomizes financial engineering. The very term “private equity” is a sly rebranding of what used to be called “hostile takeovers” or “leveraged buyouts.”
Trump's Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, personifies the extraction economy:
In 2002, Mr. Ross bought several steel factories that had been closed; he reopened them after persuading the steelworkers union to take major cuts. When he cashed out three years later, he made 14 times his original investment of $90 million. According to the economists Eileen Appelbaum and Rosemary Batt, “his three-year investment netted him $4.5 billion — just equal to what retirees lost in their health and pension plans.”
Remember: it was precisely these people for whom Trump said he would fight. He was the champion of the forgotten. And, after the election, he forgot them. It certainly was a scam for the record books.
But, then, Donald Trump's whole life has been a scam. And he will go down in the record books.
Image: PRLog
11 comments:
Yet for all the evidence of Trump's corrupt, charlatan nature, Owen, millions still rush to his defence at every opportunity. Perhaps Americans really have gotten the government they deserve.
Ignorance has gone viral, Lorne.
Bain invented this kind of productivity. Trump is a minor league player compared to Mitch Rommney or GWB. The difference is that Trump thinks he is a master of the universe, and the real ones around him will make us a new Teapot Dome, I will call it the Trump Bong.
He may not be as good as Romney at this kind of thing, Steve. But he's tilting the playing field to favour Romney.
There is a law of diminishing returns. One of the few genuine economic concepts. There is not alot
left for Trump to discover.
.. on the plus side, Owen..
The entirety of the tRumph & various scions or in-laws & political baggage handlers'
rapturous ascension to future gawdhood.. not to mention many & numerous HOF's
such as Realty Fraud Hall o Fame & the esteemed Victims of Conspiracy HOF..
and the Twitter Inanity hall are being duly recorded for posterity..
Keep in mind, please..
Tweets emanating from the various tRumph seasonal or every weekend golf holiday 'white houses' or Air Force One or sundry country club fairways are to be treated as Official Presidential Government Pronouncements & Announcements. We have this from multiple tRumph mouthpieces, Spicer, Conroy, TRump Jr, Hicks, Bannon, Huckelbee Sanders et al plus Ivanka of course..
Thus, North Americans & the rest of the world that is round or flat, (depending on your upbringing or religion or web access to conspiracy sites a la Alex Jones) is being gifted with the hysterical and historic.. even prehistoric gibberish of a delusional public
parasite 'president' - Scholars & Historians & Hysterions , grapple daily with the volume & confusions of effluent, spewing from the Great Orange Oracle of 'Greatness Again'
The only twisted cretin worth comparing to America's current champion of cretinism is surely on a throne in North Korea - watched closely for usefullness, as is tRumph, by Russian & Chinese dictators.. and the likes of Steve Bannon - all of whom will ditch support or sink the tRumph ship of state if seen as advantageous or timely or amusing to observe how tRumph swims.. if at all
One would have to be close to brain dead or a serious & delerious advocate of the GOP to think the tRumph Debacle might ease off or become more mature or 'Presidential'.. its way way past the tipping point.. this is heading to jumped off the cliff status.. downhill - so to speak..
I agree, salamander, this is way past the tipping point. In the end, I suspect Mueller will provide a step by step analysis of how it all fell apart.
Something has to give: the order exemplified by Trump and his Congress - or America.
I agree, Mound. This is not the kind of situation that can be resolved by compromise. It's Trump or the country.
!?
The math does not work for me.
...he made 14 times his original investment of $90 million. According to the economists Eileen Appelbaum and Rosemary Batt, “his three-year investment netted him $4.5 billion..."
14 x $90,000,000 = $1,260,000,000.
Not $4,500,000,000.
And Appelbaum & Batt are talking "net" not gross.
Not a small quibble,!?. I admit I was focused on the 4.5 billion -- not bad for three years -- than on the multiple 14.
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