Category: insider corruption

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free trade & free markets ideological culture insider corruption

Billions and Billionaires

Where do billionaires come from?

Douglas French, president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, reminds us where the term “millionaire” came from. It was

coined in 1720 during John Law’s “Mississippi Bubble” to describe those making vast fortunes in Law’s Mississippi Company stock that rose from 150 livres to 10,000 in the matter of months. But just as quickly, the stock and the currency wildly inflated by Law’s Banque Royale, crashed and Law was forced into exile.

Today’s plethora of billionaires — which in 15 years has increased fivefold — is (argues French) at least in part the result of Ben Bernanke’s monetary manipulations. He’s the John Law of our time. “What were once Law’s millionaires are now Bernanke’s billionaires. . . . Bernanke has been on the job for six years, and the Gates, Buffetts, and Slims of the world are reaping the benefit. But for how long?”

Keeping track of today’s billionaires has become both a form of popular entertainment (Forbes’s list) as well as a topic for careful study. The political “philanthropy” of George Soros and Charles Koch inspires both enthusiasm and dread in activists, left and right; Warren Buffett has become something of a hero to the 99 percenters, what with his repeated pitches for higher taxes on the rich.

But Buffett is a sly one. He makes his money in a variety of ways — one of which Peter Schiff recently explained: “Buffett actually stated in September 2008 that he would not have invested in Goldman Sachs if not for the implicit guarantee of federal assistance. As a result, he profited at the expense of taxpayers at the very time when they were losing their savings in the markets.”

Not all billionaires are created equal.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
insider corruption political challengers

As Goes Maine

On Monday I reported on the Ron Paul campaign’s “open secret” strategy: Gaining delegates in the caucus states, while letting the caucus-night straw poll numbers basically take care of themselves. The “popular” vote on caucus nights in states like Iowa and Minnesota and Maine may show Santorum or Romney as a winner, but the Ron Paul folks are picking up the actual, nomination-effective delegates.

Meanwhile, GOP insiders continue to work openly and sub rosa against the Paul candidacy, as is now pretty clear in Maine. Business Insider reports that

  • “Mitt Romney’s 194-vote victory over Ron Paul was prematurely announced, if not totally wrong”;
  • “Washington County canceled their caucus on Saturday on account of three inches of snow (hardly a blizzard by Maine standards), and other towns that scheduled their caucuses for this week have been left out of the vote count”;
  • “nearly all the towns in Waldo County — a Ron Paul stronghold — held their caucuses on Feb. 4, but the state GOP reported no results for those towns. In Waterville, a college town in Central Maine, results were reported but not included in the party vote count”;

. . . and on and on and on.

The open conspiracy of deliberately under-reporting Ron Paul votes may be more than matched, however, by the open secret of the Ron Paul delegate strategy, with the Paul campaign now believing “it has won the majority of Maine’s delegates.”

Real change is, apparently, a messy thing. And preventing it . . . even messier.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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insider corruption

The Forgotten Scandal

Newt Gingrich is taking a pounding over his personal life — ABC’s Nightline broadcast a lengthy interview with one of his ex-wives yesterday. Before that, Newt was pilloried for his work for Freddie Mac, the government-created mortgage malefactor, and pummeled with ethics charges from his days as Speaker.Newt Gingrich

Yet, nary a word has been uttered about what I consider his biggest scandal — and one that involves Democrats coming to Newt’s aid to ensure his triumph over their own party’s challenger to retain his Washington perch.

Back in 1989, as the new House GOP Whip, Gingrich helped push through a massive pay raise, hiking congressional salaries by 40 percent. Gingrich and GOP leaders assured Democrats that Republicans would not attack them for voting to grab the extra dough. Democratic leaders returned the favor.

In a bipartisan love-fest, Democratic National Committee Chairman Ron Brown and Republican National Committee Chairman Lee Atwater went so far as to sign a written agreement foreswearing criticism of the hike “in the coming campaigns.”

“The gag rule,” as Utah’s Deseret News dubbed it, “was accompanied by notice from the party officials that any breach could result in censure from a candidate’s own party and a cutoff of party campaign aid for non-incumbents.”

When Democrat challenger David Worley began to hit Gingrich “morning, noon and night” over the pay raise, the Democratic Party committees — in what the Orlando Sentinel called “a breathtaking move that would make you wonder if this is a free country” — cut Worley’s campaign off.

Gingrich prevailed by a mere 974 votes . . . and went on to collect his pay increase.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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insider corruption

Illinois: Ill and Annoyed

Yesterday, I talked about pension rip-offs in Illinois and the particularly outrageous case of a lobbyist who spiked his pension benefits by perhaps a million dollars over the course of his lifetime by working as a substitute teacher for . . . one . . . single . . . day.

Steven Preckwinkle, the political director of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, earned only $93 in actual pay for that day’s work, but was able to snag a more lucrative lifetime teacher’s pension, yet based on his pay as a lobbyist, which would make it twice as generous as the average teacher’s take.

All this through a luxurious loophole in legislation Preckwinkle lobbied the legislature to enact.

Come to find out that Preckwinkle’s pension play isn’t the only way he’s cashed in on state taxpayers. Illinois has a controversial program whereby legislators get to personally hand out a couple of college scholarships to constituents each year.

You guessed it. Two of Preckwinkle’s children — and a nephew — were awarded money to cover their college cost.

Perhaps it’s all a coincidence, eh?

Surely State Rep. Mike Curran (D-Springfield) didn’t allow the contributions he received from Preckwinkle and his union, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, to influence his decision. When Curran left the legislature, he went to work for the Preckwinkle’s union as a consultant.

Can’t friends help friends? On the taxpayers’ tab?

They can in the Land of Larceny.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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insider corruption

One Day of Work

Unfunded public employee pensions threaten the financial future of governments across the country. In some states and localities, the crisis chickens have already come home to roost, spurring bankruptcies; in others, the clucking is getting much louder.

The State of Illinois may have the worst problem, having funded only 51 percent of its pension liabilities, the lowest level of any state in the nation. Every household in the Land of Lincoln owes $34,000 for this unfunded liability. For those living in Chicago, add the unfunded municipal pension liability and the burden more than doubles to $76,000 per household.

The underlying problem is the distorted political calculus of public pensions, which are negotiated by politicians who want the political support of the powerful unions, which they might win by promising future benefits they won’t be around to pay for.

This generalized political manipulation is so systemic that it reaches more specific absurdity. Consider the case of Steven Preckwinkle, political director of the Illinois Federation of Teachers. He was able to use a loophole in legislation, for which he lobbied, to snag a huge increase in his pension.

Preckwinkle had never taught in a classroom. Yet, by substitute teaching for just one day, he qualified for the much more generous pension given to Illinois teachers. Moreover, Preckwinkle’s pension benefits are calculated on his whopping $245,000 annual salary as a union lobbyist, not on a teacher’s pay.

Is this Lincoln’s government of, by and for the people? Or just for political insiders like Preckwinkle?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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insider corruption

On the Other Hand

To start off this New Year, I admit that I missed some very thrifty actions taken by elected officials in 2011.

Though I often commented on California legislators, regrettably, I failed to mention their frugality. Last May, they unequivocally said, “No” to Senate Bill 18, which would have cost $200,000 for enforcement of the legislation’s gift ban.

These eminent elected officials would doubtless like to have SB-18’s restriction on lobbyists and special interests plying them with free tickets to sporting events, rock concerts, and other expensive entertainment venues, but were unwilling to place the high cost of policing their behavior onto the backs of taxpayers.

Nor are politicians always careless with tax dollars. In Washington, D.C., Council Chairman Kwame Brown gets the city’s money’s worth.

He had the city order him a Lincoln Navigator, loaded with a DVD entertainment system, power moon-roof and polished aluminum wheels. But, when the vehicle and its $1,900 a month lease arrived, the interior was gray — not black as requested. Brown wouldn’t stand for being shortchanged. So, a new SUV was ordered, with both exterior and interior black. It was driven from Michigan to Washington for an extra $1,500.

The city was stuck paying two luxury vehicle leases, but it’s the principle that counts. Chairman Brown informed the Washington Post that dark interiors hold their value better.

This year, let’s acknowledge the good elected officials do and not just harp on the bad. After all, nobody’s perfect.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
insider corruption national politics & policies

A Newt Public-Private Partnership

For nine years, from 1999 until 2008, Newt Gingrich worked helping Freddie Mac, the government–created, bubble-creating housing corporation. Newt’s outfit, The Gingrich Group, knocked down more than $1.6 million dollars in consulting fees during that time.

Newt says he warned the government-sponsored giant that the bubble it was busy blowing up would burst badly.

For all those years? He was either mind-numbingly repetitive or must have really drawn out his words. He is from Georgia, but still.

Folks at Freddie tell a different story. They say former Speaker Gingrich helped “build bridges” to Republicans on Capitol Hill, hoping to prevent congressional efforts to rein in the mortgage giant. Those efforts proved successful — there was no powering down of the Frankenstein mortgage monster. The Gingrich Group’s contract wasn’t canceled until the 2008 crash, when the U.S. Treasury took control of Freddie Mac and his sister housing financier, Fannie Mae.

In last weekend’s GOP presidential debate, Congressman Ron Paul argued that Newt Gingrich’s position with Freddie Mac is “something people ought to know about.”

“While he was earning a lot of money from Freddie Mac,” explained Rep. Paul, “I was fighting, over a decade, to try to explain to people where the housing bubble was coming from.”

Newt responded that, like Dr. Paul, he wanted to audit the Fed. As for his Freddie role, “I offered strategic advice,” claimed Newt, adding, “I was in the private sector.”

Laughter erupted throughout the hall. Even Mr. Gingrich couldn’t keep a straight face.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
insider corruption too much government

Resigned to Graft?

It has been alleged that Brazil’s Labor Minister, Carlos Lupi, had demanded kickbacks from “charities and non-governmental organizations in exchange for funding from the ministry.” He has also been accused of receiving both a state and a federal government salary. Such talk has undermined his ability to work for the already-beleaguered government of President Dilma Rousseff. So he resigned.

We’ll see what happens to Lupi. But the charges reveal a problem we will always have as long as governments are big. The very ability to “make or break” a project, business or career is itself an opportunity to charge a premium for such service.

The bigger and more arbitrary government is by design, the more opportunity there is for corruption.

So why isn’t all government corrupt?

Well, separation of powers allows one government sector to watch over the others, perhaps jealously. And, as Brazil’s case shows, a free press helps.

But there’s also the cultural element.

A generally honest culture where people follow higher principles as a matter of habit can offset the dangers of governmental arbitrariness. This explains, perhaps, why Scandinavian countries managed under big government as successfully as they did, for so long. Going into the modern welfare state, Scandinavians were generally honest and morally upright.

Over time, though, this element recedes, as opportunities for corruption work their way into every level of society. As has happened in northern Europe generally.

Small, limited, citizen-controlled government is less corruptible. It also encourages a culture of honest dealing.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
folly free trade & free markets insider corruption national politics & policies

A $13 Billion Reward

The Federal Reserve, our central bank, hit the news big last week.

Beginning in August 2007 and continuing for the next two and a half years, the Fed lent the world’s biggest banks something like $7.77 trillion dollars at the barely perceptible interest rate of 0.01 percent. With that money, the banks bought Treasury bonds (federal debt) and made $13 billion in profit.

I reported on this multi-trillion-dollar loan figure in December 2008, a few weeks after the biggest day ever of Fed bailout fever. For some reason this information didn’t become widespread or understood until this December, when Judge Andrew Napolitano and Jon Stewart made a big deal of it on their respective TV shows, after Bloomberg reported the profits banks made off all that bailout money.

What does this figure represent? To me, it represents the outrageous amount of magic money a sick and corrupt fiat-dollar/bailout-based system of moral hazard requires when it implodes.

I think we can all justifiably roll our eyes, now, when some rah-rah boy for big government tells us how absolutely necessary it is to have a central bank. The old gold standard never fell apart this badly. The gold requirement itself placed a huge check on out-of-control banking.

But a $13 billion reward for the biggest financial mess in world history? That’s the very opposite of a check or balance on risk-taking, greed, or downright stupidity.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
free trade & free markets insider corruption national politics & policies too much government

Self-Interest Wins Every Time

Incentives work. Because people are self-interested.

Even the seemingly altruistic protagonist played by Kevin Costner in the movie Field of Dreams exclaims, “I haven’t once asked what’s in it for me,” only to then ask, “What’s in it for me?”

That line comes to mind when I hear politicians and business folks talk about private-public partnerships, from subsidies for ethanol to billions in government loans to supposedly spur “green” technology.

The bankruptcy of the solar panel maker Solyndra cost taxpayers more than half a billion dollars. But it’s not merely that government is less than stellar at picking investment winners; it’s that the interests of politicians and businesspeople aren’t “the public interest.”

Never will be.

Sure, Energy Secretary Steven Chu told Congress yesterday, “I did not make any decision based on political considerations.” But internal company emails feature complaints about pressure from the Obama Administration to delay announcing layoffs until after the 2010 elections.

Whose interest did that serve?

Documents also uncover Solyndra executives hiding bad news the better to win additional federal funds and, alternatively, threatening that the company was about to go under hoping the potential bad press for Obama might shake down additional bucks.

Companies have an interest in the big money the federal government dangles before them. Politicians have an interest in appearing to be economic wizards creating jobs and spurring a new world with bright green hues.

Neither incentive promotes sound business behavior nor equates with the public interest.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.