Category: insider corruption

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government transparency insider corruption

Mad About Power

“There’s no such thing as too much power.”

That’s the word from Democrat Herb Wesson, former Speaker of the California Assembly. Wesson was defending the Speaker’s awesome control over the purse strings.

In a story headlined, “The power of one: Perez controls Assembly with money,” the Sacramento Bee reports: “Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez single-​handedly doles out millions in public funds each year to his 80 members: No vote, no committee, no debate.”

The article was vague on details, because the Speaker refused open records requests from the Bee and the Los Angeles Times. In August, the newspapers filed suit to see the legislative records.

Assemblyman Anthony Portantino charges that Speaker Pérez cut his staff as retribution for voting against this year’s state budget — although the state constitution makes it a crime to coerce a member’s vote. Assemblyman Tony Mendoza admitted that his office budget was slashed by $80,000 when the Speaker demoted him from the Rules Committee, but he wouldn’t discuss it with reporters.

Were a special interest group to similarly bribe legislators, Californians would be up in arms. But a politician? We’ll see how this plays out.

“It’s a very difficult house to run,” argues Mr. Wesson, “and you have to have the leverage that the speaker has.” Steve Maviglio, former spokesperson for two Assembly Speakers, echoes that sentiment, claiming that without a healthy bribery power, the legislative chamber would descend into “absolute chaos.”

Extreme. But some “chaos” must be better than the current all-​too-​orderly system of corruption.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
free trade & free markets insider corruption too much government video

Saving “Capitalism”

Excellent testimony by Prof. Russ Roberts of George Mason University about the government bailout of the financial sector. Naming Bush, Obama and Congress, Prof. Roberts charges: “You’ve helped risk-​takers continue to expect that the rules that apply to the rest of us don’t apply to people with the right connections. You’ve saved the system, but it’s a system not worth saving. It’s not capitalism; it is crony capitalism.”

Let’s keep this common sense in mind.

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

The Clipping and Culling Crisis

I just came across a paper on an old bout of hyperinflation — the “Kipper- und Wipperzeit” financial crisis in 17th century Germany — worth studying, considering that today’s smart money is on the radical debasement of today’s already-​undermined dollar.

The Kipper- und Wipperzeit hyperinflation started out as a government program to bilk the people of wealth, but got out of hand. It became a free-for-all. 

Back before credit money and fiat money, governments made special deals with miners and minters and the like, to coin money to spec. Those insiders put less metal into the coins than before, but called the coins the same. Debasement, pure and simple: Theft — fraud, to be exact. 

It helped make a few major fortunes, fund some wars and the like.

But apparently moneylenders caught on, and began “clipping” the coins. Minters employed subcontractors to look for better-​quality coins in circulation, paying for them in clipped coins. Soon everyone was clipping coins, and then culling them (hence the term “Kipper- und Wipperzeit” — “clipping and culling time”) to hoard the highest-​value coins (with the most metal) and pawn off into the general circulation the lowest-​value coins (with the least). Gresham’s Law in action led to spiraling prices and the breakdown of trade.

A great example of calculated, “clever” government policy spilling into the general population, leading first to rampant moral corruption and then ruin.

Something to remember, as clever folks contemplate “monetizing” today’s sovereign debt.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
free trade & free markets insider corruption too much government

Medallions “Stink of Tyranny”

Not long ago on Townhall​.com I briefly told the tale of two journalists, both arrested for taking pictures at a public meeting. This stunk of tyranny, to me. “Government cameras on citizens? Dangerous. Citizen lenses trained on government? Essential safety devices.”

What I didn’t mention was that the public meeting was for the District of Columbia’s taxi-​cab commission. The commission oversees what was once a remarkably free system of taxis, but has become more regulated while also earning a reputation for corruption. Pete Tucker, one of the reporters, was on the scene to cover a breaking story related to that corruption: The commission’s proposal to regulate the industry using the over-​used and idiotic “medallion” system, familiar to New Yorkers and far too many other city-dwellers.

Well, Tucker’s work has reached the completion stage, now, with Reason TV’s video about the medallion system up on YouTube. It’s an eye-opener.

The gist of the piece may be familiar: Government regulation helps bigger businesses at the expense of smaller ones … as well as consumers. You may have read similar tales from economists such as those in the French Liberal School (Frédéric Bastiat), the Chicago School (Milton Friedman), the Austrian School (Ludwig von Mises), and Public Choice (James Buchanan). Courtesy of the Reason video, now you can see ordinary citizens making the case. One said, “We know tyranny when we smell it.”

The stench is also of corruption, which has driven the politics behind the new regulatory scheme.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
education and schooling insider corruption media and media people national politics & policies

Cheaters Never Prosper?

The cheating scandal in the Atlanta Public Schools is ugly — 178 administrators, principals and teachers were caught changing answers on standardized tests. Nearly 80 percent of the schools investigated were found to be guilty.

One school held weekend pizza parties to organize the fraud. Former Superintendent Beverly Hall — named the National Superintendent of Year in 2009 — “is accused of encouraging the cheating.” Hall made hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonuses for the fraudulent test scores.

Meanwhile, one teacher fearing retaliation if she blew the whistle, declared, “APS is run like the mob.”

Yet much of the media spin is excuse-making:

  • On NBC’s Nightly News, Brian Williams called it “the risk of high-​stakes testing.”
  • CBS Evening News informed us that, “Educator Diane Ravitch blames it on a federal law that links funding with test performance.”
  • ABC News reported that, “Many in the community are pointing the finger at No Child Left Behind, the federal policy that made test scores king.”
  • One expert said, “[S]ome educators feel pressured to get the scores they need by hook or by crook.”

I’ve been a consistent critic of No Child Left Behind and deplore the federal micro-​managing of schools. But cheating is wrong. And the fault lies with the cheaters — not with those demanding better performance.

Paul Landerman, a former Atlanta teacher fired for reporting the cheating, told NBC, “The greatest value inside that system is loyalty to the system.”

System first. Your kids? Somewhere after that.

That’s the opposite of Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
insider corruption

In the Money

The economy is down, but some businesses are still bustling. Take the business of running local government in Washington, D.C. Money must be rolling in. The mayor just asked the city council to raise the highest compensation level he is permitted to pay employees by $100,000.

No, not to $100,000. Mayor Vincent Gray wants to raise the top salary by $100,000 — from $179,000 to $279,000.

One council member called the new mayor “tone deaf”; another said the idea is DOA. “These [salaries] are in excess of federal Cabinet officials,” a third pointed out.

Sounds like the council is putting its collective feet down. It just isn’t going to overpay for manpower, right?

Well, not really.

The mayor stuck the new pay levels into a bill already asking the council to okay salaries for the police, fire and school system heads, all of which exceed the current legal limit. News reports say the council is “likely” to approve those.

That how DC “works.” Pay limits are set in law, and then, when the mayor wants to overpay, he has to get the council to approve the higher pay.

While allowing higher pay in some cases, the council is unlikely to make it easier for the mayor to overpay without their deliberated say-​so. Why? To provide fiscal accountability? Or, more cynically, to give the council more political leverage to get more political spoils?

Did I mention that I’m pretty cynical about the motivations of politicians?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.