Wow! Faking an Outrage....

Everyone from Obama to the writers in NYT and WSJ are expressing outrage at

1. The $165 million bonus payments made by AIG to its employees...Seventy-three employees were paid more than $1 million in the latest bonuses at the insurance giant American International Group, according to the New York attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo. Of course, the names of these people were not released. Apparently these million dollar babies had no qualms stealing money from the public.
2. The parties that got big chunks of the $180 billion bailout money that was given to AIG.
   Financial companies that received multibillion-dollar payments owed by A.I.G. include Goldman Sachs ($12.9 billion), Merrill Lynch ($6.8 billion), Bank of America ($5.2 billion), Citigroup ($2.3 billion) and Wachovia ($1.5 billion). Big foreign banks also received large sums from the rescue, including Société Générale of France and Deutsche Bank of Germany, which each received nearly $12 billion; Barclays of Britain ($8.5 billion); and UBS of Switzerland ($5 billion). A.I.G. also named the 20 largest states, starting with California, that stood to lose billions last fall because A.I.G. was holding money they had raised with bond sales. In total, A.I.G. named nearly 80 companies and municipalities that benefited most from the Fed rescue, though many more that received smaller payments were left out. WOW! A BIG SURPRISE! Hanky Panky Paulson using public taxpayer money to benefit his own stake and bail out his buddies at Goldman and other banks. Corruption at its finest! Bangladesh does not even come close.

Murder of Meritocracy

Last night Sen. Obama referred to the current Bush/McCain system where the 'ownership' society means that you are on your own, and that you are expected to pull yourself up by your bootstraps even if you have no boots.
This morning, NYT reports that "In a move that drew praise from conservatives, Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday named to the State Supreme Court a former congressman who played a major role in the impeachment of President Bill Clinton....Mr. Canady, a graduate of Yale Law School, was elected as a Democrat to the Florida Legislature and served for eight years but switched to the Republican Party before he ran for Congress in 1992.In the House, he was a staunch opponent of abortion and pushed legislation to aid churches in zoning disputes"

Corrupting justice with politics and murdering merit and accomplishment- and not a protest about it- the people who voted and the people who did not vote are perpetuating a system that is counter to "liberation"- the cornerstone of freedom. This is particularly relevant as we discussed "liberal education" in our class yesterday.

Corrupt Environment and Corrupt Justice

Prof Nicholas Dorn writes a thoughtful letter titled "Just where does the locus of corruption lie?" in the Financial Times in which he talks about the Ponzi scheme developed by the U.S. based financial institutions.

While the common perception is that other countries are far more corrupt than the U.S., students in my courses consistently rank the U.S. as being high in corruption. In fact they are surprised that the U.S. ranks as high as it does in the Corruption Perceptions Index.

The definition of corruption needs to be broad based, as its effects are widespread and pernicious. Any action which deviated from fairness and impartiality it was 'influenced by money or power or other variables' and caused damage (or created the potential for damage) can be regarded as corrupt. Some recent examples:

• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is ordering its staff to "not respond to questions or make any statements" if contacted by congressional investigators, reporters or its own Office of Inspector General, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, PEER. The EPA is gagging its employees- and this is supposed be be public service.
• Apparently "senior aides to former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales broke Civil Service laws by using politics to guide their hiring decisions, picking less-qualified applicants for important nonpolitical positions, slowing the hiring process at critical times and damaging the department’s credibility." - NYT.
  
• Former CEOs of Citi, Merrill Lynch and other institutions who created the current mess but made away with many millions of dollars.
• President Bush commuting the sentence of Scooter Libby.
• Iraq War.
• Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska
• And plenty of other examples.