The tidetime folklorist wonders when the lasting foundation of a more gentle Republic will be built by those who aren’t as thick as a post.
This week’s Platter: I Rise, I Fall by Rick Nelson (the sort of singer Congressman Joe Wilson wishes would come back, but whose lyrics alas only promise more socialistic equality)
This week’s Bait: The Bullet Head Jig (beloved by Bob McDonnell while trolling the shallows of barely concealed misogyny)
The French are imposing a carbon tax on oil, gas, and coal consumption!
Now, admittedly this is small beer in a country that gets most of its energy from nuclear (and nuclear’s not exactly great for the environment below ground), but it’s a serious attempt to deal with global warming.
The contrast with the US is stark. Here we believe only in cost-free solutions that don’t change the underlying behavior. So we craft emissions trading frauds like Waxman-Markey, rather than taxing consumption, and global warming goes on!
Gorilla is impressed by the French: “Maybe the Frogs can teach us how to frog march ourselves to maturity and a bit of sacrifice for the common good!”
Well, the President made a good speech, but talk isn’t going to get health care reform. The real test will come when the conference committee meets, and there’s not much on the table so far that looks like genuine reform. We can only hope for better!
And the speech was heckled, as usual by an opposition party that doesn’t seem to know or propose anything.
Heckling per se is something we ought to consider allowing, it’s the sign of a robust democracy. Since we lack the British parliamentary form of question time, there are very few opportunities for even the nutjobs to get their viewpoint across.
Gorilla says: “Of course, if mainstream media stenographers and scorekeepers could transform Jekyll-like into professional journalists, we might have a real debate!”
In his Handelsblatt speech, Mr Blankfein admitted that there is “little justification for the payment of outsized discretionary compensation when a financial institution lost money for the year,” a reference to rivals including Merrill Lynch and Citigroup, which have continued to pay bonuses in spite of each racking up tens of billions of dollars of losses last year.
He instead argued that the percentage of compensation awarded in shares should increase as a banker’s total compensation increases, and that for senior people shares should be deferred.
The Goldman chief also called for the need for banks to claw back past compensation “so as to avoid excessive risk-taking”.
Blankfein personally has earned $176 million in the last 5 years, but so far doesn’t appear inclined to return any of it…
Gorilla says: “Thanks for that brave stand, Lloyd! Why not voluntarily agree to forgo all bonuses for the next 5 years? You don’t need a regulator to get the ball rolling!”
Gorilla’s Blog