Related Stories
Now Thats Rich
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of New York Times
Posted: May 12th, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/09/opinion/krugman-now-thats-...
The 25 highest-paid hedge fund managers ... made a combined $21 billion in 2013. In particular, lets think about how their good fortune refutes several popular myths about income inequality in America. Apologists for soaring inequality almost always try to disguise the gigantic incomes of the truly rich by hiding them in a crowd of the merely affluent. Instead of talking about the 1 percent or the 0.1 percent, they talk about the rising incomes of college graduates. The goal of this misdirection is to soften the picture, to make it seem as if were talking about ordinary white-collar professionals who get ahead through education and hard work. But many Americans are well-educated and work hard. The vast gulf that now exists between the upper-middle-class and the truly rich didnt emerge until the Reagan years. Second, ignore the rhetoric about job creators and all that. Conservatives want you to believe that the big rewards in modern America go to innovators and entrepreneurs, people who build businesses and push technology forward. But thats not what those hedge fund managers do for a living; theyre in the business of financial speculation. Once upon a time, you might have been able to argue with a straight face that all this wheeling and dealing was productive, that the financial elite was actually providing services to society commensurate with its rewards. But, at this point, the evidence suggests that hedge funds are a bad deal for everyone except their managers; they dont deliver high enough returns to justify those huge fees, and theyre a major source of economic instability. Were still living in the shadow of a crisis brought on by a runaway financial industry.
Note: For more on financial corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.
Related Stories
Latest News
Key News Articles from Years Past
