Wednesday, October 15, 2008

'Indispensable Mayor' or Grim Fairy Tale

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has decided that he is indispensable and must run for a third term to save the City from economic disaster.

That is a fairy tale.

Let me give you some reasons why.

In the first place his term does not come up until next year, by which time he may not be needed to save us. In the second place, the buddies he pals around with and usually hand picks for appointments come from Real estate, Banking, and Wall Street. These are the very people who got us into this mess with the help of our Congress.

They decided at the behest of President Bush and the Republican party and some Democrats that there was no need for a watchdog in the economy, that the Real Estate , Banking and Wall Street people were of such a high caliber that they could and would police the industry.

What they did with this trust is have a party at our expense. Enormous bonuses were paid to undeserving Executives. Then they gave tremendous golden parachutes to departing Executives. If a golden parachute was not enough they bribed the executive with a platinum one.

All this was done on Mayor Bloomberg's watch. His office is not too far from Wall Street, and his company's ticker tape showed the market trends, yet he could not see what was coming. So how can he help us.

Think about it. Would you keep a shortstop on your team who kept making errors, simply because he had experience.

If Mayor Bloomberg really wants to prove his value, he should convene an expert group of economists - people like Paul Krugman, Tom Friedman, Robert Rubin and even Alan Greenspan to work on the problem with him. If they are successful, then he could retire as the Statesman he deserves to be.

2 comments:

hariet said...

I don't agree with anything you wrote, except as far as consultations are concerned. You can drop Greenspan, the sneak, and Friedman, the hawk and add Roubini, the NYU Prof.
Bloomberg will be a great mayor for the third term all of which will be involved with the recession which will last for at least three years.

hariet said...

Second try. Again I was wiped out. I stated that your remarks are based on conjecture. That the distance from Wall St is not relevent. That not all rich business men are bad. That he did not have control over what happened.