{"id":1011,"date":"2010-09-28T22:03:46","date_gmt":"2010-09-29T03:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/civilsocietytrust.org\/blog\/?p=1011"},"modified":"2010-09-30T09:27:08","modified_gmt":"2010-09-30T14:27:08","slug":"big-government-billionaires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/civilsocietytrust.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/28\/big-government-billionaires\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Government Billionaires"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just what happens to the mind when the bank account crosses the billion dollar mark?\u00a0 Do all those dollars exert some kind of Big Government Tractor Beam that only the few can escape?\u00a0\u00a0 Or is it just the logical conclusion of crony capitalism<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Let’s examine two of the most influential billionaires of our times, Warren Buffett and George Soros. \u00a0One squanders opportunities to promote and enhance the system that made both of them rich, while the other actively seeks to destroy it.<\/p>\n

In the case of Warren Buffett, when the infamous “Oracle from Omaha<\/a>” speaks, people listen (just like E.F. Hutton<\/a>!).\u00a0\u00a0 The only problem is, what they listen to hurts our economy: \u00a0some economically illiterate member of Congress hears Buffett (or Soros) talk, feels it makes some amount of superficial sense (or can be construed into supporting some new government program) and says “What works for Buffett (Soros) works for me. \u00a0We’re done here!” \u00a0 Indeed, Barack Obama continues to site Buffett’s easily-mischaracterized anecdote of his secretary paying more in taxes<\/a> than he does.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Passive-aggressive capitalism non-defender, Warren Buffett<\/p><\/div>\n

In a recent interview<\/a> with CNBC’s Becky Quick, Buffett seemed to indicate he was pretty flummoxed by the apparent failure of Keynesianism to right the listing supertanker that is our present-day national economy. \u00a0 He’s so close,<\/p>\n

I think the most important factor in getting out of the recession actually is just the regenerative capacity of– of American capitalism.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and yet so far:<\/p>\n

I thought maybe– maybe they [the Fed] ought to charge them [the banks] a quarter of a percent to leave their money on deposit and that would really push it out.\u00a0 (Laughter.)\u00a0 But– but I mean, we’ve used up a lot of bullets.\u00a0 And we talk about stimulus.\u00a0 But the truth is, we’re running a– federal deficit that’s nine percent of GDP.\u00a0 That is stimulative as all get out.\u00a0 I mean, that is more stimulative than any policy we’ve followed since World War II.<\/em><\/p>\n

And, of course, World War II, we had a huge stimulus and it– it took us out of– a depression. But we are– it doesn’t depend on calling it the ‘Stimulus Bill’ to be stimulating.\u00a0 I mean, if– if– if the government is spending $3 for every $2 it takes in, that is– that is fiscal stimulus.\u00a0 And it isn’t kick-starting things as much as the American public would like.\u00a0 I’m sure as much as the Administration or Congress would like.\u00a0 It’s probably had some effect, probably less than the economists thought it would have going into this.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s probably true, if the “economists” he has in mind are Robert Reich<\/a>, Paul Krugman<\/a>, and other modern-day purveyors of that discredited theory<\/a> from Lord Keynes. \u00a0 Ironically, these and other comments were made surrounding Goldman’s Sachs’ “10,000 Small Businesses” graduation (a firm from which Mr. Buffett profited handsomely as an appropriately private investor, proving that attractive investment opportunities will find financing). \u00a0 Where Quick gives The Oracle room to opine on just about anything, nowhere does he launch into the litany of reasons why small (and large) businesses are being stymied by our current government, something this author forewarned of nearly a year ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But what truly gets this writer’s blood boiling is Buffett’s yearning for the higher tax rates of a prior generation, and saying that our country’s prosperity was no worse for the wear. \u00a0This is a common theme for Buffett, as demonstrated on June 27, 2007<\/a>,\u00a0November 15, 2007<\/a> and\u00a0\u00a0September 10, 2009<\/a>, just for starters.\u00a0\u00a0 Nevermind how much better things could have been then had taxes been lower. \u00a0 Nevermind the “malaise<\/a>” we found ourselves in at the end of the period he reminisces. \u00a0 \u00a0Nevermind the explosion of tax revenue that resulted from Reagan’s tax cuts. \u00a0 Nevermind that the stock market rally that they helped fuel helped to make Buffett who he is today<\/em>.\u00a0 Buffett seems either genuinely embarrassed by the wealth he’s accumulated, oblivious to the reality of the Laffer Curve<\/a> and how lower taxes on upper income earners would free up capital for investment, clueless that government could instead attack the expense side of the deficit equation, or all of the above. \u00a0 \u00a0Again, all harmless, if it weren’t for his role as the statists’ financial Pied Piper.<\/p>\n

Buffett also couldn’t resist taking a swipe at the rising Tea Party-induced activism, and the resulting fear from the big government forces<\/a> who perhaps sense their days are suddenly numbered:<\/p>\n

…sentiment has turned very sour in the last three or four or five months.\u00a0 It’s been generally sour on Congress and Washington, but it seems to have taken a turn for the worse.\u00a0 I — I hope we get over it pretty soon, because it’s — it’s not productive.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Democracy-in-action “not productive”; what a segue for our other most-notable-billionaire, George Soros…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

George Soros, anti-Capitalist<\/p><\/div>\n

George and I have something in common: \u00a0 In the early 1990’s, we were both trading currencies. \u00a0 The difference is, I didn’t have a balance sheet gigantic enough to take on the Bank of England, betting that central control would never be able to overcome the forces of the free market. \u00a0Such forces wanted to make the Pound drop dramatically versus other currencies, and Soros knew it. \u00a0Soros positioned himself for the inevitable and it yielded him a billion dollars in profits<\/a>. \u00a0Overnight, he became a celebrity in the hedge fund world.<\/p>\n

So it is the height of irony that the man who foresaw the failure of price fixing, the man who experienced Nazi and Soviet rule firsthand, would now be pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into organizations that seek to dramatically grow the influence of government in our lives. \u00a0 You’ve heard of the obvious ones: \u00a0MoveOn.org, Center For American Progress, the Democracy Alliance, all chronicled by DiscoverTheNetworks.org<\/a> and elsewhere.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 But how about Soros’ $50 million dollar check last fall, funding an\u00a0effort<\/a> to “purge economics of its free market zeal”?<\/p>\n

Just over the last several weeks, Soros has helped launch\u00a0a website seeking to discredit the Tea Party.<\/a> What a great example of that great World War II pilot saying: \u00a0“When you start taking flak, you know you’re over the target.” \u00a0 \u00a0As Stanley Fish writes<\/a>, it’s an effort that may very well backfire, badly. \u00a0 Clearly, the “height of irony”‘s twin tower is the stream of people complaining to Fish that the Tea Party is being funded by the rich, while they rally (literally)<\/a> around organizations funded by Mr. Soros. \u00a0 Now that<\/em> is truly rich.<\/p>\n

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Just what happens to the mind when the bank account crosses the billion dollar mark?\u00a0 Do all those dollars exert some kind of Big Government Tractor Beam that only the few can escape?\u00a0\u00a0 Or is it just the logical conclusion of crony capitalism? Let’s examine two of the most influential billionaires of our times, Warren […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/civilsocietytrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/civilsocietytrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/civilsocietytrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/civilsocietytrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/civilsocietytrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1011"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"http:\/\/civilsocietytrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1037,"href":"http:\/\/civilsocietytrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011\/revisions\/1037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/civilsocietytrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/civilsocietytrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/civilsocietytrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}