re: #237 austin_blue

Stating the obvious…

[Link: www.nytimes.com…]

Krugman: “The way to understand all of this is to realize that it’s part of a broader syndrome, in which wealthy Americans who benefit hugely from a system rigged in their favor react with hysteria to anyone who points out just how rigged the system is.

Last year, you may recall, a number of financial-industry barons went wild over very mild criticism from President Obama. They denounced Mr. Obama as being almost a socialist for endorsing the so-called Volcker rule, which would simply prohibit banks backed by federal guarantees from engaging in risky speculation. And as for their reaction to proposals to close a loophole that lets some of them pay remarkably low taxes — well, Stephen Schwarzman, chairman of the Blackstone Group, compared it to Hitler’s invasion of Poland.”

So the question is, do demonstrations that include actual communists make these conservative critics look ridiculous for saying the Volcker rule is socialism, or do they make the people just looking for better regulation of the financial industry look like they’re allied with radical anti-capitalists?