Matt Taibbi: Greed, Excess and America's Gaping Class Divide

[marmar]

from Rolling Stone:



Courtesy of good friend and Supreme Court of Assholedom justice David Sirota comes this revolting list of Marie Antoinettoid moments from recent years, in an article called "The New 'Let Them Eat Cake!'"

Some of the moments on the list are easily recalled – Berkshire Hathaway gazillionaire Charlie Munger's famous "suck it up and cope" quote, coming from a guy whose company was heavily invested in bailed-out banks, was an obvious inclusion – but others are quite shocking.

For instance, I was completely floored by the New York Times' pseudo-ironic take on the government's response to the financial crisis, a piece entitled "You Try to Live on $500K in This Town."

This came at a time when President Obama was considering curtailing compensation for bailed-out bankers at $500,000. The piece was sort of meant to be taken half as a joke, but it is not hard to detect an element of demented earnestness in the fashion section article, an honest argument that with mortgages and private school tuition and co-op fees and taxes, it really was very hard for a certain kind of New Yorker to get by on half a million a year. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/the-new-let-them-eat-cake-20110713

[TomClash]

1. Replete with a photo of the World's Biggest Asshole

This guy, Steve Schwartzman, and Pete Peterson (of Catfood Commission fame) started the Blackstone Group (Schwartz in German means black and Petra in Greek means stone - what clever fucks) in the early 1980s.

[The Big Vetolski]

2. K & R. They have clearly forgotten the lessons of Charles I of

England, Marie Antoinette of France, and Nicholas II of Russia.