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Aug
30
2010
Why Do Serious People Say Crazy Things?
Author: Gary Hart
A prominent businessman, Mort Zuckerman, recently said that Barack
Obama’s administration was…”the most hostile administration to
business…in decades.” I’ve known this man for quite a few years as a
serious and thoughtful person. Why would he say something that is
demonstrably false? He must have been trying to ingratiate himself
with others in the business community. But, even so, it is a
ridiculous statement.
After one of the most disastrous performances by the business
community in decades, what did its members expect from the
government? A tap on the wrist? A mild “don’t do it again” lecture?
Some kind of presidential “you’re doing a heckofa job” compliment?
Extemely highly paid executives on Wall Street, in major investment
banks, in peak financial circles did stupid and vastly greedy things.
They did so under circumstances of relaxed government regulation.
They weren’t interested in their shareholders and certainly not the
health of the national economy. They were only interested in
spectacularly bloated incomes and short term rewards. Somewhere along
the way, when they were picking up their MBAs at Harvard, Yale, or
Columbia, no one told them what the role of the US government was.
Among many other things, under our Constitution it is to “regulate
Commerce…among the several States.”
So accustomed to benign neglect under Reagan and the Bushes, suddenly
these financial stars are confronted with a president who takes his
oath of office seriously. The laws of the United States state that
business people are not to cheat consumers, short-change their
shareholders, falsify their tax returns, mislead investors, and a host
of other fair play rules that help keep the marketplace fair and
honest. The vast majority of business people, especially the small
ones, are scrupulously honest. They are not the problem. But
everytime the US government “deregulates”, that is relax its duties to
protect the public, the high-rollers move in and take the rest of us
to the cleaners.
What a travesty for someone who wishes to be taken seriously to say an
administration is hostile to business when it is simply carrying out
its statutory responsibilities to do its duty and protect the public
interest.

A prominent businessman, Mort Zuckerman, recently said that Barack
Obama’s administration was…”the most hostile administration to
business…in decades.” I’ve known this man for quite a few years as a
serious and thoughtful person. Why would he say something that is
demonstrably false? He must have been trying to ingratiate himself
with others in the business community. But, even so, it is a
ridiculous statement.
After one of the most disastrous performances by the business
community in decades, what did its members expect from the
government? A tap on the wrist? A mild “don’t do it again” lecture?
Some kind of presidential “you’re doing a heckofa job” compliment?
Extemely highly paid executives on Wall Street, in major investment
banks, in peak financial circles did stupid and vastly greedy things.
They did so under circumstances of relaxed government regulation.
They weren’t interested in their shareholders and certainly not the
health of the national economy. They were only interested in
spectacularly bloated incomes and short term rewards. Somewhere along
the way, when they were picking up their MBAs at Harvard, Yale, or
Columbia, no one told them what the role of the US government was.
Among many other things, under our Constitution it is to “regulate
Commerce…among the several States.”
So accustomed to benign neglect under Reagan and the Bushes, suddenly
these financial stars are confronted with a president who takes his
oath of office seriously. The laws of the United States state that
business people are not to cheat consumers, short-change their
shareholders, falsify their tax returns, mislead investors, and a host
of other fair play rules that help keep the marketplace fair and
honest. The vast majority of business people, especially the small
ones, are scrupulously honest. They are not the problem. But
everytime the US government “deregulates”, that is relax its duties to
protect the public, the high-rollers move in and take the rest of us
to the cleaners.
What a travesty for someone who wishes to be taken seriously to say an
administration is hostile to business when it is simply carrying out
its statutory responsibilities to do its duty and protect the public
interest.