Public backlash against banking CEOs embedded in nation’s populist culture

[babylonsister]

Public backlash against banking CEOs embedded in nation’s populist culture
By DAVE HELLING
The Kansas City Star


Who would want to be a millionaire?

President Barack Obama calls some millionaire bankers “shameless.” Sen. Claire McCaskill says they’re “idiots.”

CEOs face relentless grilling on Capitol Hill, forced to defend their million-dollar-plus salaries, business perks and multibillion-dollar bonus funds.

Corporate chieftains, from auto companies to investment firms, mothball their private jets, cancel retreats at plush resorts, and reimburse stockholders for $35,000 toilets.

OK, a million bucks is a million bucks. Still…

“In every economic crisis, people look for villains,” said Michael Kazin, author of The Populist Persuasion and a Georgetown University history professor. “And there’s a long tradition in America of big bankers and investors as villains.”

So far, Kazin and others say, the public backlash against the wealthy seems limited to millionaires directly connected with collapsing banks and other industries.

If the economic downturn continues, though, or gets worse, look for a more broad-based assault on the well-to-do — in movies, songs, cartoons and books, as well as on Capitol Hill.

more...

http://www.kansascity.com/637/story/1035104.html

[Idealism]

1. I wonder why those who help cause the problem get demonized...

Some odd form of justice lurks within these ideas, can't have that I suppose. Let us just blame the poor, that always makes everyone feel better. :sarcasm:

[leftstreet]

2. LOL - From the article:

"Customers at swank New York and Beverly Hills stores are asking for plain white shopping bags — better to disguise luxury purchases. “There’s a sense of there being a gaucheness in spending in excess and coming home with a Louis Vuitton or Chanel bag,” said Lucyann Barry, a personal shopper in New York.

Or the rich are snagging that new Rolex online, avoiding going out in public altogether. One recent survey claimed 95 percent of those with an income of $1 million or more bought their last luxury item on the Web."

:rofl:

[madrchsod]

3. my grandfather was a populist in the 20`s

i have his speech he gave at a grange meeting railing on the eastern bankers and railroads ruining the farmers in western iowa.

[Kurovski]

4. In the Great Depression movies represented the wealthy

in a mostly positive ways. I think part of the deal was that people would escape into a fantasy of being carefree and rich.

I think those days are over, as we can see so clearly how the wealthy rig and manipulate capitalism and the economy in their own favor. Besides, we have many other forms of escapist fantasy creation available to us besides a few movies a month.

You know, people with oh, say...one million hearts better watch their backs around people with only four. :D

[mitchum]

5. I would like to see further populist...action...against the wealthy bloodsuckers