The Paul Bunyan Of Czars

When I was somewhat younger, ok, a lot younger; I really enjoyed reading stories  about Paul Bunyan and his faithful blue ox, Babe. Ole Paul was the ultimate man of the forest. Along with Babe and his mighty ax, he was  a logger par excellence and there was virtually no obstacle he could not  overcome.

Paul came along in the early 20th century and now, about  a century later , we may have his 21st century counterpart. That individual would be the President’ s pay czar, Ken Feinberg. What has  an apparently mild mannered man such as Mr Weinberg accomplished? Why, he is beginning a process of cutting the pay of overpaid, greedy financial executives.

The process as I understand is beginning with top executives for those financial institutions that received government bail out money, some of whom did not even want it to begin with. Reportedly, pay of some  execs will be cut as much as 90%. Surveys have indicated  a somewhat substantial populist sentiment for such action. Nail the greedy profiteers etc.

But, listen to some comments the President made after referring to Feinberg’s  initial eforts….”But more work needs to be done, which is  why I urge the Senate to pass legislation that will give company shareholders a voice on the pay packages awarded to their executives.”

Now, Rush’s take on this is that the government is just beginning its effort to control pay levels. He is of the opinion that other companies will also come under the government’s purview. Backing this up is  a story in the New  York Times that Fed Chairman Bernanke and friends will review the compensation at all banks, whether or not they received bailout funds. Of course, the Times likes this. Methinks they should not cheer too much, too soon.

Obviously there are people and companies and industries that all of us think make too much money. for openers, my list would include David Letterman and Keith Olbermann and probably a lot of athletes and actors and actresses. Do I want the government to control what they make? Shucks, no!!

Follow along with me a bit and see if I am just being paranoid. Ok, the feds are dealing with financial institutions now and are attempting to broaden that reach. Wonder what kind of detail is in the bill? What execs are covered, how much influence do stockholders get, etc. Now, try this thought . it is not a very large step to instituting pay controls  of some sort specifically on firms that get government contracts or receive federal monies. That could cover an extraordinarily large group there and could easily be justified in a populist sense. Why, we are just being good stewards of the taxpyer’s money.

Funny thought. The administration wants to increase taxes on the higher wage earners. Better be careful cutting their pay, may backfire  there.

Is all this the beginning of wage controls. but im a different guise?