Greed, Wall Street, Pennsylvania Avenue and TR

Written by: Eric Weis on Sep 16, 2008 6:09 PM EDT

Linked to groups: The Passaic County Green Party, Pequannock DFA, Passaic County DFA, BlueWaveNJ, DFA County Committee Project, NJ for Democracy

Linked to campaigns: Obama for America

Friends

Ever hear of Thorstein Veblen?  He was an economist at the turn of the century, noted for his brilliant critique of American competition and its shortcomings.

Veblen's most famous book was "The Theory of the Leisure Class".  He coined terms such as "conspicuous consumption" and the theory of "pecuniary emulation".  The latter is more widely known as keeping up with the Jones.  We all do it to a greater or lesser extent.  Greed (founded on the desire to eliminate want) is engrained in our nature.

Veblen wrote at a time when the industrialized robber barons had reached their greatest excess (go visit one of the Newport summer cottages to get the sense of their largesse).  The trust busting movement started at the same time, and was taken up by none other than Theodore Roosevelt, that icon of Republican and McCainsian ideology.

Wait a minute.  A Republican who busted trusts?  Can such a thing be true?  Yes indeed.  TR recognized that competition thrived with a modicum of regulation.  He saw that unrestrained capitalism brought with it the seeds of discord and economic disintegration.

So, today we have two Presidential candidates.  One blames the current disintegration on simple greed (pointing a finger at Wall Street).  The other cites greed coupled with a climate of deregulation which allowed distortions to occur in the capital markets.

Holy Battle of San Juan Hill!  Isn't this deja vu all over again?  Except this time, it is the Democrat who is taking the stand of Teddy Roosevelt, that government has a proper place in regulating greed and should do so.  Meanwhile, the 2008 Republican ticket hearkens back to that image of TR, but conveniently forgets to mimic his populist approach to economic policy.

Thorstein Veblen is rotating in his grave, and TR must be shaking his head at the trusts which have hijacked the Republican party that Lincoln started.  What did Lincoln and TR have in common?  They believed that a strong federal government could actually do something right, and they used that power accordingly.  John McCain and the neoconRepugs have forgotten the lesson. They don't deserve the mantle of "Republican".  Their party might better be titled the Oligarchians, now.

A half century after Veblen, another famous economist framed economics in terms of the theory of countervailing interests - business, labor and government all serving to offset each other's peculiar interests for the common good.  John Kenneth Galbraith inherited the tradition of Veblen, Keynes and others.  Their ideas rescued us from the last great depression.  Without government intervention, without the policies of FDR (a cousin of you know who), who knows how long the world's depression might have lasted...or if the western powers could have prevailed against the forces of fascism and communism which grew in reaction to the worldwide economic problems of the 1930's. Without FDR, without his activist vision, would America exist today?

One Presidential candidate reflects these views and has articulated them.  Barack Obama understands that Pennsylvania Avenue, like Wall Street, is responsible for the economic mess that we are in.  Supply-side economics, coupled with relaxed regulation, have allowed greed to emerge and corrupt our financial institutions.  John McCain thinks otherwise. His comments today just blame Wall Street. It is an incomplete, and historically discredited notion.

To McCain and my Republican friends, I say, REMEMBER TR, A TRUE PROGRESSIVE who believed that we should "speak softly and carry a big stick".  And who represents that legacy now? The Red Party?  The Party of the Leisure Class?   Or is it the party of Biden, Corzine, Clinton, Daschle, Gore, Kerry, Kucinich, Lieberman (!), Obama, Nunn, Rendell, Richardson, Rodham, Webb and so many others?  It does not take a degree in economics to know the answer.

I say it is time for some good old-fashioned trust busting, and the Republican-Oil-Barons are a good place to start. Let's do it for Teddy.

- Eric

Tags:
Location: Wayne, NJ 07470