Before the nut jobs come out of the woodwork, this is typical of the ‘competitive’ self-promotion local and state governments promote and participate in to give the impression that they are capable of creating jobs and building businesses. Quite the opposite is true.

Businesses love free money–until it starts to cut into the pocketbooks of the people taking it. TARP funds were sucked up by every institution that lined up at the trough as the only thing that could save the day–and it started about a year ago when the markets enthusiastically crashed under the last administration with widespread bi-partisan support. Once the government sought some degree of oversight–limits on how the funds could be spent and how the leaders of all these institutions could be rewarded monetarily for their shoddy planning and control–the funds became anathema to those institutions. Funds were returned.

This mornings paper contains an article about how those institutions are returning to the ‘guaranteed’ pay structure for traders and programmers that existed before the crisis. Employees will be rewarded regardless of outcome and performance.

We are pissing away an opportunity to end the type of practices and create oversight to stop the way business was done in the past. The endless cycle of boom and bust will continue as politicians line up for campaign donations from the forces and interests that got us here. Voters will forget or pretend that it was the other guys fault. The average voter will once again vote against his or her own interest and return the plutocracy to power. They will believe the lies and imagine that they can join that elite group if they only work hard enough. Provided they can find a job–or two–or three.

Thanks for the Python–it was apropos. Hadn’t seen it in years. I’m going to dig it out tonight.