Irwin Stelzer sees a radical shift in power from Wall Street to DC and puts the blame squarely on Hank Paulson’s shoulders.
And the corporate socialism goes on …
From the link:
The continuing series of bailouts, and potential bailouts, has Irwin M. Stelzer of The Weekly Standard bemoaning “a profound change in the nature of our government.” The check on government power imposed by the Constitution’s separation of powers will be weakened by full Democratic control of both branches, he notes. But the bigger change is the end of markets as a constraint on government. And for this, Stelzer pins much blame on Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. “Paulson, of course, continues to preside over the billions-going-on-trillions that will be made available to whatever industries make the best case for a hand-out. You might recall that the Treasury secretary came to Washington after heading up Goldman Sachs, a firm now reporting billions in losses after abandoning its business model in favor of status as a government-sheltered commercial bank. Nothing more clearly demonstrates the shift of power from Wall Street to Washington than the Paulson saga. Once the man who raised private-sector funds for private-sector businesses from his perch at Goldman, he is now the man who distributes taxpayer funds to private-sector businesses from his perch at the Treasury.”
David Kirkpatrick 