So Much for Populism

Worth Clicking: Blasts from the past wound Romney

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February 10, 2010

So Much for Populism

In an interview with Bloomberg, President Obama said he doesn't "begrudge" the $17 million bonus awarded to JPMorgan Chase's CEO or the $9 million paid to the Goldman Sachs CEO, noting "there are some baseball players who are making more than that and don't get to the World Series either, so I'm shocked by that as well."

Added Obama: "I, like most of the American people, don't begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free market system."

Paul Krugman: "The point is that these bank executives are not free agents who are earning big bucks in fair competition; they run companies that are essentially wards of the state. There's good reason to feel outraged at the growing appearance that we're running a system of lemon socialism, in which losses are public but gains are private... We're doomed."

Update: The White House pushed back this afternoon claiming the Presidents words were taken out of context, and completely consistent with his previous statements on executive compensation.

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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February 10, 2010