Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Excesses of greed

The present economic crisis is partly caused by greedy actions of people in financial businesses. Lately outrageous bonuses and pay raises have been exposed. Wanja Lundby-Wedin, head of Swedish trade union LO, is trying to save face after approving a golden pension deal for former AMF boss Elmehagen. In the US bonuses to AIG bosses takes center stage.

What to do about greed in the markets? To begin with I think a society works better with small differences in wealth. Everybody should be able to stand on their own feet, taking their lives into their own hands. That's why I like President Obama's tax plan of cutting taxes for 95 percent of the people while raising taxes for the rich. A lesser tax burdon for working families would have lessened the loan needs that fuelled the subprime bubble that started the crisis.

My favorite blogger, Norman Geras, argues that criticizing greed on moral grounds is not enough. The government should protect us against these robbers and criminals. Personally I would like to see a 90 percent tax on bonuses and unreasonably high wages, by which I consider levels higher than 10 times the average worker's. The US House of Representatives recently took drastic action against bonuses in AIG and other companies receiving federal aid, approving a 90 percent bonus tax. That's the way to do it!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

American idle

Times are hard, unemployment is rising everywhere. Here's some comic relief: http://cartoonbox.slate.com/hottopic/?image=0&topicid=294

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Love songs

The Beatles wrote many love songs, starting with Love Me Do. What about the Rolling Stones? Checking the Jagger/Richards compositions of the 1960's I find only one song with the word 'love' in the title: We Love You from 1967. After that there's only a handful of 'love' songs, the most recent being Streets Of Love from 2005. Sweet love songs never was the Stones' cup of tea, so no wonder they're not on this list of great love songs: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/table/2009/mar/14/love-1000-songs-everyone-must-hear

Anyway, I think they've written many good happy as well as unhappy love songs. One of my favorites is Tell Me, a big hit in Sweden in 1964.