Saturday, January 24, 2015

The Week's Soundtrack: Ruling


My fantasy had Lorde crashing the World Economic Forum meeting in Switzerland.  I envisioned Lorde on state with Carlyle's David Rubenstein and Blackstone's Stephen Schwarzman singing backup for Royals:

But everybody's like
Crystal 
Davos
Diamonds on your timepiece 
Jet planes 
Islands 
Tigers on a gold leash 

We don't care, we aren't caught up in your greed affair

Half a world away American Royal Jeb Bush and two time loser Mitt Romney met.     

"Many of the contributors and elected officials they are courting hope to stave off a collision between the two that could imperil the party’s chances in a general election."

One can stave off a collision with collusion, which leads to the next song, based on the melody for "Cruel to be Kind.".  It's a duet of "Collude to be King" in the right measure.

Jeb is aiming, yet again for the middle class, decimated by the business practices of private equity underwriters (PEU's)?

The weak economic growth that much of the western industrialised world is currently experiencing suggests that an economic system that hollows out the middle class will struggle to grow.

How many will recall the role Mitt's and Jeb's employers/sponsors had in dismantling America's middle class?  The Rubenstein's and Schwarzman's played a clear role in the world discussed at Davos.  A former business reporter wrote me in July 2011:

I have seen so many people -- particularly those in their 50s - 70s -- taken apart by what has happened in their industry as greed has hollowed out the economy. These are people took pride in their jobs and held themselves to this invisible standard that we all just took for granted, but is being wiped out.
Which leads us to our last song for the week, "Wipeout."

Update 1-27-15:  Washington's Blog ran an excellent piece on the decimation of the middle class.