In his newest op-ed, Paul Krugman at the New York Times in What Ails Europe? writes that
"[F]alse stories about European woes are warping our economic discourse."Yup. We agree. We live in Europe and a lot of what is written is just nonsense.
Read also the newest Playboy interview -- with Paul Krugman.
Whether you are a Bush of Obama supporter makes little difference.
Both do not fare well in this interview. And the bankers even worse.
We disagree strongly however that people should be in jail.
We have to get away from this idea out of the dark ages that imprisonment is the solution to economic crimes. It never has been a solution and is not so today. You don't get rid of your intelligent people, you figure out a way to use them for the good of society.
People will get out of the economy what they can -- nothing wrong with that -- so we have to devise a normative system that then takes the excess windfall winnings away from them and puts them into public coffers for the common good.
We continue to advocate that the best solution is draconian taxation of financial institutions, their officers, and executives, who should not be in the position of being able
-- to award windfall million-dollar bonuses for services that do nothing for the general welfare,
-- to pay CEOs hundreds of millions of dollars for jobs that many an intelligent college graduate could probably do if given the chance, or
-- to award stock options at bargain prices, thereby diluting the equity of companies in favor of their pocket-stuffing officers.
Jail is not the answer, but better lawmaking and higher taxes are a solution.
Unfortunately, with a Congress filled by people pandering to innumerable vested moneyed interests, don't hold your breath.
Hat tip to CaryGEE.
