The rise to the top of a financial institution takes smarts and the incentive that brings any other person to work in this country; the chance to have your dreams come true.

When President Obama stipulated that any financial institution receiving government aid must cap their CEO pay to $500,000, he brought in a new era of government intervention.

Opponents love to call all this interventionism into the market socialism but it isn’t. What we are seeing is a return to a fascist political economy first developed and implemented by Benito Mussolini throughout Italy in the 1920s and 1930s.

Socialism seeks to abolish private property while fascism creates a joint venture between the public and private sector, while the state’s role is expanded to force more regulation and central decisions on its behalf.

Sound familiar?

Companies that bring in or retain managers in an attempt to keep their company in the black during a bear market will always come at a premium. Why would an executive work in Manhattan for a measly pay with an extraordinary task when they can easily take another position at another company and yet still make plenty more?

The only ones left to run these companies will be second and third-rate talent. Furthermore, giving the difficult mission of righting these enormous sinking companies, that now have taxpayer money attached, is not the wisest or most efficient decision.
Washington D.C. making decisions for private companies doesn’t work.  Just ask the Soviet Union.

Privatizing profits while letting the taxpayer take the losses creates a dangerous precedent that we should do all we can to avoid.

Mussolini is rebuked for his political and economic theories. Why not our president?