They Get Away With It

Once upon a time, in an era that was a little more innocent than our own. F. Scott Fitzgerald supposedly said to Ernest Hemingway, "The rich are different than you and me." To this Papa replied, "Yes, they have more money."

If you read the tabloids every day, you see sob stories of rich and famous people getting divorced or arrested or being forced into rehab. You read about their miserable lives and think to yourself, "See, just goes to show you: money doesn't buy happiness." So you might be forgiven if you think that Ernest Hemingway was right.

But the rich really are different than you and me. They live by a different set of rules. The laws that apply to regular people don't apply to them. If you think that being rich means you can get away with things others can't -- you're right.

The recent financial crises just illustrates this beautifully. The always brilliant Matt Taibbi has a new article called Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? Taibbi meticulously breaks down why so many of the people who blew up the economy two years ago, forcing lots of people to lose their jobs and homes, haven't been prosecuted, haven't gone to jail. He reveals the truly incestuous, disgusting relationship between the financial industry and the government agencies that are supposed to regulate them. Obviously the government doesn't regulate the financial industry at all. The relationship is totally hte inverse with the financial industry totally neutering the government. As Taibbi points out, the worst penalties these malefactors of great wealth ever get are pathetic little fines, almost always paid out by the companies and not borne personally by the perpetrators. None of these guys are ever sent to jail, forced to share a cell with a six foot five, 300 pound, heavily tattooed biker gang rapist. If they did, as one of the people quoted in this article points out, these financial shenanigans would cease immediately.

One of the most truly loathsome financial criminals that Taibbi writes about is Merrill Lynch CEO John Mack. And guess what? Mack, who the article points out is probably guilty of massive insider trading, is a big time political donor. Right now Mack and other such reptiles are shopping around for a Republican candidate who they think can defeat President Obama in 2012. Oh, they're having such a hard time of it, they can't find a candidate they really love who is "electable." Apparently he and others like him think that Obama is too tough on the financial industry (never mind that Obama, like all politicians, is completely beholden to the industry) and is looking for a potential occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue who will be an even bigger kiss-ass financial criminals. 

And you thought that you had problems in life.

Of course the only financial criminal currently rotting in jail is our own Bernie Madoff. And why? Because he had the audacity not only to steal money from people but to do it from other rich people. Obviously he had to be punished harshly for that. But ripping off millions and millions of ordinary people? The people who did that got off scott-free. And even Madoff isn't suffering too much. He was recently allowed to give an interview to The New York Times and is even given access to email in the pokey. So I guess life in prison isn't all that bad for him. If it were up to me, Madoff and all of these other scumbags would be in cells with the aforementioned rapists -- or sitting in 23-hour-a-day lock down in a Supermax.

Of course, injustice isn't always a matter of money. It's also racial. The vast majority of people busted for pot possession in NYC are black and Hispanic. But who actually uses the most pot in NYC? White people! 

Taibbi ends his brilliant article with the following depressing true observation:

"The mental stumbling block, for most Americans, is that financial crimes don't feel real; you don't see the culprits waving guns in liquor stores or dragging coeds into bushes. But these frauds are worse than common robberies. They're crimes of intellectual choice, made by people who are already rich and who have every conceivable social advantage, acting on a simple, cynical calculation: Let's steal whatever we can, then dare the victims to find the juice to reclaim their money through a captive bureaucracy. They're attacking the very definition of property — which, after all, depends in part on a legal system that defends everyone's claims of ownership equally. When that definition becomes tenuous or conditional — when the state simply gives up on the notion of justice — this whole American Dream thing recedes even further from reality."

It's in the air ...

Love, that is. 

This is Valentine's Day, that wonderful holiday created by greeting card companies. Tonight, in our own fair city and across the fruited plain, lovers young and old will be celebrating their burning passion of each other ... and hopefully "gettin' down" or "gettin' busy" (as those of us who speak the da' hip-hop jive might say). 

Where do lovers meet these days? Online, usually. However, in NYC, some people have met at some of our more famous landmarks -- kicking off their relationships at places like the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, etc. Today on WNYC, this was a topic and is, apparently, the subject of a new book. 

On a side note: speaking about speakin' da jive, did you know that New Yorkers apparently Tweet differently than people elsewhere? Apparently we use different abbreviations and catch-phrases from our fellow Americans. I'm not sure if that makes us cooler or just more annoying. Read this and let me know what you think.

The Unluck of the Irish

Last week Mayor Bloomberg, whose mayoralty has taken a few hits lately, had yet another round of bad publicity when he made a joke about drunk Irish people.

Ouch.

At an event for the American Irish Historical Society, he talked about how often he sees drunk Irish people hanging out windows on St. Patrick's Day. Irish people took offense, naturally, and Bloomberg backtracked saying he was talking about a specific place where he saw this -- not that all Irish people get drunk and hang out of windows anywhere and everywhere on St. Patrick's Day. You know, he was "misunderstood."

Okay Mike.

But really, this is such a tempest in a teapot. As someone partly of Irish descent, I guess I should take offense to this but I don't. Ask any Irish person and they'll make lots of drunk Irish jokes. I have lots of Jewish friends who make the most vicious Jewish jokes, I know some Greek people who make sweeping generalizations about their fellow Greeks, same with Italians and other ethnicity's. 

However, I'd send a memo to Bloomberg and anyone politicians who wants to make a joke about an ethnic group or nationality: don't. Don't even make illusions that feed into negative stereotypes: no Italian jokes referencing organized crime, no black jokes referencing watermelon or fried chicken, no Indian jokes referencing 7/11's, no Asian jokes referencing certain parts of their anatomy. In this 24/7 PC media culture, you're just asking for trouble.

That said, there's a proud history of Irish people in this town being great police officers, and this weekend we owe our cops an unusually high debt of gratitude.    

Little Egypt, Astoria Celebrating

If We Knew Cathie ...

... like Mayor Mike knows Cathie Black, then perhaps we might like her better. 

But, as this extensive profile of new Schools Chancellor Cathie Black shows, the woman is truly out of her depth in her new job. She might be a dynamite magazine exec but this article makes clear that she knows nothing about our public schools system or how to run it. Just being a "good manager" isn't enough -- if requires political skills and a certain emotional intelligence that she clearly lacks. I think Bloomberg knows he made a huge blunder in appointing her but obviously he can't fire her now without looking foolish. Still, if there was evidence that overturning term limits was a bad idea, the fact that Cathe Black is now schools chancellor is compelling proof indeed.

Fascinating

A couple of years ago I blogged about a book called The Works which looked at the "anatomy" of NYC -- where our electricity and water come from, where our trash goes, how our traffic and pedestrians move around the city, etc. While reading it, I could only think of what Mr Spock would have said: "Fascinating." Fascinating because there are whole worlds that exist within this city that we never see but vital to our security and way of life. 

Recently I read a couple of new articles that also got me thinking in a similar vein. And, again, Spock's voice rang in my head. 

This month the Atlantic has a tremendous article about how the Secret Service operates in this town during the UN General Assembly. If the expression "the weight of the world on their shoulders" was ever apt, it's for the US Secret Service which converges on NYC each fall when the General Assembly meets. They are responsible for the safety of every single world leader who comes to town including, as profiled in this article, that nutty President of Iran. Considering that NYC is a perennial terrorist target, along with the challenges of shepherding all of the worlds' CEOs around a crowded town, it's amazing to read about what these people do to keep not only these powerful people but also all of us safe. Something they do -- but that we never see.

Then there's another reality in this city that we all live in but almost never see: the economic reality of NYC. In America, as we know, the distribution of wealth, the gap between rich and poor, has never been larger. NYC is just like America, only more so, and the gap between rich and poor in this city is even larger than the national average. In his final piece for the Village Voice, Tom Robbins crunches the numbers and paints a devastating picture, not only of the gross economic disparities in this town, but of the political class in this city and state that serves to protect the elite at the expense of the poor. Republicans and Democrats have done everything they can to short shrift city workers, cut social services, underfund our schools, decimate the unions -- while giving tax breaks to the rich. Robbins writes about a corporate group called "The Committee to Save New York" which is run by a bunch of rich people. One of the members of this organization, which claims it wants to "save" our great city, is Rob Speyer -- yes, a Speyer of Tischman-Speyer which was responsible for the biggest real estate debacle in this (or any) city's history. Yes, this same man believes he is qualified to "save" New York. Did you know that? Well now you do.


Fascinating.

Protest at Egyptian Consulate in New York

Only Time Will Tell

The week that ends tomorrow has not been one of earth-shattering events.  But a few things happened in NYC in the last couple of days that may have long-range significance. Only time will tell.

This week Mayor Bloomberg announced sweeping proposals to the city's pension system. In short, it will require city workers to serve more years, establish fixed retirement ages, prevent "double-dipping" or people working lots of overtime in their last year to qualify for bigger pensions, and require new city employees to contribute to their pensions. This could dramatically affect the kinds of people who will police our streets, teach in our schools, pick up our trash, helps us in emergencies, and take care of the city. Will city services benefit or suffer from these changes? Only time will tell.

Yesterday the city council voted to extend the city's smoking ban to the city's beaches and parks. Now people lighting up in these recreational areas will get fined. Will it add more money to the city's coffers while saving lives or will it be a failure? Only time will tell.

And the war over Walmart continues, with battle lines forming over whether to let the big-box retailer into our city. Will NYC remain a Walmart-free bastion or will it finally be conquered, forever destroying the small businesses this city thrives on? Only time will tell.

Then, whaddya know, Yankee Andy Pettite decides to retire. Will this hurt or improve the Yankees' future World Series chances? Only time will tell.

Finally, Governor Cuomo submitted his first budget that cuts huge amounts of money that goes to state services that help the city. In a message to accompany the budget, he declares: "Our state is at a crossroads.  After years of overtaxing and overspending, we are at the fiscal brink.  We can continue down our current road to financial ruin or we can take a new course – a road to recovery." Will this be a road to recovery or the road to ruin? Only time will tell.

Want Proof ...

... that the middle class is dying in NYC. Read this.

'berry inta'resting

Look at the two videos below and tell me what you think. I don't know which is more amazing -- that President George W. Bush's daughter supports marriage equality or that there are people who actually like "Spiderman: Turn off the Dark."

I think what both videos show is that you should never pre-judge anything: just because Bush is a scary man and was an awful president doesn't mean his daughter is. And just because the  "Spiderman" musical has gotten lots of lousy press doesn't necessarily mean it's actually a bad show.

It's both wonderful and depressing that Bush fille supports gay marriage: wonderful because it means that the sins of the father are being redeemed by the child (she's like a female Luke Skywalker); depressing because now I'll feel just a tad bit guilty at the fact that I despise her dad.

And as for "Spiderman" -- unlike everyone else in this world who wants it to fail, I want it to succeed. It will be good for Broadway, good for the city's economy, and be a badly needed piece of good news in today's wicked world.