Website review: Meet the super-rich, the dysfunctio...
Someone discovered this in Economics
•8 reviews since Mar 29, 2008
economics, poverty
•slate.com/id/2187571/
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Reviews of this website
annaddison rated 7 weeks ago- From the page: "Meet the super-rich, the dysfunctional class threatening American values."
- BettyJoBradley rated 7 weeks ago
- Wow. What an article. It discusses the parallels between the underclass and the ultra-rich class... and guess which class is most dangerous to more people?
- dgruber7 rated 7 weeks ago
I suppose that a hard landing is a hard landing at any financial landing, but it seems that one at my economic level is a good deal harsher than the one any Bear Stearns executive is going to undergo. The ride to the top had a lot of compensations. The upper class in history seems to have always felt a sense of entitlement; divine right to rule and all that! However to comment that Bear Stearns is a victim of violence is perhaps more than just being out of touch.
- SeaGriz rated 7 weeks ago
- Very nice article which discusses how out of touch with reality the super wealthy have become.
- BiosyntheticLife rated 7 weeks ago
- From the page: "There are important differences between the underclass and the overclass, notes Susan Mayer, dean of the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy Studies. The overclass is better connected, and it can cause more damage. "Poor inner-city kids selling drugs to suburban kids can harm people," Mayer says. "But financial markets can bring thousands and thousands of people to ruin.""
- lunaticprophet rated 7 weeks ago
- Meet the super-rich, the dysfunctional class threatening American values From the page: "Conservative critics constantly carp that the culture of poverty has encouraged a sense of dependency on Washington. Of course, in recent months, the bureaucracy-- the Federal Reserve, the Federal Housing Authority, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac-- has generally ignored the struggles of poor homeowners. Yet it vaulted into action to save the bankers from their own disastrous bets. When Bear Stearns, the nation's fifth-largest investment bank, approached insolvency, the Feds orchestrated JPMorgan's acquisition of it. In 1993, the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan coined the term "defining deviancy down." The prevalence of bad behavior in the underclass, he argued, caused institutions to lower standards and expectations, which effectively socialized the costs of dysfunction. Today, the Federal Reserve is "defining solvency down." In recent weeks, the Fed has responded to Wall Street's crisis by systematically lowering the standards of what it would accept as collateral for loans. (Historically, only government bonds or bonds backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were good enough.) But as part of the Bear Stearns deal, it agreed to lend $30 billion against assets of dubious provenance. And guess who bears the risk if that $30 billion can't be paid back? You and me. If write-downs continue, rumor has it, the Fed might start accepting sports memorabilia, Beanie Babies, and Pokemon card collections as collateral. There are important differences between the underclass and the overclass, notes Susan Mayer, dean of the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy Studies. The overclass is better connected, and it can cause more damage. "Poor inner-city kids selling drugs to suburban kids can harm people," Mayer says. "But financial markets can bring thousands and thousands of people to ruin.""
- AngelaHayden rated 7 weeks ago
- We don't hear as much about the culture of poverty these days. Perhaps it's because the market turmoil is making us all feel a little poorer. Or perhaps it's because a highly visible group is now exhibiting all the outward appearances of the underclass: the overclass. Forget welfare queens and the culture of poverty. Think Wall Street kings and the culture of affluence. -- Critics point to a pervasive sense of victimhood in the underclass. But listen to what Bear Stearns CEO Alan Schwartz told the troops after his firm succumbed to wounds that were almost entirely self-inflicted. "We here are a collective victim of violence," he said. Yep, just another case of the Man keeping the Man down.
