Oh. This. Is. Rich.
CNBC's endlessly chipper young talking head just dubbed Fast Fred "Master Of The Pharma Turnaround" and a "Health Care Titan" -- in this video clip/short interview this afternoon; the copy below suggests:
. . . .Fred Hassan, former CEO of Schering-Plough and a senior adviser at Warburg Pincus, tells CNBC what can be done to get America growing again. . . .
Hmmmm. To get America growing again? How about not firing perhaps 30,000 people over three years (earning the title, from Fortune online: "Most Heartless CEO in America"); how about not taking a personal $225 million exit package -- after gutting Schering-Plough's market cap, by delaying pivotal cholesterol medication study results? How about not pushing for a continuation of the Bush tax cuts, on the wealthiest one one-hundredth of one percent of Americans?
How about any of that?
Nope. Not Fred. He lays the blame at the feet of Mr. Obama (at 1:54 of the interview) -- too much "[government] intervention, and regulation", all while ironically, and preposterously claiming (at 2:04 of the 4:57 interview) our 44th President "hasn't looked [enough] at" -- addressing the "human side" of the economy -- to restore "the business community's confidence. . . ." I guess he means only corporate welfare should be continued -- not help for needy individuals.Okay -- he ends by suggesting we should preserve the capital gains tax cuts, but only on captial assets held five years or more. Sounds to me like he is trying to avoid the fair tax rate on his own personal perhaps $200 million worth of captial gains, in the restricted stock units, stock options, and outright stock grants he received over the. . . wait for it. . . yep, last seven years (the bulk of it vesting almost exactly five years ago, come this November). Transparently pathetic -- your endless avarice is showing, Mr. Hassan.
Truly. Layoff King is more apt. Or perhaps Bridge Troll -- as in "someone (he imagines) we must pay-off, in order to proceed on our journey toward health care reform". . . .
6 comments:
Not related to Freddie but, you did see the Federal Judge in Florida is allowing the suit against the gov't on the Health Care bill to proceed-?
Your thoughts?
Sounds a lot like the original movie Wall Street. Greed is good.
And the country is in a voting mood to go back to those same policies that got is in trouble in the first place.
When will we learn?
Yep -- and, thanks! -- to both of you. . . .
On the Florida suit, that development puts it in the same posture as the Virginia one:
That is, the judge in Florida will hear arguments on December 16 -- pre-trial -- to decide whether the suit should go to trial (may go forward).
So the main difference between the Florida one, and the one in Michigan, is that the latter was dismissed without any oral argument.
I'll keep an eye on all of them.
Namaste
On Gordon Gekko analogies, that is exactly the riff The Nation explicitly offered, a few weeks back.
Namaste
I'm reminded of a "Boss" song/lyric; One step up and two steps back
Warren Buffett acknowledged rich people are taxed too low when he quipped that his secretary pays higher taxes than he does. Freddie "Let them eat cake" Hassan is clueless.
WRT voting: As a nation, we won't learn. Too few of us vote, and many that do are the teabag generation: Either too old to listen to reason, or too ignorant to deal with anything longer than a Faux News sound bite.
We ought to have mandatory voting like Australia does, along with the proportional system they use.
IMHO, any teabagger with any government-related healthcare benefit should be obliged to turn in their Medicare, Medicaid, VA, SSI, TRICare, etc documents and be allowed to purchase individual coverage on the open market.
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