Culling the Herd: Wall Street or Detroit? Predators or Workers?
Hunting season ended yesterday in Montana. More than ever people
needed to get meat into the freezer. People who live close to the land
like we do on a working cattle ranch understand that the weak will die
in the snow come winter. Frontier theory goes that culling the animal
herd with guns or arrows will leave more feed for winter for the deer,
antelope, and elk while putting food on the human's table. Less weak
all the way around, but something's got to die. And a big old buck is
what they aim for. Fine. But when men in Armani suits talk of blood
in the snow or on the floor, my blood runs cold and my injustice alarm
goes off.
Alexander Cockburn, in The Nation pens a piece called "Nail That Double Standard to the Mast". In it, he quotes George Melleon, a former editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal recalling a lunch with Paul Volcker just after Jimmy Carter had appointed Volcker Federal Reserve Chairman in 1979. In explaining what he was about to do with the Fed and monetary policy Volcker said:
"When there's blood all over the floor, will you guys still support me?"
Cockburn points out that the blood was the blood of bankrupt farmers in the Midwest and Latin America. There was blood on the floor literally in the form of suicides. Cockburn points out that "the WSJ's editors have always taken a stern line about letting the weak die in the snow." That kind of attitude he, as well as I, had noted on the McLaughlin Group of November 23 as the group griped about autoworkers extravagant pay.
Alexander Cockburn, in The Nation pens a piece called "Nail That Double Standard to the Mast". In it, he quotes George Melleon, a former editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal recalling a lunch with Paul Volcker just after Jimmy Carter had appointed Volcker Federal Reserve Chairman in 1979. In explaining what he was about to do with the Fed and monetary policy Volcker said:
"When there's blood all over the floor, will you guys still support me?"
Cockburn points out that the blood was the blood of bankrupt farmers in the Midwest and Latin America. There was blood on the floor literally in the form of suicides. Cockburn points out that "the WSJ's editors have always taken a stern line about letting the weak die in the snow." That kind of attitude he, as well as I, had noted on the McLaughlin Group of November 23 as the group griped about autoworkers extravagant pay.
