Thursday, March 18, 2010

North Korea "Takes Aim" At Inflation

Well, here's one way to hold finance officials accountable for their policy errors:

North Korea executed the former head of finance of its Workers’ Party after last year’s currency revaluation triggered unrest in the communist nation, Yonhap News reported, citing people it didn’t identify.

Fortunately we in the enlightened West don't do that to our financial scions when their policies do measurable harm.  See, when our Treasury secretaries redirect billions of TARP dollars from middle-class taxpayers to rich bankers for bonus payouts, we celebrate them as saviors of the economy.  Alan Greenspan got a Medal of Freedom for the policies he authored as Fed Chairman that spawned a housing bubble and erased traillions of dollars worth of household wealth. 

We have the added benefit of a private sector that subscribes to the theory of "screw up and move up," whereby Harvard and Wharton MBAs who can't manage risk get to run big hedge funds after they lose money on prop trading desks at i-banks.  Rich preppies don't face firing squards here in the good old U.S. of A.  That's un-American and offensive to good sense and decency. 

It sure pays to be civilized.  (Sarcasm filter off.)