Olympian Zeus, Father of Gods and Men, ensures that justice--although it may be long delayed--may not be denied; that mortals who overreach through hybris and mistreat guests, suppliants, and other "weak claimants"--as David Stockman used to say--will in the end cannot escape retribution; that all are bound to the Wheel of Fate and cannot escape their nemesis.
Or so I am tempted to believe this morning.
MaxSpeak's Sandwichman makes the catch. The present:
MaxSpeak, You Listen!: TO THE WOODSHED:
March 26 (Bloomberg) -- David Stockman, President Ronald Reagan's budget director, was indicted for defrauding investors while chairman of Collins & Aikman Corp., an auto-parts maker that went bankrupt five days after he resigned in 2005.
Stockman, who was also the company's chief executive, is accused of issuing fraudulent statements designed to avoid defaulting on credit agreements and to raise capital, according to an indictment unsealed today in New York federal court. He was charged with conspiracy, bank fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud and obstruction of an agency proceeding...
The past:
Stockman agreed that supply-side theory was, in Greider's words, "only new language and argument to conceal a hoary old Republican doctrine: give the tax cuts to the top brackets, the wealthiest individuals and largest enterprises, and let the good effects 'trickle down' through the economy to reach everyone else." Said Stockman: "It's kind of hard to sell 'trickle down,' so the supply-side formula was the only way to get a tax policy that was really 'trickle down'... Kemp-Roth [the supply-side tax bill] was always a Trojan horse to bring down the top rate." Stockman was saying this privately at the same time that the Administration was denying Democratic charges that the Reagan tax cuts favored the rich...
The Sandwichman:
When FICA taxes were raised in 1983, Reagan at first objected and reminded aides that he was opposed to raising taxes--of any kind. David Stockman reassured him. If the rising payroll-tax burden was imposed on young working people, they would eventually revolt and Social Security would self-destruct of its own weight. The Gipper liked that and gave his OK...
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