The American Spectator : Obama Can't Trade Places

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Obama Can't Trade Places

By Green Lantern on 9.21.11 @ 6:09AM

The costs of being willfully clueless about the private sector.

To understand how President Obama views successful people, I think you have to go back and watch that 1983 Eddie Murphy/Dan Aykroyd movie, Trading Places, one of the first of a now endless series of switcheroo stories where two people exchange lives.

Aykroyd is a stolid commodities broker getting rich just by being white and going to work every day dressed in a suit. Murphy is a wily homeless beggar who possesses none of the advantages of the ruling class but has street smarts. A couple of eccentric Philadelphia millionaires see them bump into each other on the sidewalk and make a bet that if only a few things were different, each would end up in the other's clothes. You can guess the rest.

The interesting thing is the way the movie ends. Murphy finally finds his place on the trading floor. He stands there taking bids and, presumably, making money hand over fist. Hey, this is easy! One bid here, another bid there. Wow, there's nothing to this! He's on his way to being rich, end of story. Of course the moral lesson is clear -- only racial prejudice, discrimination, class divisions, and "the system" separate the rich from the poor. Just rearrange the furniture and the rich would be poor and the poor rich.

Let's step back a moment. The role Aykroyd and Murphy play is a commodities floor broker, a job that required a lot of hand signals and a quick mind but has generally been eliminated by electronic trading. Nobody ever got very rich at it. Usually brokers were kids from the Bronx or Queens who went to work right after high school and worked their way up the ladder. Occasionally there's a Richard Grasso or a Louis Ranieri who made it all the way to the top, but by then they had long moved over into commodities and bond trading.

A trader is an entirely different animal. You have to bet your own and other people's money every minute. Anyone who thought they could master this in an afternoon would probably clean themselves and their company out in about the same amount of time. It happens often. There was a case last week of a 31-year-old UBS trader who went through $2 billion making unauthorized trades. When he was paraded in front of the cameras, he looked like a little high school kid who had just been caught playing hooky. A few years before that a European French trader at Société Générale went through $6 billion before being nabbed. Anyone who thinks trading is a sure-fire way of making money has never tried it.

Movies like Trading Places only reveal that, at the directorial and script-writing level at least, Hollywood knows absolutely nothing about the business world. It reminds me of Ludwig von Mises' description of Lenin in the opening pages of Socialism. Von Mises points to a passage in Lenin's writing where the great Revolutionary leader proclaims that all there is to running a business is tallying up the profits as they roll in. Anyone with a little math can do it. Therefore, in order to establish justice in the world, all that was necessary was for the Bolshevik vanguard to wrestle the means of production out of the hands of the capitalists and run them for the good of the people. Lenin had the "grocery boy's view of business," writes von Mises, and it is not surprising, based on this short passage alone, that every socialist and communist economy that ever existed has quickly sunk into squalor almost as soon as the new leadership took over.

Since Hollywood and the Democratic Party are often indistinguishable, we can see that these very same attitudes are behind the Obama Administration's supreme confidence that it knows the destiny of the American economy. We are undergoing a "Green Revolution" and it is the business of the Presidency to steer the nation's wealth and capital in that direction. Although President Obama does not realize it, his assumption of this role has put him in the position of a hedge fund manager. What he is doing is no different than what thousands and thousands of other individuals from Wall Street to Greenwich, Connecticut, to Sand Hill Road do every day -- placing money at risk on the basis of where they believe the economy will be tomorrow and next year. There are only two outstanding features of this effort: 1) the President has absolutely no experience at the job, and 2) his hedge fund is the United States Treasury.

The Solyndra bankruptcy is now being played up as a "scandal" -- even to the point of being given that dreaded suffix referring to an expensive apartment complex on the Potomac. I prefer to think of it as the Green Teapot Dome. That ancient scandal, which brought down the Harding Administration, also involved the concentration of large amounts of energy resources in government hands. The federal government had set up a Naval Oil Reserve to make sure the Navy always had enough fuel to power its ships. When it came time to granting drilling leases, Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall handed them out to a few associates in the oil industry who in turn awarded him what would today amount to $2 million. He was a little too obvious in flaunting his newfound wealth and ended up the first cabinet member in history to go to prison.

Being somewhat more benign and "green," the Solyndra scandal probably won't have such dire consequences for anyone in the Administration -- although it may be too early to tell. What it does show is that the business of picking successful technologies is much more difficult than the average neophyte would imagine. For every win there's a heck of a lot of losses. As Washington plays a greater and greater role in the economy, the risks of this amateurism grow greater. In 1922 it was a few tracts of land in Wyoming that were being doled out with a little favoritism. Today it's vast, budget-busting "stimuli" that can be distributed in whatever manner the majority party decides.

What lies at the bottom of this is a vast misunderstanding of the business world -- and a huge underestimation of how difficult it is to make money in the private sector. Seeing how things work in Washington, Democrats (who rarely have any private sector experience) casually assume that people succeed in the private economy through log-rolling and personal favoritism. They think people get rich on Wall Street just by showing up for work. What they fail to comprehend is that people succeed in the private sector only by doing things better than the next person -- and much better than everyone else. If Obama only understood this, he might not be so eager to tax every rich person's money away and use it to fund his own schemes.

About the Author

Green Lantern is the pen-name of an East Coast writer.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (80) | Leave a comment

York Hawk| 9.21.11 @ 7:03AM

Take a chance with your own grub stake and if youse succeed,IRS comes in to take their "share". Lose your shirt and youse get to work your arse off paying your debts and a chance to start over again. Unless you are a crony capitalist @(#*$&% and a friend of Joe.

Peter Yankov| 9.21.11 @ 10:14AM

Joe who??

Drunken Sailor| 9.21.11 @ 12:13PM

Stalin

Moe Blotz| 9.21.11 @ 4:29PM

Methinks the gentleman was referring to VP "Plugs" Biden. You know who he is,the bloke who goes out to the green job producers to hand out cheques and make big speeches before Barry shows up to take all the credit.

Cosmo| 9.22.11 @ 2:18AM

The debate has come down to this:
Has Obama ruined the economy on purpose or out of incompetence?

thatsitivehadenough| 9.22.11 @ 5:47AM

Both. But, I don't come to my decision lightly. It took a lot of reading and learning.

But ask yourself this: Who would benefit by infiltrating the government, media, and educational systems of the USA, duping well intentioned liberals, and eroding it from the inside for decades?

Figure that out, and you'll have your answer.

Alan Brooks| 9.21.11 @ 5:47PM

We'll see. Since the economy wont improve for perhaps five years, perry or whomwever you nominate will probably win; that is what it looks like at this time.
However will a GOP president stimulate economic activity? yes.
Will he (or she) reduce the size of govt?
no.
"Reducing govt." is for public consumption- and most of the public goes by what it hears on TV.

Alan Brooks| 9.21.11 @ 6:00PM

Tim, read what I wrote a half dozen comments below:
Reagan, by being so successful, cut the ground from under patriotism by helping to dissolve the Soviet Union- the postwar unity from '45 to '89 evaporated.
How can anyone honestly deny it? we both remember whatv the '80s were like; contrast the era of a quarter century ago with today.

JimP| 9.23.11 @ 4:17PM

Post war unity from '45 to '89? Hardly. Unity was dissolving in the 60's and after 1968 the Dems and Euros were ready to sell out lock stock and barrel to the Soviets and their proxies.

Timothy L. Pennell| 9.21.11 @ 7:07AM

What is wrong with you people. You all seem to think that he doesn't know what he's doing.
Au Contraire. Just look what he's accomplished in just shy of 3 Years.
He is the Anti-Regan.
Ronald Reagan surrounded himself with America Loving PATRIOTS. People he could trust, to carry out his orders. To get things done. Reagan had the VISION. It was their job, to get it implemented. (Like, building a 600 Ship Navy)
The "Amiable Dunce", knew exactly what he was doing.
Enter, the Anti-Reagan. He, too, has a Vision. A Vision of Shared Sacrifice, an All Powerful State, and a Populace, under CONTROL.
He has surrounded himself with people who HATE this Country, as much as he does. He has lived HIS ENTIRE LIFE, surrounded by people who HATE this Country, and won't be happy til it FALLS.
Why stop, now?
He uses his EPA, his NLRB, and his Interior Department, as a HAMMER. Ask Boeing. Ask Gibson Guitar. Ask the people in the Coal Industry, the Oil Industry, or the Natural Gas Industry. His JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, is run like a Secret Police. There to take action, against anyone who would stand against HIM. And, look the other way, when his Friends are in trouble.
He has set up a Nazi like, Soviet like, SPY Web Site. Where people can INFORM Dear Leader, of any insurrection. "If you HEAR something. Say something."
Sieg Heil!
He has used his REGULATORS, to enforce plans that could never pass Congress. He has taken over the Automobile companies. He controls Insurance Companies, and Banks. He has SINGLE HANDEDLY, Shut Down our ability to retrieve our own Energy Supplies. He has Abused our Allies, and Coddled our Enemies.
"I solemnly swear, to Protect and Defend the Constitution of the United States of America, from all enemies, both, Foreign and DOMESTIC."
The DOMESTIC ENEMY sits in the Oval Office. He KNOWS what he's doing.
And, if he COULD, there would be: "HARTE ARBEIT WIRD EUCH FREI MACHEN" over the Front Gate of every one of his RE-EDUCATION CAMPS.
Do not underestimate this THING.
Anyone who would Run Guns to the Drug Cartels, in Mexico, in the HOPE that they would be used to Murder innocent Men, Women, and Children, just so he could USE THEIR DEATHS, to promote his Gun Control Policies, is a Sub Human MONSTER.
But, then, that is what the Left always chooses, for their Leader.

Mimi| 9.21.11 @ 7:45AM

The LEFT , The hard left is 20% of us...we the
80% need to start playing HARDBALL...We need to laugh at them more and often at their ridiculous ideas, attitudes and never again give them a LICK of POWER!

Mike D.| 9.21.11 @ 8:20AM

Agree, this belief that he merely doesn't understand economics or the business world is BS. He is here to undermine and destroy the private sector, establish a one party government permanately, and control the lives and resources of the population. A lot of people do not want to come to this conclusion so they play he's just "ignorant of economics" game with themselves because the truth scares the hell out of them. To face that truth, you have to face the fact that this guy is a Chavez clone with the same intent on control and dictatorship and that just can't be possible here in the US of A. A form of self denial.

Simon Templar| 9.21.11 @ 9:53AM

Tim,
Excellent comments and analysis. The other day I was watching the Imus show on Fox and he sat there accussing his guest Glenn Beck for being crazy for thinking that Obama was anything else than just an incompetent President.

This seems to be the conventional delusion among a large segment of the public that just refuses to see the truth right before there eyes.

His actions are not the actions of an incompetent but rather the actions of a committed left wing ideologue that has a very definitive belief system and agenda. It is true that the Left does not understand, as the author points out, anything about business, economics, and the practicalities of the real world as well.

This lack of understanding is a willful ignorance based on the premise that their ideologies supersede any particular business construct or idea as the Left has the inherent belief that business and economics can be shaped into anything that one desires. This is why liberal Bob Beckel on Fox can sit there and say with a straight face that deficits do not matter and are irrevelant.

Liberal Progressive ideology is essentially based on the concept of relativism. So, morality and culture become relativistic as well as economics. Science has now been politicized and has become relativistic.

He does indeed know exactly what he is doing relative to his world view and his ideology. For some reason, many people can not seem to grasp this. Odd thing is, it is just common sense and common experience. Everyone operates, for the most part, on a world view and ideology. The difference is whether that world view is grounded in reality, practical experience, and concrete understanding and knowledge of how things actually work rather than utopian machinations, desires, and wishful thinking.

Al Adab| 9.21.11 @ 11:36AM

Simon:
No one should be surprised. After all he promised during the campaign to "fundamentally transform America". He has succeeded beyond expectations. Instead of justice we have tyranny; instead of freedom we have centralization; instead of markets, we have subsidies.

This economy is intended to be the new norm. High dependancy, high unemployment and government picking winners and losers. A wonderful world of central planning for our benefit.

Sad to say this is the new reality of American life. Can ballots reverse it or will it take other means?

thatsitivehadenough| 9.22.11 @ 5:55AM

My thoughts exactly. And I do mean exactly.

Redstateboy| 9.21.11 @ 11:42AM

spot on Simon and Timothy.. as proof? I've personally engaged Liber-uls re: Solyndra and their immediate reply?? look at all the money spent in Afghanistan! An immediate Quid-pro-Quo! Because it's Das Messiah that scammed 528 million dollars (obviously for a great cause in their mind) then it's perfectly acceptable. Two perceived wrongs in their minds DO make a right just so long as one of those wrongs was committed by a Liber-ul.

Anthony| 9.21.11 @ 11:47AM

So the ole coke head Imus is still at it huh? I thought he bought the farm, no, not the tax write off one.
Oh well, at least poor Fred is rid of this geezer gasbag. I wonder if Sharpton will give the elugy when this POS passes, and if the Rutger's womens basketball team will serve as pallbearers.

Timothy L. Pennell| 9.22.11 @ 6:09AM

Oh. When I saw "The ole Coke Head" I thought you meant OBAMA.

Scott| 9.23.11 @ 12:01AM

Simon --

Exactly so, sir. There is a saying that "even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in awhile." So, too, the individual, who is incompetent, does something right occasionally. Name one decision that Obama has made since becoming POTUS that has been for the betterment of this country and a majority of its citizens. One. It can't be done because it hasn't happened. A record of such utter failure could never be the result of mere incompetence. The only answer we are left with is that his failure is intentional. For him, to fail is to succeed. From the day he was born, Obama was in training for his job as Destructor-in-Chief.

Bill| 9.21.11 @ 12:09PM

It will be very difficult to delegitimize the Left. They have a major advantage: their platform is help to the helpless (despite the cost to others and to the society), while the right's platform is for government to leave people alone. As a general proposition, the great mass of people in the USA see the government as in business to help people, therefore the Left's vision is in line with the American perception of political reality.

It will take a lot of hard experience, government overinvolvement in the economy, and decades of teaching, to bring the American people back around to the most beneficial point of view. It may be impossible because we have now extended the franchise to those who can vote money to themselves out of the public's largesse, and they will vote themselves funds as long as they can find politicians who are willing to be their procurers, and, unfortunately, there's no shortage of such politicians.

JimBob7| 9.21.11 @ 1:24PM

What did the president know, and when did he know it, about Fast and Furious. Unlike Tricky Dick's fitth rate B&E job, Obams's "good intentions" have resulted in the MURDER of hundreds of Mexican citizens, cops and military. What did the President know, and when did he know it.

Alan Brooks| 9.21.11 @ 5:50PM

"Ronald Reagan surrounded himself with America Loving PATRIOTS. People he could trust, to carry out his orders."

Yes, but Reagan did TOO well; by helping to end the Cold War he ended the unity it provided.

Alan Brooks| 9.21.11 @ 5:54PM

... as one of AS' top people wrote recently, economics (and thus politics) is based on self-interest; once the Cold War ended the glue of patriotism dissolved: so we are left with mostly serlf interest and little patriotism. Tim, if you examine the history of the last 2 decades carefully, you'll see such is valid.

Merlin| 9.21.11 @ 11:46PM

Brooks, you're talking to yourself again.

Alan Brooks| 9.22.11 @ 1:25AM

Quite a change for me as I usually play with myself.

martin j smith| 9.21.11 @ 7:24AM

Oh I think Obama understands full well what he is doing and why--his goal to destroy this nation.
But be very careful here because it is not just Obama--it is the whole Socialist establishment with an assist from Liberal Republicans,RiINOS and even moderate Repubs as well.

Intelligent Design| 9.21.11 @ 7:48AM

The irony is that Obama and his fellow Demo-Socialists would not fit in the government of Communist China, since that country has opened its doors to entrepreneurs, innovation and capitalism. It has become a economic power house in inverse proportion to its ideological purity.

And actually, I think it is correct to say that Obama does not understand monetary policy, fiscal policy, economics, business, taxation, or foreign policy. He doesn't even understand what it takes to get re-elected. He is beyond failure. He is irrelevant.

Alan Brooks| 9.21.11 @ 8:09PM

"But be very careful here because it is not just Obama--it is the whole Socialist establishment with an assist from Liberal Republicans,RiINOS and even moderate Repubs as well."

That leaves very few.

Tom in Michigan| 9.22.11 @ 5:11PM

I usually skip your comments but; you're onto a very important point today ("Even a blind hog finds an acorn, once in a while." Take a joke. OK?).

Even the Reagan years were a mere speed bump in the road to the massive, schlerotic government of today.

I'm a conservative so, in my own personal "only Nixon could go to China" moment, I can say Bush did his own share of damage with his misbegotten "compassionate conservatism;" No Child Left Behind, prescription drug entitlement expansion and signing an asinine energy bill - just to name a few betrayals of the conservative principles (In other words, "acting like a Democrat" or at least lying with them and getting their fleas).

If all that stands between us and Armageddon is a bunch of RINO Republicans, the road to perdition may be slightly longer but, the inevitable destination of permanent national decline will be reached, nevertheless.

I don't buy your "cold war ending" thesis, though. The divisions of today are the direct result of the infiltration of the Democratic Party by vicious, Ameria-hating sixties throwbacks. Hatred and the "politics of personal destruction" are two of their favorite tools. Why do you think decent people like Joe Lieberman, Evan Bayh and Jim Webb are departing the scene? They know what their party has become - a haven for the very worst America has to offer, like Bill Ayers and his ilk - and want no part of it.

Kevin Compton| 9.21.11 @ 7:37AM

I seem to recall a story about Hillary Clinton where she made a killing in commodities in one afternoon of trading with no previous experience.

JFGalt| 9.21.11 @ 12:40PM

Anyone can do that given you have the right information. That takes knowing the right people. What she got was a disguised payoff. She did something that earned her information. That information was used to make her payoff seem legit. It's like when companies would pay off foreign dignitaries by giving their kids internships that did no actual work but were funded for lavish lifestyles of college educational scholarships even though they have awful grades in school.

thatsitivehadenough| 9.22.11 @ 5:59AM

A hot tip from her buddy GS no doubt.

R Martin| 9.21.11 @ 7:49AM

Perceptive and very well written. I suspect Solyndra is going to make Teapot Dome seem small.

What the public has not seen yet is a basic credit analysis of this company, the sort of thing every private sector company through when it applies for a bank loan. The analysis involves careful scrutiny of the applicant's assets and liabilities. How liquid are the assets, how current or long term are the liabilities? And, most important, where is the cash flow generated to service those liabilities, especially the new liability which is the subject of the loan in question. The cash flow analysis involves a careful look at the industry in which the company operates. The amount of equity in the company compared with the amount of debt is also considered. Any second year bank trainee can do this sort of analysis.

One hopes Rep. Issa's committee has done or is doing this work. It is highly likely that, even with the financial statements provided by Solyndra, the company will fall far short of meeting any reasonable credit standards. It is certainly possible that those financial statements do not fairly represent the financial condition of the company, due to fraud or poor auditing standards. Look for the Obama Administration to argue that it was misled about the financial strength of the company. What we really want to know is who made the government decision to guarantee Solyndra's debt and how that decision jibes with the facts about the company.

squalis| 9.21.11 @ 11:14AM

Whatever the results of the investigation, won't get reported unles some Republican, somewhere, can be tied to it. Still waiting for the NY Times front page above the fold story on Fast & Furious.

NYMPH| 9.21.11 @ 11:40AM

What I would be interested in knowing is where that $535 million went, how it was spent. Did any executives recieve huge salaries or bonuses? Golden parachute packages? Where did that money go in such a realatively short period of time. Inquirering minds want to know.......

Redstateboy| 9.21.11 @ 11:44AM

The CEO and CFO of Solyndra have both been advised by their respective attorneys to rely on their 5th Amendment rights - this was just reported yesterday.

John Daniel| 9.21.11 @ 8:05AM

The Narcissist-in-Chief never had to make a payroll. Clueless, utterly clueless, and as a good leftie wrapped in brilliance he will conclude that failure is simply because we haven't taken his ideas quite far enough.

oldfart| 9.21.11 @ 8:07AM

A recipe for disaster. Start with a base stock of Marx, Alinski, Keynesian Economics and Aires. For depth add Castro, Chavez and a little Pol Pot. For a good finish add megalomania. This is our current Pretender in Chief. While running for office he stated EXACTLY what he was going to do, no one listened to the content of the words. He is now doing EXACTLY what he stated. I can hardly wait for the pseudo rich who are over-leveraged to be in shock when they can't get to Starbucks for their overpriced coffee.

NYMPH| 9.21.11 @ 11:42AM

He has such a bad record of keeping his campaign promises. Just our luck that fundimentally changing America is the one that his is actually keeping.

martin j smith| 9.21.11 @ 8:08AM

Do not for one second believe that Hillary Clinton would be much better or different from Obama. They are cut from the same cloth, of the same party.

oldfart| 9.21.11 @ 8:18AM

True - but she knows when to cut a deal.

tsd| 9.21.11 @ 8:44AM

Every one of these scum say what you want to hear to get elected and then build on the socialist agenda of the past until they complete the change over. If we let them, in the end they will have what they want and we will hate it. Call it what you will, but stop and look around... so far they are winning. We are so happy when we stop them for a year or two, then we relax and they make the next push.

Lawrence of Lutz| 9.21.11 @ 8:49AM

Obama and his "Little Green Book" remind me of Chairman Mao and his "Little Red Book" and the iron foundries in the back yard. Remember how well that helped the Chinese people?

Von Mises Jr.| 9.21.11 @ 9:23AM

"Socialism" (www.mises.org) explodes the theories behind Marxism and other forms of statism. "One World" socialist government cannot calculate prices. "Material Productive Forces" is a big boys nursery rhyme.
"Socialism" is not about economics. it is about statist power.

Anthony| 9.21.11 @ 9:23AM

Wrong. The Aykrord character, while being a stuffed shirt and a pompus ass, was nonetheless a shrewd trader. " Hmmm, porkbellies... I knew it... I knew it".
He didn't just get rich because he was white and wore nice suits, he was there because he could do the job.
Which brings us to our affirmative action president, whom you may recall in one of his works of fiction written by Bill Ayers, was at a Wall St. firm during one of his summer internships. He was usually found with his feet up on his desk complaining that he had found himself "behind enemy territory".
Yes, this is what the Muslim Marxist thought of capitalism at an early stage, lessons learned on the knees ( or over) of Franklin Raines.
2012 can't come soon enough so we can teach little Barry a real life lesson.

PolishKnight| 9.21.11 @ 10:43AM

Thanks Anthony for coming to Akroyd's character's defense. It's worth noting that the story revolved around an insider trading scheme turned around. The left likes to believe that this is how the super rich got wealthy in addition to race and gender entitlements.

Ironically, they're partly right since this is secretly how they crave the system to work in their favor. That they'll know someone who knows Blagojovech or Obama and get a cushy director job at a government agency and kickback jobs for their relatives from grateful companies landing big money government contracts.

NYMPH| 9.21.11 @ 11:48AM

You mean like Michelle O's cushy, high-paid job at that hospital in Chicago where they have yet to fill the position over 3 years after she left? Kickback jobs like that?

Anthony| 9.21.11 @ 11:57AM

Quite right Polish Knight. Let's all stand and say it together: S O L Y N D R A !!!!

PolishKnight| 9.21.11 @ 2:51PM

I hope you're right, Anthony, and there's a smoking gun in Solyndra.

RefriedTomatoes| 9.21.11 @ 9:37AM

The characher Mr. Latern forgot to mention in "Trading Places" was played by Jamie Lee Curtis (Swoon!) who was working her way into a comfortable retirement through thrift and savings, one miserable "trick" at a time. These are the folks who are angry now, and the ones who will hopefully vote their checkbooks (or 401k's) at the polls in 2012.

Peter Yankov| 9.21.11 @ 10:12AM

Liberals exist with the mistaken belief economics is a zero sum game. They think there is this big gummint created pool of wealth that gets unevenly distributed by the evil market place and fairness is only achieved by gummnit doing the distributing. Only when more of us know this is false than those who belive that crap will we restore sanity to the marketplace and get the gummint out of meddling in our lives.

Seek| 9.21.11 @ 11:03AM

The movie actually was a clever variation on Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper."

TomB| 9.21.11 @ 1:06PM

Clemens' work was itself a retelling of Yonge's "The Little Duke", which was a variation on... and so on.

The dirty secret in fiction is that there are a limited number of basic stories and they've all been done before.

But the main point of the article, I believe, stems from the fact that there is a tendency to confuse wealth with the accoutrements of wealth. You can give a poor man a Rolex and a fine suit, but that will not make him wealthy. Only the ability to produce wealth makes one wealthy (in the worldly sense, let's not get philosophical), and that comes from dedication, work, and inventiveness. It does not come from having the wealth of someone else redistributed to you.

Bill| 9.21.11 @ 1:09PM

Literature is much less about the story than the way the story is told.

MacDaddy| 9.21.11 @ 1:22PM

Off topic, but Jamie Lee's topless scene in trading places is legendary....but I digress....

Dan| 9.21.11 @ 9:57AM

I don't believe Obama is clueless about the private sector. I do believe he is trying to ruin the economy so as to bring about a total government takeover and a Soros view of one world, with Soros minipulating pawns like Obama. Imagine what will happen if Obama gets re-elected in 2012.

mames| 9.21.11 @ 11:14AM

He knows exactly what he is doing right down to the outcomes of obama care which lead to true single payer socialism. He is evil not clueless.

LiveFreeOrDie| 9.21.11 @ 10:02AM

It's hard to consider the points in the article; I'm too distracted with this "Green Lantern" pen-name bologna. The Green Lantern? Really?

RefriedTomatoes| 9.21.11 @ 11:56AM

I don't know WHO the "Lantern" really is, but I enjoy every one of his insightful posts.

LiveFreeOrDie| 9.21.11 @ 12:15PM

I suppose, but why the anonymity?

Al Adab| 9.21.11 @ 1:39PM

Perhaps he works for the NYT or Wash Post and is afraid of being "outed".

martin j smith| 9.21.11 @ 10:11AM

The Clintons will cut deals for one reason: to remain in power. But, I would not be so quick to even assume this of Hillary. Do not assume.

hardcard| 9.21.11 @ 10:17AM

hedge fund + obama= soros

Thomas Wilbur| 9.21.11 @ 11:29AM

Harding died in 1923 a beloved figure - Fall was convicted in 1929 after years of hearings so Teapot Dome didn't "bring down" Harding's administration so much as forever discredit its memory, much to the advantage of the Democrats. What is astonishing about today's scandals are their sheer size and that corruption is virtually a DC institution rather than, in Fall's case, a one off crook.

RC| 9.21.11 @ 11:45AM

It helps to have inside information....which they had in Trading Places.

shipley130| 9.21.11 @ 2:03PM

How closely does Obama's growing class warfare resemble what happened with the communists in Russia?

Pecos Pete| 9.21.11 @ 2:05PM

If I had a budget of $4 trillion dollars me thinks a tiny bit of it would stick to my fingers. Or the fingers of my friends. Or the fingers of .....

Thom| 9.21.11 @ 2:54PM

King Obama might be "willfully clueless about the private sector" or economics in general but on balance that is irrelevant to people of his mind set and their central goal. Common to all forms of collectivisms is this guiding desire to "control" as much as possible around them. Getting control of the means of production and distribution is but one stepping stone in the Marxist model for humanity. Controlling the free flow of information, the education and care of children, the health care decisions of the masses not limited to the control of life and death decisions are all part of the same general trend to control the people around them by whatever means. Such people may be every bit as ignorant, incompetent, or stupid, etc about the free enterprise system and how it works but such knowledge is counter to their goals at every level.

Between the narratives that King Obama and his merry band of Robin Hoods are clueless or inexperienced and the one that says this is deliberate destruction, the weight of evidence is trending (has been for some time in fact) toward the latter based on two simple observable facts. The first is simple statistical probability. This far into King Obama's administration even Forrest Gump, a certified Moron (a condition of birth not choice) could have gotten some things right by now. It takes real skill to get everything wrong economically over 2.5 years. The second and more damning is the observed fact that all that King Obama has tried to date has been tried before in many places including the Great Depression and by Nixon to a lesser extent and has failed everywhere it has been tried. You don't have to quote Einstein to understand that doing the same failed policies is insanity or deliberate.

A man that says one thing in public and 9 out of 10 times does the opposite as policy, seeks to make himself the center of every crisis real or imagined and accepts no responsibility for his own failures is either a considerable con artist or the greatest example of a Trojan Horse in political terms the world has ever seen. Clearly King Obama is the greatest gift to the Republican Party in history which begs the obvious question of what exactly did Collin Powel mean when he said King Obama would be transformational? By the standards of Marx, the current King has certainly put every Marxist tenet on display for all to see in the light of day. How could Liberals/Progressives/Communists not be happy with the King's performance? He has put to paper or into rhetoric every major sound bite those movements have put forth for 100 years of failure throughout the world. What is not to like here? You have a century of Marx's failure all rolled up into one in your face arrogant, condescending narcissistic package.

Even the Joker would smile and understand.

no name| 9.21.11 @ 3:50PM

This is exactly why the founding fathers ia all their wisdom, (yet not fully grasped today) said that the president must be born in this country. Another example: Say a alien comes to earth, one that has been educated in...Ohh say Harvurd. Exactly what kind of President would he make? Could you vote for him? Maybe, but not me. I remember when Arnold S. was elected Governor of California, there was talk of him being President, about how the law needed to be changed to accommodate such a election. NOT NO MORE THANK YOU! Seems Californians have come to their senses about that. Though not much else. This President may have well been born in, ohh lets say Kenya than in America. His actions prove it.

cicero| 9.21.11 @ 3:52PM

And yet the entire Democrat Party follows in locksstep, and defends all of his actions. The Republican PArty actually treats all of this seriously, as though they have to give thoughtful consideration to real policy proposals.
The Republicans should be horselaughing the other side of the isle into fits of tears. They should be pointing out the obvious to the electorate, and pointing out that this side show is more rediculous than a Three Stooges comedy. Maybe then, the voting public would realize that it may be more profitable, and entertaining, to actually pay atention to what is going on in Washington, rather than spend endless hours watching sports and circuses. Maybe then their votes will be actually informed.

William| 9.21.11 @ 4:12PM

You write very interesting articles and I agree with much of what you say. It's unfortunate you do not use your own name; the articles would be more credible.

albert constantine jr| 9.21.11 @ 9:08PM

I agree, William, if that is your real name.

William| 9.22.11 @ 1:07PM

It is my real name. And I don't write opinion blogs.

Marc Jeric| 9.21.11 @ 6:31PM

No mystery here - Mulah Obama thinks he is the 12th Immam; you remember whe he said "Tomorrow the oceans will stop rising and the planet will start healing" - referring to the globaloney warming hoax.

no hussein 2012| 9.21.11 @ 7:09PM

eddie murphy, the hussein= gamer bros.

POST American| 9.22.11 @ 12:08AM

--------------------BOTTOM LINE----------------------

--'90's Show' provincial furniture ---to furnish
your Prozak, meds and GMO addled mind.

It'd be nice if you could talk about it,
but your Freemason subverted churches
will have none of it. IN FACT they're probably
also participating in 'Clergy Response'
--the federal spy network.

MEANWHILE

---the greatest world nuclear disaster of all time,
and budding 'on cue' Rockefeller DEPOP OP(?), goes
into its 7th month of Globalist media cover-up.

SO, don't sit in front of your PC!

---Leave that, and your surveillance and tracking
device cellphone at home.

Get out there, under those CHEM-trailed,
HAARP enabling skies and get a good deep
whiff of that FUKISHIMA fallout.

---------Everything's just ----DANDY!

Sigurth| 9.22.11 @ 3:25PM

Did you actually see the movie? Because your piece is so factually incorrect about what occurred in the movie and what is supposed moral is, I can't see how you could have.

Neither of them worked as floor traders. Nor did they make their money at the end by being paid as floor traders. They made their money risking it in the market, albeit illegally with insider information. It was the intellect or intuition that both men possessed that made them successful when they were employed by Duke and Duke.

POST American| 9.23.11 @ 3:25AM

---Thanks for the '80's Show'!

NOW, back to the Agenda 21 'friendly'.
HAARP-esque, FUKISHIMA world nuclear
disaster that's going into its 7 month of
saturating the northern hemipshere with
fallout.

---And ALLLL this on top of the
HAARP enabling CHEM-trails, and Monsanto's
organ destroying, cancer inducing, sterilant
GMO food. And to the side, the batteries
of Gates Foundation sponsored, RED China
manufactured, dead infant flesh sourced
----'wonder vaccines'.

--Keep a goin'

-----Keep a goin'

------Oprah n' O'Reilly are watchin' out for ya'

---------Just keep a goin'...