Krugman on the panic of the plutocrats — "The real extremists are America’s oligarchs"

Krugman is letting the .01%-ers and their minions have both barrels. Plutocrats, he calls them; oligarchs. Nice.

(By the way, we need American words for these people, and 21st century ones as well. "Our Betters"? "New Barons"? I try, but these just don't sound rapacious enough. Maybe "the Beast who wants only Money" will work. Your thoughts always appreciated.)

The Professor starts by noting the panic of the Beast and its paid retainers (he's looking at you, George Will). Krugman (my emphasis everywhere):

[T]he [Occupy Wall Street] protests have already elicited a remarkably hysterical reaction from Wall Street, the super-rich in general, and politicians and pundits who reliably serve the interests of the wealthiest hundredth of a percent.

Then after numerous examples (here's where George Will comes in) he asks, "What's going on here?"

The answer, surely, is that Wall Street’s Masters of the Universe realize, deep down, how morally indefensible their position is. They’re not John Galt; they’re not even Steve Jobs. They’re people who got rich by peddling complex financial schemes that, far from delivering clear benefits to the American people, helped push us into a crisis whose aftereffects continue to blight the lives of tens of millions of their fellow citizens.

Yet they have paid no price. Their institutions were bailed out by taxpayers, with few strings attached. They continue to benefit from explicit and implicit federal guarantees — basically, they’re still in a game of heads they win, tails taxpayers lose. And they benefit from tax loopholes that in many cases have people with multimillion-dollar incomes paying lower rates than middle-class families.

There's a nice middle section in which he details the various rightwing twists on their outrage. My favorite is Rand Paul's worry about the protester's war on the iPads of the wealthy (as if), but read the whole thing to see the full menagerie. Hitler's invasion of Poland? Really?

His close:

So who’s really being un-American here? Not the protesters, who are simply trying to get their voices heard. No, the real extremists here are America’s oligarchs[.]

Nothing you don't know, of course, but words we're glad to see in his precious column inches. Thanks to him for adding his voice.

Now if he would just figure out that many in his own profession are paid retainers as well, he'd be all the way there.

GP