Obama, Robin Hood, Little Bernanke, and the Republican Sheriff of Washington.

November 21, 2010

This is my favorite bedtime story.

Cue the main characters,

Robin Hood was really a brilliant economist who engaged in short term wealth redistribution strategies when unemployment swept the landscape and the costs of the Wall Street (subprime) wars threatened to ruin the economy. Little John (alias Big Ben Bernanke) was the Fed chief, Robin’s hit man, who as the precursor to the underrated enforcer type will always be saddled with the “lack of good timing”, and “enough is enough” bias. The Sheriff of Washington is the villain of the piece who plays a pivotal role in securing the assets of the rich and protecting the status quo.

The main point of the plot is wealth redistribution.[1] The top 20% of households pull in close to 50% of the Aggregate Income. Robin and his band of merry Democrats can’t butcher the wagon trains and spread money willy nilly throughout the countryside. The disadvantage of this extreme, (while reducing red tape), is that the poor folk lack incentive to keep working and the working folk lack incentive to keep working. Thankfully, a lot of bloodshed is averted by having a progressive tax system. The beauty is that the wagon-trains get hit even before the money gets comfortable in the coffers of the wealthy.

Cue Isaac Newton and the apple.[2] The simple truth is that the rules for keeping a bounded system in equilibrium (static) does not apply to a system in motion (dynamic). This is a perfect segway into the subplot. How can the sinister Sheriff convince the world that gravity works both ways and that “trickle down” economics really works.

The truth is that it doesn’t. The sucking sound you hear is the sound of wealth being continually transferred from the lowest 60 percentile to the top 5 percent of households. Through good times and bad (shown in red)[3], the spigot keeps flowing.

Cue the Happy Ending….. are you insane??? There is neither a happy ending nor a soft landing… that is unless you’re part and parcel of the “Top 5%”. Robin and Ben never get the gravity reversing “economic” plot right, (read as unemployed people have no patience) , the Sheriff wins (and in spectacular fashion binds one of Big Ben’s arms), and the people go back to dreaming of venison, while munching on Mickey Dees fries, with tea.