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1/ As a CEO who might get a corporate bailout, I say stop the f**cking bailouts. Is it fair that: I win = I keep my money. I lose = you give me yours? Saving the economy is not the same as saving millionaires and billionaires.
2/ People who say that businesses "don't deserve to get wiped out" or "could never have foreseen the pandemic" miss the point. Capitalism is about rewarding RISK. Taking risk means that sometimes you get a bad beat. Capitalism without risk is not capitalism - it is kleptocracy.
3/ Example: Airlines took a risk by using 96% of free cash flow for buybacks. Fine. Good for them. But the social contract has to work both ways. Want a bailout? Fine - we need airlines flying - but [rich investor] gets wiped out. Taking the gains means owning the losses.
4/ But since 2008 we don't do that anymore. Our supposedly temporary QE was a lie - the Fed capitulated at the market's first sneeze in 2018 - and instead we got corporate tax cuts and record high deficits. And the bubble kept growing
5/ COVID-19 has accelerated a bill long overdue. And now that it has come, instead of the invisible hand silently guiding an efficient market, it holds us hostage. "Bail me out or I crash the world."
6/ And bailout we do...massive stimulus to corporate giants and the Fed stealing from the middle class to give to the rich - Junk bonds (or should I say "fallen angels"), ETFs, and probably stocks next. Asset prices saved; status quo unchanged
7/ This is not a partisan issue. Republicans are now believers in trillion dollar deficits and the largest welfare programs in history (for corporations). Democrats are proponents of the trickle down economics they have spent decades trying to debunk
8/ The cynic in me says the lesson learned is already clear: don't save - your prudence will go to supporting your reckless contemporaries. Don't innovate - the real money is in financialization and leverage. Uncle Sam doesn't let its buddies lose!
9/ And here I am...lining up at the trough. As a CEO, I have a duty to my shareholders to take the money the government will legally give me. But as a citizen, I'm saying why the hell are you worried about people like me? Give the money to the people who really need it
10/ I'll take one for the team if it makes the world a better place. Collateral damage is inevitable. But if we can't tolerate any short-term pain, the future is clear. The system stays rigged, the rich get richer, and we get more populists like @SenSanders and @realDonaldTrump
