The Latest from the Prospect
 â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â
View this email in your browser
<[link removed]>
Â
JULY 20, 2023
Meyerson on TAP
The Self-Serving Derangement of the Rich
Why Elon Musk can't handle the truth
Earlier this month, Paul Krugman called out
<[link removed]>
Elon Musk for his allegations that the government was cooking the books
on unemployment and inflation. Unemployment near an all-time low?
Surely, the Bureau of Labor Statistics was lying to boost President
Biden's re-election prospects, Musk alleged.
Whence this conspiracy-minded paranoia in Muskville, Krugman wondered.
Why can't our economic overlords handle the truth?
In fact, there's a distinguished pedigree of CEOs denying reality when
it doesn't conform to their political predilections. During President
Obama's second term, none other than Jack Welch, retired General
Electric CEO and the model CEO (so said his fellow CEOs) of the 1980s
and '90s, said he thought BLS was fabricating a lower unemployment
rate than actually existed.
Herewith, then, a theory on the roots of this particular CEO resistance
to reality. What Welch and Musk have particularly in common is their
record of record firings. Within a couple of years at the helm of GE,
Welch had discharged more than 100,000 of the venerable company's
employees, and gleefully publicized that downsizing as part of his plan
to boost profits. For his part, Musk has all but dismantled Twitter and
sacked thousands of its workers, which was notable even in the midst of
a wave of tech-sector firings, chiefly because Twitter's functionality
declined in tandem with its discharges.
If they've fired so many workers, how can the broader economy be
prospering? And worse yet, prospering under Democratic administrations
that promote such nonsense as unionization, higher wages, and even
higher taxes on the rich? In a properly ordered universe, that's an
impossibility that requires fudging the numbers to paint a picture of
low unemployment.
Musk is not alone in his susceptibility to conspiracy theories that
purportedly unlock mysteries. A number of his fellow tech magnates are
backing the presidential campaign of Robert Kennedy Jr., purveyor of
venerable antisemitic and anti-science hate tropes. As
**The**
**Wall Street Journal** has reported
<[link removed]>,
such tech titans as Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and PayPal co-founder
David Sachs have raised funds for Kennedy, and Musk has hosted
him-famously or infamously, take your pick-on a Twitter discussion.
It should come as no surprise that any number of America's wealthiest
businessmen have worldviews that combine greed with deranged paranoia.
Henry Ford-Musk's great antecedent-was the nation's foremost
antisemite back in the day, so much so that he was regarded with
reverence by Adolf Hitler. Musk still has a way to go to reach such a
Fordian peak, but he's an industrious fellow and I wouldn't rule it
out.
~ HAROLD MEYERSON
Follow Harold Meyerson on Twitter <[link removed]>
[link removed]
Unions Are Trying to Save Hollywood From Its Own Foolish Executives
<[link removed]>
Left to their own devices, the CEOs will ruin the American film and TV
industry. BY RYAN COOPER
Investment Industry Donors Bankroll Sinema in Q2
<[link removed]>
Donors at Blackstone, the Carlyle Group, and other investment firms have
given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Sinema's leadership PAC,
which has been spending on upscale events and private flights. BY DAVID
MOORE
Power and Progressivism
<[link removed]>
Ezra Klein and David Dayen debate obstacles to progressive gains. (I
think Dayen wins, but judge for yourself.) BY ROBERT KUTTNER
[link removed]
Â
To receive this newsletter directly in your inbox, click here to
subscribe. <[link removed]>
Click to Share this Newsletter
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
YOUR TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION SUPPORTS INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM
<[link removed]>
The American Prospect, Inc.
1225 I Street NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC xxxxxx
United States
Copyright (c) 2023 The American Prospect. All rights reserved.
To opt out of American Prospect membership messaging, click here
<[link removed]>.
To manage your newsletter preferences, click here
<[link removed]>.
To unsubscribe from all American Prospect emails, including newsletters,
click here
<[link removed]>.
