Really really fat cats
Really, really fat cats
A dizzying look at the diets of the top earners
There’s a silver lining around the dark recession clouds. See, some people don’t have it all that bad. They are cashing in millions, or even billions while the rest are left to suffer. How about a pay rise of 23% for the top 200 US managers, in a year where the median worker got a meager 1,5% rise (adjusted for inflation this amounts to a pay cut)? That year was 2010. How about the 400 wealthier individuals, the Buffets and the Gates and the Kochs, making an extra 8% on top of their vast wealth while 20 million Americans are out of work and many more would agree to anything, as long as they can keep their jobs? That year was again 2010. Meanwhile, as the debt crisis in the European periphery approaches boiling point, the vultures are circling over the continent, angling to grab the juiciest parts of the south’s economies, leaving the rest to rot under the mediterannean sun. There are real losses to be suffered when the fiscal reality of the European periphery is finally acknowledged. The rich, the banks, the financial markets are trying to make sure that they are not the ones to suffer theses losses. That they ll come out of this crisis even wealthier, even more successful, even fatter…