America’s Accountability Problem

 

Does America have an accountability problem? In the Great Crash of ’08, we saw that a major cause was that those who originated all those bad loans got their fees upfront and left others holding the bag. As stocks crashed we saw a lot of golden parachutes opening for those at the top who made really bad decisions for a long time while their shareholders and employees took the hit. Has anything changed?

Insulation from accountability is a real measure of power. The near-criminal lack of quality of public schools is vastly more damaging to black lives than “systemic racism” (whatever that is) but somehow all those administrators, contractors, and teachers are immune from consequences. Nor have alumni and donors have drummed out the gutless deans and admins who have allowed top universities to turn into bad imitations of Red Guards summer camps.

Hillary Clinton is unindicted.

The left is doing a fantastic job of making corporate America “accountable” to its agenda though it seems to me like a large-scale bluff. For example, when FedEx said it would take the name off of the Redskins home stadium unless the team name was changed, I wondered how many Antifa/BLM types use FedEx? Are there any native American FedEx customers who actually care about the issue? Will thousands of businesses send staff to stand in line at the Post Office for their time-sensitive business just because the Redskins play in FedEx Field?

[NOTE: As a conservative, I am by nature a slow learner in the politics of boycotts but I now do not permit Anheuser-Busch products in my house as the first step in severing personal ties with the major sponsors of professional sports. I have always avoided Nike stuff anyway but the boycott list is building.]

In the annals of zero accountability, consider John Holmgren, the former White House science advisor. He was part of the Paul Ehrlich Population Bomb circle that made spectacularly wrong predictions. Naturally, Holmgren latched onto the direst versions of the impending climate crisis and, like Ehrlich, despite a long history of silly doomsday predictions, he is still employable and taken seriously by many. How many useless doomsayers are still accorded respect?

Most surprising to see still active despite being one of the world’s worst prognosticators is Neill Ferguson of the Imperial College UK. His model of COVID was spectacularly wrong (2 million dead in the US?!) as was his earlier work on Mad Cow disease and Bird Flu. Not content with the sheer embarrassment of his initial COVID model, two months ago he and his crack team of graph-spewing fear-mongers produced predictions of what would happen if US states ceased their lockdowns. Those death figures were wrong by magnitudes.

Maybe worst of all, the news media no longer even pretends to hold themselves to any standards. In 2018, the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting went jointly to a bunch of reporters at the Washington Post and New York Times for uncritically running with whatever was handed to them by Obama officials, the FBI conspirators, and the Mueller Hit squad. Here is the language describing the award:

For deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage in the public interest that dramatically furthered the nation’s understanding of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and its connections to the Trump campaign, the President-elect’s transition team and his eventual administration.

“Deeply Sourced”? Yeah, with whatever materials the perpetrators chose to pass on or pretended existed. The award winners collectively did not have a single doubt or question, nor tried to probe into the veracity, motivations, facts, or legality of those leaks. The biggest story of the decade was about abuse of power and the 2018 Pultizer prize winners not only missed it, they were pawns of the abusers. It was almost like Al Capone’s personal press agent getting a non-fiction Pulitzer. And nobody will get fired for this disgrace.

The quote falsely attributed to Voltaire that “To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize” needs a corollary that the measure of power is how badly can one screw up and even do harm without the slightest fear of adverse consequences.

Published in General
This post was promoted to the Main Feed by a Ricochet Editor at the recommendation of Ricochet members. Like this post? Want to comment? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

There are 25 comments.

Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.
  1. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    After reading all that joy, excuse me while I go suck on a tailpipe.

    • #1
  2. Ray Gunner Coolidge
    Ray Gunner
    @RayGunner

    Old Bathos: Does America have an accountability problem?

    It does.  I think of the problem this way:  (1) only a small sub-class of Americans (“elites” or “the connected,” if you will) have the cultural muscle to demand accountability from anyone, and (2) when they do demand accountability, they do so in perfectly self-serving ways.

    So to use your example OB, the NYT and corrupt federal careerists (elites all) have the muscle to demand accountability from Trump and his supporters (non-elite enemies), and the Pulitzer Prize committee (elite) can choose not demand accountability from the NYT (elite allies). 

    I think America’s elites viewed DJT unexpected election as portending the inversion of the who-gets-to-hold-whom-accountable dynamic (“You are fake news!”), which in my view is the heart of all of their unhinged panic these past three+ years. 

    • #2
  3. DonG (skeptic) Coolidge
    DonG (skeptic)
    @DonG

    That’s how we got Trump.  When the GOP and DNC gave up on accountability, the human wrecking ball was chosen.

    • #3
  4. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    We’ve all known that, especially on subjects that are remotely related to politics, people get away with murder. Nowadays, they literally get away with murder (just look at the kids who’ve been killed by rioters). I expect that over the next few years, the word “accountability” will be labeled as “archaic” in the dictionary: people will simply stop using it.

    The reality breaks my heart. One of my strongest values is accountability, because it is so closely related to integrity and honesty. I think those virtues are dying as well.

    • #4
  5. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    We’ve all known that, especially on subjects that are remotely related to politics, people get away with murder. Nowadays, they literally get away with murder (just look at the kids who’ve been killed by rioters). I expect that over the next few years, the word “accountability” will be labeled as “archaic” in the dictionary: people will simply stop using it.

    The reality breaks my heart. One of my strongest values is accountability, because it is so closely related to integrity and honesty. I think those virtues are dying as well.

    I would actually love to see a poll of people in the New York City area, asking:

    — How long they’ve lived in the area;

    — Do they think the city is better now under Bill de Blasio than it was under Michael Bloomberg;

    — Do they think the city is better now under Bill de Blasio than it was under Rudy Guiliani;

    I’m pretty sure the answer would come back ‘no’ on the first question, no matter how long people had lived in the city. But I wouldn’t be at all shocked to find people under 40 or so, or people who only have lived in the NYC area for 15 or fewer years think de Blasio is a better mayor than Rudy, because Giualini is so tied to Donald Trump.

    Kim Gardner’s huge re-election win in St. Louis on Tuesday is similar, in that despite what’s happened in 2020, I don’t think we’re anywhere near the early 1990s yet, when even enough liberals were fed up with liberal governance to look past political labels and elect people who would actually fix the urban problems. The current polarization has urban progressives thinking, at best, if we toss progressive Democrat A and replace them with progressive Democrat B, they will be the one who turns the city into Shanga-La.

    The question then is how long does it take before the quality-of-life drop reaches intolerable levels — it took a quarter-century to spark the mid-1990s turnaround.

     

    • #5
  6. David Foster Member
    David Foster
    @DavidFoster

    Out of all the companies that pressured the Redskins to change their name…how many have announced plans to put a factory, a warehouse, or a customer service facility on a reservation where jobs are badly needed?

     

    • #6
  7. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    Old Bathos:

    Hillary Clinton is unindicted.

    I notice the New York authorities are going after NRA executives for who knows what all related to expenditures said to be for personal expenses. Who are they trying to punish?  I wonder if they will take a similar look at the Clinton Foundation?

    • #7
  8. Steve C. Member
    Steve C.
    @user_531302

    David Frye summed it up best, channeling Richard Nixon,

    “I take full responsibility. But not the blame. Let me explain the difference. People who are to blame, go to jail. People who are responsible, do not.”

    • #8
  9. CarolJoy, Above Top Secret Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret
    @CarolJoy

    Not only is Hillary Clinton non-indicted, but she and Bill are behind the Contact Tracing program that the Clinton Foundation has been promoting since at least the end of March.

    So the duo of malfeasance will be getting even richer, at tax payer expense.

    Bill has stated the Contact Tracing program is to be the largest most ambitious public health program in the history of America. BIll Gates and Zuckerberg stand committed to it as well.

    I doubt by mid-September I will have a single hair on my head left – I have been pulling on them so hard.

    • #9
  10. CarolJoy, Above Top Secret Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret
    @CarolJoy

    David Foster (View Comment):

    Out of all the companies that pressured the Redskins to change their name…how many have announced plans to put a factory, a warehouse, or a customer service facility on a reservation where jobs are badly needed?

     

    For that matter, the ultra wealthy football players themselves could form an alliance and accomplish the same thing. But bending the knee is a painless way to signal virtue – why bother doing more than that, especially since doing more would most likely garner far less attention.

    • #10
  11. MiMac Thatcher
    MiMac
    @MiMac

    We’ve gone from “the buck stops here“  to “The buck never got here”

    • #11
  12. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    For deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage in the public interest

    For deeply a Deep State sourced, relentlessly reported in relentless disinformation campaign highly damaging to the public interest

    • #12
  13. Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… Member
    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio…
    @ArizonaPatriot

    OB, I dislike your opening. Do you have any empirical evidence that executives who supposedly made the bad decisions that caused the 2008 financial crisis somehow evaded responsibility? Who were these supposed miscreants? What golden parachutes did they enjoy?

    It is quite unfair to lump together all financial execs as responsible for the crash. My recollection is that one company, AIG, was responsible for the bulk of the problem. Do you know of any AIG execs who did well?

    Top execs are usually compensated with options, which lose all their value when the stock price tanks.  It’s usually worse for option holders than shareholders.

    I can’t link the chart from my phone, but AIG stock was around 1200 in mid-2007. It was essentially valueless – under 20, a decline of over 98%, by early 2009. The bailout did not help – even today, it’s at only 29.

    • #13
  14. Jason Obermeyer Member
    Jason Obermeyer
    @JasonObermeyer

    I’ve said for a while that we live in a post-results society. What matters is credentials and longevity rather than a demonstrated ability to accomplish anything even some of the time. The next time I hear that X must know he’s doing because he’s been head of Y for Z years, I might punch someone. 

    • #14
  15. Jason Obermeyer Member
    Jason Obermeyer
    @JasonObermeyer

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    OB, I dislike your opening. Do you have any empirical evidence that executives who supposedly made the bad decisions that caused the 2008 financial crisis somehow evaded responsibility? Who were these supposed miscreants? What golden parachutes did they enjoy?

    It is quite unfair to lump together all financial execs as responsible for the crash. My recollection is that one company, AIG, was responsible for the bulk of the problem. Do you know of any AIG execs who did well?

    Top execs are usually compensated with options, which lose all their value when the stock price tanks. It’s usually worse for option holders than shareholders.

    I can’t link the chart from my phone, but AIG stock was around 1200 in mid-2007. It was essentially valueless – under 20, a decline of over 98%, by early 2009. The bailout did not help – even today, it’s at only 29.

    I’ll have to review, but I think when people complain that companies took the bailout funds to pay themselves bonus, they are mostly talking about AIG. 

    • #15
  16. Jason Obermeyer Member
    Jason Obermeyer
    @JasonObermeyer

    Jason Obermeyer (View Comment):

    I’ve said for a while that we live in a post-results society. What matters is credentials and longevity rather than a demonstrated ability to accomplish anything even some of the time. The next time I hear that X must know he’s doing because he’s been head of Y for Z years, I might punch someone.

    That said, if the government is going to cover my losses through tax credits or stimulus payments, I guess I don’t have an incentive to care about results either. 

    • #16
  17. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    OB, I dislike your opening. Do you have any empirical evidence that executives who supposedly made the bad decisions that caused the 2008 financial crisis somehow evaded responsibility? Who were these supposed miscreants? What golden parachutes did they enjoy?

    It is quite unfair to lump together all financial execs as responsible for the crash. My recollection is that one company, AIG, was responsible for the bulk of the problem. Do you know of any AIG execs who did well?

    Top execs are usually compensated with options, which lose all their value when the stock price tanks. It’s usually worse for option holders than shareholders.

    I can’t link the chart from my phone, but AIG stock was around 1200 in mid-2007. It was essentially valueless – under 20, a decline of over 98%, by early 2009. The bailout did not help – even today, it’s at only 29.

    I conflated long-standing grievance about CEO compensation that is risk-immune with accounts of friends in the lending industries who reported that at a certain level exiting execs got to take value. Everybody else just lost it all.  I have no reservations about achievement being compensated at whatever the market for managers is willing to pay. But when mediocrity, venality and greed get paid the same rate, it is just ammo for the anti-capitalists.

    I once sent a letter to GM applying for the CEO position. I said that as long as they were clearly content to have someone run the company into the ground, I would be happy to do it for a flat $500k instead of the millions they were shelling out for the incumbent.

    • #17
  18. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Old Bathos (View Comment):
    I once sent a letter to GM applying for the CEO position. I said that as long as they were clearly content to have someone run the company into the ground, I would be happy to do it for a flat $500k instead of the millions they were shelling out for the incumbent.

    Which incumbent?

    • #18
  19. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Old Bathos (View Comment):
    I once sent a letter to GM applying for the CEO position. I said that as long as they were clearly content to have someone run the company into the ground, I would be happy to do it for a flat $500k instead of the millions they were shelling out for the incumbent.

    Which incumbent?

    I would rather not say in case my application is still under consideration. 

    • #19
  20. Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… Member
    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio…
    @ArizonaPatriot

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    OB, I dislike your opening. Do you have any empirical evidence that executives who supposedly made the bad decisions that caused the 2008 financial crisis somehow evaded responsibility? Who were these supposed miscreants? What golden parachutes did they enjoy?

    It is quite unfair to lump together all financial execs as responsible for the crash. My recollection is that one company, AIG, was responsible for the bulk of the problem. Do you know of any AIG execs who did well?

    Top execs are usually compensated with options, which lose all their value when the stock price tanks. It’s usually worse for option holders than shareholders.

    I can’t link the chart from my phone, but AIG stock was around 1200 in mid-2007. It was essentially valueless – under 20, a decline of over 98%, by early 2009. The bailout did not help – even today, it’s at only 29.

    I conflated long-standing grievance about CEO compensation that is risk-immune with accounts of friends in the lending industries who reported that at a certain level exiting execs got to take value. Everybody else just lost it all. I have no reservations about achievement being compensated at whatever the market for managers is willing to pay. But when mediocrity, venality and greed get paid the same rate, it is just ammo for the anti-capitalists.

    I once sent a letter to GM applying for the CEO position. I said that as long as they were clearly content to have someone run the company into the ground, I would be happy to do it for a flat $500k instead of the millions they were shelling out for the incumbent.

    As I noted, top execs are usually compensated with options, though this is not typically all of their compensation.  This is a good idea, as it ties the execs’ wealth to the continued maintenance and growth of the stock price.  It can present problems if the options are not spread out over time, but I would expect a decent compensation package to account for this by granting options that can be exercised at different times in the future.

    I doubt that you are qualified to be CEO of GM.  I know that I am not.

    • #20
  21. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    OB, I dislike your opening. Do you have any empirical evidence that executives who supposedly made the bad decisions that caused the 2008 financial crisis somehow evaded responsibility? Who were these supposed miscreants? What golden parachutes did they enjoy?

    It is quite unfair to lump together all financial execs as responsible for the crash. My recollection is that one company, AIG, was responsible for the bulk of the problem. Do you know of any AIG execs who did well?

    Top execs are usually compensated with options, which lose all their value when the stock price tanks. It’s usually worse for option holders than shareholders.

    I can’t link the chart from my phone, but AIG stock was around 1200 in mid-2007. It was essentially valueless – under 20, a decline of over 98%, by early 2009. The bailout did not help – even today, it’s at only 29.

    I conflated long-standing grievance about CEO compensation that is risk-immune with accounts of friends in the lending industries who reported that at a certain level exiting execs got to take value. Everybody else just lost it all. I have no reservations about achievement being compensated at whatever the market for managers is willing to pay. But when mediocrity, venality and greed get paid the same rate, it is just ammo for the anti-capitalists.

    I once sent a letter to GM applying for the CEO position. I said that as long as they were clearly content to have someone run the company into the ground, I would be happy to do it for a flat $500k instead of the millions they were shelling out for the incumbent.

    As I noted, top execs are usually compensated with options, though this is not typically all of their compensation. This is a good idea, as it ties the execs’ wealth to the continued maintenance and growth of the stock price. It can present problems if the options are not spread out over time, but I would expect a decent compensation package to account for this by granting options that can be exercised at different times in the future.

    I doubt that you are qualified to be CEO of GM. I know that I am not.

    I don’t disagree except that fixed time stock price targets can drive intensely short-term thinking.  I recognize that it is tough to fashion better criteria but encouraging CEOs to shed jobs etc just to goose the balance sheet in time for the bonus calculations was always a suspect incentive policy in my mind.

    I used to do legal and lobbying work for automotive aftermarket associations which qualifies me as an observer and a critic though certainly not a CEO unless someone was needed to simply continue the drift.

    GM never did engage the needed battle to reduce platforms, automate, and cut a very bloated labor force whose size and cost were not remotely consonant with market share realities. 

    Compare the way the IG Metal union negotiated with VW in their crisis period–acceptance of massive workforce reductions and huge increases in factory automation in exchange for a controlling say on the company management team going forward.  The company and the union were practical –VW would have either needed to move manufacturing out of Germany to its cheaper labor sites or go under–and the company and the union essentially united in a long-term plan to save the firm and jobs.  It has worked. It was realistic, fair, and sane. 

    GM kept that stupid reserve force (show up and play pinochle in the break room for 8 hours) for years.  I have Michigan friends who resented UAW guys on the golf course who retired (very) early with a pension larger than their working salary, guys from the UAW generation that literally drove the company under and thus reduced opportunity for the next generation.  The go-along, get-along bureaucratic mindset within GM management (DeLorean’s book among others captured that well) kicked the can down the road.  The corrupt Obama rescue deal imposed on US taxpayers and GM bondholders did not include serious reform of GM. It was a travesty.

    I used to have to work in coalitions with automaker lobbyists.  They (a) expected everybody to defer to them even when their approach to a pending bill was patently stupid and (b) it was very clear that they were actively discouraged from sending bad news back up the chain of command.  GM’s cultural problem has cost us billions.

    • #21
  22. Sisyphus Member
    Sisyphus
    @Sisyphus

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    We’ve all known that, especially on subjects that are remotely related to politics, people get away with murder. Nowadays, they literally get away with murder (just look at the kids who’ve been killed by rioters). I expect that over the next few years, the word “accountability” will be labeled as “archaic” in the dictionary: people will simply stop using it.

    The reality breaks my heart. One of my strongest values is accountability, because it is so closely related to integrity and honesty. I think those virtues are dying as well.

    New normal.

    (Forgive me Father for I have sinned…)

    • #22
  23. CACrabtree Coolidge
    CACrabtree
    @CACrabtree

    Why defend when you can deflect?

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/susan-rice-republican-harping-benghazi

    Four dead Americans?  So What?  That’s ancient history.  I’m a black woman on the short list for VP.

    This is what passes for accountability these days.  The Democrats (with the aid of a pliable MSM) have become masters of the “so’s your mother” version of “owning up” to major disasters.

    Actually, Rice probably learned this from the “Master Deflector” Eric Holder.  “Fast and Furious”?  More ancient history.  Never mind that lives were lost.  That was just collateral damage.

    It’s not that Republicans don’t try to do this; it’s just that Democrats have become so d*mn good at it…

     

    • #23
  24. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    CACrabtree (View Comment):
    It’s not that Republicans don’t try to do this; it’s just that Democrats have become so d*mn good at it…

    And that theress are mainly an extension of the Democrat Party and they aide and abet.

    • #24
  25. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    CACrabtree (View Comment):

    Why defend when you can deflect?

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/susan-rice-republican-harping-benghazi

    Four dead Americans? So What? That’s ancient history. I’m a black woman on the short list for VP.

    This is what passes for accountability these days. The Democrats (with the aid of a pliable MSM) have become masters of the “so’s your mother” version of “owning up” to major disasters.

    Actually, Rice probably learned this from the “Master Deflector” Eric Holder. “Fast and Furious”? More ancient history. Never mind that lives were lost. That was just collateral damage.

    It’s not that Republicans don’t try to do this; it’s just that Democrats have become so d*mn good at it…

    But if you are the party of Progress and The Future how can you be held accountable for the past?  

    • #25
Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.