Cutting The Bull

People like to talk about the military-industrial complex or the credit-industrial complex. Some are now talking about a health-industrial complex. In my view, the most insidious of all is the government-industrial complex.

In 2000, then-Governor George W. Bush touted his experience as a businessmen. Today, Mitt Romney is also promising that his no-nonsense business acumen is what the country needs to “fix” Washington DC. The circle is complete, that it’s old and played out.

Businessman enters politics via the candidacy or contributor route. Politican gets elected and appoints his contributors and supporters to key governmental or advisory positions. Politician leaves office with a plush gig to make up for the years of meager earnings. And so it is that former Prime Minister Tony Blair becomes only the most recent pawn to return to the hand that fed him:

Former British prime minister Tony Blair is expected on Thursday to join U.S. bank JPMorgan Chase & Co Inc (JPM.N) as a senior adviser, according to a person familiar with the situation.

JPMorgan declined to comment. The Financial Times in London first reported the move on its Web site, saying it would be the first of a series positions Blair expects to take in the private sector.

Blair, a key ally of U.S. President George W. Bush, was replaced last year by Gordon Brown as prime minister amid growing discontent over Great Britain’s policy in Iraq.

Details of Blair’s duties with JPMorgan, the third largest U.S. bank, were not immediately available.

Blair’s predecessor, John Major, joined a U.S. finance company after leaving 10 Downing Street.

After leaving office, Major joined U.S. private equity firm The Carlyle Group in 1998 amid that company’s big push into the European market.

There’s much to be said about a politician who goes so against the national will as Tony Blair did with the British public on Iraq. At the same time, Tony Blair kept appearances. Upon leaving office, Mr. Blair converted to Catholicism presumably because doing so as a sitting British prime minister is unthinkable. While I can see a former Conservative Prime Minister entering the world of finance, it’s indeed telling that a former LABOR Prime Minister is doing the same.

The preference for the political elite is to join financial firms. Where else can you make that much money sitting behind a desk doing nothing? Notice how Blair’s predecessor took the well-worn route to finance. As did Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Paul O’Neill. In that way, Dick Cheney is my hero because he went to become a CEO of a major oil exploiter.

If you ever wonder why government is unresponsive to you or all of us, this is probably the reason. These guys are in it for the power, which then paves the way to the money.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 14th, 2008 at 12:29 pm and is filed under Cutting The Bull. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.