APRIL
17, 2005 --
The
photos that appear in this edition of Lonely Pamphleteer Review
indicate that during the week of April 10 to 16, the skies from
New York City to Boston were blue, bright and sunny.
Yet,
during the same period the atmosphere around Wall Street was as
dark and gloomy as Miss Haversham's rooms in Great Expectations
-- the Dow Jones averages dropping some 400 points for the week,
ending with the 191 point plunge on Income Tax Friday.
Why was the Wall Street performance so dismal this week of natural brightness?
LPR suggests that PES might have something to do with it -- PES for Pharaoh Emulation
Syndrome, or -- pharaohnoia.
On the free market side, persons afflicted with pharaohnoia seek in the sage
words of Federalist Paper No. 57, the "ambitious sacrifice of the many
to the aggrandizement of the few."
Pharaohnoia, in the economic context,
indicates addiction to amassing wealth without any sense of the common good
--other than, perhaps, to regard personal riches as an expression of the common
good.
In the political context, PES points to addiction to power wielded quite heavily
and with apparent glee. (More on PES in
a political context next week.)
With the stock market in present tailspin,
commentators now point to high gas prices as causing an economic slowdown.
Where were these commentators when prices started to go up sharply?
From
Washington, it is as if officials said: "Just hope your car
gets better gas mileage -- or stop driving." (As it happens,
the LPRmobile has indeed responded to the gas price squeeze by yielding
great gas mileage.)
Have
we no leaders -- in the private or public sector -- willing to
stand for the common good?
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Is there no one
who will rally the nation around the banner of fundamental fairness
on the economic and political fronts that Federalist 57 alluded
to?
The New York Times, April 16, reported that Viacom chief executive Sumner Redstone
received a bonus of $16.5 million dollars in 2004, when the company's stock droped
by 18 percent.
Mr. Redstone's total compensation was reported to be $56.11 million. Co-president
Tom Freston got $52.49 million, including a bonus said to be $16 million, and
co-president Leslie Moonves got $52.20 million, including a bonus of $14 million.
Mr. Redstone reportedly received base salary of $4.97 million with stock options
worth some $34.50 million, and the figures for Mr. Freston and Mr. Moonves were
said to be $4.22 million (salary), $32.14 million (stock options) and $5.77 million
(salary), $32.16 million (stock options), respectively.
The Times story quoted Richard Greenfeld, of Fulcrum Global Partners, as indicating
he thought Mr. Moonves and Mr. Freston should have taken pay cuts because of
the company's poor stock performance. For LPR, huge compensation packages for
executives and lower stock prices for shareholders are indicia of pharaohnoia.
LPR has no doubt that bright, sunny skies will return to Wall Street and confidence
and value enhanced -- provided we take to heart the sage counsel suggested by
Federalist 57 -- that self-aggrandizement at the expense of the many does not
promote the common good, but that the
only way the common good is served is when our leaders stand in "communion
of interests and sympathy of sentiments" with the people.
LPR appeals to its clicksters to call attention to the "common good" counsel
of Federalist 57 -- this is, after all, is what America is all about, isn't it?
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