Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Wisconsin’s Walker Joins Government Asset Giveaway Club

by Yves Smith from Naked Capitalism

It looks like the One Percent, lead by their latest attack dog, Gov. Walker of Wisconsin, plan to sell off public assets--no doubt, at bargain prices. It looks like the class war is heating up. Are you prepared to wage battle?
The problem, of course, is that these deals put important public resources paid for by taxes (or even worse, financed by bonds and thus potentially not even yet fully paid for) in the hands of private investors. They then earn their returns by charging user fees of various sorts. The public must rely on the new owners for reinvestment and maintenance, and depending on how the deal is negotiated, may have ceded control as far as fee increases are concerned. This is tantamount to selling the family china only to have to rent it back in order to eat dinner.