Patterico's Pontifications

4/16/2014

Income Inequality Organization Fights Income Inequality By Giving Scads of Money to Economist for Doing Almost No Work

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:32 pm



Paul Krugman, December 2013, speaking about income inequality:

[T]he discussion has shifted enough to produce a backlash from pundits arguing that inequality isn’t that big a deal.

They’re wrong.

. . . .

Inequality is, indeed, the defining challenge of our time. Will we do anything to meet that challenge?

Yes, we will! We will give Paul Krugman $225,000 a year for doing almost nothing!

According to a formal offer letter obtained under New York’s Freedom of Information Law, CUNY intends to pay Krugman $225,000, or $25,000 per month (over two semesters), to “play a modest role in our public events” and “contribute to the build-up” of a new “inequality initiative.” It is not clear, and neither CUNY nor Krugman was able to explain, what “contribute to the build-up” entails…

CUNY, which is publicly funded, pays adjunct professors approximately $3,000 per course. The annual salaries of tenured (but undistinguished) professors, meanwhile, top out at $116,364, according to the most recent salary schedule negotiated by the university system’s faculty union. And those professors are expected to teach and publish. Even David Petraeus, whom CUNY initially offered $150,000, conducted a weekly 3-hour seminar…

$225,000 is more than quadruple New York City’s median household income.

It’s performance art, right? If you’re upset by income inequality, because you feel like rich people get paid too much, check out how much we’re paying this shmuck for doing nothing! Like I say: performance art.

Rick Perry Under Criminal Investigation for Demanding (on Pain of Withholding Funding) Resignation of D.A. Who Drove Under the Influence and Was Belligerent to Police

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:56 am



Rick Perry is now under criminal investigation. Why? Because he threatened to withhold funding from a public integrity unit run by the D.A. of Travis County. Why did he make that threat? Because she had been arrested for DWI, had been belligerent with police and demanded repeatedly to talk to the sheriff, and refused to resign.

The D.A., Democrat Rosemary Lehmberg, later pled guilty and was sentenced to 45 days in jail. And now Rick Perry has the criminal attorney:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has hired a high-profile Austin defense lawyer to represent him in an investigation into whether he illegally withheld money from the Travis County District Attorney’s office.

KVUE News and the Austin American-Statesman confirmed Sunday evening the hiring of David L. Botsford.

The hiring comes as a special Travis County grand jury is set to be seated Monday to hear evidence into whether Perry broke state laws concerning bribery, coercion and abuse of authority.

Perry had threatened to withhold the money from Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg unless she resigns after her drunken driving arrest in April 2013.

When she refused, Perry in June vetoed a state budget item that would have given a $7.5 million allocation to the Public Integrity Unit in the District Attorney’s Office. The unit investigates ethics violations against public officials.

Here’s some context. Her arrest:

See her stumbling around and unable to follow instructions? Her blood alcohol was a .23.

A TV news story about the need to restrain her:

Here she is being belligerent and repeatedly asking deputies if they have called “Greg” — Travis County Sheriff Greg Hamilton.

Again, Rick Perry now has a criminal lawyer. Via Breitbart.


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