Pity The Plutocrat Quote of the Day

"My friend Ed Whitacre at AT&T: if there’s ever been an exploited worker—even though they made a big deal about him getting $75 million when he retired, the man added billions of dollars of value. He was exploited!" -- thus sayeth former Rethug Senator and an architect of the 2008 financial meltdown Phil Gramm before the House Financial Services Committee earlier this week.  (As with most things numeric, Gramm had the severance package off by a mere $83 million; Whitacre got $158 million).

What makes this defense of the plutocracy particularly offensive (aside from calling this corporate tycoon an "exploited worker") is Gramm's role in undermining banking regulations that had been successfully in place following the Great Depression.  Specifically, his Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 removed barriers between commercial banks and investment banks, leading to the mortgage lending bubble and collapse as investment banks made risky investments unchecked by banking regulations.  The fact that House Rethuglicans wanted to hear his opinions at all is telling.