Saturday, November 5, 2011

Jon Corzine -- and the Unwitting Prescience of New Jersey Voters

I wonder how Garden State voters feel now, seeing that they removed from office a high-stakes, high-risk investor who loved playing fast and loose with other people's money. In New Jersey, Governor Jon Corzine loved spending other people's money on fruitless state ventures, giving out sops to public unions will raising taxes on the middle class residents 100 times over.

In an attempt to reignite his glory days of Goldman-Sachs, the ousted chief executive wanted to make MP Global a mid-sized venture. Once again taking great risks with other people's money, his risk-taking has come up empty.

From one report:

"From interviews with market experts and those who have known the former New Jersey governor for more than a decade, the collapse of MF Global appears to have been a mix of two critical forces: Corzine the risk-taker and the high stakes environment in which he played."

This snippet fails to hold the fizzled financial CEO accountable for anything. Blaming the economic environment is nonsense, considering that a seasoned financial chief executive should have known what the stakes are when stepping in, and what his clients stand to lose if they cannot step out.

Jon Corzine has been a reckless rich man, loving to spend his own money on his own ventures, to the tune of $100 million for two statewide offices; yet when it comes to other people's money, whether from taxpayers or shareholders, he has no problem throwing revenue away on wasteful ventures.

I think the citizens of the State of New Jersey should congratulate themselves on having ousted an accident-prone incompetent for the down-to-earth and up front leadership of current Governor Chris Christie. He is giving the citizens of New Jersey both their power and their money back, spending less, saving more, and preparing the Garden State for a rocky but more stable future.

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