The family hustle
"It's bizarro-world Marxism, where workers own the banks until they are restored to profitability. Socialize debt and privatize profit: call it the Paulson doctrine"-- sportswriter Dave Zirin, yesterday.It turns out that Henry Paulson, United States Treasury Secretary and author of the recent $700 billion taxpayer bailout of Wall Street, has a son who doesn't fall far from the family grifting tree. Thirty-five-year-old Merritt owns the Portland (Ore.) Beavers, a minor-league baseball team, as well as the local MLS soccer team. He just finished pushing for $85 million in taxpayer money for both a stadium upgrade (for soccer) and a new ballpark (for baseball) in his home city. This is despite the fact that his old man, the minority owner of the franchise, is worth $700 million alone, the city of Portland is still paying for the last stadium upgrade, and 16 percent of Portland children live below the poverty line. The funds for the ballpark would come from state income taxes and would be redirected from monies targeted for urban-renewal. Hard to dispute-- the kid's got some balls on him.
Meanwhile, 3,000 miles away, Major League Baseball's CEO took advantage yesterday of the first-ever World Series game played in St. Petersburg, Florida to publicly suggest that the area's residents pony up for a new ballpark to replace Tropicana Field. Judging from history, this suggestion should be considered more of a threat. The Tampa/St. Pete community has admirably supported a team that averaged more than 97 losses a season during its first decade, but I hear Portland might be getting a new stadium.
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In case you don't want to stay up tonight to watch the repeat, here's the clip of Pete Seeger on Letterman from last month.
posted by CM @ 8:40 PM
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