There’s a lot of fuss at the moment about Mario Batali, who told Forbes that “the ways the bankers have kind of toppled the way money is distributed and taken most of it into their hands is as good as Stalin or Hitler and the evil guys.” But Mr. Batali is not the only man to bring Hitler into the debate about wealth inequality. Remember last year, when Blackstone Group chairman Stephen Schwarzman, a billionaire, struck out against raising capital gains taxes? What was it that he said? Oh, that’s right, he compared Obama to Hitler. Don’t these people ever learn?
“It’s a war,” Mr. Schwarzman was reported as saying in Newsweek about Obama’s attempt to eke out some more tax revenue from the country’s wealthiest investors. “It’s like when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939.” And this guy has a library named after him.
For now, bankers have loudly proclaimed they will boycott Mr. Batali’s truffles, Mr. Batali claims Forbes twisted his words, and the whole thing is likely to blow over in a matter of days.
