When I previously explained that Mika Brzezinski is smarter than you, a commenter called to my attention a video clip from Oct. 17. It’s of Mika’s father, Zbiginew Brzezinski, former national security adviser to Jimmy Carter, in an appearance on Morning Joe:

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“You know, how many Americans are really fully aware of how many other good people, that’s like Warren Buffett and others, who really donate a lot of their earnings to charities, to philanthropy? But how many more are there in the hedge funds, in the banks, in a variety of other places who, on the basis of speculation literally make millions of dollars that it would take a century or two for the average person ever to make? I would like to see those lists. And they shouldn’t be that difficult to produce. And I think public pressure might have also some effect, not only in terms of moving towards more systematic international coordination and regulation. But also to pressure some of those people to give some of it back, back to society.”
— Zbiginew Brzezinski, Oct. 17, 2011

Does he sound like Dr. Evil or what? Let’s talk about “speculation.” What does Brzezinski mean by that word?

“Speculation” involves risk, which is the same thing expressed by the words “enterprise” or “entrepreneur.”

To launch any business endeavor is to take a chance. When I quit my job at The Washington Times in January 2008, it was with the belief that I might be able to make more as a journalistic free agent than I was then being paid in salary. While this speculative effort has not yet met revenue expectations, as the business guys might say, 400,000 page-views per month is nothing to sneeze at, and we’re working tirelessly to increase traffic and enhance the monetization. IYKWIMAITYD.

What the managers of banks and hedge funds do is a more lucrative field of endeavor than “blog proprietor” (or “New Media savant” or whatever you want to call it) because the work they do is more valuable. If I screw up or miss a day at work, what do you lose? Some political news, some snarky commentary and maybe hot chicks in lingerie. But if a hedge fund manager screws up, there goes your 401(k), there goes your retirement dreams, there goes your kids’ inheritance. Kinda more important than a blog, even a blog with 400,000 page-views per month.

Who am I — or who is Zbiginew Brzezinski — to say whether a financial manager makes “too much” money? Isn’t it true that everyone is, to some extent, dependent on the financial sector for their livelihood? Consider that I earn income from Amazon Associates sales (I remind you that this is “Black Friday Deals Week“). Isn’t Amazon a corporation that was launched by enterpreneurs funded with investments provided by financial managers? Wasn’t it “speculation” that led people to invest in Amazon in the belief that their online sales model would work, whereas many other such projects have failed?

If we want investment in the private sector — and we do — then what we want is what Zbiginew Brzezinski calls “speculation,” a word he uses as a derisive epithet, evidently assuming that others share his ignorant (or envious) contempt for people who make their living through “speculation.”

News flash for Zbiginew Brzezinski: People also lose money through “speculation.” For example, if you bought a house in Orlando in 2006, supposing that the market value would increase . . .

Well, that was “speculation,” and you got screwed, whereas the guy who sold that house, cashing out his equity while the market was hot, walked away a winner. And if he then invested his equity in gold — another sort of “speculation” — he’s sitting pretty right now.

Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. It’s speculation either way.

Nearly all of us engage in economic speculation of one kind or another, but because some ultra-successful speculators on Wall Street make millions of dollars, Zbiginew Brzezinski throws in the phrase “on the basis of speculation” as if it’s legitimate to hate bankers or hedge fund managers in a way we don’t hate professional athletes, pop singers or TV stars — like Zbiginew Brzezinski’s daughter Mika. She reportedly gets $4 million a year, but Zbiginew believes his daughter earns that money, whereas the investment banker is engaged in evil “speculation.” So he takes pride in his daughter’s success, but wants us to think that bankers are a bunch of crafty swindlers up to no good, robbing us blind and exploiting us.

This evil which Zbiginew Brzezinski imputes to greedy bankers is evidently the inspiration for his desire to have their names on a list, in order to subject them to “more systematic international coordination and regulation.”

That should scare the hell out of everybody, because who’s going to do all that “coordination and regulation”? Government-appointed bureaucrats, that’s who. And as bad as private-sector “speculation” may be, government regulators have the authority to send you to prison if you disobey them. For the guy who ran Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy to be demanding “systematic international coordination” of the private sector is highly ironic, and also scary.

By the way, did you ever notice that greedy Wall Street millionaires always have a fancy smart phone? Because that’s what it takes to make the big bucks nowadays. And it just so happens that Amazon’s having a limited-time special sale on smart phones — great bargains for you, a small commission for me.

So buy a smart phone and become a Wall Street millionaire. Don’t let Zbiginew Brzezinski stop you. Because capitalism is beautiful.