Tonight, after a day of mayhem among the Little Tin Gods of Wall Street, everyone is busy telling us that We the People have nothing to worry about. Our modest bank accounts are federally insured, etc. etc.
Lighten up, folks. We have three decades of government and corporate mismanagement to tell us just how much the federal government cares about us -- ZIP. NADA. When Long Term Capital Management failed and billionaires and Nobel Laureates were at risk, Alan Greenspan jumped right in to save billionaire butt. Likewise Bear Stearns a few months ago. Bill Clinton was just as happy to deregulate as Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush. And sadly, Barack Obama's financial advisors are solidly in the Clinton-Democratic camp.
Now, the High Priests like Ben Bernanke have figured out that not even the billionaires can all be bailed out. Only The Idiots -- George W. Bush, John McCain, and company -- repeat the nonsense -- "the fundamentals are strong". Those who know (whether they really care or not) are indeed comparing this time to 1929. Obama and Greenspan have both done so in the past few days.
The fundamentals are not strong.
- Americans are in debt up to their ears.
- Housing is tanking.
- There is precious little manufacturing in the US today.
- The dollar is weak.
- Education is getting poorer and more expensive.
- Health care is getting poorer and too expensive to afford at all.
- Official unemployment is up, real unemployment is still higher.
- Retirement accounts are going bust.
And through it all, We the People will be ignored. Believe it. Three decades -- health care, education, manufacturing, retirement, housing -- all under constant attack from conservatives and moderates too self-absorbed to care about the middle class and poor.
A great case in point -- Charles Rangel, once a champion of the less fortunate or just plain average. Today, that fat old slob is defending a tenement-level rent on the multi-room palace he has in Harlem. He cheats on his taxes and defends that. This is what we can expect from among the best we have in office. The Dennis Kuciniches are ignored entirely, just as loud-mouths like yours truly (better informed, better spoken loudmouths than yours truly) are ignored.
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Some Rational Reading
Creative Destruction on Wall Street, by William Greider at The Nation
Nouriel Roubini, NYU economist
Toxic Lehman, by Peter Morici, professor at the University of Maryland School of Business
The Chicago School's Record of Infamy, by Michael Hudson, economist, professor at the University of Missouri, and specialist at Chase
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