Recently the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka were defeated by the national army. Troy Davis was convicted to death for the fourth time in two years – leaving only the Supreme Court to appeal to. In Israel, freedom of speech is facing an uphill battle against a so-called Loyalty Law. But those are not matters for American news outlets.
Instead we rehash the bone fides of Sonia Sotomayor. We repeat videos of Iranian missile tests with nothing new to report. Both worthy debates but hardly worth losing sight of all else. Meanwhile our unemployment rate rises, our TARP and stimulus money flies out the window, and national health care reform is ignored.
So let’s see some of that mentioned. I’ll get the ball rolling. Just how did we come to giving money to the people who lost all our money? I speak, of course, of the bankers and Wall Street bandits who swindled the system for years and then came crying for help when it all went sour, like a child poking a bear cub.
How are they too big to fail? What, exactly, makes them too big? Are the smaller banks too lazy and stupid to fill those shoes? Or was the system just built for a monopoly? And don’t tell me it wasn’t a monopoly. If there was a competitive market for banks then I have a profound misunderstanding of both “competitive” and “market.” Every bank offered the same services, exacted the same arbitrary fees, and took it’s major directions from the government/Federal Reserve.
So we all got tied to the tracks while bankers swam in money like Scrooge McDuck. Then, when the train came, we had to ask the very same bankers for help. Sure we should blame the bankers. But shouldn’t the government take blame for letting us get tied to the tracks in the first place? I think FDR was onto something when he spoke at his 1933 Inauguration:
“Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers.”
Evidently we’ve gained more to fear than just fear itself since those days. And we, by allowing ourselves to be led to the tracks, have forgotten the one thing that was explicitly stated to redeem the great depression:
“These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.”
05/29/2009 at 10:36 am
they are not too big to fail. they should have gone into bankruptcy just as Roosevelt forced them to do during the depression. that’s why bush was so anxious to start this process before he left office. he wanted to set precedence, so to speak.
the government does have a responsibility to regulate banking on behalf of its citizens and also on behalf of the commerce. no one will invest money in a bank or country for that matter with a corrupt banking system. which is one of the reasons china is advocating that the dollar no longer be considered the world’s currency.
our wall street “titans” (read unfair playing field tilting protectionists) are the biggest hypocrites in the history of the planet. they may kill the golden goose yet?
obama, for his part, seems to be trying to work with entrenched interests because he believes they are a reality. i think that the failure to help people in foreclosure reminded him that he is going to have to use “the pulpit” to force these existing to change.
the battle for universal healthcare will tell us all we need to know going forward.
05/29/2009 at 1:22 pm
Fear is a powerful weapon. We “fear” what would happen if there were no bailouts. It would be hell-ish for a while, but the country would bounce back. The law of greed guarantees that we would bounce back.