I was going to change the title of this blog to Eileen and Willow’s Political Blog but I’ve decided that is too limiting. Instead it is going to be a Current Events blog. Over the past few days the much bigger news story has been our ‘economic meltdown’ not the inadequacies of our future leaders (although one is directly tied to the other).
As most know, unless you live under a rock, there have been huge shake ups on Wall Street with large corporations doing so poorly they are either filing for bankruptcy or being bailed out by the Federal Government. The causes of all this have been years in the making. Deregulation deemed necessary for American business to stay globally competitive have systematically loosened the rules under which Companies could operate. With fewer rules to constrain them large banks went out and created new and better ways to make money. And we have ALL benefited from it. Unfortunately the new way was also very risky. And now we are ALL paying for it. (See Joseph Palermo’s article at the Huffington Post for a good, if leftist, article on the history of the deregulation).
So, on Sunday, Fanny and Freddy were taken back over by the Government (don’t forget the were originally publicly owned till some genius decided the private sector could do a better job running these companies the government could). Then on Monday Lehman Brothers was allowed to fail and filled the largest bankruptcy case in history because the Government said they had to draw a line. A day later the Government once again helped out another company, AIG, by giving them a large loan. All this activity has made the stock markets around the world very nervous (Russia is so nervous they closed their markets, and India has taken a beating that makes Wall Street’s problems look like a walk in the park). Various international banks (including our own Federal Reserve) have gotten together to pump billions of dollars into the banking system in order to keep enough cash flowing so the system can continue to operate.
Will this band aid keep us afloat till the markets can stabilize? Maybe. But what if there is another agenda out there that involves kicking the legs out from under the richest countries in the world and devaluing the U.S. dollar? China has already made the suggestion that maybe the world shouldn’t be using a financial standard set by the United States Dollar and instead should switch to a gold standard. Yesterday after China made that statement gold was traded at its highest level in history.
There is no doubt we are living in interesting times. But big profits and power plays can happen under such circumstances. This situation is having a direct effect on the current race for the White house with both sides suddenly turning from the very important issues, such as pregnant 17 year old’s, to focus on the economy.
I for one am keeping my eyes open for who is gaining from all this. Because I sure as heck am not. Nor is anyone I know. There is a book called The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein that discusses how when a “shock” is administered to a group, a government, a country then those people or institutions are much more vulnerable to being manipulated into making bad choices by supposedly benevolent helpers/leaders offering a “Cure” (think post 9/11 and the Patriot Act). Are we as a country being “shocked” right now? The talking heads on the cable news have actually used those words to describe the past few days. What will the “Cure” be? And will it be worse than the illness?
I will be keeping my eyes and ears open and so will Willow …Just as soon as she finishes burying her gold bars in her litter box.
Posted by esryck8 
