FullPolitics.com

How can one remove the blinders that frame our perceptions of the world? Imagine if you had grown up during the depression, who would you blame? Would you blame people trying to move forward in life, people trying to grab hold of a dream. Who would you point your finger at, investors, congress, business, working people, poor people? Get in that wayback machine and tell us, but do this first, get rid of your blinders and read about it first.

So move to today, the similarities are astounding, a market bubble, a wide and growing separation between the have and have-nots, exuberant enthusiasm that things would only get better, poor or missing financial regulatory structure, little sense or care of the risks for investors and banks. Now add human nature to that mix and just a pinch of greed, maybe more than a pinch, and you have the making of the current situation. Oh and add these too: add tax relief for the rich and low interest rates.

Lots of people point to the housing bubble as the cause, but didn’t we just have an Internet bubble and while that crash slowed our economy it did not stop it, nor did it impact the lives of most in spite of great losses. Our 401Ks were secure, only the un-diversified investor lost. Investment firms lost lots but life went on fine. So why is today different?

I have lived a long time, and worked in corporate America a long time, so I suffer that most expensive resource, experience. When we tried to buy a home in the 70’s we were turned down. We had no credit, we were just married, my wages were low, someone had to take a chance on us. So as often happens in life the realtor through connections got us a mortgage and we were on our way to the America dream.

Now move again to today. Why was this bubble different. It grew out of the Internet bubble, when that bubble went down, Bush had a small recession. So lower taxes and reduced interest rates were implemented to maintain the economy and lower interest rates meant cheaper mortgages and lower taxes meant the rich had more money for investment and so it started. But in and of themselves none of these things should have caused so large a collapse. What did? Remember those banks that turned us down, move to today, and the market worship of self corrections, add derivatives, hedge funds, and complex get rich schemes and eureka you got it. The surplus instead of doing good by say reducing entitlement costs, or starting healthcare for all, or rebuilding infrastructure, went into the pockets of those who wanted more and more they got - for a while. Greed is the single word reason for our current financial difficulties.

Interesting reads:

“Wall Street is really predicated on greed” Sharon Smith

“An unequal society cannot help but be an unjust society. The most important item that parents in any society try to buy is a head start for their children. And the wealthier they are, the bigger the head start. Societies that promise equality of opportunity thus cannot afford to allow inequality of outcomes to become too great.”

Inequality on the March by J. Bradford DeLong

How Wall Street works!

A bit on Poverty.

Limbaugh proves over and over again how far removed from the average American and off base he really is. Consider a man who makes over 30 million dollars a year, drinks expensive French wine, buys exotic foreign cars, and smokes expensive foreign cigars, telling the common working American ‘don’t worry be happy!’ That anyone listens to him at all boggles the mind. A man who does nothing but talk, telling working people who have to make real decisions about their lives and about their spending and saving decisions, while he contributes not a single blessed positive thing to the dialog of an economy in trouble. If you can’t find a job how does ‘Limbaugh talk’ help?

When Limbaugh castigates others for not standing up to Obama, is he forgetting how we got into this situation? Is he forgetting the last eight years? What was he saying then but the same nonsensical spin. What beliefs is he arguing for exactly? A belief that criticism, words alone, in America are enough to improve the economy while he spends his millions on vintage Bordeaux? Maybe I missed something, but his values are elitist and out of touch as his actions show. Are three divorces a sign of sense and intelligence? His words are only words, someone needs to tell him, actions speak louder than words; it is time everyone saw him for the charlatan he is. Saying no is easy, doing is hard.