Debts, Bailouts and profound stupidity.
So, this morning the Today Show was speaking of the failure of the bailout plan as a failure of leadership as if somehow all of America was united around this plan and something weird just happened. They persisted in this fallacious argument by parading a series of their correspondents to advocate for the bill. I had never seen such an egregious violation of journalistic ethics on this station before. Fox News, sure, that is routine for them, but for NBC to do so was just shocking but I guess not unexpected since GE is their parent company and also a major bank with lots of loans out in the economy. So, they were advocating for their own corporate bailout at the expense of their viewers.
So here is part of the funny. The obvious one is that the "captains of finance" have spent the last 20 years complaining that government was the problem and now they are desperate for government to be the solution, so much so in fact that they are turning their NBC on-air talent into mouthpieces of a government bailout plan that violates the principles they spent so much money lobbying Congress for over the last two decades. Of course, this is not a unique or rare opinion so I will say nothing more.
Here is another ironic twist. The problem is that people can't pay their mortgages and are losing their homes. This leaves the banks stuck with homes and people not paying their debts, so what is the solution with the People's money? Give it to banks in exchange for that debt, thereby leaving the People indebted still further and without their homes which were the intial source of their initial debt. So the bailout plan is to leave the People doubly indebted. Wouldn't it make sense to give the People's money to the People who are having debt trouble so they can PAY their debt to the bank. It would amount to the same thing, the People's money going to the banks, BUT it would be mediated through the people and would have the accounting effect of allowing people to keep their homes. Heaven forbid we help regular people keep their homes as the WAY to keep banks from failing. I mean why would be bother to spend the People's money on the People?!
Here is yet another ironic twist. When Mexico went into debt crisis we gave them money. When Russia went into debt crisis we gave them money. Now we are in debt crisis and we are asking the American people to give the money. How about we ask the People's Republic- China- to cancel some of our debts or open up their cash reserves to keep our banks afloat? How about we ask Russia to buy some of our debt? That would give them a stake in our economy that would keep things more peaceful. China might be setting their sights on going to the moon and beating us in the Space Race but their significant dependence and investment in our economy has kept them much less belligerent than Russia towards us. If we can use this as a way to give Russia a big buy-in into our economy we can help forestall that looming Cold War. Another potential solution is to turn to our loyal oil friends in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates who are sitting upon millions of petro-dollars and ask them send some of that money this way to keep our economy afloat. I mean we've certainly earned their support through propping up their corrupt and anti-democratic regimes. Our country needs dollars and we don't have any, and they have an excess. The bailout would be financed by more borrowing those petro-dollars (among others) anyway, borrowing likely from foreign sources, but I have heard of no government attempting to offer us the financial help which we often offer to foreign nations in crisis. I am not even blaming those foreign nations, but an American government too prideful to ask for help from those who have all the dollars. Stupid. This is simply stupid, but this is Washington.
Our two-party system drives a system of asinine politics and banal stupidity. This is very much the reason for the collapse of our nation. There is definitely President Bush and the Republican Party to blame for their stupid political sense, which it turns out has done more harm to capitalism than sane regulation, but the Democrats are supposed to be the party of opposition and yet they've opposed NOTHING at all. If Bush gave away the store it is because the Democrats failed to lock the door and they failed to lock the door because they are a party of no principles. This is what our two-party system has come to, a party of stupid destructive principles and a party of no definite principles.
I am soooooo glad I will get to live to see a Chinese astronaut on the moon on TV while sitting my living room in a second class former world power. (yes I am being sarcastic, like any Patriot I want my nation to be first class, though perhaps a bit more humble about it)
Labels: homeowners bailout faillure banks China debt stupidity Paulson Bush Democrats Republicans
posted by travellinguist @ 5:07 AM
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