Comments on: The Ugly Politics of Financial Bailouts

By: Poetic Justice

Poetic Justice — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 21:28:34 +0000

...and meanwhile, in other news....limbs continued to be lopped off as the American people, unaware they were being poisoned, fought another kind of public relations battle...General Grant was rumored to have said...lead poisoning would be better for these chumps....

http://www.naturalnews.com/024466.html

By: Poetic Justice

Poetic Justice — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 14:28:34 +0000

…and meanwhile, in other news….limbs continued to be lopped off as the American people, unaware they were being poisoned, fought another kind of public relations battle…General Grant was rumored to have said…lead poisoning would be better for these chumps….

http://www.naturalnews.com/024466.html

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:43:19 +0000

This piece just motivated a scary vision of sorts – An Obama presidency confronted with Depression-like conditions and a lot of “bitter” Joe Six-Packs incited by hate-filled speeches. The groundwork is being laid as our financial crisis is being blamed lending policies for minorities and Palin and McCain are right at the edge of inspiring violence. I fear our worst crisis since the Civil War.

By: jerry

jerry — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:27:03 +0000

THere is a website which deals with the current crash at http://www.skeptically.org/crash/index.html I think the the Asian Crash of 1997 is a better model and that the role of the IMF and WTO and there economic shock plans must be taken into account. Things are much different today. The comments about the political nature of the bail out are well placed.

By: JRBehrman

JRBehrman — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:54:49 +0000

But, then, there are differences. This is Anglo-America, not France or Germany:

For one thing, destabilization of US credit and banking institutions was not an exogenous problem caused by, say, the Versailles Treaty. It was wholly the product of our very own political-economic elite, including polite and gracious collaborators of Alan Greenspan's like Alan Blinder. So, do the Princeton endowments challenge corrupt and self-indulgent corporate governance practices or rely on insider information from facluty and alumni? No.

The events of recent days are the predictable and understandable result of political ideology (Rep) and expediency (Dem). There is conspicuously no accountability at all for it. The revolving-door between GS and TSY just keeps on revolving with responsibility for allocating a nearly blank check for 700 $MMM now devolving on yet another GS crony of the GS Secretary.

The buffoons responsible for chairing and staffing Congressional committees based on their ability to get and redistribute lobby money are all still in place. Congressional leaders are just not leaders, they are pretty much the same as "rainmakers" in a large law-firm. They collect money from the lobby and redistribute it to other members. It is what they do and all they do. They are essentially Whigs, opposed to Slavery, perhaps, but solicitous of the rights of property-owners and, of course, the wealthiest households, what in Russia are called the nomenklature.

What if "financial bailouts need to be depoliticized"? How does one do that within an anglophile elite that (a) routinely subverts accounting standards that would inconvenience wealthy alumni and legatees, (b) maintains a "black budget" even after the Great, World, and Cold Wars ended, and (c) has as many nationalities as bank accounts in tax havens, yachts and houses in pirate havens?

So, where are the patriotic/professional institutions that a "depoliticized" response to this or any crisis requires? All I see are chickenhawks, tenured cowards, clubmen, and sycophants.