 |
|
Add to My Group
|
November 19, 2008 at 00:51:26
Promoted to Headline (H2) on 11/19/08: by Bernard Weiner Page 1 of 2 page(s) |
|
|
1
1
1
By Bernard Weiner, The Crisis Papers Our men's group, currently in its 17th year, is composed of middle-class professionals -- lawyers, educators, therapist, writer, corporate manager, doctor, etc. -- and each of us in this perilous economy in recent months has taken a deep financial hit of one form or another or knows (or has heard of) someone personally who is struggling to hold onto or already has lost his/her job. The general conclusion based on our personal knowledge, on the relevant economic indicators, and on what we are hearing from experts and economic-focused journalists and bloggers from around the globe, is that the U.S. and the other nations of the world are in a deep recession and are heading quickly toward a major Depresssion. This dangerous state could last for many, many years. We middle-class types most likely will make it through to the other side, with a lot of financial pain, belt-tightening, supporting each other more, joint projects, etc. The wealthy, of course, will easily weather the crisis. But the lower-middle class and the poor, with fewer job skills and a badly frayed "safety net" of social services, will be the true victims of the economic meltdown. Charities and shelters and church programs will be overwhelmed. The permanent underclass will grow at a rapid rate, with a comcomitant rise in violent crime. Pollution-control and global-warming projects may well be postponed or canceled due to lack of funds. Public education, as is usual in times of belt-tightening, no doubt will take a big hit, thus perpetuating the problem.
IGNORING THE WARNING FLAGS
Government economists like Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke and others (the supposed "wise men" about money matters) professed to be surprised by the major collapse of the financial system, and the housing market, that has brought us to our present pass. Lots of sharp observers sussed out what was coming long before, but, by and large, they were derided as tinfoil-hat paranoids while the golden goose continued laying such profitable golden eggs.
Economist Duncan Black, who writes under the blogger name Atrios, (
www.eschatonblog.com) had been warning for nearly two years about what he called the "big shitpile" growing exponentially in the country. He, and a few others, realized the consequences and ramifications long ago, but few in power wanted to pay attention. It was all good, as long as housing values continued their "inevitable" rise, interest rates were low, and credit plentiful. An occasional
government insider would warn about the extreme danger of unsupervised hedge funds and unregulated bundling of shaky morgages and "credit default swaps" and so on, but they too were shunted aside by many, including a complicit Congress that should have been exercising oversight.
About a year ago, a number of the members of our men's group started asking our financial advisors what they thought about "the big shitpile" concept, even if that exact term may not have been used, and whether we should be concerned. The advice we tended to get back was the prevailing wisdom of the time: there might be a "slight, temporary downturn" in the economy, but "the markets always bounce back" and the "longterm prospects look good." Just ride it out. And then came the bursting of the housing bubble, the collapse of the financial institutions and thus the easy-credit system, and the resulting devastating market crash. And the worldwide recession/Depression.
And now we're all expected to grab a shovel and help reduce the huge "big shitpile" stinking up the middle of our country's economic living room. We're all in debt, including our children and grandchildren, while we bail out the largest financial and corporate institutions -- those deemed "too big" to risk their going under -- in hopes that the economy will be stabilized and start slowly climbing back to health.
But, per usual, even today there is precious little oversight of these
hundreds of billions of dollars (or is it trillions??) being doled out. And, surprise!, the banks and corporate behemoths are using our money in ways that aid themselves but do not really help out ordinary American borrowers and consumers all that much. The rich get richer, the politicians get to seem as if they're actually doing something, and the "bailouts" arranged in our names ensure that we ordinary Americans wind up as the ones paying the freight.
AMERICAN "SOCIALISM" ARRIVES
I remember my parents talking about the Great Depression they lived through in the 1930s, the millions of proud unemployed men that were forced to the soup kitchens for sustenance, the "safety-net" institutions of the time that were overwhelmed by the demands for their limited services, and the demagogues that were stirring up angry crowds by blaming scapegoats of one sort or another ("the blacks," "the Jews," "the Catholics," "dirty immigrants," et al.).
The situation is so dire in late-2008 that free-market capitalists have
become, so to speak, a variant of "socialists" virtually overnight. They are having to recognize, against their own ideology and instincts, that there is such a thing as the "public good/public interest" and that a centralized government has a major role to play in ensuring economic survival and a general sense of "we're all in this together and need to get out of this together." That's a sea-change in American political culture, which brings with it all sorts of ramifications, some positive, some negative.
In 1932, the aristocratic New York politician Franklin Delano Roosevelt became President and soon, faced with the reality of the crashing economy and endangered institutional structures, found himself taking drastic social/financial action to stave off imminent economic collapse and the possibility of
revolution.
FDR, recognizing that the most important task was to get citizens earning a paycheck once again, set up government works projects, mostly centered around rebuilding the country's infrastructure. The initiatives worked, with a side benefit that the psychological mood of the country shifted away from panic and fear into glimmers of hope and optimism. Unfortunately, it took shifting to a full-scale war footing -- building ships and planes and tanks and bombs -- to yank the economy back to solid health.
Barack Obama is inheriting a godawful mess as he prepares to move into the presidency, virtually none of it of his making. The governmental/corporate looting system that was the CheneyBush Administration, with greed as its organizing principle and lack of oversight as its all-clear authorization, has broken the back of the American economy. And because when America sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold, the situation is even more dangerous and desperate.
1 | 2
www.crisispapers.org
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
 Contact Author |
Contact Editor |
 View Authors' Articles |
|
|
|
|
| 13 comments |
|
Thanks for speaking truth to power
Professor, do you have the ear of anyone in WS or Washington? I'm still skeptical about their competence and integrity, and I'm talking about the NEW administration, because you're spot on that Bush/Cheney have broken our backs. by Jay Farrington (13 articles, 2 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 236 comments) on Wednesday, Nov 19, 2008 at 10:30:47 AM  (0+)
|
|
New World Order
After years of going on a mindless spree big spenders are waking up to the fact that they are broke. So are those that supplied the credit. All the kings horses and all the kings men cannot pick them up again. That is the story of the busted global economy. A new world order has to be established where there is a balance between production and consumption. until that happens we will be mired down in a never ending depression by melpol (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 28 comments) on Wednesday, Nov 19, 2008 at 10:53:32 AM (0+)
|
|
Reply: new world order
Well, that is an unfortunate term you're using for a very logical plan. The peoples of the world can feed, clothe and house each other very comfortably. If we can do it with credit or fiat money, we can do it with some other means of exchange. The problem is the ruling elites who suck off profit and interest from the real economy. Unfortunately, the term "New World Order" is what they use to describe the efficient working of the leech system. by wagelaborer (6 articles, 1 quicklinks, 9 diaries, 307 comments [34 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Nov 21, 2008 at 6:37:02 PM (0+)
|
|
Same old story, same old thieves
Borrowing more money to solve an excessive debt problem is not the answer. The reason we have to borrow so much money is because the exchange rates are manipuated. Have you ever been to China Dr. Weiner? I've been there seven times over the last few years. The RMB to dollar exchage rate is a joke. You can ride a taxi around any Chinese city for a few dollars. Try that in New York city. You can get a decent sitdown meal for 2 dollars. Does that sound like a fair exchange rate? The chinese RMB is pegged to the dollar which means it will NOT float. The people that are allowing this massive theft to occur are the same people that the good Dr. here is asking us to "cooperate" with. He and the rest of his kinsmen have bankrupted our great nation and are now asking that "everyone work together". WE will work together, but YOU and your kind will not be asked to attend. We've seen the result of your handi-work. Endless greed, endless war. by Roger Thomas (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 131 comments [10 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Wednesday, Nov 19, 2008 at 12:00:50 PM (0+)
|
|
Healthcare reform is up to us.
This is a real consideration, not a point of jingoism. The healthcare reform that Obama is bringing to the White House with him, like the economic policies of the past, is designed to serve the needs of the corporate insurance industry, not those of average people. It is also destined to fail because it will sink right along with the federal treasury. The only options are to leave the system as it is, which will lead to increasing suffering as the economy gets worse, or adopt a single payer system which will save the nation as a whole as much as 6 to 8% of our GDP and will cover every American and will truly help us through the hard times ahead. If we allow ourselve to believe that the feel-good messages of the Obama campaign mean that he and the Democrats are going to take care of our problems then its going to be a long night ahead. Only a sustained effort to break through the official line will lead us to a better place. by Doug Rogers (16 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 152 comments) on Wednesday, Nov 19, 2008 at 3:22:11 PM (0+)
|
|
Rehashed, Keynesian, Collectivist Clap Trap!!!!
I'm sorry dear author, the advice of your buddies amounts to nothing but a rehashing of Keynesian government "pump priming" and collectivist soviet and fascist styled, 5-Year Plans...aka; Hitlertarian Autobahns, Mega dam building, WPA projects, etc. We have been led by a corrupted Congress and Executive branch who have not been challenged by the Judicial Branch in their un-constitutional behavior to wage war without declaration, print paper money not backed by precious metals or the coinage thereof as required by the Constitution. Unless, we greatly reduce the size of government, which has created itself into a Frankenstein Monster, that consumes trillions of dollars of the citizen's money fraudulently. We need to appeal the Federal Reserve Act, which never was legally passed in the first place and restore sound money to the American people in the form of gold and silver. Paper, fiat money has been a fraud fostered on the American people. There is no intrinsic difference in the value of a $1 bill versus a $100 bill. Both are created out of thin air and backed by nothing. You burn them and you get ashes. If you put fire to gold and silver, you still get gold and silver. Gold and silver has been historical money for thousands of years and all paper, fiat currencies have eventually headed to failure. The American people have been conditioned to a "consumerist" society by borrowing money, created out of thin air, by the Federal Reserve; a private, mafia like system of banksters. They then loan money and exact interest payments from you, dear reader, in the form of interest. In essence, this is a tax on your income and they created the money out of thin air and demand a portion of your labor for loaning you their counterfeit, fiat, paper money back by nothing. Let me keep my money, let me exchange every dollar into gold, silver and precious metals and other assets before I get caught holding their soon to be hyper-inflated dollars that are going to hit the shores of America, like what happened to Weimar Germany. They ruined my family in Germany in 1924...and this guy is not going to fall victim to their lies again!!! Wake Up America....dismiss this Keynesian, collectivist clap trap and the Federal Reserve. www.EndTheFed.com Give me real CONSTITUTIONAL money as outlined by our Founding Fathers!!! by rmcnnlly (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 7 comments [1 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Nov 19, 2008 at 5:01:22 PM (0+)
|
|
Reply: What is stopping you from buying gold/silver/platinum with
your dollars? Like the rest of your hyperbole, this point makes no sense. Yes, its true, there is no guarantee from the government that your dollars can be converted and the dollar is not pegged to a unit of metal. That said, you can at any time walk to a gold or silver dealer and buy at or near the current market price. Comparing Fascist Italian or Nazi Germany economics with 'collectivist'/socialist/communist economics is crazy. There is little to nothing in common with the two starting with the obvious fundamental issue that communism and socialism do not believe in private property ownership or private ownership of businesses and industry whereas Fascism and Nazism absolutely believe in those things. Starting from there, what can be in common for the two? Any similarities are the most superficial at best. by Steven Leser (255 articles, 58 quicklinks, 38 diaries, 2147 comments [63 recommended, 2 rejected]) on Wednesday, Nov 19, 2008 at 10:24:15 PM (0+)
|
|
Reply: Everyone loved Hitler too.
Hitler also had a way of talking to people so that they would blindly follow him too the destruction of Germany. Obama's expressed plans are already killing America and the rest of the world economicly. No surprise though. Everyone should have known, Obama and his wife really hated America when they were not in front of a teleprompter. by Gallaher (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 990 comments [34 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Thursday, Nov 20, 2008 at 9:33:19 AM (0+)
|
|
A thought
Here's a suggestion: Public (and backyard) pools can be turned into fish farms to serve the people in its area. What about rooftop gardening? Where there is a need, find it and address it. In so doing, we can prevent the horror stories from happening and create good instead of evil. A Depression is very scary to think about, not a doubt about it. But good can also come from evil. If the neighborhoods all unite to help each other, and if neighbors all unite to help each other----and doubtlessly there will be lots of that-----then we will be strengthened as a people with less materialistic world views, more humanitarian values, and more kindness to each other. As scary (terrifying even) as some of the prospects may be, I hold the hope that good things will come from the bad. "From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring, renewed shall be blade that was broken, the crownless again shall be king". ----JRR Tolkien by Kathryn Smith (110 articles, 2 quicklinks, 43 diaries, 542 comments [23 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Nov 19, 2008 at 11:08:59 PM (0+)
|
|
Stocking the cupboards
Rice and beans are very inexpensive to buy in bulk from your healthfood store. Tacos anybody? Chile? You can buy about a one-gallon container of beans for about $20, which would last a long time. Rice can be purchased in large bags from Costco or your healthfood store, at a reduced bulk rate (about $35 for 25 pounds, or even less if you belong to a food coop or hit a good sale). Cornmeal is equally inexpensive in bulk from your local healthfood store (menu: Chile and cornbread). Start stocking up now on both the above, plus on canned foods for liquids. Canned soups and soup stocks, tomatoes, etc make a good base for chile as above. I also canned up the jack-o-lanterns from halloween and only three of them made about 12 quarts! I use the pumpkins for curries, pies, muffins and soup. See also the website survivingthemiddleclasscrash.wordpress.com It's excellent! :-) by Kathryn Smith (110 articles, 2 quicklinks, 43 diaries, 542 comments [23 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Nov 19, 2008 at 11:14:33 PM (0+)
|
|
An allegory which I love:
A man went to hell with his guardian angel. Much to his surprise, there was a table loaded with a lavish banquet. Yet people only sat and stared. Nobody partook. "Why are the people staring blankly and forlornly and why are they not eating?" the man asked his guardian angel. The guardian angel only pointed silently. By golly, the people had their elbows tied with broomsticks. So they couldn't bend their elbows and feed themselves> They sat and sulked forlornly, in misery, staring at the dangling carrots in front of them. Then they went up to heaven. Surprise, surprise! There was the same scene. A lavishly-loaded banquet table with everybody's elbows tied to a broomstick. Yet, everybody was smiling and everybody was absolutely happy. Why? Because in heaven, everybody fed their neighbor. "The more we share, the more we have" said my brother-in-law of sharing from his garden with his neighbors. "Our neighbors give right back". by Kathryn Smith (110 articles, 2 quicklinks, 43 diaries, 542 comments [23 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Nov 19, 2008 at 11:18:01 PM (0+)
|
|
FDR didn't try Gesell's system; I don't want another war
and i'm a human being with inalienable rights, like everyone posting here. Mr. Weiner and anyone else; does anyone know of any reason why Silvio Gesell's economic system should not be tried in the US; even in 1 town? It worked in Worgi, Austria in 1933. They had 1/3 third unemployment, but when they banned interest and charged a 1% tax on money hoarded, it quickly resulted in greatly increased circulation of money, full employment, economic growth and increased value of money, decreasing prices, higher effective net on capital investment as there was no inflation caused by interest. It was working so well the central bank shut it down. A far more efficient economic system is possible The secretive, unaccountable and privately-owned and controlled Federal Reserve system is a blood-sucking parasite. The Fed Act can be overturned by Congress in short order- the Constitution authorizes Congress to coin money; why should it be controlled by treasonous corporate criminals? by Better World Order (4 articles, 568 quicklinks, 39 diaries, 1111 comments [56 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Thursday, Nov 20, 2008 at 1:03:22 AM (0+)
|
|
On the Depression
I have not seen anyone comment here that has survived the last economy. The surviving people that I’ve questioned agree it was entry into World War II that pulled America out of the depression not government hand out programs or taxes. Being that we have been in a war now getting into a war will not save America now. by Gallaher (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 990 comments [34 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Thursday, Nov 20, 2008 at 9:24:57 AM (0+)
|
Want to post your own comment on this Article? 
|
||||
|
||||||||||||||
Well Said (0) 
Touching (0) 
Funny (0) 
Supported (0) 
Interesting (0) 
Inspiring (0)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tell a Friend:
|
Copyright © 2002-2009, OpEdNews |
