With reported millions of Iraqis dead, an American economy depleted, and the threat of a worldwide depression, the Bush train wreck keeps chugging along, crashing willy nilly as it goes. We have an economic earthquake under way, pure and simple, and the twisting and shouting isn't over yet.
Investments, retirement funds, and real estate have lost billions of dollars in value over the last few months. Foreclosure is so prevalent that foreclosure legal advertising is turning the classified ad section of the nation's newspapers into a gold mine.
Any one with a lick of sense is scared to death of the looming economic crisis that is upon us, but our politicians vie back and forth over whose band-aid is the biggest. Nobody wants to admit that a band-aid is useless when our financial arteries have been severed.
What makes this whole situation so insane is that we are not preparing for this economic disaster. We're still buying junk we don't need, living beyond our means, whining about trivialities and allowing the electoral dog and pony show to divert and distract us.
No matter who is in the White House come January, catastrophe looms. It may very well be that this economic cancer is so widespread, that no President will be able to excise it.
Several generations ago, our parents and grandparents had to deal with the realities of Depression living. Banks failed. Businesses went belly up. People lost houses, farms, and jobs.
During the Great Depression, Wall Street big wigs lost their minds, often committing suicide rather than deal with the disgrace of financial failure and bankruptcy. Today they get zillion dollar Golden Parachutes and bonuses. While the big wigs made sure their interests were covered--by taxpayer dollars, no less--the trail of slime coming out of the nation's capital continues to smother markets, taint policy and create a general atmosphere of uncertainty, mistrust and fear.
Supposed experts scratch their heads in confusion, unable to reassure an increasingly skeptical public of the strength of the nation's banks, economy and status as a world power. Despite it all, not everyone is swigging Bush cool aid, even those within the Bush administration.
There are a whole lot of skeptics out there. Many of them are no longer content with being be good soldiers and keep their mouths shut, or follow the party line. Critical of her party's leadership and her President's policies, one administration official says that when it comes to dealing with the realities of this economic meltdown, Bush and Company are looking at the wrong end of the horse--"we're attacking it at the institution level as opposed to the borrower level, and it's the borrowers defaulting." (Ibid)
And that essentially has been the problem with this administration all along. They have been looking at the world through an institutional lens, acting upon their big business bias, when it is the small business owner and household spending, which fuels the nation's economic engine and keeps the wheels turning.
The small business owner cumulatively, contributes more jobs and economic fuel to this economy than "big business."- On the other side of the coin, it is the individual whose spending keeps the wheels of the economy greased with their spending and consumption, who buys the cars, trucks, shoes, clothing, electronic gadgets, computers, gasoline, "blue light specials,"- toasters, televisions, tires, can openers and DVD players.
Without the individual's spending, this economy comes to a screeching halt. The consumer buys the cars, clothing, food, houses and condos, which fuel the nation's economic engine. The consumer provides the labor, builds the houses, staffs the factories and buys the real estate, which create jobs, generates economic growth and builds on previous economic growth or contraction.
Despite the Big Business bias, which continues to drive the Bush administration, small business, family farmers and consumers remain the cornerstone of this economy. Unfortunately, as long as the administration remains preoccupied with infusing Wall Street with cash, credit and confidence, instead of providing at risk small business owners, family farmers and homeowners support, the consequences of these misdirected, uneven polices will be felt for generations to come.
Thousands have already lost homes, jobs, and investments. Experts say 2009 will be the banner year for economic meltdown. Millions of home mortgages will rise catastrophically, generating a fiscal tsunami, which will require years of recovery.
Somebody is going to profit from this moving train wreck. Who and how much? That is the question.
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