The way I see it, it was trickle down economics, a penchant for war, along with outright corruption and fraud that will cause the economic dislocations and poverty for so many Americans in the months and years to come.
It is estimated that before Bush’s (our) wars have ended, Congress will have pumped perhaps two trillion inflationary dollars into these misadventures, much of this money squandered into the coffers of corrupt war mongering corporate vultures, the managers and stockholders of which, having become bloated with their illegitimate war profits, poured them into hedge funds hoping to leverage their gains into even more undeserved wealth. These hedge funds, using as much leverage as they could, turned around and, through their corrupt intermediaries, used this money to lure unsuspecting, unqualified home buyers to purchase homes they could not afford.
The wars are illegal, Congress is criminally negligent, the profits were fraudulent, the hedge fund instruments were deceptive, and the lenders were cheats, as were many of the home buyers themselves who were willing to lie about their incomes on mortgage application papers in order to get them approved. In some cases it was only ignorance and not dishonesty that allowed this to happen, but corruption and dishonesty were the main events.
Between the tax cuts for the rich and war, the US treasury was wiped out. In the final analysis it was outright theft. These policies stole the healthcare, education, hope, and financial security from millions of Americans to secure political payoffs for a wealthy few. The booming economy is and was an inflationary illusion characterized by a dismantling of our manufacturing base and replaced with a temporary bubble of housing prices. Stupified, many Americans mortgaged their illusions to buy toys. And in the coming months a lot more of our illusionary wealth will likely continue to disappear through a hidden government sponsored tax called inflation.
There are those who will generate all kinds of theories as to why the housing bubble came to pass including the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, but the reason is crystal clear and bright: Poverty in the richest country in the world is self-induced and engineered. Where do you point the finger… the proper direction is always straight ahead to the person you see in the mirror. Every lie, every deception and self-deception, every dishonesty that we think we can get away with hurts someone, very often someone we love, and always ourselves.
People who are lucky enough at some point in their lives to have been truly nurtured and loved will be inspired to want to improve themselves as human beings. In that effort they eventually will come to realize that for that to happen ignorance must give way to education, formal or otherwise. On the way to becoming educated, a diligent person will learn that intellectual integrity is necessary for anyone who wants to be able to separate truth from fiction. And the search for truth leads one to the understanding that before one can know the truth, he or she must strive always to unflinchingly tell the truth… to oneself and to others… even when no one else is looking and when no one else will ever know the difference.
In the end, having traveled this path, we discover that the search for truth leads to love, which is how it all began in the first place.
Truth, honor, dignity, compassion, courage, love… the answer and the way.
http://www.gpln.com/onwork.htm
http://www.gpln.com/howiseeit.htm
