On the Recovery Circuit, it is suggested that the ‘-ism’ of alcoholism stands for Incredibly Short Memory. I will argue that it stands for Incredibly Short Memory with other -ism’s as well, including but not limited to activism, evangelism, communism and corporatism.
On the chance that it resonates with anyone but me, otherwise just for the hell of it, I re-print a piece I wrote before bailout bucks commenced flying out of Congress like so much candy out of a pinata. I do stand corrected on the matter of money not simply disappearing. A lot of money DID “simply” disappear — I did not realize just how much of the “money” wasn’t money at all, but leverage-read-that-accounting-entries. Make no mistake, though, a lotta lotta REAL money “simply” changed hands.
THE PLURAL OF WOLF IS WOLVES
26 September 2008
Certainly the urgency of the “run up” to the Great Bailout is reminiscent of our reaction to another terrorist attack. Schizophrenic overkill and underkill, like the Addicts that we are.
There are traders and bankers…and appraisers, and real estate agents and loan officers and risk managers and government officials, who are SUPPOSED to be risk managers…who both contributed to The Mess (Disaster has been overused, like Whatever, and like) AND who profited from The Mess.
It is less that we should be bailing people OUT of their problems, but locking people up for CREATING the problems. Laws have been broken. Shit like this doesn’t just happen. Check these people, WHO ARE PAID A LOT OF MONEY TO SEE THAT SHIT LIKE THIS DOESN’T HAPPEN, saying that we “find” ourselves between a rock and a hard place. “We” “have” to do “something.”
The principles of a Free Market are not in crisis.
The market will sort this out before anyone in Washington ever will. People in Washington THRIVE on problems.
I saw a C-SPAN segment on transportation this past spring and an outside expert…who was now volunteering his time after the funding for his salary had been depleted…reported among his learnings that adding ONE government dollar to a project adds ELEVEN YEARS to delivery or completion.
The corruption, abuse and waste are daily an assault on the senses.
My background, education and experience lead me to believe that the chief “danger” that is fueling an urgency that Congress seems never to be able to muster in the name of orderly business is that some of the Big Boys are starting to lose serious money.
The Bay Area real estate/investment banker couple that I mention elsewhere are acquainted with someone who just lost $50 million dollars, half his assets. You were worth $100 million a few weeks ago and now you’re worth $50 million. It’s a big difference.
The money has not disappeared. The Biggest and Smartest Money is waiting to swoop. A “Disaster” like this represents a Buying Opportunity for them.
The truly Big Money is waiting to see what the bottom is. What goes down must come up. The Great Bailout proposes to ESTABLISH a bottom by buying all the crappiest stuff, then the Players can cherry pick with assurance. We know how adverse they are to risk taking.
Not that I don’t feel for some of the people…my own security has been much compromised…but I feel certain that we should bail out NO ONE.
No matter how many ways you spin it, no matter which way you divvy it up, it not only constitutes rewarding bad behavior, it constitutes rewarding bad behavior that has been profitable.
Crime pays…what the hell kind of a message is that?
Every single thing that has ever been rammed through this Congress has turned out to front an ulterior motive. We know this. We have no reason to think this is any different. That the richest and most powerful men on earth are rooting for this “rescue” speaks trillions. The richest and most powerful men on earth are seldom friends of the Common People.
Haste makes waste. Patience is a virtue. This is the wisdom of the ages.
Also methinks they doth protest too much.
Granny, what big teeth you have.
What are we thinking, that the sky will fall on Monday? It won’t. The sun will come up, and there will be the first of the sham and irritating “journalists” of CNN, coiffed and confident in assuring me over and over and over and over that I am listening to the Most Trusted Name In News.
No, I’m not. And Anderson Cooper is NOT keeping them honest.
They are announcing, with exclamation points, that unfortunately The Mess has American taxpayers over a barrel. Hello? The American citizenry has BEEN over a barrel for years.
The low end of the high flyers are feeling the squeeze. The Players will give it the Old College Try to save their asses…it’s the fraternity-brother-alumni-Ivy-League-inner-circle thing to do. But they’ll let them fry, too. It will be a revelation to the Middling Top Executives of Bad Big Business to learn just how expendable they are.
Bernanke? Paulson? They’re WAY above the fray, even as they’re constantly in the thick of things. How can it be, if they are in the habit of not foreseeing wallapaloozas, that their personal portfolios fare so much better than the American economy?
Banks are like casinos, the gig is rigged in their favor.
The Great Bailout speaks EXACTLY to the delusion that underpins The Mess that wants bailing out…that somehow, with enough fancy footwork…no one has to take the hit.
The notion that people can be protected from all the vagaries of life is, in my view, perhaps the WORST thing that the Democratic party has infused into American politics. It’s bullshit.
So is the Great Bailout.
Ever has it been said, there is no such thing as a free lunch.
Pick your cautionary tale.
Little Red Riding Hood…what was she thinking?
Come in, come in my little Prettie, and Toto too…yeah, right.
The Trojan Horse…a gift, wasn’t that nice of the enemy? Let’s bring it inside.
Again and again, gullibility and misplaced trust.
I cannot think of a single thing, not one piece of evidence, that warrants believing this motley crew about anything or taking anyone’s word for a disparity between their words and their deeds. I look as forward as the next guy to a leisurely stretch of peace, goodwill and the essence of Ohm, but this isn’t it.
The very people who CONTRIVED the crisis are SCARING the public into thinking that we are doomed if we do not bend over and accept a vague, sweeping, secretive, crony-serving Fix.
They’re lying.
It’s what Liars do.