By now we have identified the primary causes of the financial crisis: unregulated and hyper speculative derivatives trading between financial institutions, poor risk analysis by ratings agencies and irresponsible lending practices by loan originators. We're also familiar with goverment policies to curb the aftermath, but the real question is why are we still stuck in the river tick?
Well, we know Ben Bernancke, Henry Paulson and Timmy Geithner due to their proximity to the financial sector decided to subsidize banks, allow them to consolidate their interests and return within a matter of months, incredibly back to profitability. The reason given then and even more incredibly now, was that if we didn't the "economy" would be at risk of further contraction. Meanwhile, individuals and families, if they were lucky and haven't lost their job or house, or both, are merely strapped with so much debt they can't hope to pay it off in their lifetime let alone with positive return on investment.
So Bernancke, Paulson and Geithner held sway with the concensus view, but were there other ideas within the circles of power that were significantly different from the chosen path? The most striking break was proposed by then head of the FDIC Sheila Bair. While we chose not to regulate complex financial instruments, the regulatory institutions such as the FDIC existed and were functional. The job of the FDIC, as insurer of deposits, was then and is now, to take over failed banks and wind them down in a way that minimizes the cost to the economic system. So rather than billion dollar bailouts to Wall Street cronies, surely the troubled banks should have been handed over to the FDIC? This would have minimized the cost to the system as a whole and would have allowed for more balanced spending on the inevitable fallout from high unemployment and weak economic growth.
But this didn't happen. What we got was the opposite and as such, the consequences in Europe and the US continue to threaten the global economy. Now with the debt ceiling charade, valuable social programs that underpin families and the national fabric of American society are unnecessarily under attack.
Just days away from another apparent collapse of the US financial system resulting from a redundant, and unconstitutional charade, that is the debt ceiling debate, an unnecessary movement is about to lay sacrifice to these institutions. Social Security and Medicare, the most popular and effective social programs in history, cut in the name of an unbalanced approach, pinning bankers, that are unwilling to sacrifice their position of power over industry versus a public that is so misinformed it is allowing it to happen.
When will the American people finally wake up and demand politicians and policy makers to start making the right decisions? Until people gather together and demand an end to a government overruled by corporate interests, interests that in fact thrive as a result of the largess of the US taxpayer, we will continue to witness the outcome every day and with worringly accelerating consequences. Finance, defense, Big pharma and agriculture all have their names on the national debt in the form of profits, but elderly American citizens are meant to go without the support they deserve after a lifetime of labour. Instead we are meant to be happy to sacrifice lower benefits later in life for the sake of bank profits and malinvestment by government officials. Ridiculous and unnecessary. We deserve better and until there is a real accounting of the nation's priorities outside of championing corporate interests, we will continue to fail our citizen population.
Still I'm hopeful. Like Winston Churchill said,"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else." But only the American people can do it and right now God help us they are not.
Well, we know Ben Bernancke, Henry Paulson and Timmy Geithner due to their proximity to the financial sector decided to subsidize banks, allow them to consolidate their interests and return within a matter of months, incredibly back to profitability. The reason given then and even more incredibly now, was that if we didn't the "economy" would be at risk of further contraction. Meanwhile, individuals and families, if they were lucky and haven't lost their job or house, or both, are merely strapped with so much debt they can't hope to pay it off in their lifetime let alone with positive return on investment.
So Bernancke, Paulson and Geithner held sway with the concensus view, but were there other ideas within the circles of power that were significantly different from the chosen path? The most striking break was proposed by then head of the FDIC Sheila Bair. While we chose not to regulate complex financial instruments, the regulatory institutions such as the FDIC existed and were functional. The job of the FDIC, as insurer of deposits, was then and is now, to take over failed banks and wind them down in a way that minimizes the cost to the economic system. So rather than billion dollar bailouts to Wall Street cronies, surely the troubled banks should have been handed over to the FDIC? This would have minimized the cost to the system as a whole and would have allowed for more balanced spending on the inevitable fallout from high unemployment and weak economic growth.
But this didn't happen. What we got was the opposite and as such, the consequences in Europe and the US continue to threaten the global economy. Now with the debt ceiling charade, valuable social programs that underpin families and the national fabric of American society are unnecessarily under attack.
Just days away from another apparent collapse of the US financial system resulting from a redundant, and unconstitutional charade, that is the debt ceiling debate, an unnecessary movement is about to lay sacrifice to these institutions. Social Security and Medicare, the most popular and effective social programs in history, cut in the name of an unbalanced approach, pinning bankers, that are unwilling to sacrifice their position of power over industry versus a public that is so misinformed it is allowing it to happen.
When will the American people finally wake up and demand politicians and policy makers to start making the right decisions? Until people gather together and demand an end to a government overruled by corporate interests, interests that in fact thrive as a result of the largess of the US taxpayer, we will continue to witness the outcome every day and with worringly accelerating consequences. Finance, defense, Big pharma and agriculture all have their names on the national debt in the form of profits, but elderly American citizens are meant to go without the support they deserve after a lifetime of labour. Instead we are meant to be happy to sacrifice lower benefits later in life for the sake of bank profits and malinvestment by government officials. Ridiculous and unnecessary. We deserve better and until there is a real accounting of the nation's priorities outside of championing corporate interests, we will continue to fail our citizen population.
Still I'm hopeful. Like Winston Churchill said,"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else." But only the American people can do it and right now God help us they are not.
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