The War on the Economy...

I don’t claim to know much about the national economy, but I have been watching the Bush Administration for the past eight years and the financial crises of the “free market” for more than 20, and it looks to me like another theft of American treasure is underway.

From the S&L bailout in the 1980s, to the spectacular crashes of the Enrons and WorldComs, the pattern has been the same. First, regulation gets neutered and then the enforcement agencies are packed with insiders who come from the industries being “regulated.”

The resulting “free market” is then sold as the greatest thing since sliced bread and a handful of people make vast fortunes that exist largely on paper. Then one day, somebody realizes that a huge con game is being perpetrated and suddenly there is panic, then fear of collapse, followed by infusions of taxpayer dollars that end up in the coffers of the very people who created the “crisis.”

It’s a beautiful ponzi scheme and, willingly or not, we keep getting drawn in and then left holding the bag.

The Bush Administration, represented by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, has been pushing Congress to quickly pass a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry.

They were last seen warning the American public that letting the problems persist would have dire consequences for the national economy, and if they don’t act now the resulting meltdown could be catastrophic.

Additionally, they tell us, Paulson is the only one who can save us from the terrorists — oops, financial collapse — at the gate.

Under the proposed bailout, Paulson will be given dictatorial powers and none of his decisions will be subject to oversight.

Section 8 of the legislation states that, “Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”

The White House wants its Secretary to have total power over $700 billion that will have to be borrowed and then paid back by generations of American taxpayers. This legislation will take the power of the purse away from Congress and keep it in the executive branch.

Doesn’t this sound familiar? How is it any different from the other power grabs the administration has accomplished? This is the Patriot Act and the authorization for the use of force in Iraq applied to the economy and they’re using the same scare tactics and “no one else can save you” rhetoric they’ve been using since 9/11 to cow the American public and Congress into complicity.

It’s easy to watch George Bush speak and think we’re being led by a bunch of really stupid people, but I think he’s just a sad distraction from the people doing the real work of a corrupt cabal of thieves who have managed to insinuate themselves into our government, and pseudo-free-marketize our financial institutions.

The problem with their brand of free market is that the profits are the only part of it that’s free, while the risk has been fully socialized with our hard-earned tax dollars.
In a real free market, the immoral people who have instigated this mess would have the decency to jump out of the windows of their plush offices, ala 1929.

Instead, the former leaders of Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, et al. get to drift away with hundreds of millions of dollars in golden parachutes that we get to pay for, and then they are rehired as “consultants.”

Welcome to another expensive war we have no chance of winning.

Maybe we should consolidate the two parties into one glorious party and call it the National Socialists in order to reflect the true government agenda.

I don’t have any useful answers to our leadership crisis that won’t get me tossed in a cell at Gitmo. I’m just mad as hell.