One thing that has become increasingly clear is that our body politic is sick. Our government is broken, filled with a bunch of political posturing and bullshit and increasingly irrelevant to the point where it can't achieve anything of real consequence anymore even if it's something as simple as preventing a deflationary spiral where they fucking control the printing presses for cryin' out loud. But you know, this isn't accident. This is exactly the way a significant demographic of America wanted it.
The Boomer generation wanted to believe that all these restrictions on what they could do by The Man were, like, just bummer, man. They ought to be free to do whatever they felt like doing, man! So they elected politicians who felt the same way and eliminated all those, like, regulations, that were just like so uncool and stuff 'cause like they were The Man tellin' ya that ya can't do something, and now guess what? H.L. Mencken once said that democracy is the notion that "the common people know what they want, and ought to get it good and hard." What we're seeing now is exactly what a huge demographic of the American public wanted, good and hard, serviced like a mare being serviced by a stallion. I'm irritated that the majority that didn't see the worth of these regulations and such are taking me along for the ride, but so it goes.
In short, when you have an entire generation that believes that The Man is, like, just bummer, man, running the show, an entire generation that believes that reality is, like, bummer, man, and that the solution to reality is to run off into your own hedonistic drug trips and sex and rock'n'roll, then you get a nation where the majority believes government is the problem rather than the solution. And then... (shrug). If you believe government is the problem rather than the solution, is it any wonder that government starts falling apart?
-- Badtux the Bummed Penguin
Here's a question for you. What happens if they spend this $700B and we still hit a prolonged recession or minor depression, because that is what my gut is saying will happen. And I'd rather not spend the money then.
ReplyDeleteIt's a bond swap, U.S. Treasuries for mortgage-backed securities. It's basically turning on the printing presses. The more I hear about the original plan the more I think it was targeted at the wrong financial instruments, but in principle, if you targeted it at the mortgage-backed securities at the base of the derivatives pile then you end the immediate liquidity crisis.
ReplyDeleteAs for a recession, we're in one now. We'll stay in one because the fundamentals of the economy are anything but strong. We're sinking too much of the nation's wealth into the sands of Iraq and the jagged ridges of Afghanistan, and the economy is going to just keep sliding down the toilet as long as we're doing that... but at least we can avoid a deflationary spiral in the process. A deflationary spiral on top of a recession... oh boy. I just do not want to go there.
- Badtux the Economics Penguin