As of today September 29, 2008, the international news media was reporting the “stunning defeat” of the Bush administration’s proposed bailout program for AIG and other “tanking” big companies that are on the verge of collapse. All kinds of dire predictions are out there: credit has been frozen, your company won’t be able to borrow money to make payroll so you will lose your job, US unemployment will rise to 12%+, the rest of the world will descend into economic conditions that will be worse than the Great Depression of 1929, etc. What we need to do is to analyze the situation and to realize that “the sky is falling in” can well be a tactic to force people to support policies that are detrimental to them and beneficial for the fearmongers.
All of this began in 1980 when Ronald Reagan was elected President of the United States. His stated domestic economic mantra was “deregulation.” “There’s too much regulation. It drives up the cost of doing business and makes it difficult to compete in a global market. Get rid of all those rules and regulations. We need freedom to operate the way we want.”
From then on, regulations governing the conduct of business were stripped away one by one. Trouble was, that regulation of business is absolutely necessary to protect the public from extremely wealthy and therefore very powerful, unscrupulous people. The 10th century Vikings had nothing on these guys. They rob and pillage, and in a deregulated environment (Belize is special, no regulations are ever enforced if you have money), the sky is the limit if you are smarter-read a bit less arrogant-than the late Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling of Enron fame or the guy from WorldCom, Dennis Kozlowski, who openly spent millions of company money on art treasures, you won’t be doing 25 years in Federal prison. The difference between Belize and the US is that, in Belize you can stuff it into your pockets on national TV and, instead of going to jail, you will probably be nominated for an MBE!
One of the other things about too many businessmen is that they are incorrigible liars. The airline industry was one of the first businesses deregulated during the Reagan years. It claims to be in a shambles today, largely because of “high fuel prices.” Too bad most people don’t know that the airlines buy what are called “futures contracts” for fuel. This means that they lock in anywhere from ten to twenty years of fuel at a current price! Fuel can sky, but the airlines are laughing all the way to the bank. When they raise ticket prices “because of rising fuel costs,” they kinda forget to tell the public what they did!
George Bush the 1st, the current President’s father, continued Reagan’s policies until he lost his bid for reelection in 1992 to Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton is pretty much regarded as a great Democratic President, a reverser of Republican policies, and, because of his saxophone playing, his love of blues, etc., and his social affinity for black people as, “the first black President,” but the razor sharp author, filmmaker and commentator Michael Moorer has called him, “The best Republican President we have ever had.”
Mr. Clinton recently suggested that weed should be “decriminalized.” As comedian Bill Maher responded, “Gee, Mr. Clinton. It’s a shame you were never in a position of power to pursue your beliefs.”
During Bill Clinton’s 8 years in the White House, America’s prison population exploded, filled with primarily non-violent drug offenders. What was even more significant was that when Mr. Clinton was inaugurated in 1992, the US media consisted of over 500+ independent stations and innumerable independent newspapers.
This variety and independence was the result of regulation. Media laws controlled the number of television stations, radio stations and newspaper outlets that could be controlled by a single company. These regulations were intended to protect the public from media giants that were trying to take over so many media outlets so that they could have control over the information available to the public. By the time Bill Clinton left office, the media had been deregulated to the point that there were 4 to 10 major media outlets! This means that countless newspapers, cable TV outlets, along with satellite TV outlets, are owned by one conglomerate, which promotes its own agenda. No more free media; only small independent Public Broadcasting Stations with limited range and a small audience!
George Bush’s 8-year presidency opened the deregulation floodgates wide. The fat cats were given carte blanche to do whatever they thought that they could get away with, and boy, did they go for it. Now big company after big company is going belly up. The Bush administration and their supporters are saying, “We must save them in order to save the world financial system!” My question is, “Why?”
First of all, does anyone think that bankers don’t protect other bankers’ backs? How difficult would it be for banks to freeze or restrict credit in order to try to scare the public into believing that this is a major crisis? One economist who has a radio talk show was interviewed on CNN and stated that he had applied for a mortgage ten days ago and it was approved! The response was, “Well, you must have good credit!” But in the next breath they say, “All credit is frozen!”
Some economic guru said, “General Motors has used all its available credit. It can’t make enough money to pay its bills.” General Motors has been a disaster waiting to happen for 40 years. If it can’t make enough money to pay its bills, how would lending more fix the problem? What will the US government do, bail out GM next?
As far as I am concerned these people can take all their stories and shove them. Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” asked their financial “expert” Maria Bartoloto, “C’mon, how long will it take this bailout to reach the people on Main Street?” The response? “By 2010!” That sure is going to help the average citizen facing foreclosure or the small businessman who has to deal with higher costs and fewer customers who spend less.
The facts are that this is the old Reagan “trickle down” theory revisited. Give it all to those who already have and some of it will trickle down to those who don’t have. This was the Musa-Fonseca economic policy in a nutshell. It didn’t work in America, it didn’t work here and it won’t work anywhere!
The other thing that is really a sad joke is the concept of “the world financial system.” Millions of people in this world live on $1.00 US dollar per day-if you can call that living. There are countries where the per capita income is less than $100 US dollars per year. These are not poor countries, countries without resources. Their resources have been stolen by politicians, military “leaders” and their crooked associates. Most of that money has left those countries, while people starve. Our cell phones are the rage, but millions of people have never even seen, much less used, a dial telephone. Are they part of “the world financial system?”
Almost all the major crises in the American financial system were caused by greed and speculation. These guys don’t give a damn. They will get their bailout when they should have to put up bail to get out! The “trickle down theory” should have been renamed “socialism for the rich” a long time ago. Of course, as soon as people begin talking about universal health care or free education, things like that, the wealthy scream, “That’s socialism. We don’t want that!” What a f—ng joke!