If you’re into Current Events like me (I have always been long before the Small-Fingered Vulgarian) there has been a flood of stories on the tenth anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and how it was the beginning of the Great Recession. Bear Stearns’ demise earlier that Spring didn’t seem to be a strong enough warning.
I remember how there was panic, especially in the voice and face of president Spurious George (he is still one of the crappiest presidents despite Trump proving to be even worse). You could tell he was in over his head and scared as his voice quivered. He should remain the person to blame at the top, his party and their litany for deregulation caused this disaster; History show the Republicans have a pattern of leaving the Economy in the ditch when they leave office. Slowly the government and the Federal Reserve finally acted but I think they did too late. Foreclosures went off like mushroom clouds in numerous cities, mainly Las Vegas, Phoenix, all over Florida (never a surprise) and parts of California. I was very fortunate to be in Austin which weathered the storm relatively unscathed. Sure, the value of my house declined for a few years yet it didn’t matter; we weren’t selling anytime soon and we owed less than its current worth. Employment for us was the other stroke of good luck and people used to say Apple was going to die back in the Nineties, HA!
Then Obama won and as expected, he got all the blame because he was saddled with all the the difficult decisions while the GOP focused on making him a one-term president. The stimulus package should’ve been much, much larger too. However, deficits only matter when a Democrat is POTUS and if they’re Black, well the GOP needs to ensure we’re not drifting into a Zimbabwe-like dictatorship. According to most experts, wages remained stagnant thanks to this emergency as the Western governments had to focus putting out the fires caused by the sociopaths of Wall Street. Other countries foolishly implemented austerity measures, the last thing to do but then again, few have learned anything from the Great Depression or the numerous bank panics Capitalism is prone to.
Now they say the “worst” is over yet we’re probably on our way towards another. Why?
- The West spent most of its energy on saving the One Percent from their crappy decisions while stiff-arming everybody else.
- De-regulation remains the plan du jour, never mind how laissez-faire always fuels economic disasters; Capitalism is an amoral economic system, not a government.
- The banks are bigger than ever.
- Nationalism is on the rise thanks to the bail outs. Teabaggers, Nazis and the decline of democracy in Poland, Turkey and Hungary.
I remember one Conservative apologist spouting off the moldy chestnut of personal responsibility, those people who couldn’t afford a house had no right borrowing the money in the first place. Sure, there was fraud involved like false pay stubs. However, the ethicist for The New York Times had the correct response I retorted with, even before I heard him on the radio; the people who borrowed shouldn’t have done what they did but the more responsible parties are the banks who knowingly loaned the money in the first place. They knew damn well what they were doing and risking. They did it because all the safe customers were taken, they found a way to make a profit through their bogus fees and they constructed toxic products to pass the risk on to everyone. Modern banking isn’t satisfied with routine and safety, it prefers to gamble and with our money.
Much of the negative aftermath could’ve been avoided if more people went to prison for fraud, which is what took place. Thanks to Enron’s destruction taking Arthur Anderson with it (never mind the firm was a co-conspirator), Obama’s DOJ took a pussy position on prosecuting the wrong doers for fear it would destroy the employment of thousands more. Personally, I don’t care. We all know who we work for and I too am quite aware of my employer’s blind spots, no corporation or government agency is 100% moral (or Lawful Good in gamers’ terms). The DOJ, SEC and Treasury should’ve pursued putting those Wall Street thieves into orange jump suits instead of putting duct tape over it.
Now we’re heading full steam into either another real-estate bubble or worse given the political situations around the world as many nations turn their backs on Economist-style political-economic societies. I don’t entirely blame them neither, NeoLiberalism which is what that English rag preaches, will always fail for it puts economics before society and naively believes free thinking and free trade will follow, bullshit. There are numerous autocracies which are very Capitalist, namely China.
Until the next economic disaster which I’m confident Trump will usher in, remember the words of H. G. Wells.
Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe
