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We have just barely begun to turn the corner in the worst financial crisis in 60 years and the big banks are determined to plant the seeds of the next one. They haven’t learned a thing, except that the big brother government they all love to rail against will bail them out of any crisis they create. So the cycle begins anew. The banks are raising salaries again. This may seem like nothing at first glance. The banks have been through a harrowing experience, they have been humbled and they need to bounce back. It’s a truly capitalist phenomenon. It’s also very sad to see.
Anyone who thinks that the big banks recklessness will stop at raising salaries back to pre-crisis level is obscenely naïve. The culture of greed is still thriving. As we begin to put some distance between ourselves and the bottom of this crisis, the old risk taking behaviors will resurface. The so-called geniuses who designed the financial derivatives that brought us to the brink of disaster want another shot at it. This time, they will think they can correct their mistakes and we won’t end up back in the same situation. Their financial models will help them hide the truth that once the dice start tumbling in the wrong direction, they lose control. It doesn’t really matter to them, they feel no responsibility. They’ve never apologized for creating the crisis in which we are now mired. Remember the executives from AIG who blamed the regulations for their failure.
President Obama cannot ignore the implications of this return to normalcy. His biggest responsibility to the American people is to make sure that no later generation of Americans has to go through what we are going through now. The big banks don’t care about us. They are a bureaucracy like any other and the only purpose they serve is to perpetuate themselves. Unless President Obama issues a clear signal the excesses in risk that brought us here need to be eliminated from the system, it is inevitable that we will have to suffer through a crisis like this again at some point. The question will then be, will the United States have the financial ability and the world support we need to pull us through again? When we arrive at that moment in the future, President Obama’s legacy will then be blackened (no pun intended) for all time, in the same way that Alan Greenspan’s has been. That is not the way a man of vision like President Obama should be remembered.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Only in Texas
A policeman in Texas gave a wonderful demonstration today of the lack of self respect that pervades the American psyche. At what should have been a routine traffic stop, an officer felt he needed to subdue a 72 year old great grandmother with a taser gun. The absurdity of the situation was caught by the officer’s dashboard camera. Because the woman was less than fully cooperative, the officer began barking commands at her like a Nazi drill instructor. When the woman had the nerve to stand up to the verbal abuse of an officer who has sworn to serve the public good, she was subdued by the use of a device which disrupts the heart beat of the victim, rendering them temporarily helpless.
The officer’s supervisor was interviewed and stated flatly the officer in question acted properly and that he would have done the same thing. He stated emphatically that you don’t talk back to the police, and that the officer was acting to make sure that the woman didn’t wander into traffic and get herself killed.
There are a couple of things wrong with that statement. First, if a policeman feels he has the authority to treat an elderly woman in such careless fashion, with no consideration for her possible health condition, then that officer needs a little sensitivity training. Second, unless the woman demonstrated signs of dementia, I would assume that there is a very low probability of her willingly wandering into traffic. That renders the supposed reason for tasering the woman utterly invalid.
Granted, the woman in question did not behave like a recent charm school graduate. But that still does not give that officer the right to use such overwhelming force when he is not threatened in any way.
Let me point out something that should be obvious. Lack of self respect cannot be hidden beneath an overinflated ego. If that man was forced to switch places with the woman he so carelessly tasered, he might begin to appreciate the senselessness of his action. I say might, because a man so drunk with power would probably have a hard time assimilating new behaviors.
Just another reason why I never want to go to Texas.
The officer’s supervisor was interviewed and stated flatly the officer in question acted properly and that he would have done the same thing. He stated emphatically that you don’t talk back to the police, and that the officer was acting to make sure that the woman didn’t wander into traffic and get herself killed.
There are a couple of things wrong with that statement. First, if a policeman feels he has the authority to treat an elderly woman in such careless fashion, with no consideration for her possible health condition, then that officer needs a little sensitivity training. Second, unless the woman demonstrated signs of dementia, I would assume that there is a very low probability of her willingly wandering into traffic. That renders the supposed reason for tasering the woman utterly invalid.
Granted, the woman in question did not behave like a recent charm school graduate. But that still does not give that officer the right to use such overwhelming force when he is not threatened in any way.
Let me point out something that should be obvious. Lack of self respect cannot be hidden beneath an overinflated ego. If that man was forced to switch places with the woman he so carelessly tasered, he might begin to appreciate the senselessness of his action. I say might, because a man so drunk with power would probably have a hard time assimilating new behaviors.
Just another reason why I never want to go to Texas.
Obama's Missed Opportunity
President Obama is truly missing an opportunity to do some long term good. Today he appointed Kenneth Feinberg as a “compensation czar” at the Treasury department to oversee the pay of top executive at companies that have received federal bailout money. He should have gone much further. The compensation of upper management at all corporations needs to be regulated. The coupling between compensation and reason has been severed. There is no moral or economic justification for anyone who manages others to be paid hundreds of times more than the people he or she manages. All the talk thrown around in conservative circles about the need to design exorbitant pay packages to retain top people is absolute garbage. It completely reinforces the social inequity that has become ingrained in the consciousness of corporate America. As I pointed out in my previous post, the concept of shared sacrifice has disappeared from the vast majority of American minds.
Only when the culture of greed is purged and the dollar becomes an instrument for social improvement instead of an end in itself will we start on the long road toward recovering our self respect and repairing our wounded economy.
Only when the culture of greed is purged and the dollar becomes an instrument for social improvement instead of an end in itself will we start on the long road toward recovering our self respect and repairing our wounded economy.
Republican Party Suicide and the Concept of Shared Sacrifice
The Republican Party continues to slit its own throat by planting the psychological seeds for the failure of President Obama’s economic recovery program. No one can tell whether or not the plan will produce the desired results or lead us to a lower standard of living that will last for generations. But it should at least be given a chance and there have been some positive signs lately of the beginnings of a recovery.
There are three things I do know for sure. First, if Obama was taking a laissez faire approach and allowing the economy to stand or fail on its own, Republicans would be screaming that he is a “do nothing President.”
Second, I haven’t seen one credible alternative plan presented by the President’s opponents. All Republicans can do is talk about stimulating spending and investment by cutting taxes, the same plan that did nothing to prevent the current crisis from happening. It’s a failed philosophy but it plays well among those who would benefit most from further tax cuts.
Third, there is no way we are going to get out of this current crisis and sustain anything near the standard of living we have become used to without raising taxes. Yesterday, I watched an appearance on Good Morning America by Peter Peterson, a billionaire, who pointed out that the unfunded, “off balance sheet” liabilities of the US government total 56 trillion dollars. Yes that’s trillion folks and it’s five times the amount of the known, more publicized national debt. This is the shameful legacy of apathy and complacency that we have left to our children and grandchildren.
Mr. Peterson made a comment that I have written about many times before. He talked about the concept of shared sacrifice and the fact that it has become career suicide for any politician to suggest that we all have to join together as a national community and accept the fact that the economic landscape has been permanently, negatively altered. Of course, in order to make this point to the American people, both political parties would have to admit to their failure of leadership and we all know that is not too likely. The Republicans embody this reality by pandering to their ever shrinking base through proposals that will increase the economic inequality that is at the root of our current problems.
The most amusing part of the story was that the Republicans were happy to have an actor speaking at their function and agreeing with them, as if having one representative of moral bankruptcy on their side validates their judgment of the President’s performance to date.
It would be so nice if they came up with something original instead of pointing fingers and calling names like testosterone filled teenagers in a locker room. But I am not holding my breath.
There are three things I do know for sure. First, if Obama was taking a laissez faire approach and allowing the economy to stand or fail on its own, Republicans would be screaming that he is a “do nothing President.”
Second, I haven’t seen one credible alternative plan presented by the President’s opponents. All Republicans can do is talk about stimulating spending and investment by cutting taxes, the same plan that did nothing to prevent the current crisis from happening. It’s a failed philosophy but it plays well among those who would benefit most from further tax cuts.
Third, there is no way we are going to get out of this current crisis and sustain anything near the standard of living we have become used to without raising taxes. Yesterday, I watched an appearance on Good Morning America by Peter Peterson, a billionaire, who pointed out that the unfunded, “off balance sheet” liabilities of the US government total 56 trillion dollars. Yes that’s trillion folks and it’s five times the amount of the known, more publicized national debt. This is the shameful legacy of apathy and complacency that we have left to our children and grandchildren.
Mr. Peterson made a comment that I have written about many times before. He talked about the concept of shared sacrifice and the fact that it has become career suicide for any politician to suggest that we all have to join together as a national community and accept the fact that the economic landscape has been permanently, negatively altered. Of course, in order to make this point to the American people, both political parties would have to admit to their failure of leadership and we all know that is not too likely. The Republicans embody this reality by pandering to their ever shrinking base through proposals that will increase the economic inequality that is at the root of our current problems.
The most amusing part of the story was that the Republicans were happy to have an actor speaking at their function and agreeing with them, as if having one representative of moral bankruptcy on their side validates their judgment of the President’s performance to date.
It would be so nice if they came up with something original instead of pointing fingers and calling names like testosterone filled teenagers in a locker room. But I am not holding my breath.
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