Gandalf: Addressing the finance component of your post above, I would point out something that I believe is key and that is: In terms of fraud or criminal activity, none of what transpired is new. What I mean by that is, while the scope and breadth of what happened is truly awe-inspiring, Wall Street really wasn’t up to any new shit, in terms of fucking Joe Sixpack and Main Street, USA over.
Granted, they certainly had new weapons in the arsenal (Warren Buffett’s “Weapons of Mass Destruction”, derivative products) and weapons that were capable of incredible damage (all of which still hasn’t happened, in my opinion), but the flash and trash shilling and touting are the same old, same old, just tarted up in a new outfit and turned out to trick for Daddy.
And Dems and Repubs bear equal blame for allowing this shit to happen and for so long. If we’re going to demonize Barney Frank, then we have to trash Phil Gramm, too. Include Frank Keating and John McCain, going back to the “Keating Five” and the S&L Crisis (which we apparently didn’t learn from, either). Throw Nixon under the bus for closing the gold window. This whole sordid, shitty mess has been thirty plus years in the making and the toilet finally overflowed.
Ultimately, though, we’re to blame. The American people. If our politicians are inept, venal and corrupt, what does that say about us as a citizenry? You call these “Wall Street fuckers” on their lack of honesty, integrity and responsibility, but what about ours? What about our civic responsibility and the social contract? What about being good neighbors, and informed voters and just generally decent? What the fuck happened to us? When did we turn into a bunch of whining, puerile, narcissistic little ego monkey victims? What happened to the country that won WWII and put a man on the moon and built the most vibrant, dynamic economic colossus in history?
We need to stop pointing fingers and cowboy the fuck up. Shut up and get the damn job done. We beat the Nazis, the Japanese and the Soviets and all of them at the height of their game. We put them out of business and permanently. Time to find our balls again and start swinging that goddamn hammer like we mean it.
