[quote=patientrenter]partypup, you make it sound like some little cabal of upper-echelon US bankers and policy administrators are selling out the US. In a way, that is happening. But they are simply trying to find ways for the American people – you know, that huge mass of innocence and goodness and light – to continue to do what they insist on doing. What do they insist on? Investing without saving, spending without earning. House prices and stock prices going up forever, and borrowing without end.
What’s going on between Geithner and Hu and all the other leaders is not THEM, it’s US. Blaming THEM is just compounding our failure to act responsibly by not even taking responsibility in the first place.
I realize conspiracy theories are a lot sexier, but they end up letting the people who are really irresponsible off the hook.[/quote]
Unfortunately, this isn’t even a conspiracy theory. These shenanigans are being perpetrated in broad daylight!
I do agree with you, PR, that for years the government tools have been doing their best to preserve the myth that Americans seemed to want to buy into, but here’s where I disagree with you: all that has changed now. Americans have just been bitch-slapped, and their tune has changed dramatically.
if Obama got on TV and leveled with Americans (not scaring them to death with no real plan, which is what he has been doing so far), I believe Americans would make the right choice:
OBAMA: My fellow Americans, as I told you last week, we’re OUT of money. This is a situation that we all share some responsibility for. You all were greedy, and so were we. So here we are. Now, we’ve really only got two choices, because a world of pain is coming no matter what we do. The question is, what kind of American do YOU want to live in when the pain is finally over?
We can continue to prop up our dollar, which we know is going to collapse in the near future if we keep spending, but that will require kissing so much Chinese ass that by the time a recovery comes, we’ll have a collapsed dollar AND no real assets (we’ll have to give those to the Chinese to “buy time” – we don’t need Hummers, Yellowstone, our NASA program anyway, right?); or we can pull the plug now, stop the bailouts, stop the insane borrowing, let interest rates rise, let the markets crumble and allow capitalism to work the way we have always trusted that it will: efficiently. The strong will eat the weak – and there will undoubtedly only be a few strong left to make the recovery – but when the smoke clears, we’ll have a sound currency and we will also have the fundamental structure in place to come back.
It’s your choice, America. Which will it be?
PR, if it were laid out like this to Americans, they would demand what they have been demanding for the last year: an end to our pointless and insane spending, and an end to the Chinese funding of our pointless and insane spending. Americans have learned their lesson, IMO, and just want this nightmare to be over with.
But Obama won’t do this, and neither will his party (or the GOP, for that matter) because they have one goal: to keep the Titanic floating until the next election. Period. If Americans had the power to stop the Obama deficit juggernaut in its tracks now, the economy would collapse and Obama would be run from the White House with pitch forks and torches. But clearly government tools in charge will do everything to stop this for as long as they can.
So yes, I do draw a distinction between THEM and US right now – because 70% of all Americans opposed TARP, and nearly as many opposed the $787 billion stimulus package. We have wanted out of Iraq since 2006 when the the Dems were swept into power in Congress (and they REALLY listened to voters, didn’t they?). Americans may have been complicit in the making of this disaster, but their voices are now being ignored when it comes to fixing it.
[quote=patientrenter]If we lived in an old-fashioned kingdom under an absolute monarch, or some other top-down political system, then the right people to blame would be the few people at the very top. But we live in a democracy, imperfect as it is. Our politicians’ actions reflect, mostly, what we the voters demand.[/quote]
Exactly how do you figure that our politicians’ actions reflect, mostly, what we the voters demand? As far as I can tell – be it the Iraq War, TARP, or a litany of other issues – the government tools have simply checked out at this point. They don’t give a s*** what we think or what we want, and I’d love for you to provide proof to the contrary. Because from where I stand, this place is starting to look a lot less like a democracy and a lot more like something I’m not familiar with. Christ, we’re following the Prom King and Queen to a taxpayer-funded date night in NYC! It’s starting to look and smell a lot like the UK monarchy to me 😉
There’s nothing sexy going on here, PR. This is all about the politics of power preservation. Bob said above that we welcomes an increase in interest rates and hyperinflation – if only to stop the jokers in Washington in their tracks and run the socialists out of town. I think there are more Americans than you can count who feel exactly the same way – and I happen to be one of them.
Voters want to stop Obama, but they are powerless to do so now. That die was cast on November 7. Now all we can do is stand by and watch the looting, plundering and pillaging as the goons give away what’s left until 2012. And if anything is still left at that point, they’ll loot some more. After that. they’ll probably be done with us.
