20 March 2009

Semi-deep thought:

Everyone is angry about the dreadful state of the economy. They're looking for someone to blame: President Obama, Treasury Sec. Tim Geithner, Sen. Chris Dodd, AIG, the Big Banks, or perhaps all of us hapless middle-class Americans who believed the money peopel when they said getting rich was easy -- just use credit! -- and the value of our investments could only ever go up.

But I think the real blame lies with George W. Bush and our Congress -- mainly the Republicans but some of the Democrats too -- who sat and watched the bubble grow and grow over the last eight years and did ... nothing. Nada. Zip. They're the ones we should be blaming. They're the ones we elected to make sure that this sort of thing couldn't happen. They should all be facing, at the very least, intense public humiliation. Ideally, they should be tried for criminal incompetence and greed.

5 comments:

robin andrea said...

I absolutely agree. This economy didn't fall apart on January 20th. It took many years for the greed and self-interest to exhaust every last avenue of enrichment. We became an economy that rewarded wealth over work, and this is how it played out. Yes, people should be going to jail for this.

Joe said...

Goes to show you--commit a big enough crime and everyone will likely be so stunned and disbelieving that you might actually get away with it.

will said...

I agree the rabid ferrets have been getting away with murder - but the vast majority have not taken control of their democracy for some time.

Everyone's hands are dirty. How many have actually walked the walls of city halls, state capitols or congress? Talked with their representatives? Joined action groups? Done anything political (besides voting)?

On the other hand, in the vacuum of non active citizenry, lobbyist have gone crazy.

Nunzia Rider said...

I blame Ronald Reagan, his administration, the Congress during his administration, and everybody who came after. Including Bill Clinton.

Right now we're seeing the first actual efforts to do something about the unsustainable economy that Reagonomics bequeathed us -- just like you said, Wren. Buy buy buy and put it on credit, don't worry , you'll eventually be RICH.

Liars. Suckers, we, for believing the snake oil salesmen.

But the actual efforts to fix this have come far to late for an easy fix. It's going to require some monumental efforts on everyone's part -- and yet we still have those same myopic idiots who put us here demanding that we keep doing the same things.

The level of denial in this country is pretty amazing right now, and frankly, one of the folks most affected by it is our Treasury Secretary, Timmeh, who is, actually, one of the people who put us here.

I'm completely unsurprised that he did nothing about AIG. He helped negotiate their original bailout back when he was New York Fed chairman.

The financial system in this country has already collapsed. The quicker we admit that, the quicker we can really get on with fixing it.

Lucy said...

It's such a relief to read something that's written with thoughtfulness and without political positioning. I'm glad I stopped by, and I'm sorry it's been so long.