The greatest victim of the current economic turmoil is public confidence. It has been dying a slow death as more and more details emerge. Major financial institutions are on the take for hundreds of billions of dollars from the public trough that they have not earned. They're getting the money for having failed. Major executives of these firms are being put out to pasture with millions of dollars to help them get through.
Meanwhile, government officials from the White House on down and sideways and the Members of the Congress are struggling to get the money to banks, major lenders and all sorts of financial folks while ordinary citizens are having homes repossessed. Had these same homeowners pleaded with the president and the Congress for health care subsidies and other assistance, the screams of socialism would be heard across the nation.....but not when corporate socialism is found to be simply necessary.
What can be done at a minimum to help restore some modicum of public confidence? There are answers. Among them is the need to bring these scoundrels to the bar of justice and try them for what they have done to millions of people who were lured by heavy handed advertising and phony promises to take on credit the lenders should not have showered them with under false pretenses. And those who should be indicted include high government officials who looked the other way, from the White House to Congress to agencies whose job it has been to regulate credit.
As you read this, however, some clever propagandists are working very hard to put most of the blame for this growing catastrophe right on the public, as if there are no rules for creating and giving credit at all levels....even as little has been done to the very politicians and financial houses who have grown fat from their malpractices.
Millions of people are waiting to see if these power brokers are as vulnerable to justice as the rest of us. Americans have witnessed the tragic results of the Savings and Loan scandals that cost more than $800 billion. They have seen the losses resulting from the Enron situation.
Americans want now to know when the people who brought the nation to this sad and criminal circumstance will be tried for their acts and penalized accordingly.
If you accept this reality, you should contact your Congressional representative right now because he or she is running for reelection as you read this. Ask what will be done to bring the perpetrators to justice publicly and severely. Contact your local radio and television stations and other media in your area and ask the same questions. Unless they hear from you right away, your opinions will have no weight.
And let me know what you do and how they respond.
Your turn.
joe
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2 comments:
I find it interesting that "the powers that be" now seem to be posing Fanny and Freddy to take the fall for this fiasco.
Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure the real culprits will get lost in the confusion.
Bob
Good point, Bob. But there is no mystery in all of this. When I was interviewed by a major financial publication almost 4 years ago and asked my thoughts on the then hot housing market, I said we were in for a disaster. I did not expect the boss editor to respond, saying:
"Joe, you're of your damned mind!"
When I explained what I thought lots of people knew about what we now call subprime mortgages, he didn't change his tune. Here we are because regulators failed to regulate and lenders failed in their responsiblities to say "no" once in a while but making commissions on every single badloan.
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