Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Terrorism is far less dangerous than rich industrialists high on greed and stupidity

If the housing bubble and its resultant economic collapse have shown us nothing, it is that terrorists are far less destructive to the US economy, and with it the country's national security, than good, old-fashioned greed. The September 11th attacks killed thousands of people, completely obliterating two of the most significant pillars of capitalism on the face of the Earth in what seems now to have been the blink of an eye.

At the time, our economy slumped and stumbled, as we and our financial markets tried to absorb how radically our perception of the world had changed. It was obvious we were going to war, just as it was obvious that our country was far from impervious to the perils that had beset the world "over there" for decades. September 11th changed the game in much the same way Pearl Harbor did in 1941. Thousands of civilians died without a single rifle being fired. That sort of tragedy was not supposed to happen here, and absolutely not without such horrific effectiveness. But it did happen and America was on its heels. The country went to war with Afghanistan, the President's cronies decided Iraq was the next logical step, and the rest is history.

Things slowed, but the economy did not crash. There was no talk of another Great Depression, and there was confidence that our nation would quickly be back on course and steaming ahead once again.

Meanwhile, a housing boom began to gain momentum throughout the country, with Florida being one of the hottest of the hot zones for real estate. I remember it well, because I was house shopping around the time things began to really take off. The "interest only" and "80/20" loans, things I had not ever heard of before, were discussed repeatedly with the mortgage broker working on my potential deals, despite my stated desire for a 30-year fixed arrangement. Ultimately, I ended up going back to school, rather than buying a home, right around the time that the market peaked. People were buying homes they could not afford and banks were writing loans as if the good times would never end. Fast forward 2 years, and it is pretty clear luck was on my side at the time.

Apparently, the wealthy egomaniacs running America's financial institutions had decided that giving loans to people with below par credit ratings was as good as money, assuming one bundled all of these high risk loans into packages called mortgage backed securities. Unless you have been smashed beneath a financier leaping to his death, you are already well aware of what happened next. In less than 2 years, the economy has been ground down to a near halt. Many Americans are out of work because of failed businesses like Lehman Brothers and even more are expected to find themselves unemployed as the awareness that our economy is in deep trouble begins to sink in.

If you believe what the "experts" are saying, we are in an incredibly deep pile of dog dung. The credit markets have slowed to a halt, the government, which has already been running record deficits for nearly a decade, is now trying to find a means of committing $700,000,000,000 in taxpayer moneys it does not have to a bailout plan that no one is sure will work, even as many economists are saying that things can only get worse, before they will get better. This crisis has nothing to do with terrorism, or September 11, 2001, but it is much closer in size and scope to the sort of thing that could actually cripple this country for decades to come.

The company I work for has laid off over a thousand employees for no other reason than to cut costs, and plans to layoff hundreds more over the coming year. These people are Americans, being replaced by Indians with fewer skills and far less experience, undermining what is left of a dwindling pool of intellectual capital. These madmen share the mindset of greed and profits at all costs that guided Washington and Wall Street down this road to ruin. To these people, humans are not humans, they are corporate resources to be acquired, drained and discarded. Our executives have turned their backs on America and Americans, even as America and those Americans have worked to make them filthy rich, just as Wall Street seems to have turned its back on common sense and sound financial practices in favor of a quick buck. And just like Wall Street, a few people will reap the benefits, becoming even more obscenely rich, while a far greater number of Americans suffer. And what will be done about this treason? Well, I can assure you there will be no employee bailout.

In the end, corporate profits are more important than the collective health of hundreds, thousands and millions of Americans.

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Posted by Erik @ 9/30/2008 09:51:00 PM