Jun 08 2009
The Storm, It Would Seem, Apparently Continues …
As one would imagine, when I head out to the islands (with no electricity and no running water and such), I don’t keep up on the news as much as I might otherwise. Indeed, over the past couple years, I’ve realized that I can gather most of the news I need from the surf report.
Notwithstanding, I HAVE heard about this whole ‘global economic meltdown’ thingy that’s going on. And I heard from several sources — online, televised, written and otherwise — that there may be the stirrings of a genuine economic recovery starting back in the States.
But then I read this uplifting op-ed piece in today’s New York Times, from where the above picture was pilfered. The authors claim:
We are sympathetic to the extraordinary challenge the president faces, but if we’ve learned anything at all two years into the worst financial crisis of our lifetimes, it is that a capital-markets system this dependent on public confidence is a shockingly inadequate foundation upon which to rest our economy.
On the bright side, although one of the authors, Mr. Sandy Lewis, was convicted on federal charges of stock manipulation in 1989, he was pardoned by President Bill Clinton in 2001 and had his lifetime trading ban overturned by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2006. As such, he can obviously lend his talents towards fixing the current situation.
Umm … perhaps ‘fixing’ wasn’t the bast choice of wording.
Regardless, I’m sure Prez Obama will think ‘outside the box’ to sort this whole mess out. Oh yeah, although he promised to change the whole paradigm in Washington, he IS still just a politician — and a Democrat, at that. Which explains why he ‘handed over his economic policy to worn-out Wall Street gorgons like Larry Summers and Bob Rubin.’
Oh, okay. Well then, there must still be a whole bunch of other people who can still straighten this mess out from the outside-in, right?
I mean, consider Goldman Sachs’ new adviser, Arthur Levitt Jr., the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He’s gonna be helpful.
Oh wait, what’s that you say? Levitt helped convince Bill Clinton to make two of the most important bad decisions that led to this financial crisis. So now he’s still around helping to liaise between Goldman Sachs and the government.
Oh … okay. Yeah, I see your point — we’re all still pretty fucked. Okay then, I’m going back to the islands and stick to reading the surf reports.
We’d do just as well hiring some newly-minted MBA’s from some 4th tier business school. Or we could hire Sir Alan Stanford. It’s not as if he has anything else do to (besides tell his lawyers how to defend against the SEC ponzi scheme allegations). Hell… what’s Bernie Madoff doing these days?
Bernie Madoff was just a bottom feeder. This problem goes back further to the Regan era of deregulation. Clinton also contributed giving everyone, qulaified or not, the opportunity to get a mortage. And at comencement services across the US, baby boomers are apologizing for the mess we have left this generation, who is starting their adult life. Very sad.