Doesn’t it seem like there is a lot more corruption on Wall Street and in Washington DC than previously imagined? Of course, now that the Republicans are out of power, they are looking less corrupt than the Democrats, because there is no longer any point in bribing a Republican, but I am rapidly losing faith in the integrity of our elected representatives, regardless of Party, as well as the CEOs of large financial firms. I had no idea it was this bad, and apparently nobody else did either.
The brilliant Ivy League MBA grads making their fortunes on Wall Street, assisted by Congessional banking and financial services committees, and the SEC (McCain called for firing the head of the SEC. Was he wrong?), and emulated by their remoras around the world, have been enriching themselves at everyone else’s expense, as is their wont.
The European banks are sitting on $24 trillion worth of toxic assets. I don’t know what the figure is for U.S. banks, but it is a helluva lot more than the 1 or 2 or 3 trillion dollars that are going to be thrown at the problem, the liberal agenda disguised as “stimulus”.
In addition, pretty much every single municipal and state pension fund is insolvent. This is also true of most private union and corporate pension funds. This dog has not yet barked. The public pension funds are guaranteed. If they go bankrupt, then the taxpayer is legally required to pick up the tab. And apparently we will also be picking up the tab for the private union pension funds as well.
Salaries and benefits for the public sector are now generally superior to the private sector, thanks to public employee unions. This is going to become more the case, thanks to the stimulus. The unions supply the legislators with campaign contributions. The legislators supply the unions with pay raises, and guaranteed health care and pension benefits. Synergy. I understand that the adversary of the UAW is the management of the auto companies. Who is the adversary of the public employee unions? We are. Goodbye California.
President Obama has been getting a lot of heat lately for fear mongering. It’s a bum rap. The President has not even come close to saying how bad it really is. This stimulus bill and TARP bail-out is not going to make any discernible difference, one way or another, except to triple the national debt. We are all still a long way from being prepared to fully take in the enormity of this disaster.
I don’t know what is going to happen. Barack Obama doesn’t know what is going to happen. Timothy Geithner doesn’t know what is going to happen. Larry Summers doesn’t know what is going to happen. Paul Krugman doesn’t know what is going to happen. Larry Kudlow doesn’t know what is going to happen. Everybody is just guessing. My guess is that it will be very, very bad, worse than anyone imagines.
This is not an economic problem. I have a degree in Economics, but I am not so stupid as to believe that Economics is a Science, any more than psychology, sociology, astrology, or climate change. Physics is a science. This is a moral problem. We have sinned, and must be punished, or, to put it in Buddhist terms, we have been blinded by delusion, and have reaped the inevitable Karma. The only “solution” is to take what is coming to us in as enlightened a spirit as we can muster.