We been Third World.
That's not Africa in the picture that's East St. Louis. We been in the Third World, White people. Or have you not been paying attention?Hey U.S., welcome to the Third World!
It's been a quick slide from economic superpower to economic basket case.
By Rosa Brooks Columists for the Los Angeles Times
Dear United States, Welcome to the Third World!
It's not every day that a superpower makes a bid to transform itself into a Third World nation, and we here at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund want to be among the first to welcome you to the community of states in desperate need of international economic assistance. As you spiral into a catastrophic financial meltdown, we are delighted to respond to your Treasury Department's request that we undertake a joint stability assessment of your financial sector. In these turbulent times, we can provide services ranging from subsidized loans to expert advisors willing to perform an emergency overhaul of your entire government.
As you know, some outside intervention in your economy is overdue. Last week -- even before Wall Street's latest collapse -- 13 former finance ministers convened at the University of Virginia and agreed that you must fix your "broken financial system." Australia's Peter Costello noted that lately you've been "exporting instability" in world markets, and Yashwant Sinha, former finance minister of India, concluded, "The time has come. The U.S. should accept some monitoring by the IMF."
We hope you won't feel embarrassed as we assess the stability of your economy and suggest needed changes. Remember, many other countries have been in your shoes. We've bailed out the economies of Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia and South Korea. But whether our work is in Sudan, Bangladesh or now the United States, our experts are committed to intervening in national economies with care and sensitivity.
We thus want to acknowledge the progress you have made in your evolution from economic superpower to economic basket case. Normally, such a process might take 100 years or more. With your oscillation between free-market extremism and nationalization of private companies, however, you have successfully achieved, in a few short years, many of the key hallmarks of Third World economies.
Your policies of irresponsible government deregulation in critical sectors allowed you to rapidly develop an energy crisis, a housing crisis, a credit crisis and a financial market crisis, all at once, and accompanied (and partly caused) by impressive levels of corruption and speculation. Meanwhile, those of your political leaders charged with oversight were either napping or in bed with corporate lobbyists.
Take John McCain, your Republican presidential nominee, whose senior staff includes half a dozen prominent former lobbyists. As he recently put it, "I was chairman of the [Senate] Commerce Committee that oversights every part of the economy." No question about it: Your leaders' failure to notice the damage done by irresponsible deregulation was indeed an oversight of epic proportions.
Now you are facing the consequences. Income inequality has increased, as the rich have gotten windfalls while the middle class has seen incomes stagnate. Fewer and fewer of your citizens have access to affordable housing, healthcare or security in retirement. Even life expectancy has dropped. And when your economic woes went from chronic to acute, you responded -- like so many Third World states have -- with an extensive program of nationalizing private companies and assets. Your mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now state owned and controlled, and this week your reinsurance giant AIG was effectively nationalized, with the Federal Reserve Board seizing an 80% equity stake in the flailing company.
Some might deride this as socialism. But desperate times call for desperate measures.
Admittedly, your transition to Third World status is far from over, and it won't be painless. At first, for instance, you may find it hard to get used to the shantytowns that will replace the exurban sprawl of McMansions that helped fuel the real estate speculation bubble. But in time, such shantytowns will simply become part of the landscape. Similarly, as unemployment rates continue to rise, you will initially struggle to find a use for the expanding pool of angry, jobless young men. But you will gradually realize that you can recruit them to fight in a ceaseless round of armed conflicts, a solution that has been utilized by many other Third World states before you. Indeed, with your wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, you are off to an excellent start.
Perhaps this letter comes as a surprise to you, and you feel you're not fully ready to join the Third World. Don't let this feeling concern you. Though you may never have realized it, you've been preparing for this moment for years.
Wow.....
She fails to mention that one of Barack Obama's former Economic Advisors, Jim Johnson was the former CEO of Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were both bailed out by the Fed earlier this year. So it's across the board. This is the political landscape we live in. Cash rules everything and controls everyone. Those who have plenty want it all and those who have none just want some. People the signs are clear, we're on a course towards Socialism. I don't know if that's good or bad but if the principles of this nation have any merit it's a bad thing. The Cold War and the Third World pawns Russia and the U.S. were using was basically an ideology battle between Capitalism/Democracy and Socialism/Communism. The Federal Reserve owning the majority of major corporations isn't a good thing. The government or the Fed or whoever shouldn't intervene especially with tax payers dollars. You fucked up government. Where was your oversight and sanctions and all that crap? Why do the people always have to pay for your mistakes?
It seems like this capitalistic system is imploding and I can't say that I'm sad about it, even though I know this could have dire effects on my family, friends, and myself. We have to learn. We have to learn that putting power into the hands of people who know just as much as the ignorant people they govern isn't working. Relying so heavily on currency isn't working. Allowing these companies to be greedy isn't working. To me, all these companies are getting what they deserve but the Fed and basically us the tax payers are bailing out these fuckers. Fuck AIG they want me to pay my insurance on time but if I get into an accident how long is it going to take for them to cut a check?
I don't think people understand that we make Capitalism work. Without the poor class the upper class has nothing! We have so much power and we need to start utilizing it. They need us to work in their factories and watch their kids and clean their floors. We've been Third World. We're used like the Vietnamese or the Koreans or the Afghani's were during the Cold War. We're just pawns in the chess match that is Big Business.
That's why I'm so down on the American Dream because it is very conceivable that people are denied access to education and other ways to better themselves financially because Big Business needs a work force. Everyone can't be a CEO or a Lawyer or Doctor. Like Malcolm X said "Capitalism needs someone to exploit." And it's us the tax payers. We're being taxed without representation. What was the battle cry of the American Revolutionaries? No taxation without representation! And I feel I'm being misrepresented. All these bailouts, regardless of the excuse or if it's the best thing for us we're not being represented.
Man it hurts my soul how ignorant and above all apathetic the citizens of the United States are. The reason we're in this mess is because of that very apathetic nature (that allows Big Business, the Fed, and Washington to exploit us). We elect these clowns to try to do for us what we should be doing for ourselves. The very reason they ran for election is so they can do for themselves so why aren't we? We just go on with our lives and don't give a fuck what they're doing in Washington or how they're misusing and abusing us, especially our prescious capital. They have a lot of it and we have none but yet they're squeezing every last penny from us. It just makes so much sense to me that the rich are rich because the poor are poor. This shit isn't right and if you think you're going to elect someone and they're going to save us (especially when the candidates are rich) you're just going to keep perpetuating the problem, unless that candidate is hell bent on seeing an end to the Federal Reserve. Which they aren't.
Dear United States, Welcome to the Third World!
It's not every day that a superpower makes a bid to transform itself into a Third World nation, and we here at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund want to be among the first to welcome you to the community of states in desperate need of international economic assistance. As you spiral into a catastrophic financial meltdown, we are delighted to respond to your Treasury Department's request that we undertake a joint stability assessment of your financial sector. In these turbulent times, we can provide services ranging from subsidized loans to expert advisors willing to perform an emergency overhaul of your entire government.
As you know, some outside intervention in your economy is overdue. Last week -- even before Wall Street's latest collapse -- 13 former finance ministers convened at the University of Virginia and agreed that you must fix your "broken financial system." Australia's Peter Costello noted that lately you've been "exporting instability" in world markets, and Yashwant Sinha, former finance minister of India, concluded, "The time has come. The U.S. should accept some monitoring by the IMF."
We hope you won't feel embarrassed as we assess the stability of your economy and suggest needed changes. Remember, many other countries have been in your shoes. We've bailed out the economies of Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia and South Korea. But whether our work is in Sudan, Bangladesh or now the United States, our experts are committed to intervening in national economies with care and sensitivity.
We thus want to acknowledge the progress you have made in your evolution from economic superpower to economic basket case. Normally, such a process might take 100 years or more. With your oscillation between free-market extremism and nationalization of private companies, however, you have successfully achieved, in a few short years, many of the key hallmarks of Third World economies.
Your policies of irresponsible government deregulation in critical sectors allowed you to rapidly develop an energy crisis, a housing crisis, a credit crisis and a financial market crisis, all at once, and accompanied (and partly caused) by impressive levels of corruption and speculation. Meanwhile, those of your political leaders charged with oversight were either napping or in bed with corporate lobbyists.
Take John McCain, your Republican presidential nominee, whose senior staff includes half a dozen prominent former lobbyists. As he recently put it, "I was chairman of the [Senate] Commerce Committee that oversights every part of the economy." No question about it: Your leaders' failure to notice the damage done by irresponsible deregulation was indeed an oversight of epic proportions.
Now you are facing the consequences. Income inequality has increased, as the rich have gotten windfalls while the middle class has seen incomes stagnate. Fewer and fewer of your citizens have access to affordable housing, healthcare or security in retirement. Even life expectancy has dropped. And when your economic woes went from chronic to acute, you responded -- like so many Third World states have -- with an extensive program of nationalizing private companies and assets. Your mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now state owned and controlled, and this week your reinsurance giant AIG was effectively nationalized, with the Federal Reserve Board seizing an 80% equity stake in the flailing company.
Some might deride this as socialism. But desperate times call for desperate measures.
Admittedly, your transition to Third World status is far from over, and it won't be painless. At first, for instance, you may find it hard to get used to the shantytowns that will replace the exurban sprawl of McMansions that helped fuel the real estate speculation bubble. But in time, such shantytowns will simply become part of the landscape. Similarly, as unemployment rates continue to rise, you will initially struggle to find a use for the expanding pool of angry, jobless young men. But you will gradually realize that you can recruit them to fight in a ceaseless round of armed conflicts, a solution that has been utilized by many other Third World states before you. Indeed, with your wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, you are off to an excellent start.
Perhaps this letter comes as a surprise to you, and you feel you're not fully ready to join the Third World. Don't let this feeling concern you. Though you may never have realized it, you've been preparing for this moment for years.
Wow.....
She fails to mention that one of Barack Obama's former Economic Advisors, Jim Johnson was the former CEO of Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were both bailed out by the Fed earlier this year. So it's across the board. This is the political landscape we live in. Cash rules everything and controls everyone. Those who have plenty want it all and those who have none just want some. People the signs are clear, we're on a course towards Socialism. I don't know if that's good or bad but if the principles of this nation have any merit it's a bad thing. The Cold War and the Third World pawns Russia and the U.S. were using was basically an ideology battle between Capitalism/Democracy and Socialism/Communism. The Federal Reserve owning the majority of major corporations isn't a good thing. The government or the Fed or whoever shouldn't intervene especially with tax payers dollars. You fucked up government. Where was your oversight and sanctions and all that crap? Why do the people always have to pay for your mistakes?
It seems like this capitalistic system is imploding and I can't say that I'm sad about it, even though I know this could have dire effects on my family, friends, and myself. We have to learn. We have to learn that putting power into the hands of people who know just as much as the ignorant people they govern isn't working. Relying so heavily on currency isn't working. Allowing these companies to be greedy isn't working. To me, all these companies are getting what they deserve but the Fed and basically us the tax payers are bailing out these fuckers. Fuck AIG they want me to pay my insurance on time but if I get into an accident how long is it going to take for them to cut a check?
I don't think people understand that we make Capitalism work. Without the poor class the upper class has nothing! We have so much power and we need to start utilizing it. They need us to work in their factories and watch their kids and clean their floors. We've been Third World. We're used like the Vietnamese or the Koreans or the Afghani's were during the Cold War. We're just pawns in the chess match that is Big Business.
That's why I'm so down on the American Dream because it is very conceivable that people are denied access to education and other ways to better themselves financially because Big Business needs a work force. Everyone can't be a CEO or a Lawyer or Doctor. Like Malcolm X said "Capitalism needs someone to exploit." And it's us the tax payers. We're being taxed without representation. What was the battle cry of the American Revolutionaries? No taxation without representation! And I feel I'm being misrepresented. All these bailouts, regardless of the excuse or if it's the best thing for us we're not being represented.
Man it hurts my soul how ignorant and above all apathetic the citizens of the United States are. The reason we're in this mess is because of that very apathetic nature (that allows Big Business, the Fed, and Washington to exploit us). We elect these clowns to try to do for us what we should be doing for ourselves. The very reason they ran for election is so they can do for themselves so why aren't we? We just go on with our lives and don't give a fuck what they're doing in Washington or how they're misusing and abusing us, especially our prescious capital. They have a lot of it and we have none but yet they're squeezing every last penny from us. It just makes so much sense to me that the rich are rich because the poor are poor. This shit isn't right and if you think you're going to elect someone and they're going to save us (especially when the candidates are rich) you're just going to keep perpetuating the problem, unless that candidate is hell bent on seeing an end to the Federal Reserve. Which they aren't.
Comments
Post a Comment