Economic Fundamentalists, by John Ostrander
Over last weekend, the Presidential campaign’s silly season came to a screeching halt. Karl Rove, politics’ answer to P.T. Barnum, manipulated things pretty well, dominating news cycle after news cycle with his Beauty Queen Who Can See Russia From Her Porch (!) but that pesky reality came in and re-focused everything back on the issues again.
I suspect you know that the large brokerage house of Lehman Brothers went into bankruptcy. Merrill Lynch, another famous brokerage, got sold to Bank of America for relative pennies because it didn’t have much other choice. Insurance giant AIG went on the ropes and required a mega-Fed bailout. The Dow dropped almost 500 points on Monday before somewhat recovering on Tuesday before nose-diving again Wednesday morning.
In recent days, mortgage giants Fannie May and Freddie Mac were also bailed out (and acquired by the government). In a move of surprising fiscal sanity, the government has refused to pay the fired CEOs of these two companies their severance packages that would have come to about 24 million dollars. NY Senator Charles Schumer said “It would have been unconscionable to award these inflated salaries, particularly when the leadership of Fannie and Freddie can hardly be given good grades." Too right, Chuck.
Another bank, Washington Mutual (WaMu – Wooo Hooo!), is on the skids. Other banks and big-time brokerages are in trouble. The Fed has signaled that Wall Street should not expect the sort of bailout that they’ve done elsewhere. And experts are saying that a full-blown recession can be expected by the end of this year, start of the next year at the earliest.
So we’re back to dealing with issues. And what’s the main issue? What’s the election going to be all about? Not Sarah Palin, although her getting anywhere near the Presidency is pretty scary. Not the Iraq War, although that remains a mistake and a drain on our resources and the lives of our soldiers. It’s not about “values” and whose values are best. It’s not about whether or not we agree on what God is or if there is a God. It’s not about “smalltown” versus “big city.” It’s not about red states versus blue states. It’s not the environment although having air to breathe is pretty important. In terms of the election, there is one primary issue.
It’s as true today as when James Carville hammered it into Bill Clinton and got him into the White House. People are hanging on by their fingertips; they’re losing their jobs, their businesses, their homes. Older people are losing their pensions. I know people who have houses they can no longer afford but that they can’t sell, either, because the housing market is so depressed. I’m not talking about people buying McMansions. I’m talking about regular people with modest homes who were able to handle their mortgages until the economy went south. Now they can’t make the monthly payment, they can’t sell the house – period – and they have damn little hope.
John McCain went on the air to say that the “fundamentals” of the American economy were sound. The Democrats pounced and McCain stumbled back on the air to explain what he meant by fundamentals. He displayed an interesting bit of body language while doing it; his head kept moving side to side suggesting he either has Parkinson’s or he was denying what he was saying.
I was talking with “goldeneye” Glenn Hauman about a week ago and our conversation, as it often does, turned to politics. Glenn told me both presidential candidate Barack Obama and presidential candidate John McCain were asked which was their favorite games of chance. Obama replied “poker” and McCain replied “craps.” Glenn and I both found these choices telling, especially with McCain’s recent choice of Sarah Palin as his running-mate which certainly qualifies as something of a crapshoot.
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