Doug's Dynamic Drivel

Like the Wicked Witch of the West, the US economy is in a major melt-down as the fallout from the e woes and lack of , thank you , rains down ont. The bailout being proposed will not help Main Street it will only help Wall Street. A much better deal would have been to do what Joe Bageant suggested:

What if we took the bail-out money and paid off every college loan, every credit card, every pending foreclosure and every mortgage in arrears, and every unpaid hospital bill? Wouldn’t that free up a lot of income to stimulate our economy, 70% of which is based on Americans consuming good, services and commodities? Wouldn’t it be better to have the money circulating, stimulating the U.S. economy than stashed in overseas as accounts? If Bush’s little $250 rebate propped up the national economy for a couple of months, wouldn’t distributing the $700 billion push the economy into the stratosphere? What if we used it to pay down the national debt? Wouldn’t the American dollar reverse its plunge? At the very least for the first time in 80 years Americans would actually owe the debt to themselves, not the unseen financial lords.

but of course that could never happen as it wouldn’t save the rich political backing financiers on Wall Street who would then have to suffer the consequences of their stupidity and greed.

What this bailout, assuming it goes through, will accomplish however is the final sellout of the US economy to former enemies of the state, China and Russia, both of whom have heavy investments in now worthless American paper. If you thought the recent spectacular in China was about Olympic sports and the world coming together in harmony of purpose to compete against each other in a friendly fashion, you are sadly mistaken, as the opening ceremonies should have alerted you to. No, this was China’s way of announcing that it is no longer a coming power but is in fact soon to be, if not already, the dominant power, economically and militarily, on the planet. The recent successful space launches, and in particular this last week’s with the successful space walk using a new and better space suit designed by China was yet another reminder of this. In the opening ceremony, we first had the (faked) Fireworks footsteps moving across Beijing, announcing China’s presence. Following this was the amazing choreographed drum sequence, an ancient symbol of power.

As John Gray said (read the whole article)

Ever since the end of the Cold War, successive American administrations have lectured other countries on the necessity of sound finance. Indonesia, Thailand, Argentina and several African states endured severe cuts in spending and deep recessions as the price of aid from the International Monetary Fund, which enforced the American orthodoxy. China in particular was hectored relentlessly on the weakness of its banking system. But China’s success has been based on its consistent contempt for Western advice and it is not Chinese banks that are currently going bust. How symbolic yesterday that Chinese astronauts take a spacewalk while the US Treasury Secretary is on his knees.

Which version of the bail out of American financial institutions cobbled up by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is finally adopted is less important than what the bail out means for America’s position in the world. The populist rant about greedy banks that is being loudly ventilated in Congress is a distraction from the true causes of the crisis. The dire condition of America’s financial markets is the result of American banks operating in a free-for-all environment that these same American legislators created. It is America’s political class that, by embracing the dangerously simplistic ideology of deregulation, has responsibility for the present mess.

In present circumstances, an unprecedented expansion of government is the only means of averting a market catastrophe. The consequence, however, will be that America will be even more starkly dependent on the world’s new rising powers. The federal government is racking up even larger borrowings, which its creditors may rightly fear will never be repaid. It may well be tempted to inflate these debts away in a surge of inflation that would leave foreign investors with hefty losses. In these circumstances, will the governments of countries that buy large quantities of American bonds, China, the Gulf States and Russia, for example, be ready to continue supporting the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency? Or will these countries see this as an opportunity to tilt the balance of economic power further in their favour? Either way, the control of events is no longer in American hands. (h/t Jon)

This is the latest in traitorous s of America’s security and by the current administration. This bailout is a perfect example of what calls “” in action:

I’m deeply disappointed that is backing this type of .

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