[ Note: In January of this year, Robert Reich moved to a new Blog space to continue gathering his articles from here and there. Since he writes often this is a great way to keep up without the usual stream of celebrity sightings, tea party pot shots, and pharmaceutical adverts which are now ...pretty much everywhere. Thank you, Mr. R., for your distraction-free pages.]
Chesterton said, "I believe in getting into hot water. I think it keeps you clean." In his article "The Fed In Hot Water," Mr. Reich covers the Fed's recent disclosure that it assumed tens of billions of dollars of debt from investment banks, which the government now has full responsibility for. And did so quite a while before being authorized to do so by the Congress - as a unilateral decision.
Not completely new news; we knew the Fed was acting in a crisis mode to help support the economy, but the ‘new’ message is disclosure of how much money was paid and what it paid for - something the American people have been asking for quite a while. Some people are likely to be pretty ticked off to find out that the government covered debt assumed to buy out Hilton Hotel properties. Outraged may be an appropriate description for some.
But for many, this is TMI - too much information - to take in. There's too much other 'stuff' in the main dialog, which already competes with stuff in our personal dialogs. Examples:
- There aren't jobs enough for everyone, and jobs held feel less secure than ever.
- The cost of fruits - fresh, canned and frozen - is increasing as are staples and meats. And gasoline.
- We have elected figures being called 'Nigger,' 'Faggot,' 'baby killer,' and 'Homo Communist' - by other Americans, and other elected officials. The senate and congress men and women, the people who speak for us, appear to accept this behavior..
- Information about our armed combat forces, our family members, in Afghanistan and Iraq is very sparse. There’s no information at all about our forces in Japan, Bosnia, and South Korea.
- 'Celebrities' - Tiger Woods, Jesse James, and Michael Jackson - are 'above the fold' news.
- The weather is crazy, flooding some areas and causing draught in others.
I wonder if at times Mr. Reich must feel like Cassandra.
2 comments:
John, I had not heard about the debt assumption which is only now seeing the light of day. I'll be very interested to see how much, if any, attention is paid to the issue this week in the corporate-owned media.
To your point about civility and lack of same, I know it must be tough to rely on people for money and votes who let their emotions get the best of them after one has spent years ratcheting up the fear level.
Imagine being a congressman who knows there are thousands in his or her district who are either tea party folks or are influenced by them. If you call them out strongly on misbehavior, you are liable to suddenly find yourself in a tough primary battle. I'm seeing this primarily as a Republican problem--how to handle the weird uncle who insists on showing up at all the family gatherings with his underwear worn over his pants and a tin-foil hat on his head--since the Democrats are more often painted as the evil force to be cursed and spat on.
Still, the fact remains that discourse allowed to drop to a level of name-calling and finger-pointing is no longer discourse. Neither party has done anything I have seen to defuse and walk away from this kind of thing.
Thanks for the link to Reich's new site. He's a smart guy worth listening to because he cares about the outcome. The fact that we share a world view doesn't hurt either. (smile)
Thank you Rick for the response. Glad to get it! I too hope something comes of this news. It will be a hard sell to get traction under this topic with the American people I fear.
Hope your Easter/Passover/Roman Holiday was peaceful and look forward to hearing from you in future.
Best,
JohnB
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