�Our first priority today is the
stability of the capital markets, the stability of the system.� --Treasury
Secretary Henry Paulson
If you had the silly notion that our first priority might be
the stability of our environment, or people losing their homes, lacking health
care and saddled with a multi-trillion dollar warfare state, the above words
should set you straight. Capital markets are us, so let�s keep them floating on
a sea of speculation and assure that public loss insures capital gain. As long
as consumers pay interest, capital can rule without principle. Nice.
Given the situation, the next president may regret winning
the election. While the Bush regime has us near a breaking point, it�s not the
president but the system which is at the root of our problem. And unless a
political miracle puts Ralph Nader or Cynthia McKinney in the White House, the
next president will be trying to save and not change that system. This is bad
news, and until Americans demand serious transformation and see the issue of
change as going beyond style, sex or race, the news will get worse.
Our credit casino produces almost daily chaos, with a public
bailout of a private firm followed by soothing talk that everything will be
fine now, followed soon by another public bailout. The troubles with mortgage-backing
institutions like the entities called Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are indicative
of the problem. These names make them sound like mom and pop grocers or hip hop
performers, when they are really multi trillion-dollar gambling centers that
supposedly help us all get closer to owning homes. Sure.
While we are the financing source of just about everything,
our ownership share of the economy is in steep decline. This is in contrast to
nonsense about an ownership society, unless that means the majority owns the
liability, while a minority feasts on the assets. Our personal and social debts
are rising faster than ever, which is how the system works. And the new
president will try to keep it working by attempting to steer this crippled ship
of state through a turbulent sea that may soon become too raging to float any
structure. There are small signs of hope and progress, but not in the economy.
We have seen some decline in war talk about Iran, not due to
the antiwar movement but mostly because the old WASP ruling class has been
moving back into control by leaking stories about planned attacks on Iran and
the madness of such ideas. From sources like the Pentagon, State department,
universities and even an ex-president, we have heard words previously not dared
to be spoken become open dialog among establishment insiders. The Israel
First-Jewish lobby previously wielded enormous clout without any public
criticism, but that is no longer the case.
Sectors within the establishment which show little respect
for humanity, beyond the desire for it to remain under U.S. control, are in
growing fear that policy dominated by protectors of the Jewish state endangers
their empire. They are right about the second point, but the first is most
important as to why no one should think that the show will soon be directed by
people who want systemic change. What we can expect is a return to the
neo-liberal policies which failed before and led to neoconservatives assuming
power. The zealous Christian-Zionist cabal has brought us even closer to ruin,
so the less overtly fanatic proprietors of empire -- those responsible for the
cold war with the Soviets and hot wars in Korea, Vietnam and a host of other
places -- may be returned to power.
People desperate to be rid of the present regime may be
forgiven their innocence in the short term, but if it continues in the long
term, we�ll all be guilty of losing much more than an election.
Those who voted for Democrats to stop the war in Iraq may
ultimately get their wish, but only by moving it to Afghanistan. And leaving
Iraq will only happen because we lost, at a cost of 1.2 million of Iraqi lives,
4,000-plus of our own, and a few trillion dollars our rulers borrowed from
national coffers we are expected to fill with our debt. We�ve been operating
exclusively on that debt for quite some time, but recently our credit line has
begun to look like that of a subprime nation, causing more concern for
international loan sharks who prop up our economy with their faith that it will
somehow keep paying them interest. Even if it�s with their own money. If Ponzi
were alive now, he�d be operating his scam in China and Russia.
So the hundreds of billions we squander for war by putting
them on our international credit card will continue being spent under the next
regime, only redirecting the folly to another area. And it will hasten the
ultimate breakdown of our unstable �capital markets� if we don�t stop acting as
thoughtless consumers, and start acting as a thoughtful democratic people.
Public financing of private enterprise makes no sense unless
we take public control of that enterprise. The sooner we take that step, the
sooner we end a system in which a majority perform as socialist consumers,
while a minority somehow owns the capital markets at which they are forced to
shop. Why should we save a system which is not only failing us, but threatening
the future of all humanity?
For environmental salvation, peace, and social justice we
need to take democratic control of our economy away from the antidemocratic
forces which we still support under the guise of political democracy. At this
point we have neither political nor economic democracy and you can�t have one
without the other. We need both, soon, or the perverse priorities and social
instability of capital will bring down much more than the market.
Copyright � 2008
Frank Scott. All rights reserved.
Frank
Scott writes political commentary which appears in the Coastal Post, a monthly
publication from Marin County, California, and on numerous web sites, and on
his shared blog at legalienate.blogspot.com.
Contact him at frankscott@comcast.net.