Political problems rising
Financial times south of the border is proof there needs to be a real change
“May you live in interesting times.”
An adapted Chinese proverb often used as both a positive state of being and simultaneously a curse.
These are indeed interesting times. Depending on where you sit on the political spectrum, what country you live in, and how much money you have invested on the stock market, the phrase applies as originally intended here and now as much as it probably did whenever the words were first penned.
For instance: The US financial “meltdown” will continue to dominate the news for the next while - or until US taxpayers are forced to swallow one more gross insult to their intelligence.
The “toxic” investments that were allowed to flourish in the US business community have come home to roost finally. The unpaid bill is apparently $700 billion, and guess who's on the hook for the debt load? Yes, the citizens of the US who pay taxes, but probably not the slick Wall Street fiends and monied upper-crusters who probably don't pay taxes to start with because they know the loopholes and can hire the best accountants money can buy. According to Congressman Peter DeFazio, the only people who stand to lose real money if the government doesn't bail out Wall Street are millionaires.
Boo-fucking-hoo.
DeFazio was one of the Congressmen who voted against giving US Treasury Secretary Paulson unheard of discretionary power along with $700 billion early last week. His reason was fairly simple.
Paulson, as a former executive of Goldman Sachs (an investment firm), was one of the men who helped create the “toxic” marketplace in the first place. Paulson himself cashed in heavily during his stint as a private free market financial “expert.” Now, as part of the public sphere, Paulson cries for $700 billion so his pals on Wall Street won't lose their second yachts and vacation homes in Ibiza. Life is hard on Wall Street when a trader needs to think twice about buying caviar. Political expediency can make even a hard-nosed free market-eer like Paulson sound like Hugo Chavez.
Paulson's answer to the market actually taking a downturn (gasp, how that can be allowed to happen?) was to run to his buddies in government and propose an unprecedented and almost unimaginable sum of money, which would be used to prop up his fellow investors. Then business could go on as usual while the wealth gap in the States grows faster than Bush's credibility gap.
The business of America may be business, as former President Calvin Coolidge once said, but it's difficult to do business when your government is being run by the same people profiting off waging disastrous wars around the globe, while expecting taxpayers to pony up the funds to keep the tanks rolling. All at the sametime, lending Wall Street a hand, because profits aren't expected to be double digits for the third quarter.
All of the above is happening at the same time that elections are happening in US and Canada. Most of the politicians sound so alike that they need to be black, a woman, or French to distinguish themselves. It's not as if a politician can be expected to suggest change.
Yes, that's a shot at Barack Obama, ‘Mr. Change' himself. A man so dedicated to change that he continually repeats that the US should invade Pakistan, yet another poverty-stricken Muslim country, and one with real weapons of mass destruction. It's quite amazing to watch and listen to McCain and Obama stumble over each other, trying to find a better way to further destabilize and inflame one of the world's most frightening flashpoint areas, that of Pakistan-Afghanistan-India-China-Russia, by brazenly proposing to bomb whomever they please. All while reminding Americans that someone or other of the arab-persian-brown persuasion was responsible for 9-11 and only by going on the expensive offensive can America be safe.
Safe? I thought invading Iraq was supposed to make the world safe. Iraq - anyone heard about that place lately? What's going on over there? Bah, let Blackwater deal with Iraq. The oil fields are safe, the contracts signed, so who cares about electricity, water, food and hospitals for Iraqis? Sure, a few might starve, or some family might get blown away at a checkpoint for trying to get home with a bag of rice, but at least America will be safe for people like Henry Paulson and the business class to relax in comfort as they hire a team of illegal Mexican workers to clean the grouting in their thousand square foot guest house bathrooms. Interesting times, indeed. Don't forget to vote on October 14.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
“May you live in interesting times.”
An adapted Chinese proverb often used as both a positive state of being and simultaneously a curse.
These are indeed interesting times. Depending on where you sit on the political spectrum, what country you live in, and how much money you have invested on the stock market, the phrase applies as originally intended here and now as much as it probably did whenever the words were first penned.
For instance: The US financial “meltdown” will continue to dominate the news for the next while - or until US taxpayers are forced to swallow one more gross insult to their intelligence.
The “toxic” investments that were allowed to flourish in the US business community have come home to roost finally. The unpaid bill is apparently $700 billion, and guess who's on the hook for the debt load? Yes, the citizens of the US who pay taxes, but probably not the slick Wall Street fiends and monied upper-crusters who probably don't pay taxes to start with because they know the loopholes and can hire the best accountants money can buy. According to Congressman Peter DeFazio, the only people who stand to lose real money if the government doesn't bail out Wall Street are millionaires.
Boo-fucking-hoo.
DeFazio was one of the Congressmen who voted against giving US Treasury Secretary Paulson unheard of discretionary power along with $700 billion early last week. His reason was fairly simple.
Paulson, as a former executive of Goldman Sachs (an investment firm), was one of the men who helped create the “toxic” marketplace in the first place. Paulson himself cashed in heavily during his stint as a private free market financial “expert.” Now, as part of the public sphere, Paulson cries for $700 billion so his pals on Wall Street won't lose their second yachts and vacation homes in Ibiza. Life is hard on Wall Street when a trader needs to think twice about buying caviar. Political expediency can make even a hard-nosed free market-eer like Paulson sound like Hugo Chavez.
Paulson's answer to the market actually taking a downturn (gasp, how that can be allowed to happen?) was to run to his buddies in government and propose an unprecedented and almost unimaginable sum of money, which would be used to prop up his fellow investors. Then business could go on as usual while the wealth gap in the States grows faster than Bush's credibility gap.
The business of America may be business, as former President Calvin Coolidge once said, but it's difficult to do business when your government is being run by the same people profiting off waging disastrous wars around the globe, while expecting taxpayers to pony up the funds to keep the tanks rolling. All at the sametime, lending Wall Street a hand, because profits aren't expected to be double digits for the third quarter.
All of the above is happening at the same time that elections are happening in US and Canada. Most of the politicians sound so alike that they need to be black, a woman, or French to distinguish themselves. It's not as if a politician can be expected to suggest change.
Yes, that's a shot at Barack Obama, ‘Mr. Change' himself. A man so dedicated to change that he continually repeats that the US should invade Pakistan, yet another poverty-stricken Muslim country, and one with real weapons of mass destruction. It's quite amazing to watch and listen to McCain and Obama stumble over each other, trying to find a better way to further destabilize and inflame one of the world's most frightening flashpoint areas, that of Pakistan-Afghanistan-India-China-Russia, by brazenly proposing to bomb whomever they please. All while reminding Americans that someone or other of the arab-persian-brown persuasion was responsible for 9-11 and only by going on the expensive offensive can America be safe.
Safe? I thought invading Iraq was supposed to make the world safe. Iraq - anyone heard about that place lately? What's going on over there? Bah, let Blackwater deal with Iraq. The oil fields are safe, the contracts signed, so who cares about electricity, water, food and hospitals for Iraqis? Sure, a few might starve, or some family might get blown away at a checkpoint for trying to get home with a bag of rice, but at least America will be safe for people like Henry Paulson and the business class to relax in comfort as they hire a team of illegal Mexican workers to clean the grouting in their thousand square foot guest house bathrooms. Interesting times, indeed. Don't forget to vote on October 14.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
