Loving the Financial Crisis
We are all suffering? Who are we kidding? Lots of us love the financial crisis. Here’s a roundup:
The left loves the financial crisis because it supports their view that the free market doesn’t work and justifies their anger at capitalism. In their mind, this is exactly what happens when you follow a policy of deregulation and tax “giveaways” to the rich. Their only fix is to get rid of the corporations, the executives, the investors, free trade, property rights, and everything else that has given us the highest per-capita GDP in the world (of any large country) and replace it all with central committees straight out of the Cuban Revolution. The patient has the flu and their cure is the guillotine.
The mainstream media love the financial crisis for the same reason that they love any disaster. Will you and your children be forced to live in a tent city surrounded by trash with no running water or bathrooms? We’ll tell you just how bad it is going to get and what you can do right after this commercial break.
CNBC loves the financial crisis. Their ratings are up 30%, and that’s before the Santelli tea party.
Fox News loves the crisis because it belongs to Barack now.
My friend from high school loves the financial crisis and hopes it gets 100% worse. “I’ve been poor all my life,” he says. “Everyone should know how it feels.”
Senator John McCain loves the financial crisis because he can talk about how wasteful earmarks are and make fun of the worst, like the pig odor study. Senator, you’re a genuine war hero who brought tears to my eyes when you asked me to stand up for America. Is that really your best issue?
The Democrats love the financial crisis because they can push their agenda through Congress by playing Good Samaritan — i.e., we’ve got to help all of those hardworking folks on Main Street. In their version of the parable, the Samaritan helped his fellow traveler on the side of the road by raising the minimum wage, forcing him to join a union, taxing carbon dioxide, and telling him to learn Spanish.
Iran, Venezuela, al-Qaeda, and the rest of America’s enemies love the financial crisis because not only have we lost our credibility, but foreign policy issues have completely fallen off the agenda. Even British Prime Minister Gordon Brown can’t get an hour with Obama, although he can rest a little easier knowing we’re not wasting our money on expensive gifts.
Senator Ron Paul, Glenn Beck, and the “hard money” guys love the crisis because they have been predicting that our free spending ways would eventually collapse the financial system. While you are all absolutely right that the first thing the U.S. needs to do is to put the shovel down and stop digging, this is just the warm-up. The real crash won’t hit until all of the boomers have retired and start cashing their Social Security and Medicare IOUs.
Michael Moore loves the financial crisis. His next film is all about how Americans are getting screwed by the financial industry. If you’re one of those poor unfortunates who got a home loan despite having no job, income, or assets, please send your tale of woe to bailout@MichalMoore.com.
And I love financial crisis because I can entertain myself reading smart articles like this one.
But admit it, financial crisis forced us to learned about truckload of interesting and important stuff, and woke our intellects from drowning in belly blubber.
Hey, you forgot to mention that Obama loves the financial crisis. As long as the economy is in the doldrums he has an excuse NOT to work. What is the latest, he was fine tuning his bowling game while making time to jet off to LA for the Tonight Show? Like his buddy Rahm says, “never waste an opportunity.” The worse it gets the more he can pass the buck to the teleprompter.
I like the fact that the Financial Crisis has quickly laid bare all of the lies and empty promises of the liberal Democrats. We are pointed at an economic cliff and Obama / Reid / Pelosi are hitting the gas.
I have mixed feelings about the financial crisis because we don’t know how bad it will get. The up side is we might just get our heads on straight about how the economy works and start fresh on a sound footing. And the less deluded liberals among us may be finally through with fantasies of socialist utopia. Meanwhile I hope to profit from the bull market in gold and silver while I worry the cash I make will be worth half of what it was before the Age of Obama.
In the times of a robust economy, a sudden installation of a socialist agenda doesn’t do as much damage and doesn’t do it as quickly. I suspect we will find this experiemnt a flop and spend a lot more energuy getting out of the mess obama is creating daily.
I love it because it’s time for Americans to get what they vote for. And it shows Obama for the radical leftist that he is. Also, the “crisis” entertains and motivates me to work hard while saving and investing conservatively. This is a time for partisan democrats and the mainstream media to open their eyes, and I hope this situation enlightens them.
My brother is an Independent living in TX. He buys into all the Global Warming crap, and we have short, bitter arguments about it. I won yesterday. Oh, he still believes in the nonsense. However, I explained cap-n-trade to him. He’d never heard of it. (There’s a clue for you.) At first, he thought taxing the carbon emitters was a great idea. Then I explained how it would double or treble his electric bill. He quickly sang a different tune. I laughed hard when I hung up.
The crisis is making these kinds of things possible, and I hate it, but I LOVE the silver lining! There’s nothing, NOTHING, like coming out ahead in a family argument!
Mrs. Rodriguez: yes, it is time for Americans to get what they vote for. Someone once said, “People should get what they vote for . . . . good and hard.” Obama and his band of socialists are transforming the country into a neo-European pansy-state, full of government hand-out seekers & limp-wristed, bleeding-heart, liberals, or as Schwarzenegger calls them, “girlie-men.”
“The crisis is making these kinds of things possible, and I hate it, but I LOVE the silver lining! There’s nothing, NOTHING, like coming out ahead in a family argument!
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I’m usually the guy who sits in the corner and throws another question. A discussion about the electric car would come up. It would be all wonderful, just plug it in and so on. Then I would say; well then what happens to the truck drivers and gas stations? hehe
Tristan, sure the leftists can say that the free market doesn’t work. An entirely free market doesn’t work since it leads to corruption. A regulated free market works well when the regulators are there only to view the market. Once the corporations and the regulators are seen close then that leads to corruption too. It’s more of a balance thing then either extreme working well.
I don’t see Socialism approaching, I see something a bit darker. I think the term National Socialism might be more accurate, although what’s coming will be unique in its own way. Crisis and fear are prime tools of Statists; enough crisis and fear that any attempt at measured thought regarding the path offered will be ignored. This a danger well-documented in history. This is where we currently are.
If you want to understand the messy financial situation of the USA (and the World), and have the patience to read it, open the following link. I guarantee that it will SHOCK you.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover
I predict that in six months (or less) the name of Joseph Cassano (from AIG) will be a household name (along with Bernie Madoff, Mike Milken, Enron, et al)
Thanks for the comments – its why I enjoy writing for Pajamas.
For Knights13:
“The great constitutional corrective in the hands of the people against usurpation of power, or corruption by their agents is the right of suffrage; and this when used with calmness and deliberation will prove strong enough.”
- Andrew Jackson, Letter to James Buchanan, June 25, 1825
I hate to say it, but I’m doing fine. I work in the nuclear power industry and we have always been a counter-cyclical industry. When times are booming, we’re limping along. When times are tough, people get serious about building new nukes. The last Good Times were under Carter until 20% interest rates killed a bunch of projects.
I know it is selfish but that’s the way things seem to work.
Tristan-
Great meta-perspective
You pretty much nailed it.
I am reminded of when the Soviet Union collapsed, and all the former republics declared their independence…
The West celebrated and said to the Russians “yes, it will be rough for you at first, but after you go through a period of ‘shock therapy’, you will see how democracy and capitalism drastically improve the average standard of living.”
And that is exactly what happened… Look at the average Russian’s standard of living now, compared to Communism.
With that in mind, I think if we took our own advice, and went through a little “shock therapy” here in the US (letting substandard institutions fail rather than propping them up), that would also bode well for our future and our kids’ futures.