September 08
It’s been a tumultuous week for the economy, duh. But few of us are truly concerned. Everybody’s been all, “Yeah, so Lehman Brothers and Merrill and AIG folded, and WaMu’s probably next, but that’s all, like, rich people problems. Things are bad, but I’m the salt of the earth and stuff.” Yes, you are indeed salty and that’s great for you, and this week’s kerfuffle has thus far been felt largely by the investor crowd — which translates these days solely to those folks wealthy enough to have money to invest. (My parents, for instance, upper middle-classers who started planning their retirement before I was born — because they’re the type, and up till now, good on ‘em — apparently lost a quarter of a million dollars since Monday.) But, lean times aside, you’re scot-free, right?
No, duder. You’re fucked, or, as this Times piece says, real close to it:
As Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, put it Friday morning on the ABC program “Good Morning America,” the congressional leaders were told “that we’re literally maybe days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system, with all the implications here at home and globally.”
Mr. Schumer added, “History was sort of hanging over it, like this was a moment.”
And remember a few days ago, when I totally wrote a prescient post about the Dust Bowl, but said that the conditions of the Depression couldn’t be repeated because of fundamental changes in the way banks work? Turns out, we’re facing very similar problems:
“You have the credit lines in America, which are the lifeblood of the economy, frozen.” Mr. Schumer said. “That hasn’t happened before. It’s a brave new world. You are in uncharted territory, but the one thing you do know is you can’t leave them frozen or the economy will just head south at a rapid rate.”
As he spoke, Mr. Schumer swooped his hand, to make the gesture of a plummeting bird. “You know we’d be lucky …” he said as his voice trailed off. “Well, I’ll leave it at that.”
So. Banks with no capital? Check. A banking system unwilling and/or unable to extend credit? Check. A nation without surplus, saddled with major trade and liquid deficits? Check. Rising costs for every amenity necessary for life? Check. A cataclysmic “self-correction” of formerly bursting markets we were told would be forever solvent? Check. A nascent environmental disaster? Check, and blargh.
Things haven’t been this bad since the beginning of the Depression, all told. But they have the potential to get much, much worse; unlike America of the ’30s, we have nearly no industrial base. After the Cold War, we have a learned prejudice of and hatred for social welfare programs, like the CCC and WPA, which helped create jobs then — because such things are, like, sooooo Communist. We’ve got no ingrained culture of self-reliance, what with 50 years of prosperity and world domination and exodus from actual production. Most of the shit we as Americans consume is made, grown or manufactured elsewhere, and we soon might not be able to afford to buy any of it.
What we’re seeing now is, in short, the consequence of a pervasive national hubris, the logical result of half a century of overconsumption, swollen confidence and an arrogant underlying belief that, because we’re American, we’re immune. It’s a bitter pill to take. Here’s hoping we survive it. Here’s hoping we don’t shoot each other in the street over water or gasoline. Here’s hoping humanity triumphs.
Posted by: Aaron Retka in Current Affairs, Hi, I'm a Moron!, Homelessness in COS, Let's Win!, Soul Search | Permalink
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11 Responses to “Sing along as history rhymes.”
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Thanks for your Road Warrior reference in the second-to-last sentence.
In the meantime, I recommend we start to stockpile water and gasoline, among other things…ahem….
Yeah, I totally might be borrowing guns.
I mean this with all sincerity, folks: start assessing your social circles now. Determine who you can live with, because communes are the way of the future. Ain’t none of us gonna make it as “fierce and rugged” individuals in the world of tomorrow. People will either stick together or perish. That’s the way it was 10,000 years ago, and that’s the way it will be next Tuesday.
I’ve already started! I’ve got a list of persons with very important skills who I want on my commune, however I still have some skill vacancies. Anyone out there skilled in the husbandry of animals? Please send your resume to Aaron and he’ll forward it on to me. Thanks!
Thanks for the insightful post, Aaron. It’s my opinion that humanity will always triumph in some form or another. Here’s hoping we’re made of the same metal as rats, ants and cockroaches…
Klayton is right. We need all the friends we can get. Those who live in self-imposed isolation (and I’m not talking about the mountain man in the cabin, I’m talking about the nuclear family in suburbia who may have people over twice a year) are going to have a rough time of it.
So ask yourself “What do I have to offer to my neighbors/friends?” I’ve had some ideas about this for a while now, and it looks like I need to put it into action.
Jana-we should collaborate since it seems we’ve both been thinking about this for awhile now. I’d like to hear your ideas. Let’s get them down in writing. While the men are predicting apocalypse, the women set about trying to prepare and mitigate the damage!
Yeah, though I, for one, would like to maintain an urban communal situation for as long as it is feasible. I’m hoping it doesn’t get to the point where the infrastructure crumbles so much, that the water goes bad, the trash piles up, etc. Maybe I’m being optimistic…
I am a Sarajevan who lived during the siege with no heat, electricity, water, phone (etc) for the most of a three-year period. What’s on the list above is what I was almost always missing.
The Sarajevan forgot another important survival item: Condoms.
This bailout is starting to smell awfully rotten:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081006/greider