The business writers at The Miami Herald have revisited their "Economic Time Machine", that EOM last noted in the spring. Unfortunately it is a jumble.
This episode of the Time Machine gives credence to US Century Bank, whose president is offered space in today's Herald article to explain the crisis. US Century "...is looking for investment capital to shore up the bank’s cash reserves against losses from all the distressed real estate and loans on the books."
EOM has written about US Century Bank, the best example of the failed economic model tying growth to suburban sprawl and the politics of environmental destruction. If you want an accurate time machine, trace the influence peddling of the lobbyists and speculators who run US Century and who commandeered politics at County Hall for two decades at least. All that "distressed real estate and loans on the books" exists under US Century because the bank is the largest recipient of TARP money in Florida. These are the biggest grifters in Florida.
The Herald has always been agnostic on the matter of judging economic development. Until judgments are made both about the mistakes of our economic past-- like the indiscriminate conversion of farmland and wetlands to suburban sprawl benefiting land speculators, lobbyists, and land use attorneys-- there will be no reckoning that could lead South Florida in a more productive direction.
We will continue to muddle through, because South Florida has always been an attractive pass-through destination for wealth from the Southern hemisphere. The problem with being a pass-through destination is that no one really cares about the place we call home. So many of the people who did care-- the generations who fought to protect Miami's natural attributes for example-- have moved away; too old and tired to keep up the fight. Few of these were ever chronicled by The Herald for fear of offending the Chamber of Commerce.
The way Miami allowed our landscape-- and market for tourism-- to be wrecked to serve "growth that pays its own way" is shocking. And if the recent historic drought is an economic indicator, then the day may not be far off when "muddling through" will be a wistful memory. In "Drought: A Creeping Disaster", the NY Times writes, "In the South, 14 states are now baking in blast-furnace conditions — from Arizona, which is battling the largest wildfire in its history, to Florida, where fires have burned some 200,000 acres so far. Worse, drought, unlike earthquakes, hurricanes and other rapid-moving weather, could become a permanent condition in some regions."
The Herald should subtitle its next Time Machine: "evaporation of promise". But hey, it is a hot summer Monday and for readers seeking historical perspective, find it here:
5 comments:
Damn, the Time Tunnel looks just like the new concourse at Miami International! Nice find!
If drought becomes a permanent fixture of Miami, where is the water going to come from to cool Turkey Point nuclear reactors? If it comes down to what gets water first, the reactors or people: guess where the priority will be.
Of course, some of us know how much the Herald loves some of the directors on the of USA Century Bank... and Jeb Bush too -- yes, I know that he's not a director on that board, but the Herald adores him. That's why they always favor every bit of news about Marquito Rubio, ANOTHER FAVORITE OF US CENTURY BANK AND JEB BUSH! LOL
The next housing bubble - - in China:
http://consumerist.com/2011/07/chinas-hypergrowth-fueled-by-building-giant-cities-no-one-lives-in.html
And we can count on them to buy our bonds!
Yep. That's the Black Swan event. Can't say, no one saw it coming.
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