Monday, December 16, 2013

On Rogue Banks, Bankers, and "Apparatchiks" … by gimleteye

"(Hillary) Clinton offered a message that the collected plutocrats found reassuring, according to accounts offered by several attendees, declaring that the banker-bashing so popular within both political parties was unproductive and indeed foolish. Striking a soothing note on the global financial crisis, she told the audience, in effect: We all got into this mess together, and we’re all going to have to work together to get out of it." (From Politico)

No. We did not "all get into this mess together". Banks, bankers, and speculators pushed every edge of the supply chain for housing and development to the point that sprawl and bad condos swallowed South Florida, whole. Reasonable people who offered both rationale and examples in opposition were brushed to the side like lint from a suit jacket.

I've called it the "Growth Machine" and its top facilitators, "apparatchiks". In the destruction of the civic good, there was no ideology other than the most reckless forms of risk, coupled with "legal" boundaries that would never pass muster if put to a popular vote.

Earlier this summer, former president Jimmy Carter told a small audience in Germany -- that he assumed to be private -- that "The United States is no longer a functioning democracy". It's not hard, to know why.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Predatory lending started as a stupid leftist idea called CRA. No, not everyone should own a home. Let's give that some attention too, shall we.

Malagodi said...

"We all got into this mess together"...

Ah Gimlette, you just don't understand. This statement is perfectly correct when applying the age-old wisdom contained in the test question "Who's 'We', White Man?"