The problem is in the falling prices in the real estate market. Once the prices stop falling, everything will stabilize. The US gov can increase prices of realestate within 1 month by (and here comes the solution) offering green cards and a citizenship to any foreign person (or maybe from a list of countries) who buys a house in the US ! (maybe with a minimum price). This will make maybe 500,000 (or 10 times this number, who knows!) foreigners to immediately buy property in the US and will stop the drop in prices or even take the prices up! The US GOV is GIVING AWAY 10,000 green cards a year in a "lottery" when they can use this to end the economic crisis within ONE MONTH!PLEASE forward this to people who deal with this matter they will understand the potential of this within a minute. I have a Phd in International Relations, I know what I am talking about!
President Obama Must Intervene To Save Americans Home Owner in Financial Disaster: Give Us A Second Chance!
Based on the result the Feb. 7, 2009 meeting and Feb. 9, 2009 follow-up meeting about the President Economic Stimulus Plan for Americans. Is there anyone else who would to join us to ask the President to intervene on our behalf for a Second Chance? Suggestion: Americans need a Short and Long Term CREDIT Rating Forgiveness and Incentive Plan. We are asking that in addition for the opportunity to have jobs, please create a special program that has an incentive of CREDIT Rating Forgiveness and Incentive For Second Chance home owners. Can there be a Successful Economic Recovery without a Credit Forgiveness Reform for Americans?
The only way this stimulus plan will fail is if we act as if we do not know that there will be no spending velocity among Americans without President Obama's Intervention for us. Please send me your story.
I received this wonderful email my son wrote that says so much about what this election means and why Barack Obama is the leader we need in the White House. It's in response to a popular but disparaging email that's been circulating that compares the so called red and blue states.
My son has agreed to my posting it here.
I just wanted to say that after some discussion about this email, that while it might make us laugh or feel superior to see those statistics and go "I sure am glad we live in a blue state," it doesn't mean we should be thinking in terms of red vs. blue states. Our country is in a bad state currently (I think we can all agree on that point). Bickering, name-calling and arguing amongst ourselves about who is red and who is blue, who is liberal and who is conservative, who is pro-life and who is pro-choice, etc. isn't going to help create jobs, isn't going to fix our education system, isn't going to burst the credit crunch, isn't going to solve the energy crisis, isn't going to help promote peace in the world. I encourage you instead to reach out to those whose views differ from yours and find common ground. There's a great Jello Biafra quote from Become the Media where he is describing the WTO protests in 1999 and how he saw so many different folks coming together over a common goal. People who would be considered hippes were mingling and protesting with those they'd consider rednecks or hardhats. The reason he gave for all of this was that there was a wedge issue that was confronting all of these people and that issue was "why can't I put food on the table?"Our country is in even worse shape 9 years later. Now the question isn't "why can't I put food on the table?" but "where can I put my table?", "how can I buy a table?", "who will make me a table?" No houses, no money for goods, unemployment and the deconstruction of our educational system are the real issues this election season. Don't waste time worrying about red and blue states. Spend time finding those people who can be persuaded to make the best decision for America on November 4. Don't waste time feeling high and mighty because we live in a blue state. We have the same problems facing everyone in America (and elsewhere in the world).We are all people.We all deserve to live happy and productive lives unhindered by bias, prejudice and undue hardship.And I know I'm probably preaching to the choir here but let's get Obama to the White House and bring this country back together. Our forefathers didn't call it the UNITED States of America just because it looked good on paper.Thank you,Abe
WASHINGTON - The number of homeowners ensnared in the foreclosure crisis grew by more than 70 percent in the third quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2007, according to data released Thursday.
By the end of the year, RealtyTrac expects more than a million bank-owned properties to have piled up on the market, representing around a third of all properties for sale in the U.S.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27329406
I got an e-mail that Dems caused the credit crisis. Here is my response that you can use.
Actually, although no one factor solely caused the credit crisis, deregulation and failures to regulate have a central importance.
Remember, only about 6% of all mortgages are in default. 6% of mortgages going into default should not have threatened the entire economy the way it has. It did because of the bets (insurance) against mortgage defaults, i.e., the credit-default swaps, were valued too highly and when the mortgages started to default, the CDSs fell in value. That brought down Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers, AIG, etc. Had the CDS’s been regulated or, depending on how you look at it, had the banks not specifically avoided regulation by hiding CDS’s from regulators, their failure wouldn’t have threatened the entire economy.
I know even more regarding mortgage broker and borrow fraud plus lack of FBI enforcement interest that contributed to the issue given my 10 years in the financial and mortgage industry originating consumer loans and managing policies and procedures.
Gary Fancher
Listening to NPR this morning, I heard a very good explanation of the credit freeze problem (Morning Edition 10/13/08 - not yet posted). It explains the connection between the bailout and the credit crisis that was the impetus for the $700B rescue plan. It got me more thinking about this rescue/bailout, the reasons for it and the path out of it.
Sen. John McCain is on national television telling one lie after another to the American people, and trying to spin the massive rescue package, without which the American economy would currently be hurtling toward the abyss, and for which he voted, as a sinister attempt by Democrats to give billions to big banks. John McCain is a politician who once stood on principle and who has consciously chosen to put aside every shred of basic integrity or human dignity in order to poison the minds of voters, because basically, he doesn't understand enough about what's happening to be convincing.
He once said he isn't all that interested in the fine points of economics. That would appear to be true, because he seems to have no knowledge at all of what Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do in our economy. He alleges they are somehow responsible for promoting predatory lending and for tricking people into buying homes they can't afford. The fact is, since the Great Depression, we have had policies designed to help most working Americans find shelter and ideally, own a home.
Mass homelessness is a scourge on all of society, and unsustainable rent-levels are a drain on working people, sometimes forcing families into poverty. Home equity is a key to many aspects of our economic landscape, without which tens of millions of people would be marginalized, locked out and ultimately a drag on our economic output. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac exist to help facilitate the long-term viability of home-loans. They do not lend directly, but help support the viability of loans given out by commercial banks.
The predatory lending practices and the irresponsible credit derivatives and potentially fraudulent financially unsupported "credit default swaps" that have brought this massive crisis to our nation, were the province of commercial financial institutions which were unwilling to make viable loans to those less able to pay, and which sought to extract usury-level rates of interest from those least able to pay them, for their own profit and with no mind whatsoever to the long-term health of those accounts or of the market generally.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, with tacit government support, accelerated the pace of their buying up of problem loans, not in order to stimulate irresponsible lending, but in order to prevent or buy planning time for the looming credit crisis. As early as the summer of 2005, The Economist magazine warned that a global real estate collapse was coming, that would affect all industrialized nations, except perhaps those like Japan which had been struggling with the problem for more than a decade already by that point.
When Sen. Obama wrote to Treasury Secretary Paulson, warning of the problem of subprime mortgages and the potential catastrophic fallout from predatory lending practices —a problem he was working to tackle as early as 2001, in the bipartisan Illinois effort to counter predatory lending—, his effort was aimed at the real problem: the viability of credit derivatives that were being misused to prop up institutions whose portfolios were being poisoned by toxic inviable mortage-backed securities.
When Sen. McCain joined with other Republicans in attacking Fannie Mae, the concern was strictly ideological, and the move itself demonstrated a total misunderstanding of financial markets. The Republicans who fought to reduce the size of Fannie Mae wanted to do two things: 1) to force the assets of government-chartered firms like Fannie and Freddie onto the open market, at bargain prices; 2) to make it more difficult for individuals to leverage their buying power against major financial institutions.
The reasons? The move to force Fannie and Freddie to reduce their mortgage holdings was not an effort to shore up the economy, it was an effort to ignore the problem and avoid regulation of the financial sector. They wanted to help prop up private investment banks and financial institutions by allowing them to get cheap buys on mortgage-backed financial instruments, then count these as assets at market value, essentially, a veiled public buyout of private debt. Cover the financial institutions' rotting portfolio foundations with what look like suddenly rosy numbers.
The problem? Fannie and Freddie were already playing that role. That's what they do. They intervene in home-loan markets to help maximize the viability of loans to consumers, who are not as stabilized against sudden hardship as major financial institutions are. Fannie Mae's website clearly explains:
Fannie Mae is a government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) chartered by Congress with a mission to provide liquidity and stability to the U.S. housing and mortgage markets. Fannie Mae operates in the U.S. secondary mortgage market. Rather than making home loans directly with consumers, we work with mortgage bankers, brokers, and other primary mortgage market partners to help ensure they have funds to lend to home buyers at affordable rates.
Fannie Mae is a government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) chartered by Congress with a mission to provide liquidity and stability to the U.S. housing and mortgage markets.
Fannie Mae operates in the U.S. secondary mortgage market. Rather than making home loans directly with consumers, we work with mortgage bankers, brokers, and other primary mortgage market partners to help ensure they have funds to lend to home buyers at affordable rates.
Originally chartered by the US government in 1938:
The impetus for creation of Fannie Mae was twofold: the national commitment to housing and the inability or unwillingness of private lenders to ensure a reliable supply of mortgage credit throughout the country.
So, the misuse of that economic lever is the fault of the financial sector itself. Real decisions were made that distorted the nature of affordable-rate home loans, attempting to bend them by force into some sort of massively profitable adjustable-rate mortgages, which were designed to be misleading and which were sold over and over again, real estate flipping-style, in a kind of pyramid scheme where the last entity to hold the loan would eventually lose out.
The move to make it more difficult for individuals to leverage their buying power against major financial institutions (which could force down commercial interest rates), was part of a concerted effort by Congressional Republicans to reform credit and bankruptcy laws to shift bargaining power to big banks. Why? Because they needed help with their decaying solvency. The 2005 bankruptcy bill made it more difficult for individuals to escape debt repayment by declaring bankruptcy, but easier for major firms or even banks to do so.
The only possible reason for doing this was to help banks cover up the fact that they had inviable loans on their books. By now allowing individuals to escape repayment, in some cases even after losing their homes, the banks were able to continue counting those future repayments of failed loans as "assets", which were increasingly bundled together and resold as credible "financial instruments", when in fact they were essentially junk bonds in sheeps' clothing.
Sen. McCain's attack on Fannie and Freddie misplaces blame for this crisis in order to craft an entirely alternate history, which he then intends to use to blame Sen. Obama for a crisis that Sen. McCain actively worked to worsen, either from disinterest, confusion or worse. At the very least, it is clear that Sen. McCain's ranting on the subject bears virtually no connection to reality, and this is what we need people to understand.
The lack of liquidity on Wall Street has now given way to illiquidity on Main Street. People who are losing their jobs are now unable to pay their credit card debts, which in turn, will trim bank profits requiring more layoffs. This disaster has spread overseas. This global contracting economy is still looking at further contractions and more bank and business failures. Will this vortex that is spinning endlessly toward economic hell ever stop?
Although GW Bush cannot be blamed for every personal economic ill, but he can be blamed for the major ones. He is the president, wielding a lot power, power than can prevent the abuses on Wall Street with the enforcement of laws, especially the inviolate fiduciary duty toward those who are most vulnerable. He has failed miserably.
GW Bush has come full circle since his accent to the presidency without popular support. His rating is now at an all-time low, matching Richard Nixon's right before his resignation. Someone should write a book entitled The Rise and Fall of the Bush Monarchy.
Whenever the Head Nurse starts playing with her pistol, the Security Guard gets out his pistol and starts polishing it in synchronization with Head Nurse’s movements.
Clearly a dingy place with beaten emergency room doors that have been bent by someone kicking them and are coming off their hinges. It’s evening with a light rain.
Dingier and dirtier than the outside. The emergency room entrance is just out of sight, stage left. Several examination stalls are visible with their privacy curtains removed. All empty, with equipment spilled across the floor. An examination table is center stage with a large count down timer at the head of the table.
An experimental X-ray /Truth Ray machine occupies one corner, stage right, with a sign that says: “Danger Experimental X-Ray / Truth Ray”.
Opposite corner, stage left, is the Pharmacy-Accounts Receivable kiosk, with two large bottles of pills marked “Phil Gramm’s De-Regulation Stimulants” and “Phil Gramm’s Tax Break Vitamins”. There is also a large bottle of liquid “Phil Gramm’s Job Loss Laxative”. Finally, there is a small computer terminal with a card reader attached. Normally, the kiosk is dark, but the Head Nurse will go back behind the kiosk, the kiosk light turns on which lights up the sign, “Pharmacy-Accounts Receivable” and the computer terminal screen also lights up .
At the back of the stage are a large set of gleaming stainless-steal doors with the title: “Dark-Side Research” underneath that is “Work Makes One Free”.
The emergency room is poorly lit, but when the stainless steel doors open, one hears shrieks and an incredibly harsh light shines through.
Dirty Harry enters from stage left belching smoke and backs up so that the bed of the truck is partially visible. Mom, Dad, Johnny are inside the cab. Grammy is riding the back with Uncle Sam. She has a poncho on. When the truck stops, she pulls off the poncho and kicks down the tailgate. We see Uncle Sam stretched out in the bed. At the same time Mom and Dad gets out and goes to address the guard who is staring off into the horizon, oblivious to the activity in front of him.
Dad: Our Uncle Sam is really sick here. We need a doctor to look at him.
Guard: You don’t look like you have health insurance. We don’t serve people who don’t have health insurance. Why don’t you get out of here.
Mom: Yes we do have health insurance. Why else would I be working two shifts? Here is the card.
Guard: Its not a Medicare Card is it? We don’t allow anyone in here with one of those. This card looks old, basic HMO health insurance doesn’t really cover anything, but let’s have the doctor look at this guy and see if you have the right coverage.
Guard pockets the card, but Grandma says, “Thanks for guarding it, but I would like to hold on to it if you don’t mind.” The Guard gives the card to Grandma.
Grandma, Mom, Dad, Johnny, and the guard slide Uncle Sam off the bed of the truck onto the gurney.
Mom says to Grandma and Johnny, “Sorry, but my shift starts in 25 minutes and Dad needs to drive 50 miles more to make his shift. One of us will be back in four hours.” They get back into Dirty Harry and drive off. The guard pushes the gurney through the battered doors followed by the Grandma and Johnny.
Johnny comments on the way in, “Sure looks like someone tried to kick in these doors.”
[Now inside the Emergency Room]
The double doors open and the guard pushes the gurney into the room through the double doors. The family follows and is shocked by the state of the emergency room.
The Orderly puts the mop back into the bucket and shuffles over.
Orderly: “You know, before the Reform Team came in here, I used to run this place. I was the ‘In Charge Guy’”.
Guard: “You better help get this guy on the examination table before Head Nurse gets back”
Grandma and Johnny go to the head of Uncle Sam; The Orderly and the Guard go to the feet.
Grandma says, “alright, we grab the sheet and on the count of 3 we move him. 1 – 2 – 3 Lift!”
They lift Uncle Sam most of the way on the examination table, but the Orderly drops a leg. He says “oops” as the leg falls on the floor and Uncle Sam groans. The Orderly picks up the leg pushes Uncle Sam onto the table.
Orderly leans against the examination table and continues: “Yup, used to be the Decider, until the Reform Team took over. Can you believe that that guy, [nods at the guard] was in charge for a little while. [Whisper] Of course that was before his medical problem.”
Grandma: “Can we have someone look at Uncle Sam?”
Orderly: “Don’t get pushy with me. The Reform Team is all busy in there. [Nods toward the doors marked “Dark-side Research”.] That’s where we make all the money these days. Don’t know when they’ll be out. Let’s see your card. What type of insurance do you have?”
Grandma: “Can we have someone look at Uncle Sam? Can you go in there and get a doctor?”
Orderly: “Oh, you don’t want me to do that. They’re working on a tough case right now. I Got to hand it to the Reform Team. They came up with great business plan. [Whispers] Government Contract. [Regular Voice] Used to have all those hard cases come in here and we would have to ship them out – Exceptional Rendition Patients. We shipped them out to my buddies in Saudi Arabia, Syria, and my very special friend in the KGB. But it was very expensive.”
Now we process all the tough cases here, locally. [Smiles, Whispers] Government Contract.”
Johnny: “What happened to all the sick people?”
Orderly: “No margin. No Insurance. We moved all the equipment into the other department” [Nods at the doors], except the X-Ray. Head Nurse thinks its too dangerous.
The doors fly open; harsh light and screams; the Chief Surgeon and the Head Nurse walk through the doors laughing.
Head Nurse: “boy, did you see that big guy jump when I made the first cut? He was really surprised. Still, it wasn’t nearly as hard as field dressing a half-dead moose.”
Chief Surgeon: “Did I ever tell my big game hunting experience in Texas? – what have we here? [looks at Uncle Sam] A patient? Out! We don’t do patients any more! Where’s you insurance card?”
Grandma hands the Chief Surgeon the insurance card. Chief Surgeon holds it up to the light.
Chief Surgeon: “Worthless – this is a regular HMO card – worthless. Nurse, forceps!”
The Head Nurse hands the forceps from her utility belt. The Chief Surgeon grabs the card with the forceps.
Chief Surgeon: “Nurse, Torch!”
The Head Nurse produces a small blow torch from her utility belt, lights it and hands it to the Chief Surgeon, who precedes to increate the card.
Chief Surgeon: “Ah, love that smell. Next Health Insurance Card!”
Johnny produces a VISA credit card. “Is this OK?”
Chief Surgeon grabs the card and holds it up to the light: “Yes! You can use a VISA credit card for health insurance! That’s good for five minutes. Nurse, start the timer!”
The Head Nurse sets the timer at the head of the examination table for 5 minutes and it starts counting down with large ticking.
Chief Surgeon: “4 minutes and 30 seconds left, so what do you want?”
Grandma: “Could you just look at Uncle Sam?”
Chief Surgeon: “Sure, look is easy. Look at this stomach. It’s sort of distended. When was the last time he had a BM? Never mind. Nurse, get some of that good Job Loss Laxative and give him a dose.”
The Chief Surgeon gives the credit card to Head Nurse who takes it over to the Pharmacy-Accounts Receivable kiosk. She goes behind the kiosk, turns on the light, takes the card and swipes the card with great fanfare. The computer terminal flashes a large green dollar sign and produces the noise of an opening cash register: “Ka-ching”. She turns off the light and picks up the bottle of “Job Loss Laxative” on the way back.
Head Nurse takes the bottle back to Uncle Sam, gets a teaspoon out of her utility belt and decants some laxative into the spoon. She cheerfully says “Here you go” and spills the liquid on Uncle Sam’s mouth and nose. Uncle Sam coughs and turns away.
Head Nurse with smile: “Look, another non-compliant patient.”
Chief Surgeon: “Nurse, Consent form please”.
Head nurse gives Grandma a large contract scroll and a pen.
Chief Surgeon: “It’s just a Consent From, don’t bother to read it – it’s all legalese and you wouldn’t understand anyway. Just sign it or we will throw you all out. Besides, this is an HMO and you have no choice. Look, your hospital time is almost up” Points at the clock.
Grandma signs on the bottom.
Chief Surgeon: “Thanks, now leave while we work on your Uncle. Best if you weren’t here to distract us”
Chief Surgeon to Guard: “Guard, usher these people out. Don’t worry, this will just take a few seconds.”
Guard ushers the family out and locks the doors. [Audience can see family peering through the doors.]
Chief Surgeon: “Sedate him”
The Orderly, Guard, Head Nurse tie Uncle Sam with straps attached to the examination table that were there for that purpose.
Chief Surgeon: “Nurse: Nose Clips”
The Head Nurse puts a set of nose clips on Uncle Sam, and Uncle Sam starts gasping through his mouth.
Family starts knocking on the door outside.
Chief Surgeon: “Nurse, decant the medicine”
Head Nurse starts pouring the medicine into Uncle Sam’s gasping mouth.
Family starts kicking on the door outside.
Uncle Sam chokes and spits a huge volume of the medicine back at the Chief Surgeon.
The Chief Surgeon wipes himself with a towel and the covers Uncle Sam’s face with it.
Kicking on the door outside increases.
Chief Surgeon: Smiling “I love the fighters. Nurse, get the X-ray machine. He wouldn’t be feeling so cocky after that.”
The Head Nurse rolls over the X-ray/Truth-ray machine, and aims this ray-run like barrel at Uncle Sam’s chest.
Chief Surgeon: Smiling “Fire when ready.”
The Head Nurse pulls the trigger. The barrel of the X-ray/Truth-ray generates pulsing intense light over Uncle Sam’s Chest, and generates a loud throbbing tone.
Uncle Sam Screams.
Chief Surgeon: “Clean Shot Nurse, now let’s see what’s happening inside this guy.”
Chief Surgeon pulls out a giant X-ray negative from under the examination table and holds it up to the light. “Look, just as I thought, the credit alimentary cannel has metastasized. This is going to be fun. Guard, let the family back in. But you control them.”
Guard goes to the door; takes out his gun; and unbolts the latch.
The family rush in to look at Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam moans.
Grandma to Chief Surgeon: “You bastard, what did you do to him?”
Chief Surgeon: “Nothing that will be a problem for the next few years, and we had to do it to get a diagnosis. Look at this X-ray. [Shows family the X-ray negative]
Uncle Sam’s credit alimentary cannel is all stopped up. Look, Toxic mortgage backed securities. They have got to come out. We’ve got to operate.”
Chief Surgeon: “Nurse: Consent form please”.
Grandma: “What’s the risk here? How likely is this operation going to help?”
Chief Surgeon: “Oh, he should be back to his old self. Trust Me. Just sign on the bottom… Besides, this is an HMO… You don’t have a choice…. Just sign. Look your hospital time is almost up” Points at the clock.
Chief Surgeon: “Guard, take these people outside. This is going to be a little smelly.”
Guard waves the family out the door. He also goes out followed by the Orderly.
Chief Surgeon: “Nurse: Gloves, Scalpel, Bucket, Nose Clip”
Head Nurse drags over the bucket the orderly was using; takes the nose clip off Uncle Sam and puts it on the Chief Surgeon, fishes a set of rubber gloves out of the bucket, and slides them onto the Chief Surgeon’s hands, and puts a plastic box cutter in the Chief Surgeon’s right hand.
Head Nurse: “Where’s my nose clip?”
Chief Surgeon: “We don’t have two nose clips. Use Duck Tape”
Head Nurse: “Damn”. She takes out a piece of duck tape and covers her nose, but not quite well enough.
Chief Surgeon takes the box cutter and starts to cut into Uncle Sam’s belly. As soon as the first cut is made, the Head Nurse grimaces and falls over. The Chief Surgeon continues with the operation, pulling what looks likes sausages out of Uncle Sam and dropping them into the bucket. Many types and sizes of sausages come out.
Chief Surgeon, down to Head Nurse on floor: “Nurse: More Duck Tape:
The Head Nurse struggles to her feet, hands over a length of duck tape, glances in the bucket, screams and falls over again. The Chief Surgeon slaps the duck tape over Uncle Sam’s belly and says “Perfect, now where is that credit card?”
Chief Surgeon: “Nurse: Take that bucket out back and toss it on the radioactive waste.”
The Head Nurse struggles to her feet, grabs the bucket and runs out the door holding her nose.
The Family, Orderly, and Guard come back. All grimace as they enter the Emergency Room. The Head Nurse walks in behind them with the duck tape still over her nose.
Uncle Sam groans and sits up. Uncle Sam: “What Happened? I feel like hell”
Chief Surgeon: “Credit alimentary cannel was all stopped up. Look at this X-Ray, Toxic mortgage backed securities. They had to come out. Nurse: Bill Please”
The Nurse hands the bill to Uncle Sam.
Uncle Sam Screams: “Seventy Billion Dollars?” and passes out on the examination table.
Grandma: “How did this happen? Did this have anything to do with those De-regulation stimulants Uncle Sam has been chewing on for fifteen years?”
Chief Surgeon, Head Nurse, Orderly and Guard form a chorus line and start dancing:
“Oh, we don’t rhyme because we don’t have to.
We have Higher Moral Authority; We’re the Good Guys,
So, we don’t think because we don’t have to.
Moral Arrogance, Moral Arrogance, Moral Arrogance
Never needs practical wisdom.
Is blind to its own Greed, Torture and Corruption.”
[On the last phase, they cover their hears, eyes, and mouths, as in see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil]
Chief Surgeon: “Nope, we don’t ask questions like that, and we certainly are unable to answer them. Now get out of here.”
Uncle Sam wakes up and says “I’m famished. Where are my De-Regulation Stimulants?”
Johnny: “Sorry, Uncle but you are going to have to go off them.”
Granma: Shouts “You Bastard”, swings the barrel of the X-Ray/Truth-Ray around so that it points at the Chief Surgeon and pulls the trigger.
Great noise and a searing, pulsing light, irradiates the chest of the Chief Surgeon.
The Head Nurse screams “That’s why I always said it was so dangerous”
The Chief Surgeon is knocked backwards, clutching his chest. But, when the ray stops, He smiles, and the Head Nurse faints again.
Chief Surgeon: [Faces audience]
“Yep, the credit system is sort like our society’s alimentary canal. It wants to be nicely regulated.
If we don’t want a command economy, but want economic decisions to be automated by a transparent, efficient market, we need strong regulatory agencies tasked with guaranteeing the freedom of those markets. Free markets are like hot-house plants. They don’t survive long in a state of natural anarchy. As Rockefeller said about the Standard Oil monopoly, “We had competition and we won”
Industry segments need markets consciously nurtured by strong regulatory agencies tasked with maintaining market efficiency and a level playing field, not tasked with implementing social policy. This is the antithesis of both central planned economy, and markets distorted by monopolistic power.
Uncle Sam will probably survive this latest crisis, but the financial system is no longer anything like a free market. It is a set of hybrid state owned institutions and monopolies. There are many members of the greed lobby who are waking up to realization that this can be a lucrative arrangement.
So again for the second time in the first decade of the 21st Century we cannot escape the challenge of history.
As our children’s children’s children look back on this moment they will judge us and we cannot escape that judgment.
We must move quickly, to make the reconstruction of the American financial system as a critical political goal. Let’s rebuild America together.”
The Chief Surgeon and Dad help Uncle Sam off the examination table and arm in arm help him out the doors. The family follows, then the Head Nurse, cries “Hey, wait for me” and runs out the door. Then the Orderly and the Guard follow.
