Johannesburg: There was lots
of skepticism when I came to South Africa two years ago to show my film
IN DEBT WE TRUST. While my critique of consumer debt resonated, the
film's forecast of a financial crisis didn't. Their economy seemed
to be doing well and it was hard to tell a society that tends to look
inward that they would be affected by a financial crisis in America,
l0,000 miles away.
Most believed it would pass
them by.
On
Tuesday, October 13, the Senate Finance Committee finally is scheduled
to vote on its version of health care insurance reform. And therein
lies yet another story in the endless saga of money and politics.
In most polls, the majority of Americans favor a non-profit alternative
-- like Medicare -- that would give the private health industry some
competition. So if so many of us, including President Obama himself,
want that public option, how come we're not getting one?
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration's efforts to force the
modifications of distressed mortgages, while laudable, is likely to
fall far short because the foreclosure crisis has grown and threatens
to dwarf government efforts to relieve it, a special congressional
watchdog panel warned in a report released Friday.
The Congressional Oversight Panel, created to monitor how taxpayer
bailout dollars are being spent, warned that the administration's Home
Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, announced in February, seems
sure to prove ineffective.
Even during his most frenzied days, when Congress is demanding answers
or the president himself is calling, Treasury Secretary Timothy
Geithner makes time to talk to a select group of powerful Wall Street
bankers.
They are a small cadre of businessmen who have known and worked
with Geithner for years, whose multibillion-dollar companies all
survived the economic crisis with help from U.S. taxpayers.
Thousands of people swarmed Cobo Hall in chaos this morning trying to get applications for housing and utility payment assistance from the city of Detroit.
People fainted, others fought as the Detroit Police Gang Unit tried to keep people in line --- some since last night --- and in check.
"It's a disaster here," former assistant Detroit Police chief and city council candidate Gary Brown said, handing out water. "This is dangerous. Very unorganized, very dangerous."
The large number of people who protested against Barack Obama's healthcare plan in Washington last week drew an enormous amount of media attention.
Clearly some of the leaders are certifiably crazy, questioning whether
Obama is an American and likening him to Hitler.
In the grim period that followed Lehman's failure, it seemed inconceivable that bankers would, just a few months later, be going right back to the practices that brought the world's financial system to the edge of collapse. At the very least, one might have thought, they would show some restraint for fear of creating a public backlash.
But now that we've stepped back a few paces from the brink - thanks, let's not forget, to immense, taxpayer-financed rescue packages - the financial sector is rapidly returning to business as usual.
On Monday-one year after the once-mighty Lehman Brothers collapsed
in the nation's biggest bankruptcy-President Obama addressed the state
of the economy and again outlined his proposals for what he calls
reform. The location-Federal Hall at 26 Wall Street, near the New York
Stock Exchange and New York Federal Reserve Bank-was fitting. George
Washington took his presidential oath there, a precursor for how
intertwined Washington and Wall Street would become.
One prime cause of the financial collapse is that financial trading
markets have become speculative worlds unto themselves. Instead of
adding efficiency to the real economy, they mainly add risk that the
rest of us now have to pay for.
There are many ways to damp down financial speculation, but a very
effective strategy is to tax it. Given the huge costs of the clean-up
(now being borne mainly by taxpayers) it would make a lot more sense to
require financial markets to pay for their own bailout.
Five years ago, Forbes magazine performed a worthy public service. The right-leaning business publication that dubs itself, "Capitalist Tool," published a set of criteria by which to judge the economic performance of 10 post-war presidencies. It then evaluated each presidency against that set of criteria.
