Archive for September, 2008

Bad Money – Bill Moyer Interview

Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

Another good one, an interview with Kevin Phillips, author of Bad Money: RECKLESS FINANCE, FAILED POLITICS, AND THE GLOBAL CRISIS OF AMERICAN CAPITALISM.

Like the previous links, this one is somewhat refreshing, because the author is an ex-Nixon White House person, who I think fairly accurately notes the serious problems with both the Democratic and Republican parties in the USA.

BILL MOYERS: So you have it — for this disaster has bipartisan parentage.

KEVIN PHILLIPS: Absolutely.

BILL MOYERS: But yet you say it’s come to an end. You say there’ll be no pretense any longer that the financial system is supreme.

KEVIN PHILLIPS: Oh, there may be a pretense in some quarters. I mean, obviously people who were doing the bailouts are saying how important it is that we don’t rock or endanger the financial system. Some would say to the contrary that the best thing we could do would be to put its failings out there and let the making cure it.

Like so many he sees things fairly clearly, but also, sadly understands that it is now too late. The bubble has to burst, and pumping in hundreds of billions of dollars to keep it inflated, and to keep debt holders buying more, is just not going do anything but make it worse.

Bacevich – The Limits of Power

Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

Good transcript of Bill Moyer’s interview with Bacevich, author of The Limits to Power.

ANDREW BACEVICH: Our foreign policy is not something simply concocted by people in Washington D.C. and imposed on us. Our foreign policy is something that is concocted in Washington D.C., but it reflects the perceptions of our political elite about what we want, we the people want. And what we want, by and large – I mean, one could point to many individual exceptions – but, what we want, by and large is, we want this continuing flow of very cheap consumer goods.

And make sure to check out this ‘picture is worth a thousand words’ image of the Total Credit Market Debt as a % of GDP over the last 90 years or so. If you have a hard time understanding where we are about to go, take one more look, it’s all you should need.

The New Great Crash

Sunday, September 21st, 2008

Read this recent article about the roots of our new economic collapse.

I’m not going to paraphrase this, it’s an excellent analysis and historical overview.

These events are not a short term bump on the road, but the culmination of the decision a generation ago to use paper to buy oil, to inflate that paper by allowing those at the very highest reaches of a social elite to engage in a “race to the top” with the suppliers of oil. This system was accepted by both parties, and it created a neo-liberal era where any restriction to creating paper wealth had to be removed. This was not a matter of left or right, everyone was a neo-conservative, and every one was a neo-liberal.