Capitalism Takes a Hit

The Scene of the Crime -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter

GREED IS NOT GOOD

Today, we are in the aftermath of the worst stock slide in history (the DOW lost 777 points yesterday). I was actually undecided through much of this election about my 2008 vote. I'm a centrist Democrat who supported Hillary in the primaries. Then the week of September 15th, our already-wounded economy was chopped to its knees by a credit crunch. Four investment banks and a major insurer defaulted on their debts and had to be rescued with a combination of penny-on-the-dollar buyouts and Federal intervention. This week, we've had two widely known commercial banks taken down, and a much-maligned $700 billion bipartisan bail-out vote fail in the House. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi fell to the occasion -- in a moment that called for grace, understanding and cooperation she chose to unleash a scorching partisan attack. I don't think her remarks are what torpedoed the bailout but they certainly didn't help. People on hand for the vote reported that Barney Frank hurried the roll call along at one point when the Republicans were scrounging up "Yes" votes. Were both parties trying to undermine the bailout for political ends? It's hard to say -- maybe Frank was afraid they were scrounging up "No" votes.

I'm now voting for Obama. I still don't warm to him very well and wish that Hillary was the candidate, but I couldn't in good conscience contribute to four more years of Bushanomics. The Democrats could probably nominate a folding chair at this point, and have a good chance of winning.

THE END OF WILD WEST CAPITALISM

In war, a soldier might fall on a hand grenade to protect his fellows. In maritime travel, a captain goes down with his ship. In both cases, there is a since of stewardship and duty that says a person of authority in dire straits will suffer with those who suffer under his guidance. In an opposite analogy, imagine a Titanic that strikes an iceberg; before most passengers know there is danger, the captain has been airlifted to a tropic isle, suitcase in hand. His suitcase has the safe contents he raided before leaving. What I've just described is "Wild West" crony capitalism -- what we have on Wall Street. Our economic engine which determines all that we have and do is in the hands of greedy manipulators -- people whose every action is determined by profit. If the $700 billion bailout fails, we can probably look to a series of "mini-Enrons". Corporate officers will feast on the carcasses of dying corporations, leaving cartilage and bones for the minority shareholders and tax payers to scavenge. How have we constructed such a society, where greed is the primary motive? "Might makes right" and "Winner takes all" are mantras of the caveman era -- have we gone back to that? I think it's amusing that Republicans don't blame Republican principles in general for any of this -- it's just that crooked Republican over there.

TEMPERED CAPITALISM

Benjamin Franklin said something to the effect, "If only men wouldn't be such wolves to each other, we could have Heaven on earth right now". Ben was very prescient and one has to wonder now if capitalism can survive. I think that it will, albeit a reasonable man's capitalism. There will be government oversight in every economic activity and practical economic caps to prevent huge income disparity. Such systems already exist in a few places like Scandinavia and Western Europe. Someone might ask if this impedes creativity. Do we want to be so creative that we set our economic house on fire?

In Conan O'Brien’s monolog last night, he joked that Bush had one more thing to check off on his presidential "bucket list". Guest Bill Mahr opined that Bush wouldn't have a sense of completion until he saw the black smoke of America's banking system swirling in the air. I say that it's time for common sense, and yes, decency to return. It's time for both profit and principled stewardship to be the twin virtues of our economic enterprise.

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