ruminations for mastication

The Alberton Papers Vol. VII, #IX
By Dick Darne 11-25-08
The tank was packed this frosty morning. Old timers, young folks, critics and just interested people. The Good Professor was beaming at the sight of so much think power assembling under one roof, which was rapidly becoming too small. Beside him stood another old timer who had been absent for awhile, beaming with pride. Looks like Elder was back.
"Looks like you have given them some rumination for mastication, Sven, it does my heart good..I have a few observations I’d like to share with all, if I may?" said Elder.
"Go right ahead, Old Timer, I always learn from your sharing of what you have observed over many, many years." replied Sven.
"Thanks. I am heartened by the resurgence in thinking, even though there’s still a long ways to go. Thinking is not the bailywick of the formally educated or self proclaimed elite, but should be the duty of all citizens to think about things that affect them, their families and their future. If left to others, then one has no complaint. There are a few genuine thinkers of the highest intellect who have some important things to say, I am going to share a few with you now. My old buddy, Noam Chomsky said the other day; ‘Change and progress are rarely gifts from above, they come out of struggles from below.’ As always, don’t blindly believe it, study your history, not necessarily the school textbooks, it’s not only informative, but quite entertaining." said Elder.
"Good point, Elder, apply critical thinking, maybe we’ll hash this over later." replied Sven. "Back to you Elder."
"Another is the observations of Walter Lippman. While you may conclude that he certainly seemed ‘elitist’, he was reporting what he saw at the time. He saw democracy consisting of spectators and participants. The spectators as mostly meddlesome outsiders. Their job is mainly to show up at intervals, yank a lever or mark a box, choose between Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum, go home and shut up. The real ‘thinkers’ will decide what’s best for all. They are also absolutely terrified of the ‘unwashed masses’. Said Elder.
"Which brings us to the ‘Fabulous Five. Said Sven. "Any words of wisdom on that, Elder?"
"Yes, first, the fab five are symbolic of countless ‘really smart guys’, who worship at the free market altar and in spite of all their education, shouldn’t be giving advice on economics but rather should be given supoenas. You know, all their theories assume there informed consumers making rational choices but after brainwashing by advertising, we actually have uninformed consumers making irrational choices. Works the same for a ‘dumbed down citizenry.’ These guys honestly believe they are acting rationally and I guess they are if you consider they have been operating in a framework of lunacy." Elder said as he picked up his coat. "Got to go now. Take back the thinking from these Idiots. Keep them stirred up, Sven. I think Viggie & Co. Are on the way. Don’t forget, ‘spectators’ and ‘unwashed masses’ is you. Shouldn’t you be insulted?
dd

free market malarkey

The Alberton Papers Vol. VII, #VIII
By Dick Darne 11-16-08
"Professor Sven, before we start, I have a question for you. Surely these five people are not solely to blame for the whole mess, are they?" asked one of the newcomers who had just discovered the think tank.
"Ah wunnerful, wunnerful, I am more encouraged each day with the development of questions instead of blind acceptance of the situation. Of course it is not so simple as to just pick a few, assign blame and move on. This is just a starting point. We can move backwards in history and forward too, as we shall see. Anyone care to venture into the roots of the problem?" answered the Professor. "How about you, Bill, you’ve been around awhile?"
"Well, as far as my memory goes, it started with Reagan and his ‘mantra’; government is the problem, get government out of the way, let the free market work it’s magic, it’ll all trickle down and the rest of his, as my grandfather used to say; ‘harkey-malarkey’. I don’t even bother with an umbrella anymore." answered Bill.
"We’ve had other periods in our history where the ‘free market malarkey’ almost did us in; at least twice the system had to be saved from itself."added Todd.
"And both of those times it was a Roosevelt who did it." said Johnny.
"Good for you, Johnny, I see you’ve been reading your history," said the Good Professor, "but it’s been with us from the start, larceny was thoroughly imbedded in the souls of more than a few of our founding fathers. I think Gno may be able to offer some insight into these matters."
Gno walked slowly to the front, turned around, cleared his throat and surprisingly, for one predisposed to rant, began calmly and slowly: "The art of National Theft Treasury goes back to the founding Fathers. First introduced by Alexander Hamilton, theft of the National Treasure has become a high art and is not questioned by that simpering, smarmy mob of effete imperialist sympathizing swine called congress because they too are of the "investment class" and make a share of the money."
One could hear a pin drop at this point.Gno began again: "But I don't think the treasury has ever been so successfully looted as we've just seen during the Bush years. Remember the S&L bailout? That was a robbery on a national level, but it was dwarfed by the job the reactionary right just completed.And what is so amazing is that the follow-up level of theft, called ‘sweeping out the corners’, is going on even as King George the Bush is ushered out of the office in disgrace.Nope. If that man and his administration are not retroactively impeached or held accountable for their crimes, then the new administration is concurring in the theft and the laws spun by the treasury-devouring spider will remain and be much harder to reverse ... thereby paving the way for future thefts of the money of The People."
"Very good. But there’s more to ponder," said Professor Sven. "How do we keep getting ourselves in these ‘pickles’? We’ll explore that next week, that will be your homework assignment. And a one and a two and away we go, until next week!"
Will Diogenes ever find someone to hold his lamp? Is the price of liberty eternal vigilance? Shouldn’t one be miserable if he doesn’t like what he sees in the mirror? dd

the alberton papers: fabulous five

fabulous five

The Alberton Papers Vol. VII, #VII
By Dick Darne 11-8-08
"Ah wunnerful, a truly great day here where it’s morning in America again!" exclaimed Professor Sven, as the crowd filed into the Think-Tank.
"Who’s to blame for the financial crisis?" several voices were asking at once.
"Let’s get right to it, although ‘what’ would be easier to answer than ‘who’, anybody want to guess what caused it, how about you, Johnny?"
"No doubt, Greed did." answered Johnny.
"Let’s not forget the spawn of Greed; Larceny, Arrogance, Corruption, Vainglory, Pigheadedness and Worship of a failed ideology." added Bill.
"Can anyone expound on that?" asked Sven in his professorial manner.
"Free market, free trade, the absurd ideas of Ayn Rand" said Todd.
"A bunch of Laissez-Faries, if you ask me." some old grouch hollered from the back.
"Ah wunnerful, wunnerful. You boys get the general idea just fine, but lets get to the actual blame. Plenty to go around, but lets get to the big five. A one and a two and away we go."
1) Phil Gramm. In 1999 he was head of the Senate Banking Committee, where he had enough clout to push for some of his bad-for-us, good for Phil and friends ideas. He was the architect of the repeal of the Glass Steagal act, which very well would have prevented this mess. But wait, there’s more; he slipped a little provision into an 11,000 page appropriations bill just before Christmas break in 2000 that prevented regulation or even monitoring Derivitaves, those pesky, little understood things at the heart of the mess, designed solely to line the pockets of the "really-smart wall street guys"
2)Alan Greenspan. Head of the Federal Reserve for almost 20 years, he is an Ayn Rand worshiper, having drank copious quantities of her kool-aid, he allowed this mess to happen, still believing in the "invisible hand" making minor course corrections in the sailing of the USS Financial-Ship and believing with all the fervor of Linus in the Pumpkin Patch that the great unwashed would be bathed in the trickle-down deluge coming soon at an undetermined time and place of their choosing.
3)Chris Cox. He weakened enforcement while at the Securities and Exchange Commission
4)William Donaldson. He preceded Cox at SEC, while there he did a big favor for the Bankers by exempting them from the rule that required them to keep an adequate amount of cash on hand to cover potential losses.
5)Henry Paulson. Absolutely amazing that a bank robber would be put in charge of getting the bank up and running after he just robbed it.
"We’ll just have to take a break until next week to determine just how to handle this, so until then this is Sven Berkowitz, Professor at the North Dakota Institute of Financial Technology signing off. One and a two, turn on the bubble machine.
Until then, dd