'A pen warmed up in hell' | Reality-based commentary about Phoenix, Arizona, and the nation.
2The candidates are giving speeches on the economy, ranging from Obama’s correct diagnosis that corporate political power has driven much destructive policy to Clinton’s programmatic wonkishness to McCain saying speculators should receive no federal bailout. Unfortunately, he means individuals who face foreclosure, not the big financial institutions that caused the housing and mortgage collapse.
The nation faces more economic challenges than at any time since the Great Depression. But overall America is so wealthy that the stresses and dangers are concealed; their most severe consequences may not be felt for decades. Nobody has all the answers, but I will lay down some markers to watch. These are based on history, the test of time and the reality of today’s economy. I wonder if the candidates will address them (we already know McCain’s answer)?
1“How are you supposed to know? Fucking men like you built the hydrogen bomb. Men like you thought it up. You think you’re so creative. You don’t know what it’s like to really create something; to create a life; to feel it growing inside you. All you know how to create is death…and destruction.”
These are the lines Linda Hamilton speaks in Terminator 2. Change a few words and she could be speaking of the current financial disaster. Now it’s out of control. Make no mistake: the extraordinary steps by the Federal Reserve in the past few days, including a Sunday night fire sale of Bear Sterns and an interest rate cut, are being taken out of fear.
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