Friday, January 11, 2008

A Free Market Economy? Really?


Stocks tanked again today on credit default woes. Republicans and Chicago-schoolers will tell you "sorry folks, but you’re witnessing our glorious free market economy at work." But wait -- does the following extract-quote sound like free-market-y?

"...Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, who on Thursday made clear in a speech that the central bank is poised to cut interest rates later this month."

So basically, the Fed is going to tinker with interest rates yet again to try to postpone a recession. If it works as planned, John and Jane Consumer will breathe a sigh a relief and resume purchasing poorly-made consumer products using high-interest credit cards at big box stores across the nation.

Of course, this does nothing to solve our root problem: the U.S. economy is based on the middle class buying things they can't afford, on credit terms stacked in the banks favor. It's all going to crash soon, folks, and when it does, guess who will be holding the cards? Answer: financiers in Asia and the Middle East (the same folks currently rescuing our high flying investment banks in New York).

Think the Repubs will fix everything and make it all better? Ha! Remember who sat in the White House in 1929...

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