Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

"Four of these executives, including the heads of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bear Stearns Cos., have filed for bankruptcy protection or seen their share price fall more than 90% from their peak.

"The study which examined the filings at 120 public companies in such sectors as banking, mortgage finance, student lending, stock brokerage and home builders showed that top executives and directors of firms cashed out a total of more than $21 billion during the period.

"Some experts say huge paydays inevitably coincide with economic booms.  In the tech bubble of the late 1990's more than 50 individuals each made more than $100 million from selling shares just prior to the crash. Many had never made a profit.  `The system tends to reward people for participating in a bubble,' says Roy C. Smith, a finance professor at New York University Business School.'"

These greed is God characters who lived by the Reagan mantra of "get the government off our backs" have left the U.S. economy in shambles.  And you can't count on the government to control this gross exploitation debacle.  

There were 2,000 lobbyists chasing around Washington with their checkbooks handy in the year 2000.

But in 2005 the number of lobbyists had jumped to 34,750.  Tragically certain lobbyists were no more than bribe artists, with it costing in many cases more than a million dollars to run a political campaign.  It is easy to understand why lobbyists' campaign contributions became so significant.

In the October 12 Seattle Times an article by Emma Vandore and Greg Keller of the Associated Press datelined Paris explained:

"Economic inequality is growing in the world's richest countries, particularly in the United States, jeopardizing the American dream of social mobility just as the world tilts toward recession, a 30 nation report said Tuesday.

"Only Mexico and Turkey had poverty rates higher than the U.S. in a 30 country study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development."

How did the U.S. slip to third world economic status?  That is not difficult to explain when the regulations to hold economic cheating were removed, the U.S. economic downturn began.

The big business vultures naturally bristled against being regulated by sensible rules of fair play.  Given a free rein, through de-regulation, they would manipulate the U.S. economy at will.  

When the savings and loan economic catastrophe cost taxpayers billions, it was hoped that America had learned something.  Apparently the only thing learned was to hit the U.S. taxpayer with paying the other person's bill for the savings and loan bailout.

The high tech stock collapse cost the U.S. economy tremendous losses.  Now the collapse of the banking system after the real estate bubble burst has burdened the U.S. hard-working taxpayers again with the $700 billion bailout.  

When the three CEO's of the auto industry went to Washington, each executive was arriving in a private jet, costing approximately $22,000 for the Detroit to Washington air jaunt.  The absurdity of the U.S. economic system would be laughable if it wasn't so tragic.

These three colossal failures were begging for a $25 billion bailout when it was their failed management that had generated this crisis in what was once the number one economic money maker in the U.S.A.

The number one economic asset for average U.S. citizens has been their homes.  But when Alan Greenspan demolished the dollars value -- all that ended abruptly.

This triggered huge profits for the exporters whose products undercut foreign competition because of, in effect, a heavy subsidy by destroying a lot of the dollar value with very low interest rates, the lowest in 40 years.

Wall Street rejoiced as seniors deserted certificates of deposit, paying less than inflation for the much higher stock market interest.

Home builders shouted Hosanna as banks steeped in corruption gave high risk loans, packaging them in bundles to sell worldwide as mortgage securities.  It was con artistry of cheating, money grab artists.  No wonder banks went under and begged for bailouts.

Developers over built all over the U.S.A., demolishing a legitimate real estate market.  Now the average U.S. homeowner watches as house values descend dramatically.

With millions of house foreclosures and banks on the edge of collapse, it is interesting to watch the filthy rich who engineered the collapse of the U.S. economy live in high style in their mansions, riding in limos and private jets.  Apparently, Republicans led de-regulation of the U.S. economy paid off handsomely for some.

The filthy rich prefer living in mansions obtained through ill-gotten gains lifestyles rather than going to prison.