Today on KPCC's Larry Mantle show, Air Talk, an economist criticized the $700 Billion Bailout by saying that "imprudent" home buyers spent beyond their means and that responsible, prudent citizens are now being asked to pay their tax money to subsidize the indulges of the irresponsible.
Amazingly, those who have spent their lives heartily defending the "virtues of the free market" are now asking for this gargantuan government-run tax subsidy.
Predictably, those on the right blame unworthy poor home buyers while those on the left blame greedy corporate hucksters.
The truth is that both groups are to blame, but don't expect the partisan Kool-Aid drinkers to acknowledge this since they are committed to being selective about the facts that conveniently conform to their political "reality."
Mike W, I once worked for the New York Power Authority.
I believe the recession will be deep and long, may be 2 decades.
Today, working in the corporate environment is brutal.
Posted by: Tom Welch | October 02, 2008 at 09:36 AM
Tom,
Even the word "brutal" may be sugar-coating it. I left one private sector job where almost all the 200-some-odd people are gone now and fled to another where something like 5 of the original 7 I started with were gone within a few months. They hold the threat of termination over you like a noose.
Two-decade-long recession? And I thought I was bleakly pessimistic. You make me look like Larry Kudlow.
Posted by: Mike W | October 02, 2008 at 07:34 PM
This is great (satire):
Outraged Lehman Brothers employees stage a protest by blockading the entrance to the bank's headquarters
Photo:
http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/7269/unknown2ue5.jpg
Posted by: Paul | October 10, 2008 at 07:18 PM
Like all good humor, there's a kernel of truth in that photo.
Posted by: jeffrey McMahon | October 10, 2008 at 09:01 PM