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Fiscal cliff, my ass.
Dec. 31st, 2012 09:50 amEvery single media outlet I've sampled uses the phrase "fiscal cliff". It smells like bullshit.
Back in 2008 we were led to believe that unless the government bailed out the "banks", we'd have another Great Depression. A wave of panic was orchestrated by the media in order to put pressure on Congress to bail out these "banks", which had built up vast debts engaging in financial speculation with other people's money, much of which turned out not actually to exist. If Congress didn't act, the credit markets would lock up, businesses large and small would grind to a halt, and the world would stop turning on its axis. And Congress caved, gave the "bankers" what they asked for, and Wall Street partied on.
It was all bullshit. If a "bank" was failing, it should have been seized by the government and is assets sold off to people obliged to stop speculating and restrict themselves to proper banking. But that would have gored too many rich men's oxen.
Now comes the much ballyhooed "fiscal cliff". Many of the same oxen, and some belonging to the military-industrial complex, stand to be gored unless Congress bends the nation over and pulls down its collective pants before midnight tonight.
An idiot from Texas who owns vast herds of oxen once said: "fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
Let's not get fooled again. It smells like bullshit because it is bullshit, or perhaps I should say, ox shit.
Back in 2008 we were led to believe that unless the government bailed out the "banks", we'd have another Great Depression. A wave of panic was orchestrated by the media in order to put pressure on Congress to bail out these "banks", which had built up vast debts engaging in financial speculation with other people's money, much of which turned out not actually to exist. If Congress didn't act, the credit markets would lock up, businesses large and small would grind to a halt, and the world would stop turning on its axis. And Congress caved, gave the "bankers" what they asked for, and Wall Street partied on.
It was all bullshit. If a "bank" was failing, it should have been seized by the government and is assets sold off to people obliged to stop speculating and restrict themselves to proper banking. But that would have gored too many rich men's oxen.
Now comes the much ballyhooed "fiscal cliff". Many of the same oxen, and some belonging to the military-industrial complex, stand to be gored unless Congress bends the nation over and pulls down its collective pants before midnight tonight.
An idiot from Texas who owns vast herds of oxen once said: "fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
Let's not get fooled again. It smells like bullshit because it is bullshit, or perhaps I should say, ox shit.
