Good Times

by Christina Hazelwood
Last month I reported positive action taken by the U.S. government in favor of the people. This month, I must point out the obvious. Our standard of living is down and is going down further, and much of it is due to the actions of our government and ourselves. It brings to mind the phrase, “Let the good times roll.”

For some time now, we as a nation have lived in denial on so many fronts, I lack the time and space to list them all here. I will focus, for the moment on one area, our no-holds-barred consumption, our living and spending beyond our means. We have squandered our personal, national and even global wealth for many years. Our self-indulgence and greed has come home to roost. When the good times roll, as they have for us in the “free world” for a very long time, people party on and know better than to question who’s flipping the bill. Now that the party is over, the bill has arrived, leaving us pulling lint out of our pockets, scratching our heads and pointing at the other guy.

The actions and non-actions of the U.S. government have caused a domino effect in the area of finance that has impacted all those with whom we were in relation, including the European Union, Asian markets and ultimately the world. Just as one irresponsible family member can impact, not just the entire family, but all those with whom the family interacts, so has our government’s irresponsibility and our own, impacted the entire globe.

One lynchpin, in the current economic meltdown, was derivatives. Derivatives were a scheme dreamed up by Wall Street executives that amounted to unregulated side bets on whether markets would go up or down. A scheme that our Republican controlled 106th congress, under the Democratic leadership of President Bill Clinton, backed by passing the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 that essentially prevented state prosecution and stopped oversight of any such side bet activity, encouraged by the Federal Reserve. Our U.S. congress passed this, in spite of knowing that these very activities helped bring about the crash of 1929 that resulted in the Great Depression.

Some of these side bets were made on mainstays of our economy like mortgage markets and the solvency of financial institutions. So when the U.S. economy took a downturn, derivatives accentuated and exacerbated the problem, assuring a speedy decent to collapse. Some of those derivative gamblers made millions, leaving the rest of us holding the bag, similar in fashion to the many corporate executives and government officials who have benefited as the feeding frenzy commenced. Certainly this is one grand moment when our government failed us.

The U.S. government seems to enjoy interceding in areas that we, as individual citizens, can handle, like whether or not to marry, whom to marry, whether or not to have children and when, what kind of housing we want to live in and under what conditions. Yet seems to have great difficulty handling the very areas where we need governmental authority such as declaring war or not, protecting our borders, protecting us against foreign invaders, terrorism, regulating financial markets, protecting rights, restraining monopolies and corporations, regulating companies charged with our well-being like insurance companies and utilities, stabilizing the economy, preparing and assisting in natural disasters and protecting our delicate natural environment.

The government has become that nasty big brother who steals your lunch money and pounds on you for his own pleasure, but is nowhere to be found when the school bully shows up. Then runs home to Mommy, to boast and tattle, in the form of the media, telling her that you got in a fight, have two black eyes and ought to be punished for it.

You may say, hey, don’t look at me, I just live here. But the very fact that you live here, in America, brings with it the responsibilities of being an American citizen. Just as the fact you wore born into a family, bears with it certain responsibilities to that family. As an American it is each of our duties to watch over our government, to demand action where it is needed and to protest actions that are beyond its scope. As Americans it is our responsibility to secure the best possible leadership and make sure that leadership stays on course. Instead we were all partying on, spending our money and looking the other way, because hey, let the good times roll!

Associated Links

Commodity Modernization Act

106th Congress

Economy Under Clinton versus Bush View One

Economy Under Clinton versus Bush View Two