by David Williamson
The detonation of the banking sector brought about by the credit crunch has been tantamount to a revolution.
But the greatest transformations in society may come if voters refuse to allow politicians to repair the shattered jigsaw and instead demand a very different future.
Once any institution becomes associated with negligence and greed, the stain is almost impossible to remove.
The true legacy of the economic crisis may not be the emptying of Treasury funds and the decapitation of bank chiefs but the ideas that will circulate in the wake of this scandal.
Read on...
The renaissance of radical thought is Peacenik's fondest dream. The danger is that the radical thought may turn out to be radical right wing thought. The Ron Pauls, and Huckabees, and Palins and libertarians aren't thinking about the commmon good as they start their campaigns for 2012. The CNBC Wall St.cheerleaders on tv are cheering for the downfall of the Big Three auto companies only so that those companies can walk away from their pension and benefit obligations. The status quo is not sustainable. Out of these dangerous times something new will emerge. It will be radical. Peacenik hopes it will be progressive. Have a good weekend.
Showing posts with label future. Show all posts
Showing posts with label future. Show all posts
10/20/08
What Now?
by Jim Kunstler
It's fascinating to read the commentators in mainstream journals like The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal all strenuously pretending that "the worst is over" (maybe... we hope... fingers crossed... hail Mary full of grace... et cetera). The cluelessness would be funny if it didn't involve a world-changing catastrophe. All nations that have reached the fork-and-spoon level of civilization are now engineering a vast network of cyber-cables that lead directly from their central bank computers to the Death Star that is hovering above world financial affairs like a giant cosmic vacuum cleaner, sucking up dollars, euros, zlotys, forints, krona, what-have-you. As fast as the keystrokes create currency-pixels, the little electron-denominated units of exchange are sucked out of the terrestrial economies into the black hole of money death. That's what the $700-billion bail-out (excuse me, "rescue plan") and all its associated ventures are about.
To switch metaphors, let's say that we are witnessing the two stages of a tsunami. The current disappearance of wealth in the form of debts repudiated, bets welshed on, contracts canceled, and Lehman Brothers-style sob stories played out is like the withdrawal of the sea. The poor curious little monkey-humans stand on the beach transfixed by the strangeness of the event as the water recedes and the sea floor is exposed and all kinds of exotic creatures are seen thrashing in the mud, while the skeletons of historic wrecks are exposed to view, and a great stench of organic decay wafts toward the strand. Then comes the second stage, the tidal wave itself -- which in this case will be horrific monetary inflation -- roaring back over the mud flats toward the land mass, crashing over the beach, and ripping apart all the hotels and houses and infrastructure there while it drowns the poor curious monkey-humans who were too enthralled by the weird spectacle to make for higher ground. The killer tidal wave washes away all the things they have labored to build for decades, all their poignant little effects and chattels, and the survivors are left keening amidst the wreckage as the sea once again returns to normal in its eternal cradle.
Read on...
Peacenik reads Kunstler and wonders what Peacenik should do. Can Peacenik save himself from hyperinflation? Can he save himself from deflation? Can anyone? Will the near future be peaceful? Peacenik watched War of The Worlds last night and was surprised at how orderly people were in the face of an alien attack. But Peacenik also read Cormac's The Road. The future may be scary and it may be soon.
It's fascinating to read the commentators in mainstream journals like The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal all strenuously pretending that "the worst is over" (maybe... we hope... fingers crossed... hail Mary full of grace... et cetera). The cluelessness would be funny if it didn't involve a world-changing catastrophe. All nations that have reached the fork-and-spoon level of civilization are now engineering a vast network of cyber-cables that lead directly from their central bank computers to the Death Star that is hovering above world financial affairs like a giant cosmic vacuum cleaner, sucking up dollars, euros, zlotys, forints, krona, what-have-you. As fast as the keystrokes create currency-pixels, the little electron-denominated units of exchange are sucked out of the terrestrial economies into the black hole of money death. That's what the $700-billion bail-out (excuse me, "rescue plan") and all its associated ventures are about.
To switch metaphors, let's say that we are witnessing the two stages of a tsunami. The current disappearance of wealth in the form of debts repudiated, bets welshed on, contracts canceled, and Lehman Brothers-style sob stories played out is like the withdrawal of the sea. The poor curious little monkey-humans stand on the beach transfixed by the strangeness of the event as the water recedes and the sea floor is exposed and all kinds of exotic creatures are seen thrashing in the mud, while the skeletons of historic wrecks are exposed to view, and a great stench of organic decay wafts toward the strand. Then comes the second stage, the tidal wave itself -- which in this case will be horrific monetary inflation -- roaring back over the mud flats toward the land mass, crashing over the beach, and ripping apart all the hotels and houses and infrastructure there while it drowns the poor curious monkey-humans who were too enthralled by the weird spectacle to make for higher ground. The killer tidal wave washes away all the things they have labored to build for decades, all their poignant little effects and chattels, and the survivors are left keening amidst the wreckage as the sea once again returns to normal in its eternal cradle.
Read on...
Peacenik reads Kunstler and wonders what Peacenik should do. Can Peacenik save himself from hyperinflation? Can he save himself from deflation? Can anyone? Will the near future be peaceful? Peacenik watched War of The Worlds last night and was surprised at how orderly people were in the face of an alien attack. But Peacenik also read Cormac's The Road. The future may be scary and it may be soon.
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