Nation of whiners watch: Phil Gramm: 2, American People: 0
The Recession Chimera continues its slow, painful slouch toward the Potomac. It's prompting government to protect institutions that are as big, dumb and incompetent as itself. It's an economic meltdown. (A "seemingly endless" one at that.) It's causing Americans to turn against the free market. It's literally taking candy from the mouths of babes!
Take that, former Sen. Phil Gramm. As Paul Thornton noted recently, Gramm diagnosed our national malaise as a form of "mental recession" and the bellyaching nation as a bunch of "whiners." How could a man affiliated with a presidential campaign say something so heartless, unpatriotic and downright mean? As it turned out, he couldn't. But what could prompt such possibly unconstitutional hate speech? Maybe it's that...
Wells Fargo has reported a phenomenal quarter. Oil prices are plummeting. Business is strong in industries ranging from online auctions to junk food to personal computers. And Dish Network is in the air!
Does this mean the economy is turning the corner, or that it's booming? Of course not. It means the economy is too varied, complex and (no pun intended) rich to be described in the kind of inane, pro-or-con flapdoodle that politicians and great media organs employ. A vain, wealth-destroying politican makes a statement and people panic. Hysterical reporters seize on an interesting but not essential statistic, only to drop it when it no longer supports their dire theories. Meanwhile, people chug along doing business, and whenever one door closes (as Vanessa Williams taught us all), another one opens. Many of the good-news tidbits above, for example, are at least in part functions of the weak dollar. But who wants a weak dollar? That's un-American.
Thornton largely concurred with Gramm's analysis, as does the Union Trib's Ruben Navarrette here. I would concur except for one thing: It's not the people who are to blame. The public is ambivalent-to-hostile to the bailouts and interventions that are now taking place on an almost daily basis. We in the media are to blame for dumb reporting about complicated matters, and to a much greater extent the socialist politicians denounced yesterday by Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Kentucky) are to blame for doing the one thing guaranteed to produce a bad result: trying to ensure a particular outcome. (And without, as Peter Viles notes, giving a lot of thought to the essentials of customer service.)
Our old friend Matt Welch is wondering whether all this panic may show lack of faith in "an economy that, despite its many flaws, has consistently outpaced the doomsayers for what, a quarter century now?" I'd note that in my neighborhood, the tour buses are full for the first time since I moved to Hollywood; gas prices at the cluster of cheaper stations on the lousy end of Melrose have raced each other down every day for the last two weeks. Two apartments have opened up in my building (and no, I didn't call ICE on my neighbors), and there have been lookies steadily; I'm sure both will be rented by the end of this week. And we're living in a $1.1 trillion county. Again, that doesn't prove that the U.S. economy is good, bad or indifferent. It does prove that there are more things in heaven and earth than can be figured into a silly "economic downturn even hurts chocolatiers" headline.
Dear T Cavanaugh. Hi -- I am guessing you have no idea what Phil Gramm and wife Wendy have contributed to the American experience. This husband wife tag team managed to provide cover to Enron, mortgage brokers, and a gagle of business types who's main job was generating profit by signing pieces of paper. This in itself may have been acceptable -- had it been done above board with full disclosure. Phil made sure it could be done without that bothersome 3rd party saying "hey you're cheating". The result has been in many cases the loss of entire retirement fund accounts, loss of homes (most families biggest investment) and losses in stocks and financial instruments. For Mr. Gramm to have made all this possible -- to have profited from it , and now to act as if all these folks are malcontents is shameful. For you to try and sell this as business as usual -- you should look high and low for the soul it seems you've misplaced.
Posted by: gregory zurbay | July 17, 2008 at 11:50 PM
Hey Russ, that may be good news for me. I mean, if Wells Fargo folds I lose tens of thousands of dollars in my savings account, but then I no longer have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to Wells Fargo Home Mortgage anymore!
That's the way it works, right? We part as friends and all that?
Harold, can't you just give raises to those people you're feeling sorry for?
Posted by: Tim Cavanaugh | July 17, 2008 at 06:12 PM
It is nice to hear all the wonderful things that are happening that make you feel that things are just dandy. But the people who are working for me at the lower salary scales, i.e. $50,000 a year are having a tough time cutting it. Has anyone thought about the fact that it takes about $7.00 pre tax earnings, including social security, to pay $4.00 per gallon for gas? It takes $105 of earnings to pay for $60 of non deductible gas for commuting. Inflation at the super market in the form of cereal boxes that contain less product for the same price, the cost of milk, eggs and all the rest are hitting them on top of the cost of gas. By the way, the first time I paid $50 for a tank of gas I came back to my office, called a partners meeting and said we have to help our people so we now pay them for each mile they drive between their house and our office. Guess what, that is taxable income and I even have to deduct social security from that allowance. If the government wants to help people make commuting expenses deductible. The executives are all ready driving company cars or deducting their cars on their tax returns.
The US Government develops a stimulus program at a cost of $168 Billion, $200 Billion to bail out Bear Stearns and their brethren, $300 Billion to bail out Bank of America's purchase of Country Wide that is $668 Billion. Who wrote that $300 bail out bill, why the lobbyists for Bank of America, who else. Do you hear that sound in the background, clickity, clack, clickity, clack, etc. that is the sound of the printing presses printing paper money, the more they print the lower the dollar goes, the lower the dollar goes the higher the cost of oil and imported goods.
Of course according to you, Senator Grahmm and President Bush, all this pain the people are feeling is all in their mind, everything is great. The Corn Ethanol program developed by the corn growers’ lobbyists is the perfect solution and is not causing a food shortage, the tariff on the import of Brazilian sugar ethanol is in the best interest of the public, the FDA is excelling at their work, assigning meat inspection to the packing house who is preparing the animals for our tables is working perfectly, and I could go on.
This isn't a matter of Republican vs. Democrat; this is a matter of Americans concerned about America. A pox on both parties for the job they have done in protecting our country. Just look at the two candidates we will have to choose between in November.
Where the heck is our George Washington, John Adams, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Ronald Regan, Harry Truman, they had core values and they stuck to them and their concern was to make America the greatest nation in the world. Now it is all about GREED and to heck with America.
Posted by: Harold L. Katz, CPA | July 17, 2008 at 04:36 PM
Tim, so gullible!
Wells Fargo stopped writing off loans that were 120 days behind and started waiting 180 days. There was even a federal initiative with the 6 largest lenders (WF, CFC, etc.) to delay foreclosure, which means delaying the accounting of those loans as bad.
Posted by: Russ 2000 | July 17, 2008 at 01:44 PM