(did I say billions? I meant trillions)
Dubya threw money at the banksters. Obama threw even more money at the banksters. We were told we “had to do it” or our economy would collapse. And that all that money we threw at the banks would trickle down to us. Hah! We fell for that one again.
But Iceland balked and said “no” to the banksters. They arrested the former chief executives of the largest three banks. One of them even ended up in solitary confinement (like what we did to Bradley Manning).
So what happened to their economy? Young Turk Cenk Uygur has the surprising answer:
UPDATE: After I posted this, I found a new episode of Bill Moyers’ show with guests Matt Taibbi (one of my heroes) and Yves Smith, which spells out how the US banks are operating just like the mafia. It is a bit longer than Cenk Uygur’s rant, but if you want to understand what is going on, you really have to watch this:
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Once upon a time in 1973, I put $7500 down on 40 acres with three barns with electricity in one. The total cost was $15,000, financed by the seller. $89.03 a month for 10 years. And being a single mother with a 5 year old and a 2 1/2 year old, I started converting one of the barns (25 X 30) into a house. I learned to build while working part time. I was $1 over the medicaid limit when I had my third child. No help for me. I didn’t do the electricity or most of the plumbing (we went two years without plumbing) I did borrow $1000 from my father to put in windows and paid him back quickly. I once financed a car, then bought junkers until I started paying cash. I saw my parents go deeply into debt, that wasn’t going to be me. When I bought the property, I asked my father how the 10K was that I’d saved up. He, with all his toys and clubs and mistresses haughtily said “your mother and I are 100K in debt.” He some how made that seem so much better than my positive balance. I’ve happily stayed away from the bankers, made the investments on my own. First with E*Trade and now with Vanguard. Over and over when I was doing tax returns, I saw the results of trusting investments to others. As one client said to me “My investment counselor has a nice house.” Oh, and twice I was burned by letting others manage my money. Wasn’t going to be a third time.
One unspoken result of the “end of welfare..etc” (and also the Safety Net for the poor) was a burst of capitalism, in the form of drug dealing on a much more extensive scale. That was a way that cash could enter the barrios & ghettos of urban America. I wish this had come up, because I’d liked to have heard Peter Edelman’s response. ^..^