I was surprised to turn on the news yesterday and see that the "bolsa" - the Stock Market was in serious trouble - not only in the US, but of course, what happens in the US affects the rest of the world, and the Argentina stock market fell as well yesterday (not that it will affect many people here since most are keeping their money in their mattresses).
After I watched my two evening programs, Tardes de Accion and Patito Feo (which gets ever more complicated), I switched over to CNN to hear the self-proclaimed "best news team on TV" analyze the situation.
I've decided that CNN is about 1% news and 99% hot air, especially from people like Wolf Blitzer and Gloria Borger. What qualifies someone to get on a news program and give their opinion?
So rather than an analysis of why the US economy seems to be in a meltdown, they focused on what this could mean for the candidates - all supposition. No wonder Americans are so uninformed about things.
I found a good piece on Common Dreams - my most trusted source for information, or at least analysis that is based on fact and not only opinion. I think it explains very clearly how the Bush economic policies have led to this "crisis" we are seeing on Wall Street (since I don't own any stock, I am not sure if it is a crisis for me). You can read the article here.
As John McCain changed his tune from morning to afternoon yesterday - first saying the fundamentals of the American economic system were sound (a line he borrowed from Bush) to correcting that to mean he meant that the American workforce is the backbone of the economy (unfortunately, if people are out of work, there is no backbone - just ask Argentines about that), and then Sarah Palin sticking to her same old talking points and being guarded very carefully so that she would not say something dumb, it still seems as if the American people are still on the fence over whether or not they should elect an intelligent, articulate young man who promises to inspire a movement for change or a tired old dude and a former beauty queen with a rifle. No wonder American politics confuses the rest of the world.
What the US is experiencing is not that different from what Argentina experienced leading up to the peso crash of 2001. Privitization and deregulation do not create a stable, vibrant economy. I remember last year in my Spanish class, this young guy Daniel gave an oral report on Milton Friedman. Milton Friedman is the guy from the University of Chicago School of Economics who was the biggest proponent, possibly the creator, or neoliberalism - the economic philosophy that brings free markets, globalization, deregulation and privitization. Friedman and his Chicago boys were heavily involved in the coup in Chile that took place on September 11, 1973, overthrowing the democratically elected socialist president and installing General Pinochet. Today, Chile's economy survives only because their copper industry was the one thing that was not privatized. Otherwise, they'd be in the same boat as Argentina, where President Menem, in the years of boom that preceeded the crash went on a privitization spree. When the econonomy collapsed, thousands of people found themselves out of work. After Daniel finished his report on the glories of free market economics which promised prosperity for all, I asked him if he could give an example of a country where this had actually been successful. I mean, the Chicago Boys had been tinkering with it since at least 1973. He could not. I guess it's those damn liberals with all of their regulations who keep getting in the way of a truly successful free market economy with its trickle down theory benefitting all.
Bush and his band of thieves, have wreaked havoc on the American economy. Yet, somehow the Republicans, whose policies he represents almost fanatically - his economic policies are Reagan's voodoo economics on steroids - will try to find some way to place the blame on the Democrats. Perhaps it is gay marriage in California that is to blame for this latest crisis?
Maybe it is time that we see a total collapse of the system. As painful as it will be for us to lose the way of life we have become accustomed to, maybe, like Argentines who thought they lived in the first world because their peso was artificially pegged to the dollar, and suddenly found themselves not even able to afford to buy chicken for dinner, maybe the time has come for Americans, and the rest of world (unfortunately) to learn what it is like to live on the resources at hand.
Fortunately, I know how to make a mean pot of bean soup for only a few dollars.
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