New column etc.: Who/what is to blame?

By Justin Fox | January 2, 2009 | +

My column in the new issue of TIME, with the energy-efficient lightbulb on the cover, lists the eight things/people that I currently think are most responsible for our financial and economic mess. (The list in my head is always in flux.)

That’s not online, though. The online version goes to 12 (top that, Nigel Tufnel).

Related Topics: Economy & Policy

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curmudgeon57

I have two predictions:
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1. Wall Street bonuses will be back in full force by 2010. Any pretense at clawbacks will be gone by that time too.
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2. The American consumer will set new records for spending by 2011.
plukasiak

From the number one reason…
he upside is that everybody is now so shellshocked that we probably don’t have to worry about a repeat anytime soon.
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Shellshocked? hardly.
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now that we’ve ‘rescued’ Wall Street billionaires, there is a decided lack of urgency when it come to dealing with the long term impact on the average american of this debacle. Indeed, the entire debate about trashing the jobs of over a million americans by allowing GM to go bankrupt shows just how contemptuous the Village elite are when it comes to the future of the middle class.
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and one need only look at the invasion of the “Austrians” in the comments section when you dared to question whether its a good idea to allow corruption to run rampant (as is inevitable in the austrian economic model) to understand how completely unchastened those who are responsible for this crisis really are. As curmudgeon suggests, we’re already back on the path to business as usual….
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And only someone firmly ensconced among the Village elite would describe the last eight years of economic stagnation for average americans as “good times”. Times were NOT good — economic growth was a Potemkin village erected by media and business elites that came crashing down on the rest of America in the last couple of weeks.
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And while average americans are being laid off with alarcrity while the social safety net deteriorates further, even those media elites who are losing their jobs are being handed very generous “early retirement” packages….
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curmudgeon57

@Paul: I’m not sure that the category of media elite exists any more, if it ever did. And I’m pretty sure that any early retirement package that Justin was offered was quite a bit smaller than the ones being offered the auto workers (note to Justin – thanks for not taking it).
Justin Fox

media elite=journalists with health insurance
plukasiak

@Paul: I’m not sure that the category of media elite exists any more, if it ever did.
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as long as more time and effort is spent detailing the efforts of Carolyn Kennedy to be appointed Senator from New York than is spent poring over the congressional report on torture, we have a “media elite”. They’re the people who decide, regardless of how important a story really is, how much time and effort is put into covering/discussing it.
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curmudgeon57

@Paul: Point taken. But you may be surprised at how they go about making that decision.