In what may have been the worst weekend for the US economy since the fall of 1929, the US blogosphere exploded about Barack Obama's "Katrina moment."
In his Saturday New York Times column, Nobel Prizewinning economist Paul Krugman reported on the leaked Geithner plan for the American banks, and declared: "The zombie ideas have won...What an awful mess."
Other respected economics blogs like naked capitalism agreed: "One would have to be a criminal to participate in this."
A top economics blog, Calculated Risk, ran a YouTube clip of a song from last fall: "Hey Paul Krugman," asking him to do more to save the country.
Ex-Republican blogger John Cole summed it up:
The Illness - reckless and irresponsible betting led to huge losses
The Diagnosis - Insufficient gambling.
The Cure - a Trillion dollar stack of chips provided by the house.
The Prognosis - We are so screwed.
Another New York Times columnist, Frank Rich, quoted a letter to the editor: "President Obama may not realize it yet, but his Katrina moment has arrived."
Canadians will have to wait to see if they're in the path of the storm, and what the Harper government will do about it.
Crawford Kilian is a contributing editor of The Tyee.
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crh
3 years ago
As capitalism has run amok,
As capitalism has run amok, the players are still in it with the same goals. To take as much as they can get, any which way. The great wealth theft has never been so in your face and yet the politicians are still doing what they do best - dancing around the issues and offering little in solutions. Always thinking of their heros who gave lots of money to get them there, they are first and foremost in line to receive the favours. The people, whom must be kept in line and behaving, are given great little glimmers of hope.
I think that the blogosphere is helping to keep people's anger channeled for now, but with continued disappointment in Obamas' actions (words are not counting anymore)there soon may be a time when the streets will be filled with that anger. Watch it escalate from there.
The Irag war is another big thorn in the side of Americans. They want out now, not in two years!
As for Harper. Expect him to do what he does best. First ignore the problem and pretend it doesn't exist, then after enough considerable pressure, appear to be doing something but actually do nothing.