The time is deliciously ripe for genuine political unity and perhaps even a shot at reasonable equity for the tattered, beleaguered, ever-shrinking, working middle class. First, the large segment of the populace that has apparently been living in monastic seclusion on an eight-year camping trip in remote Absurdistan needs to be welcomed back into the fold. Those of us who read and pay attention took note of the angst, ire, and dismay articulated at the reunion tea parties on April 15.
Now that that segment is home and settled, take the time to do some reading and reflection. First, look up “oligarchy” and then “kleptocracy.” With those concepts in mind, peruse the virtually limitless array of articles and investigative analyses going back six and seven years that describe in detail just which institutions and individuals set up the Ponzi schemes and similar criminal financial enterprises, and who changed the laws to enable and protect the criminals who engineered the economic collapse for which we are now paying.
Welcome to the current reality, where abject failure is rewarded and obscene profits that are amassed by entities and individuals “too big to fail” are privatized (and often hidden offshore), while risk and loss are socialized. Welcome to the populist movement.
This article appears in May 14-21, 2009.