"They got the elevator, we got the shaft"

I've become fairly knowledgeable about the financial deregulation of the 1990's (although I'll stop well short of calling myself an expert) and the door it opened up for the "blow-and-go"....actually more like "smoke-and-mirrors"....first decade of the 21'st Century.  As we're now painfully aware, all that gee-wizz "financial engineering" that brought Wall Street (used generically to include the big banks, hedge funds, insurers, brokerages, etc) immense wealth actually produced little of real value.  Many respected scholars and actual insiders to what was going on told us years ago that we were on a very slippery slope, but they were drowned out by the lobby for those raking in BILLIONS of dollars in commissions and bonuses.  Those were heady days, and we didn't want to hear any bad news.  Things turned out just like that old song said they would:  "They got the elevator, we got the shaft."


Now here we are in 2012, an election year.  Mitt Romney appears to be on a roll and will likely be the Republican nominee for President.  He was one of those who profited mightily from those deregulated times, and so are his current financial backers.  They really want to see him elected as they have visions of returning to the good 'ol days (for them at least).  They assume he'll call off those who are clamoring for re-regulation, and based on what he's said so far in his campaigning, he will.


I'm no fan of Barack Obama, or more specifically, I'm no fan of the Obama administration.  IMO, he has surrounded himself with advisers who are doing him and the American people a disservice.  They are individually brilliant, but collectively inept.  "What is" and "what could have been" are, sadly, two very different things.


So what will our likely choices be this November?  More of what we have now (how depressing is that?) or a replay of what we had before (YIKES!).  Some choice, huh?


S

It's already starting

Civil unrest.  Like many, I've predicted that next spring we could be seeing massive protests all across the country.  Protests by the unemployed, the underemployed, the currently-employed-but-worried-about-tomorrow.  Protests by those cynics who think our government is broken, and our elected civil servants corrupt.  From the Tea Partyers to the Union members, there are a lot of them, and I think they have some very valid complaints.


But my timing was off.  It's starting now.  The relatively small number of rowdies who are protesting Wall Street and the banks have now spread to other cities and financial districts, and they're gaining respectability.  (There was a march here today on the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas.)  Now there's word that protesters are mobilizing on college campuses (anything to get out of class  ;) upset about increases in tuition and cuts in classes, all while their administrators are pulling down very handsome paychecks.


And of course the Greeks are rioting.  They're now saying a Greek government default is inevitable, and if so, Italy and Spain and Portugal might be close behind.  Will a financial earthquake in Europe lead to a tsunami here?


Frankly, in a perverse way, I welcome all this.  I'm hoping that by next year, an ELECTION YEAR, there will be a mass exodus of incumbent politicians of both parties wanting to get out of Dodge before the crowd gets really rough.  Think of it as the "Ultimate Spring Cleaning".


This could be historic!  


S