It was an extraordinary spectacle.
An American president, so lame a duck that he should’ve been on crutches, shuffles to the mike in a weak attempt to shore up confidence in a market that is crumbling like the twin towers on the afternoon of 9/11.
George W. Bush, who was probably a lock for the worst U.S. president in history due in large part to the carnage, miscalculations and madness of the Iraq debacle, is now able to tack on the nation’s economic crisis to his tattered legacy.
Several days ago, the President broke into regular programming to give a pep talk that, in retrospect, seemed far more dyspeptic. When he began speaking, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged at around -89 — or 89 points in the red.
He spoke briefly, for 10 to 15 minutes, and in that blink of time stocks fell almost 100 points lower, to -185.
It was a perfect symbol of the reign of a president whose expertise was more in wreckage than in creation.
In the economic realm, a man with an MBA (Masters degree in business) has striven mightily to construct what he called “an ownership society”, by privatizing social security, and trying to take credit for the rise of home sales among African-Americans and Latinos.
As the stock markets turn as red as a traffic light, imagine how millions of people would’ve fared, if this mad president had his way, and social security were privatized.
The ‘ownership society’ takes on a new, ironic meaning as the government takes over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, buys preferred stocks in failing banks, and bails out limping businesses.
We seem to have forgotten that America had its impetus in an ownership society when millions of Africans were owned and exploited for centuries. Last time I checked that didn’t go so well.
Unbridled, naked capitalism reigned then, as it does now, and it is a ravenous, destructive force that deforms all that it touches.
For profit uber alles, also entails deep losses for others.