"There's a great lack of financial literacy and understanding in this nation, even among college-educated people." Henry Paulson, former Treasury Secretary.
Source: VANITY FAIR, October 2009, Henry Paulson's Longest Night p.212.
I recommend this article to anyone interested in reading about the financial crisis that hit the United States in 2007-2008. What is the point of the quote above from the article about the former Treasury Secretary?
This to me is the danger that this country faces. Not a terrorist attack or an invasion from a foreign army, but the extreme greed of a few people with the money and the political power to corrupt the financial system of this nation. There is an internal bomb ticking in the financial service industry and not enough people realize this or understand it. The politicians in Washington do not have the knowledge to deal with the problems as they are unfolding, nor to stop the financial industry from bringing down this nation.
A system based on trust requires that trust be present for it to work. When trust disappears because trust has been abused repeatedly, the system will ultimately fail. The system came close to failure just a short time ago, but repeated attempts to corrupt the system will eventual result in the system, based on trust, closing down for the entire nation.
The Congress and President Obama do not realize the seriousness of the financial industries' contempt for the American people. If a few hundred people can pay to corrupt the Federal Government and keep reforms and regulations from being meaningful, then millions of people, at home and abroad, will suffer. As James Baldwin once said, "the fire next time."
Stay tuned.
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3 comments:
And there is the crux of the problem - the core of the issue. The few, with the money, power and influence, feeding off of us and our labors. And as long as they stay in position of power and influence, we, the people, are all - each and every individual one of us - screwed.
And they are laughing all the way to the bank and the offshore tax sheltered account.
Your words are chilling.
Maybe it will take "the fire next time," for change to come. But what Phoenix will rise from those ashes?
So -- do we convert any currency to diamonds - gold - real estate? What will be the "coin of the realm" when the coin fails?
Or is it: "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here?"
I wish you were wrong, Moneythoughts, but I fear your assessment is all too accurate.
Summer
Gold is around $1,000 an ounce. That should tell you something.
It is like termites eating a house from the inside. All looks right until the roof falls in on itself because all the studs and beams give way.
I never thought of the people running Wall Street as termites, but they are.
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