What bugs me about the looming global financial meltdown is that my hard-earned taxpayer money is being shovelled into the furnace, but why should I be paying to bail out those responsible? It was the short-sighted actions of power-hungry political elites and their Big Business partners which triggered this crisis. Let the Super Rich global billionaires who bankroll our corrupt rightwing governments stave off the sharks with money from their own pockets. Or let the whole thing burn to the ground, I don't care. Maybe it will teach people a lesson about accountability.
Peter Hartcher today has a good look at Alan Greenspan and John Howard. He says the Greenspan-engineered US housing bubble crunch is a perfectly-timed $1 trillion gift for Howard:
When house prices began to fall, they precipitated an outbreak of mortgage defaults. This, in turn, gave rise to a liquidity crisis that has roiled markets around the world. And this week, the Federal Reserve effectively declared that this had crossed a threshold.I dunno. It remains to be seen how the Australian economy will be affected by this looming global crisis, how the timing of things will affect the election, and whether or not Australians will blame the Howard government for their part in the disaster.
When the post-Greenspan Fed decided on Wednesday, Australian time, that it needed to cut official interest rates for the first time in four years, it was sending a very clear signal that this was no longer just a liquidity crisis but had escalated to a full-blown economic crisis...
This fear of a gathering international crisis plays to one of Howard's main election themes - in the face of uncertainty, stick with the economic managers you know, and don't risk Rudd. One man's age of turbulence is another man's moment of serendipity.
Meanwhile, in the UK, the governor of the Bank of England is under pressure to resign:
After the toughest week of his career, Mr King will use an appearance before the treasury select committee today to deny accusations from his critics in City investment banks that news of a £10bn injection of funds into the money market represented a belated and humiliating U-turn after the damage had been done.PS: You gotta love how the media has turned on Alan Greenspan NOW, after relentlessly praising his bubble-blowing act for years. Like the WMDs, not a word of "we was wrong" apology.
NB: Cartoon by Steve Bell.
