On This Most American of Weeks

For your viewing enjoyment, this is old but still very funny:
Bird and Fortune: Subprime Crisis.

And here is part 2.

I was thinking about the bank bail-outs the other day, as one does, and reminded myself of how jipped the American people were in that whole affair. The bail-outs were a necessary evil, sure, but after the American tax-payer bailed out the banks, nothing was done for them in return. One might argue that yes, the recovery of our economy was given to them in return but that's the whole reason they were given a bail-out to begin with. If you threaten anyone with the worldwide collapse of the economy, then yes, anyone will probably try to stop it. But where are our interest payments? An emergency loan should still come with interests. 


If the rules of capitalism are going to be broken for a few banks and auto companies, then those same rules should be broken for the American people (I'm looking at you, conservatives). And nothing bothers me more than finance people telling me that it's all too complex for me to understand (you're oversimplifying). It was certainly too complex for me, and for many others who worked in the financial industry, actually. The average banker is not that smart but made a lot of money back in the mid aughts, and therefore, firmly believed that he was smart and deserving of the high compensation. Paying someone more than they're worth is very dangerous. But I digress. Oversimplification is a great tool to get to the heart of any matter. Yes, there are grey areas, and yes there are complexities but that doesn't overshadow the general events that took place here. Banks took advantage of deregulation to invent new financial "products" that a total of two people in the industry actually understood in their entirety, new financial products rely on sub-prime mortgage packaging to make shit tons of money, real-estate market falls because somebody somewhere asked how much are these houses actually worth? Music stops. Some banks find themselves without a chair. Is it really that complicated? 


I especially feel that those people who found themselves in foreclosure should have been relieved of some of their debt, because they were the direct victims of what feels like a global scam. This has a slight taste of Ponzi to me. Even Madoff's victims got some money, albeit a more symbolic gesture than anything. But I see very little difference here, except some way somehow it was all on the right side of the law (lucky you!). You can't help everyone out of this crisis, that I understand, and I certainly don't expect anything myself, but at least the most vulnerable and direct victims should have gotten something in return for their tax money being used to rescue the economy. I believe this is why the Occupy Movement started. It was unfocused and disorganized in its message but it became a platform for people to air their grievances. It captured a general sense of unjustness that was felt across the nation after the bail-outs. Life's unfair, sure, everyone knows that and deals with it as they can, but in my opinion and many others', the underlying causes of this recession were criminal.