Bailout - Welfare for the Rich

As I write this the negotiations for the bailout of American financial institutions is in full swing. There are pressures on both sides of the negotiating table. The negotiators are the legislative and the executive branches of the U.S. government. This same debate is being played out on the streets and around the dinner tables (well maybe not the dinner table) of America. The debate is around who should be saved: Wall Street or Main Street?

The argument is usually couched in terms of "who is to blame" or "who is worthy of assistance." It is slightly amusing that both sides take to their corners and hunker down for the fight . . . potentially to the death.

I am on the side of little guy in this fight. But really the arena for the fight is not a square ring but a round colliseum. However that does not stop comments such as:

"I’m not opposed to a reduced interest/payment but am opposed to interest free or automatic principle write off. While I agree we are all in this mess together, I don’t agree the consumer should be given a free ride because they didn’t read the contracts “small print” or took on more debt than they could pay. "

This comment came from a supposedly industry professional who is president of a credit union in Tallahassee,. Florida. What I interpret his comments to mean is that the people are broke not the financial system. This person apparently feels that the mighty American financial system is being brought to its needs because Granny is delinquent with mortgage payments or Junior has defaulted. His remedy is no help for the individual holders of bad paper.

But his veiw point is a sort of moral hysterical blindness. it does not reflect the ongoing conversation and commentary about the basic failures of the financial system. The underlying problem of toxic financial instrument contagion has to some degree grown from the financial practice designed to address just this type of problem. Financial derivatives are pieces of paper that represent bets on finanacial performance of other financial instruments that are bundled financial consumer debt products that are then sold off in pieces. So what we have is the dumping of a group of mortgages with varying creditworthiness into a bucket, stirring them together into a slurry and ladling out the resulting mix as securities backed by the slurry.

The rationale is that even though some mortgages in the bucket may default their are enough sound mortgages to absorb that shock and continue producing revenue for the mortgage backed securities. Another feature that was supposed to immunize the market from the negative impact of securities default was that by selling the slurry in slices to many holders no one takes the full brunt or impact of a default. The smartest people in the room weren't so smart after all unless the wit was their ability to benefit from the sale of the securities and avoid the impact of owning them.

How can this guy who claims to be a financial industry professional dump on individual mortgagees as being irresponsible for buying a financial instrument, a home mortgage, without understanding the arcane financial minutiae that accompanies mortgage contract closings? Regular people are not financial professionals. If it were so easy the real estate attorney field would be much smaller. Never mind that, how about the financial professionals who admit that they did not understand how the financial derivative securities worked when they bought them and don't fully understand their impact now.Governments around the world are concerned about how there securities will affect their national economies. So what about them? Are they and their behavior or lack of knowledge just as objectionable as the consumer looking for a free ride because they didn't read the fine print?

The fundamental problem is the basis of capitalism and European culture. The problem is one of greed. Exploitation or getting over, getting something for nothing is the root of the problem. Unless we are willing to pull up this glorification and identification of exploitation as the highest good by the root we will continue to be revisited by this fundamentally spiritual problem. Without reciprocity as the watch word and the highest expression of "the good" and what it means to be human the boom/bust cycle will continue until the the end. There is a theory that the world started with a big bang and I theorize that the financial world may end with a big bust.





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Next best thing

Next on list of things to do is to decide what world we want. After making this decision we must take action to manifest our intention and desires. As we stumble forward we find that there are signs which can inform our decisions and signals that can direct our actions. However, we must be receptive to the counsel that is provided.

This time of year we are experiencing the change of the climatic season. Summer is ending and autumn is approaching. These same set of circumstances are reflected in other aspects of our lives also. The seasonal cycle reflects a virtuous cycle that is part of the divine design which all life follows. The process of birth (spring), growth (summer), decline (autumn) and death (winter) is reflected in all aspects of nature (nature includes humanity). This reminds me of the oft repeated saying that "everything natural is not good." This virtuous cycle exists outside of the value judgments that humanity labels experiences based on their subjective benefit or loss.

This same virtuous cycle was pointed out to me by a colleague who had worked for a short while as president of a national organization. After his short tenure he stated that he had observed that organizations of major stature is only willing to hire a person of African descent when the group is on the decline. After hearing this I began to pay attention to the fortunes of organizations with major budgets that hire Black folk. In many instances his observation seems to hold true. In fact, the prospect of Barack Obama as president of the U.S. is in line with this particular viewpoint. Even the rationale that the Obama campaign and Obama supporters use is consistent with this viewpoint. We have to ask ourselves would if Obama would have been a serious consideration before the country found itself in shambles.

But what does either observation mean? What about the suggestion that it is only when circumstances are dire to hopeless does people of African descent get a chance? In some ways it is consistent with the overall observation that there is a divine cycle that repeats itself on various levels. There have been ascendant groups on the stage of history throughout time. There is what we know and some that we don't know. We have heard about the generally known empires chronicled in European history: Roman, Greek and the appropriated Egyptian empires (as opposed to Kemetic civilization). Then there are the lesser known west African empires of Ghana, Songhay, and Timbuktu among others. The Asian empires of Genghis Khan or the Chinese dynasties. All these have had their time on the world stage. This means to me that there will be a period of growth which will inevitably be followed by decline. The European experience of ruling the world seems to be in decline both socially and materially as the social and material technology has reached their limits.

From the ashes of one era will rise a new experience. But what will it be? Regardless who wins the presidential election we will be faced with institutional arrangements that tie the hands and tax the limits of the American experiment and the European experience. But as Mutubaraka said in the film Sankofa, "when the snake eats the frog he eats what is in the belly of the frog." This is a somber reflection for those of us living in the belly of the beast. The embededness of people of African descent in American society is part of a smaller cycle within the larger cycle of the American experience which is a smaller part of the even larger European experience. We should be looking for the next best thing.





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Mental pressure and psychic duress

Unfortunately, with the new found appellation of "slogger," I feel pushed to peck out a message just to keep faith with my commitment to "blog" by establishing a blog. I don't plan to spend much time blogging about blogging. But I do want to pierce the psychic veil that covers my understanding and darkens the insight that flows from unobstructed reflection.

i think that age changes how we think and what we think. My prime hope is to grow in knowledge and power through opening myself to the cosmic flow of intention and the divine purpose of life. That is not spookism or fundamentalism or even apostasy (of course I wouldn't think so since it is my idea). But we often do not notice whether we are on the path or not during our younger years. It is only when we near the path that we look over our shoulder to trace the steps that brings us where we are. Sometimes we wonder how the heck we got where we are and where does it portend to lead.

Embedded in this wandering and meandering reflection is the sense that even when we find that which seems most senseless there is a mote, an iota, a speck of purpose. Today, I want to point to, at the time seemingly inane, comments made by politicos and pundits that were intended to press the advantage for their personal purposes. I was recently emailed a link to the Daly show where there were clips played of Republican operatives being hypocrites.

On one Karl Rove being very critical of an early potential Democratic VP from West Virginia. Rove belittled his serving as mayor of Richmond, VA identifying it as only the 105th largest city in the U.S. and the person having only three years experience as governor. This was followed by a clip of Rove praising the qualifications of Palin which included her "executive" experience as a mayor and serving two years as a governor which were portrayed as strengths. Then O'Reilly was show on a clip attempting to humiliate a young 16 or 17 year or popstar (Jessica Simpson's sister I think) as a pox on American society due to her being pregnant. O'Reilly took special pains to point out that it was the girls parents who should be held responsible for her loose moral, nonethical, irresponsible behavior. This was followed with a clip of O'Reilly softpedaling Sarah Palin's daughter's pregnancy as a private matter not to be commented on and as not a bad thing if she and her child does not end up on the government dole.

What does this say to us? It is not like we were not aware of the contradictions that are an inherent part of politics. But please don't abandon your commonsense. Please don't forget that there are things we should remember. Please don't ignore the ideas hiding behind the curtain.





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