Times Are Good Again

(Screencapture: New York Times Online, January 25, 2010)

Times are good again for the BSD's of the financial world, the 'Masters Of The Universe', as reported by the New York Times' fashion section in a little article entitled, "Ready To Spend, But Not To Boast".

I liked the part where the NYT observed that the chief executives of the nation’s four largest banks took a drubbing in hearings from Congressional leaders. They "took a drubbing"? Please.

The four people who appeared in front of the Congressional Inquiry weren't that uncomfortable. It was Kabuki theatre for the Banksters, as much as it was for the politicians ("Shocked! I'm shocked to discover there is gambling going on in here!").

And, there was that special moment when one banker's wife (who did not wish to be named), noted

Of bonus critics [the wife observed that] executives like her husband work hard and are unjustly singled out as greedy. “Everybody wants someone to blame,” she said, “and rich people are an easy target.”

Everybody wants someone to blame -- gee, it almost sounds as if she considers the collapse of the American financial system and our economy as a crime so complicated that there's no way to determine who committed it. How could it be anyone's fault, really? Certainly not the people working in the financial industry.

And, hey -- what did you think about the Bankster, who just bought a $4.9 Million-dollar home in Vermont nearly out of the jaws forclosure, and hasn't told his extended family about his Big Purchase, or his Big Bonus this year... because "he's afraid they'll ask him for money"!!

Wow; I'm left breathless, man. This dude isn't only Greedy; he doesn't want to suffer the shame of being revealed as selfish, a mean-spirited bastard, and ready to ignore his own family's trouble! Classic. That's the spirit of Darwinian competition that makes the difference between ordinary men and Masters Of The Friggin' Universe, Baby!!

It's what's making America GREAT! Isn't it?

And, the real 'easy targets' the Bankster's wife mentioned for these little social tumbles aren't the wealthy. It's people further down on the economic ladder -- who lose their minimum-wage jobs, and the benefits of social programs (meaning, health care, food, shelter), cut because the economy collapsed, because the BSDs and Masters Of The Universe weren't satisfied selling securities backed with air (the dot-com 'Bubble' of 1995-2001); so they sold securities backed by real property but massively encumbered by risk (the 'Housing Bubble' of 1999-2007).

The Big Boys wanted more. And now, after a scary little blip on their radar -- well, times are good again. They can get back to the 'business of living'.

And, in These Times, that's so comforting to know.

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