Friday, March 20, 2009

"Sire, the peasants are revolting!"

"You said it! They stink on ice!"

Mel Brooks, what a prophet! Who could have predicted 30 years ago that this would be the outlook of the Masters of the Universe enabled by 25 years of sycophantic Senators and Congressmen, right wing ideologues, and now subsidized with our tax money?
All the new found populist rage erupting from Halls of Congress these days is more than a little bit disingenuous. Who was it who repealed 70 years worth of regulatory legislation intended to prevent just such a disaster as this from happening? Who was it who deregulated banks in the first place, allowing them to gamble with reinsurance schemes, phony mortgages, and create a whole unregulated shadow financial industry of complex and concealed credit swaps? Who was it who cut SEC budgets and made it almost impotent leaving the Attorney General of New York State as almost the sole regulator of Wall Street?
And now, having fired all the cops, everyone is just shocked shocked shocked that the crooks ran riot.
Both political parties share the blame for this.

Perhaps the time has come to storm the Bastille again.

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