It's a cold day here in Oberlin. Fortunately the fires of hell burn hot. Fortunately, because it looks like, soon enough, we might all be there. The stock market is in freefall. As David Leonhardt over at Economix, a New York Times blog, points out (via tristero at Hullabaloo):
With today’s plunge in the stock market, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index has now fallen 42 percent over the last year. Just how bad is that?
It’s nearly as bad as one terrible 12-month period from late 1973 to late 1974. Other than that, it’s the worst decline since 1932.
And, lest you think that this college student is likely to be affected by this as much as McCain's rhetoric is affected by truth, bear in mind that I will be entering the real-world job market soon. What's more all of my money that is invested right now is, well, pretty likely gone.
What's more, we're trying to get grant money for Wilder Voice, an increasingly grim-looking endeavour. Our meeting with the president's office went well enough, though I was reminded that we are trying to launch a magazine while the print industry is crumbling, not to mention that the entire economy is failing, meaning getting a grant is, well, unlikely at best. Good timing, John!
In other end of the world news, Warren Ellis's post-apocalyptic comic, Freakangels has taken a delightfully thrilling turn. Check it out.
More signs of the end times? The hard-core Republican base is demonstrating more and more insanity. We're talking about paranoia bordering on pitchfork-mobs. Here's some rather frightening clips (via Kathy G.):
Once again, I'm with Ms. G.:
Clearly, there are a whole lot of hateful, enraged, and very crazy people out there. No, I don't think the majority of McCain/Palin supporters are like that, but yes, enough of them are like that, that I think we all should be seriously disturbed. I don't think I've ever seen, or heard of, anything like it. And just a few, or even one, of those people are capable of inflicting incalculable damage.
Yes, throughout history there have been hateful demagogues of the Joe McCarthy and Father Coughlin variety, who appealed to the worst in people, and stirred up ugliness and hate. And yes, a series of Republican presidents, from Nixon, to Reagan, to Bush I, to the current president, have cynically exploited racial, sexual, and other cultural fears and resentments for their own gain.
I'd like to point out that these people are perfect examples of those so-called regular Americans so apotheosized by our media elite. I don't know if we need any further examples of just how broken our political discourse is that these people are considered "normal."
What's more, as pointed out tristero at Digby's Hullabaloo, Sarah Palin's husband was a member of a radical succession group in Alaska, and Palin herself said some very nice things about that group. These people are in the same government-hating category as the Ruby Ridge/McVeigh wing. But, hey, Obama is the terrorist. Or something.
Another sign of the endtimes is the ever-growing movement of "free-market" economists to support at least partial nationalization of the financial sector. From Crooked Timber:
A couple of days ago, I thought my call for full-scale nationalisation of the banking sector would remain beyond the pale of political acceptability for at least a week. I badly underestimated the pace at which events are moving. In today’s paper I read the following assessment:Inevitably, the US, Britain and Europe are going to end up with nationalised banking systems in one form or another, and with governments guaranteeing not only their deposits but probably all their liabilities. The nationalisation will be a temporary emergency measure. But for some time at least the systemically important banks effectively are going to be public utilities and must be regulated accordingly.
This taxpayer rescue of banking systems opens up a new and potentially very important avenue for unfreezing bank lending and restoring the flow of credit. If governments effectively control the banks, what is to stop them from demanding that they start lending again?
The source is Alan Wood, probably Australia’s most consistently hardline free-market economics commentator, writing in the Murdoch-owned Australian.
To amplify Wood’s point, the time when the situation might have been salvaged by passive capital injections like the acquisition of preferred shares has passed. Only direct public control, combined with a commitment to salvage the financial system as a whole has any chance of success.
I don't know how many more examples we need of the utter intellectual bankruptcy of the free-market movement. Not that they've ever really been in favour of free markets. They'd just as soon have a kind of government-corporate hybrid system of money making. Just take a look at the Halliburton model of governance in the first years of the Iraq "reconstruction."
I fear my rhetoric has become a little extreme. You'll have to excuse me. There's a very real chance that the UAW workers here on campus will strike, and I will not be crossing picket lines, so I've been getting myself into a mindset where I can support my union brothers and sisters. I should be back to my cynical, quasi-market friendly self in to time. I also reserve the right to go back and edit this post so I sound less like some pinko crazy.
The last sign of the impending apocalypse: I've been given a job as a paid blogger for the Oberlin College admissions department. WTF? I wonder if I'm allowed to talk about my support for the unions?
A link to that blog will be forthcoming. I'll let you know when the site's up and running.
Happy end of the world, reader(s).
|