Beyond School

Is it just me, or is anybody else suspicious of the way the entire mainstream media and both major parties of the US government are characterizing the failure of the bailout bill as a disaster?

While I won’t vote for Nader simply because Palin-McCain frightens me too much, his interview with Amy Goodman, below, is the highest-quality analysis of the meltdown I’ve been able to find. He does what every teacher would demand of any student writing an intro to economics paper: he asks basic questions about the meltdown and the bailout. He analyzes the details of both, gives historical precedents, and suggests several alternative possibilities for a solution.

And he confirms my sense of smell over the last few days as I’ve watched the mainstream media coverage. The bailout smells bad. (To see just how much the “compromise taxpayer protections” were mere window-dressing, read this LA Times analysis.) Bush and Bernancke and all their Wall Street cronies who got us into this mess are saying “Trust us. We’re the experts. Now hand us the blank check.” Pelosi and the congressional democrats, as usual, are letting the Bush administration steamroll them, instead of standing firm. And while I’d like to give credit to the House Republicans for an apparent sense of justice in refusing to pass a bill that rewards the wrong-doers, Boehner and company nip that one in the bud with his pouting schoolboy’s excuse that Republicans bailed on the bailout because of Pelosi’s speech, of all things, blaming Bush economic policies for contributing to this mess.

Thank goodness for Amy Goodman and Ralph Nader, and the fresh air of an intelligent discussion about all of this below. Notice, especially, the mention of the FDIC as a better candidate for funds than the Wall Street firms. Why is nobody talking about that on CNN and other networks? [Update: Obama must have read this post. He's proposing hiking FDIC insurance to $250,000. That's a start toward protecting the victims instead of the criminals. But he still seems beholden to Wall Street, judging by his insistence that Congress should "not start from scratch" on a new bill.] (And notice, too, that Nader places much of the blame on the Clinton administration as well as the Bush.)

Decisiveness can be recklessness. The faster you rush, the more painful when you collide. Maybe the failure of this bill will create a pause, and people can start thinking critically instead of reacting hysterically.

1. Media Literacy for Google Fundamentalists...

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