Architects of Capitalism

Is it possible the economy is bi-polar? It seems to have manic and depressive episodes. Some bit of good news comes in and the economy is on the rise. You can almost hear them sing “Happy days are here again.” Then there’s a bit of bad news and up comes Boz Scaggs singing “Somebody loan me a dime.”

Congress is no help, squabbling about this plan or that plan when everybody knows what is making everybody nervous is they can’t agree on anything. Do they live in a bubble? This of course is a rhetorical question. Of course they do.

It’s made out of thick layers of narcissism, egomaniacal thinking that they are smarter than everybody else, or worse, that they’re holier than everybody, little Cromwell clones thinking they have the ear and sanction of the divine. They remind me of someone who used to be my friend. He came from privilege and had a very high IQ. He was very book smart. I told him once, for the smartest guy I knew, he sure was a dumb SOB. He had no street smarts at all. He knew how things were supposed to work, but had little practical knowledge of how they actually did, like an architect who expects things to work in the real world the same way they do on paper.

Meanwhile we have these giant soulless corporations running around like rabid dogs (We just passed the anniversary of Union Carbide's gassing of half a million in Bhopal, India. Some estimates say eight or ten thousand died the first day.) They chew up people and spit them out by the millions. You all know the great capitalist saying “Let the buyer beware.” Seems like we’ve all been sold the Brooklyn Bridge, or maybe swamp land in Florida.

I don’t even want to talk about the big financial institutions. They make Bernie Madoff look like an amateur.