A few books arrived from Amazon yesterday that I’m looking forward to getting into: It Takes a Pillage: behind the bailouts, bonuses, and backroom deals from Washington to Wall Street by Nomi Prins, Plunder and Blunder: the rise and fall of the bubble economy by Dean Baker, and The Great Financial Crisis: causes and consequences by John Bellamy Foster and Fred Magdoff.
When it comes to historical events like a Second Great Bank Depression (as Prins puts it), I have followed it here and there in the news but I’d rather wait for people I trust to do the research necessary to understand what’s happening. That’s what I figure I pay for when I buy books like these. Like so many things, sure, I could do it myself, which is a great concept in general. But what you can’t do yourself is everything.
I own a house with my wife. Some work needed to be done on it. Sure, I could do it myself — and do it wrong. And then do it myself again — and have it be imperfect. Imperfect is fine with me when it comes to creativity or drafts of writing. Not so when it comes to my roof or a kitchen floor. No thanks, I will pay the money. I figure it’s more efficient for me to work the job I have and then use that money to pay someone to do this other work quickly and correctly — rather than me take on a part-time job known as “home improvement” — a job I’m not all that interested in. Isn’t that what this capitalism thing was supposed to be about?
On the other hand, having people do it for you can also have it’s consequences, which brings me back to the books I bought. Forty pages in to Pillage I’m reminded how much of a mess the so-called experts made of the financial crisis. In a nutshell, something really did need to be done in order to not let our financial system literally crash (e.g. you go to the ATM — no money; your credit card doesn’t work; you don’t get a paycheck, etc.), but what was done simply transferred vast amounts of wealth from tax payers to financial failures who view themselves now as “survivors” even though it was our taxes that allowed them to survive. Worse yet, the bozos who received the money caused the problems. Even more worse the government employees empowered to fix this mess are buddies with the people who created it.
I heard Andrew Ross Sorkin on Fresh Air the other day. He seemed to want to stress that he’s not an apologist for people like Henry Paulson, but he sure sounded like it. Terry Gross and Sorkin got caught up in the same old canard: well, did he mean to let Goldman Sachs survive? Well, of course he did! But Sorkin pussy-foots it and suggests that maybe unconsciously he did but consciously he didn’t. Well, he certainly consciously was not interested in helping regular people by providing banks with incentives to help people work out their mortgage situations rather than foreclose on them.
I bring up Sorkin, because he too has a book out on the financial crisis. And because he’s a New York Times journalist, therefore he obviously must be very important to listen to. But, I’m skipping him and sticking with my mavericks above.
I forgot to mention that Magdoff and Foster are involved with the publication Monthly Review (I think they’re the editors?) which is a — wait for it… SOCIALIST publication! [insert scream here] (Speaking of screaming, have you become a graphic novel reading zombie hooked on The Walking Dead series? *Uggghh* … I have)
Interesting & Related Links
Dean Baker on Fresh Air
Dean Baker and Nomi Prins on GritTv
Nomi Prins
Monthly Review
Allison Kilkenny: Wall Street celebrates bonuses, schools beg for supplies
