{"id":7535,"date":"2009-03-20T11:57:33","date_gmt":"2009-03-20T18:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=7535"},"modified":"2010-06-26T10:27:55","modified_gmt":"2010-06-26T17:27:55","slug":"the-financial-post-aging-self-serving-demagogues-who-have-spent-decades-warping-the-us-political-system-for-their-own-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/7535\/the-financial-post-aging-self-serving-demagogues-who-have-spent-decades-warping-the-us-political-system-for-their-own-ends\/","title":{"rendered":"The Financial Post: “Aging self-serving demagogues who have spent decades warping the U.S. political system for their own ends.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is this the end of America? Canada’s Financial Post:<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Helicopter Ben Bernanke’s Federal Reserve is dropping trillions of fresh paper dollars on the world economy, the President of the United States is cracking jokes on late night comedy shows, his energy minister is threatening a trade war over carbon emissions, his treasury secretary is dithering over a banking reform program amid rising concerns over his competence and a monumentally dysfunctional U.S. Congress is launching another public jihad against corporations and bankers.<\/p>\n

As an aghast world — from China to Chicago and Chihuahua — watches, the circus-like U.S. political system seems to be declining into near chaos. Through it all, stock and financial markets are paralyzed. The more the policy regime does, the worse the outlook gets. The multi-ringed spectacle raises a disturbing question in many minds: Is this the end of America?<\/p>\n

Probably not, if only because there are good reasons for optimism. The U.S. economy has pulled out of self-destructive political spirals in the past, spurred on by its business class and corporate leaders, the profit-making and market-creating people who rose above the political turmoil to once again lift the world out of financial crisis. It’s happened many times before, except for once, when it took 20 years to rise out of the Great Depression.<\/p>\n

Past success, however, is no guarantee of future recovery, especially now when there are daily disasters and new indicators of political breakdown. All developments are not disasters in themselves. The AIG bonus firestorm is a diversion from real issues, but it puts the ghastly political classes who make U.S. law on display for what they are: ageing self-serving demagogues who have spent decades warping the U.S. political system for their own ends. We see the system up close, law-making that is riddled with slapdash, incompetence and gamesmanship.<\/p>\n

One test of whether we are witnessing the end of America is how many more times Americans put up with congressional show trials of individual business people and their employees, slandering and vilifying them for their actions and motives. And for how long will they tolerate a President who berates business and corporations Read more<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is this the end of America? Canada’s Financial Post: Helicopter Ben Bernanke’s Federal Reserve is dropping trillions of fresh paper dollars on the world economy, the President of the United States is cracking jokes on late night comedy shows, his energy minister is threatening a trade war over carbon emissions, his treasury secretary is dithering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[251,62,29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7535","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-big-mother","7":"category-dirty-laundry","8":"category-group-therapy","10":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18319,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/18319\/overnight-news-the-1-6-rioters-are-political-prisoners-and-america-is-just-another-thug-state\/","url_meta":{"origin":7535,"position":0},"title":"Overnight News: The 1\/6 rioters are political prisoners \u2013 and America is just another\u00a0thug-state.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I haven't written much about the 1\/6 riot in Washington. It was obvious to me at the time that it was a set-up \u2013 piss off hot-headed Ants, then call them racists when they complain about it. The fact that Trump did not see this coming and that he abandoned\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11601,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/11601\/splendorquest-redemption-is-egoism-in-action-even-if-other-people-are-criminal-i-am-not-but-i-will-not-cause-them-to-become-good-by-becoming-a-criminal-myself\/","url_meta":{"origin":7535,"position":1},"title":"SplendorQuest: Redemption is egoism in action: Even if other people are criminal, I am not — but I will not cause them to become good by becoming a criminal myself.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 21, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I wrote this a dozen years ago, and I've posted it here before. It's apposite today, because, to all indications, we are all about to be involuntarily inducted into a cannibal cult. My question for you: Will you choose to be devoured by your neighbors, or will you elect to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3824,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3824\/redemption-is-egoism-in-action-in-support-of-mike-farmer-even-if-other-people-are-criminal-i-am-not-but-i-will-not-cause-them-to-become-good-by-becoming-a-criminal-myself\/","url_meta":{"origin":7535,"position":2},"title":"Redemption is egoism in action: In support of Mike Farmer, even if other people are criminal, I am not — but I will not cause them to become good by becoming a criminal myself","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Not completely off topic, but well above the normal fray. I wrote this ten or twelve years ago: \u00a0What I want to discuss is Socrates' question about whether it is better to inflict an injury or to have an injury inflicted upon you. It's a favorite of sophists and sophomores,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12184,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/12184\/per-capita-wealth-and-poverty-in-a-given-political-economy-is-strongly-correlated-both-with-economic-freedom-and-oppression-and-with-the-perception-of-integrity-or-corruption-among-government-official\/","url_meta":{"origin":7535,"position":3},"title":"Per-capita wealth and poverty in a given political economy is strongly correlated both with economic freedom and oppression and with the perception of integrity or corruption among government officials.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 7, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Countries that pursue policies of economic freedom have rich populations. Countries that obstruct free enterprise have poor populations. The relative wealth or poverty of a given population is strongly correlated with and can be readily predicted from the level of economic oppression in that political economy. This is easily understood\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6634,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/6634\/bloggers-transparency-stimulus-and-laxatives\/","url_meta":{"origin":7535,"position":4},"title":"Bloggers. Transparency. Stimulus. and Laxatives.","author":"Eric Blackwell","date":"January 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"First off, the following blog post is NOT political. PLEASE do not try to turn it political. (If you do, you will be 301 (read: permanently) redirected to the fact that this is NOT political.) It IS about bloggers trying to improve the world around them by shining light on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10106,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10106\/when-the-saints\/","url_meta":{"origin":7535,"position":5},"title":"When the Saints…","author":"Ryan Hartman","date":"October 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm an East Coast Liberal-tarian type who's ok-down with all the political talk around here... in theory. But in general I follow the no politics or religion in public rule... just because it's easier, and I guess I wussily think there's really only negative stuff that can come from political\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7535"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7536,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7535\/revisions\/7536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}