Witness the almost meltdown of Bear Stearns a few months ago, the nationalization of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the new meltdowns of Lehman Bros. and Merrill Lynch, the bailout of insurance giant AIG? I have a little training in economics so for those of you that need a clear explanation, here it is—this was caused by greedy people who loosened rules to get more money, and expected the taxpayer to bail them out if there was any trouble.
What we have is another classic Book of Mormon last days parallel as pointed out by Samuel in Helaman 13.
“And behold, the time cometh that he curseth your riches, that they become slippery, that ye cannot hold them; and in the days of your poverty ye cannot retain them.
And in the days of your poverty ye shall cry unto the Lord; and in vain shall ye cry, for your desolation is already come upon you, and your destruction is made sure; and then shall ye weep and howl in that day, saith the Lord of Hosts . . . Behold, we lay a tool here and on the morrow it is gone; and behold, our swords are taken from us in the day we have sought them for battle.
Yea, we have hid up our atreasures and they have slipped away from us, because of the curse of the land.
O that we had repented in the day that the word of the Lord came unto us; for behold the land is cursed, and all things are become slippery, and we cannot hold them.
What we have is a classic example of the rich (bankers) trampling upon the poor (mortgage racket to sucker people into loans they have no business getting themselves into), to the point that when the notes come due, there is NO MONEY. We have all been suckered.
This problem is a fundamental cultural problem, from the credit card lenders, borrowers, mortgage lenders and their secondary market funds that have cut them up in ways unrecognizable, to the general obligation debt-financing of state government of everything from park trails to zoos, up to the Federal Government’s ponzi scheme known as Social Security, entitlement and defense spending for which there is no money—all driven by voters to vote the idiots in office and spend it out of fear of a terror attack, a layoff, cancer, hurricanes, or carbon dioxide.
News flash!!! We don’t have the money! Sure we can ask the Fed to print more dollars, which in turn make the dollar value plummet, and these mysterious bankers can get debt- financed backing from the Chinese, Saudis and all the Emirates, etc or they can just ruin our economy and China-ify us with this marvelous new fascist economic system that is all the rage in China and Russia (capitalism run amok at the top, with socialism and totalitarianism at the bottom).
So vote Obama who will double entitlements, start a MASSIVE new entitlement to fix health care, all while denying us the opportunity to drill for new energy because of the spotted caribou or a 2 inch rise in sea levels crippling our economy and remaining energy slaves to OPEC.
Or vote McCain who will cut taxes (you can only supply-side once every twenty years, man) and ONLY cut earmarks (drop in the bucket) and DOUBLE our defense spending.
There are no clear choices. It’s painful and disappointing. I guess all I can do is go back to voting on culture war issues that are all the rage because these clowns will do nothing to stop us from declaring bankruptcy and turning our country into a second-world nation.
As Mormons, we have all been taught the value of living within our means, getting out of debt, saving for rainy day. Our governmental fathers seem to think they are beyond that. To quote Jeremiah Wright from another angle, “America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”