The Economy

The root cause of our current economic disaster is very rich people continually getting much richer at the expense of nearly everyone else. While some of this is attributable to recognizing and exploiting legitimate opportunities, much is a result of stacking the deck.
Years of deregulation crippled government oversight while Congress rewarded the rich with generous tax cuts while the deficit and debt soared. Hedge funds, totally unregulated leveraged markets providing astronomic profits for their investors. Wall Streeters and CEOs rewarded themselves with multi-million salaries and bonuses while the rest of us lost ground. Privatizing and the Iraq war created opportunities for lavishing government funds on favored private entities, all accomplished under the aegis of the Republican Congress and the Bush White House.
In crisis mode billions of dollars were lavished on Wall Street and the banks, without oversight or accountability. Now, however, with a Democratic president and Republican power reduced to threats of filibuster in the Senate, the neo-cons, led by Sen. McConnell, have morphed into champions of fiscal responsibility and transparency, questioning every Democratic program to repair the economy and threatening scorched earth (unless some advantages for the wealthy are sandwiched into the proposal.)
Disowning their share of the responsibility for our financial morass, they now stand proudly as the rear guard of fiscal responsibility, the thin red line (pardon the color) dedicated to saving the country from dangerous liberal excesses likely in their attempts to repair the economy. You may laugh if it feels appropriate.
Randy Ludacer
Lake Placid