theatlantic.com — The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government?a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crise
Mar 26, 2009 View in Crawl 4
leewitMar 27, 2009
"But there?s a deeper and more disturbing similarity: elite business interests?financiers, in the case of the U.S.?played a central role in creating the crisis, making ever-larger gambles, with the implicit backing of the government, until the inevitable collapse. More alarming, they are now using their influence to prevent precisely the sorts of reforms that are needed, and fast, to pull the economy out of its nosedive. The government seems helpless, or unwilling, to act against them."
nathanbutnetMar 28, 2009
Great article. I especially appreciate the comparison to the era of 'J.P. Morgan (the man)'. What other similarities might our country be going through now similar to that era? Oh yes, rampant monopolization of industries and very little (or no) oversight into corporate monopolies.
nathanbutnetMar 28, 2009
FTA: 'To ensure systematic bank breakup, and to prevent the eventual reemergence of dangerous behemoths, we also need to overhaul our antitrust legislation. Laws put in place more than 100years ago to combat industrial monopolies were not designed to address the problem we now face. The problem in the financial sector today is not that a given firm might have enough market share to influence prices; it is that one firm or a small set of interconnected firms, by failing, can bring down the economy. The Obama administration?s fiscal stimulus evokes FDR, but what we need to imitate here is Teddy Roosevelt?s trust-busting.'amen.
homercles337Apr 6, 2009
You wish all Obama would read this? I assume you meant supporters? I am one and i have not been happy since day one of the Geither nomination. Letting the assh**es that made this mess clean it up is just f**king stupid. Trust me, those of us on the left are far more critical of our elected officials than the idiots on the right will ever be.
itisnowApr 15, 2009
"Emerging-market governments and their private-sector allies commonly form a tight-knit—and, most of the time, genteel—oligarchy, running the country rather like a profit-seeking company in which they are the controlling shareholders."This should sound familiar. For 25 or more years, we have heard 'moderates' (like the Democratic Leadership Council) and all to the right of them assert with no evidence that government should operate more like business. This has been the big selling point for the political campaigns of people like Jon Corzine in New Jersey and Michael Bloomberg in New York City and right-winger Meg Whitman, (former eBay head who is considering a run for Governor of California).The absurdity of this position should now be clear. But Barack Obama has turned, not just to businessmen, but to the very businessmen who have claimed leadership of the oligarchy and who manufactured, with malice aforethought, the current collapse.
juliaxaApr 17, 2009
Gosh, you'd think people would be protesting in the streets over this kind of thing ...
joe8packAug 24, 2009
pack yer s**t and git. The U.S. is turning into a s**thole. I one had faith in this nation, now my only faith is that those in power will do the wrong thing whenever possible.