Well, this has been an interesting cap on an interesting few weeks. I’ve spent most of this evening trying not to have a hyperbolic reaction to the Deal of Debt Ceiling Global Economic Doom, but, well, guess you can tell from the term I’ve applied to it that I’ve largely failed.
I’d have to say the most prevalent reaction to the Deal of Debt Ceiling Global Economic Doom I am seeing on lefty blogs tonight seems so hyperbolic on the face of it (We’re DOOMED) that I tried and tried to resist the impulse to say the same. But there it is. I think we might well be doomed.
Or make that DOOMED. In an economic sense of course. I don’t mean to imply people will actually die or anything. Wait, I take that back. If we continue down this course of contraction, just when it appears that the recession (or depression if you prefer – I know I do) is double-dipping (or deepening, if you are deluded enough to believe your lying eyes instead of the experts who say the recession ended in 2009 – I know I am) then people really will die and probably in significant numbers. Can’t see how we shove the world into a global economic collapse without having a body count to go along with it.
So, yeah, DOOMED.
I had a strange reaction to Obama’s speech tonight. I saw him come out, heard him speak, just kept thinking this is the tape they play in class 50 years from now when they are talking about the start of the Greatest Depression. He just looked all…Hooverish to me.
Ran into my daughter later and she said to me she was up in the air about Obama before tonight, but now just can’t help thinking he is totally a tool of Corporate America. Then she asked me “so what do we do now?”
I said, “well, you know, sometimes the only winning move…”
Since she’s seen “War Games” she interrupted me to say “…is not to play.”
She followed that up by saying she was thinking about moving her 401K into international markets.
I suggested she pay off her mortgage if possible, think about putting any cash she had into something real, if we can figure out what real things will have real value during the coming Greatest Depression.
“Chickens?” she asked.
We meandered into a conversation about stocking up on seeds of the heirloom variety, so we could harvest seeds along with vegetables next year. We’re both casual gardeners, but are clearly starting to think about subsistence.
We are over-reacting, right? We talked about that. We talked about it calmly. None of this conversation seemed hyperbolic; I think desultory would be a more accurate descriptor.
So she said something like “yeah, I guess we shouldn’t over-react, but on the other hand I find it hard to believe any of us will have jobs in a year, and I have three kids to feed. And I don’t see any way clear of this – there is no party on our side, and we can’t invent one in time to defend us. Corporate America owns our congress and our president and us. So what can we do in a situation like this?”
I suggested again that she pay off her mortgage, clear any debts, stop doing business with them in any and every way she can.
I’m a pretty effective strategist, but I can’t think of any effective strategies for her right now, of a practical nature, except to own real stuff of useful value in feeding herself and her kids, because everything else is of questionable durability. Who knows what will happen to everyone’s 401K by this time next year? And I have utterly no faith in any of our ability to count on there being any sort of public safety net in place in a year’s time.
So there’s my hyperbole for today. Can’t say I feel any better for the sharing of it. Where the hell does one get chickens anyway?
Tags: Barack Obama, corporatocracy, Debt Ceiling Crisis, depression, economy, recession, War Games
