The Definition of Normal by George W. Bush

normal is just a word

It’s more than a tad ironic that one of the last and most important acts of the outgoing Bush administration will be to attempt an end-run around Republicans in Congress and allow a bridge loan to the US automakers from the the $700 billion set aside all those months ago for the purchase of “toxic securities”.

The White House supported this turnaround with a fabulous piece of Bush logic. To wit; In normal times, the Bushies would have much preferred that the market decide the fate of the automakers, but these, it suggests, are not normal times, and therefore extraordinary measures are needed.

Not a bad version of the West Wing Shuffle, one might think. Except the logic has one drawback. It is as a result of years of allowing the market to take its ‘normal’ course that we are in the mess we are in now. One doesn’t test the beliefs of true free market ideologues during normal times. The only time they can be truly tested is in extremis.

I Can’t Take My Eyes Off The Dow…

you're getting sleepy...

The Dow Jones Industrials are widely regarded as a pretty poor indicator of where the overall equity markets stand, let alone the real economy. As one hedge fund manager suggested, “equity markets are a zit next to the bond markets.” And let’s not even mention the vast trillions in the derivative markets which have damaged the global economy so profoundly.

And yet at the end of every radio newscast, on every Yahoo home page, on the ticker on every cable network, thereis the DJI, it’s not so shiny brand dancing around at the whim of some very silly people playing monopoly with other people’s money. It’s going up, it’s going down, it’s barely moved. Blah, blah, blah.

The truth is we’re worshipping a zit.

Montecito as Metaphor

bye, bye free market ideology

Perhaps there is a God. Maybe he’s angry with the rich people.

I used to be a screenwriter, so the nightmarish fires overnight in Montecito, CA seem heavy with metaphor. Montecito is one of the richest neighborhoods in America, but the fact that it’s gone up in flames is not going to be too upsetting to the poverty-stricken masses further down the 101 in South Los Angeles. No wildfire risk down there. Probably the one advantage they have in life.

One shot of a burned out Range Rover seems particularly apt. We’ve all been so obsessed by wealth, its acquisition and display, that we’ve forgotten that there are far more important things in life, like children, health, community, friendship, family, good conversation, and a good cheap bottle of wine over dinner. Life goes on, but the Range Rover is a steaming, sodden heap of burned up junk, just like the tattered remains of free market ideology.

And good riddance to it too.

The Republican Civil War Begins – Part 1

For all of us looking for a new soap opera after the longest election season on record, we can look forward to the mother of all political civil wars – in the GOP. It’s been a long time coming, but Rove’s kleenex and spit attempt to hold together rival factions in the party (with a helping hand from the war on terror and rampant borrowing) looks like it’s finally about to come apart at the seams. All it took was a top quality Democratic candidate who lacked the party’s penchant for self-destruction, and the worst economic crisis since the Depression, and we’re on the verge of one of the most vicious schisms in political history.