Friday, January 20, 2017

The American Dream

We watched "The Big Short" a few nights ago, and not for the first time, maybe the third in fact.  I think it is a remarkably clear exposition of the subject of Michael Lewis' book which has to do with the economic downturn brought on by the collapse of the mortgage securities industry and the subsequent large scale economic depression that ensued.  I am completely ignorant of economic theory, economic history, never took even an introductory course in economics in college, and so the book and the film and the economic collapse are very hard for me to understand.  But it is certainly clear that the banks were enormously culpable for the collapse, and also clear that the American economy had to be radically refunded so that the capitalistic system that provides the underlying stability of this country would not go under. But it is also clear the the government let the banking industry off the hook, never mind that they did not initiate suits against those in charge to make them liable for prison sentences since they were obviously operating in a crooked way, but they did not make these corrupt officials give back all the money they made in this period of time.  Drug dealers do not get to keep their money when they are apprehended, for instance.  The "little" people all lost their homes, these homes they had no business buying, but were seduced into buying, were victimized by the banking industry and the real estate industry, and because they were ignorant they are the fall guys.  At the gambling casino you see the guys down to their last chip, desperate because they stayed at the table too long. Why did these poor ignorant home buying suckers have to pay one hundred percent on the dollar while the banks got refunded for all their losses?   But a family's home is not the same as a gambling chip, and it is not the "housing industry" or "the real estate industry," it is sanctuary and place of family and it needs to be protected from the vultures of capitalism.  And now it's happening all over again, at least here in Florida, where a beautiful little town like Sarasota is being completely shadowed over by the condo towers going up everywhere, where on side streets little old forties and fifties bungalows are being torn down and monstrous vulgar palaces are going up in their stead.  I have an artist friend who had us to dinner a month or so ago where we met her husband,  a modest home builder who apologized for coming in late for dinner but blamed it on the volume of the workload.  I said it made me uneasy all this building.  "Yes," he laughed mordantly, "the banks and the developers, same thing all over again."

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