Ground Breaking article "The Quiet Coup"

www.theatlantic.com...

written just in time for some G20 meeting..

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 crises. If the IMF’s staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform. And if we are to prevent a true depression, we’re running out of time

Simon Johnson has an ease for words and thankfully he pens a wonderfully accurate picture of economic problems and then makes some very sobering accounts of what is going on in the Usa and specifically HIGHLIGHTS 2 huge hurdle 's necesary in solving this crisisread the article ......it is academic.....yet relevant....and very readable...


another line in the article stated that in some country's the gov't finally broke power with the finance elite's or (industry elite's) when the riots became severe...............it's way past time to send a strong message back to washington that this nonsense is not acceptable in the united states of america anymore! send the message with physical protests...not little emails that can be ignored.



[edit on 1-4-2009 by cpdaman]

Read it. Good Article.

Too many people thinking "it can't happen here" for long enough, and "it" is bound to happen sometime.

For a long time, those who might have been tempted to break the rules were restrained by the knowledge that "the US is a fair nation and the rule of law is strong." Eventually, precisely this thought was used as cover under which the crooks could operate. After all, those well-groomed, freshly-scrubbed young men with Ivy colleges and Blue chip corporations on their resumes couldn't *possibly* be crooks, could they? After all, "the US is a fair nation and the rule of law is strong."

Soon the crooks became even more bold. Even when hints of their crimes were spelled out in the New York Times, nothing whatsoever stopped the graft...because anyone who was in a position to stop it was already in on it on some level. As for those who objected...well, they were fringe lunatics of one sort or another, weren't they? Only nerds read the New York Times, after all, and only weird conspiracy theorists think something is wrong here. Because, as we all know, "the US is a fair nation and the rule of law is strong."

Isn't it?

it sure is well written and why the sheep dance about a bear mkt rally the crooks continue to laugh all the way to the bank......

i am bumping this not cause i started the thread....but because anyone with a basic understanding of finance, politics OR caring about the country can read a very well put together article that PUTS THINGS in a KEY perspective...and it is like Wow so we have come to this.........and this is what i should be looking for to know when a real recovery may begin... maybe giving these crooks and the MSM cheerleaders the benefit of the doubt actually enables them to carry out their b.s longer ....

[edit on 2-4-2009 by cpdaman]

reply to post by cpdaman


Happy to fag this and glad to see a thread on this article--it is indeed a must-read.

The US is now in the same boat as Thailand, South Korea or Argentina, so says a former chief economist of the IMF, and we need an IMF-style intervention--just like alcoholics need interventions.

The prescription is very straightforward and level-headed--take back the gov't from the financial oligarchs, break up the banking conglomerates we let grow to be "to big to fail," clean up the debt mess and let a lot of those banks go down, and break the stranglehold of bankers over the govt.

Problem is, the US is not Argentina, or even Russia. We'll never face facts and take our own medicine. Who's going to force us?

Excellent, excellent article. Lots of food for thought.

Thank you for posting--star and flag for you.

www.theatlantic.com... (same link)

In its depth and suddenness, the U.S. economic and financial crisis is shockingly reminiscent of moments we have recently seen in emerging markets (and only in emerging markets): South Korea (1997), Malaysia (1998), Russia and Argentina (time and again). In each of those cases, global investors, afraid that the country or its financial sector wouldn’t be able to pay off mountainous debt, suddenly stopped lending

hopefully we don't go all the way down that route

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.

some more tidbits

In a financial panic, the government must respond with both speed and overwhelming force

however he goes on to say the U.S gov't has

Yet the principal characteristics of the government’s response to the financial crisis have been delay, lack of transparency, and an unwillingness to upset the financial sector

The challenges the United States faces are familiar territory to the people at the IMF. If you hid the name of the country and just showed them the numbers, there is no doubt what old IMF hands would say: nationalize troubled banks and break them up as necessary

too big to fail = to big to exist .........they must bring back the glass seagall act....and also make sure derviatives are regulated as well as enforced..........

I Fear nothing will happen to get the U.S.A to force the incentious relationship between the gov't and financial sector to take the medicine they need ....at least until it's too late........They can massage the GDP data to make it look like a recovery (especially when gov't spending/stimulus bills) can boost GDP regardless of how productive they are.....they have a Unemployment calculation that leaves out people who have been out of work for more than 6 months (no more unemployed benefits = they are no longer counted toward unemployment or being in the work force) that is why in the next coming months.....all those big layoff's from six month's ago will have a large group of those people (still unemployed but not counted in the labor force anymore as their unemployment runs out) so the unemployment rate may be hard pressed to raise (at least the measure the MSM and gov't like to report) even though hundreds of thousands more people will lose their jobs (monthly than gain new ones).......

so these two factors (data manipulations) will probably take political heat of washington from giving the tough medicine to the financial sector...as spin goes into overdrive .....yet the DISMAL corporate profits will be a big "MYSTERY" since .......the real unemployment rate will keep growing (look at U6) on the gov't unemployment site....this should climb to 20% by late in the year......


[edit on 2-4-2009 by cpdaman]

[edit on 2-4-2009 by cpdaman]