The bubble hidden behind the housing boom, derivatives and other financial instruments has long been known to sociologists or anyone bothering to read any economic sociology.
For an insiders look of a previous crisis see: Joseph E. Stiglitz. 2003. "The Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World's Most Prosperous Decade." W. W. Norton. Where Joe Stiglitz, Nobel Prize winner, and head economic adviser during Clinton, talks about the financial crisis of the 1990's. He is not scared to use the terms "corporate theft" and "corporate welfare" to talk about the dubious accounting schemes used by CEOs to get stock options at the expense of shareholders, and other ingenious mechanisms to avoid paying taxes, along with the surprising help from the US government specially of the Treasury and the Fed under Alan Greenspan at the expense of more social programs as desired by the Clintons, Stiglitz and Robert Reich. That was a policy discussion won by economic experts, technocrats, and large economic interests. Hopefully it won't be the same this time around.
For a terrible precedent of bank bailout, and the bad deal it is for Mexican tax payers, look into the fiasco of the deceivingly called Fondo Bancario de Protección al Ahorro, commonly known as FOBAPROA.
To look at the road not taken in the current discussion which fails to acknowledge the systemic elements of this crisis hear the podcast of Craig Calhoun here.
Or for better alternatives see Saskia Sassen's and others' suggestions in "7 better uses for $700 billion" in Forbes.
For an insiders look of a previous crisis see: Joseph E. Stiglitz. 2003. "The Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World's Most Prosperous Decade." W. W. Norton. Where Joe Stiglitz, Nobel Prize winner, and head economic adviser during Clinton, talks about the financial crisis of the 1990's. He is not scared to use the terms "corporate theft" and "corporate welfare" to talk about the dubious accounting schemes used by CEOs to get stock options at the expense of shareholders, and other ingenious mechanisms to avoid paying taxes, along with the surprising help from the US government specially of the Treasury and the Fed under Alan Greenspan at the expense of more social programs as desired by the Clintons, Stiglitz and Robert Reich. That was a policy discussion won by economic experts, technocrats, and large economic interests. Hopefully it won't be the same this time around.
For a terrible precedent of bank bailout, and the bad deal it is for Mexican tax payers, look into the fiasco of the deceivingly called Fondo Bancario de Protección al Ahorro, commonly known as FOBAPROA.
To look at the road not taken in the current discussion which fails to acknowledge the systemic elements of this crisis hear the podcast of Craig Calhoun here.
Or for better alternatives see Saskia Sassen's and others' suggestions in "7 better uses for $700 billion" in Forbes.
Provocative quote I found at NPR's website:
"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. -- Attributed to Alexander Tytler (1747-1814)."
No comments:
Post a Comment