http://www.vtcommons.org/blog/2009/06/22/truth-power-james-howard-kunstler-snake-eating-its-own-tail
TRUTH TO POWER: JAMES HOWARD KUNSTLER–A SNAKE EATING ITS OWN TAIL
Submitted by Carolyn Baker on Mon, 06/22/2009 – 5:54pm.
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The current mass delusion that will go down in history as the “green shoots fugue” can’t possibly bring the credit freak show back because the credit — i.e. money borrowed from the American future — was swindled away. Something like $14 trillion worth of nominal dollars is being sucked into a cosmic vortex never to be seen again. It was last seen in the spectral forms of so many collateralized debt obligations, credit default swaps, so-called structured investment vehicles and other now-obvious frauds. That giant sucking sound we hear means the process is still underway, and the “money” disappearing into yawning oblivion will out-pace any effort orchestrated by the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury to replace it with new “money” (or credit). Therefore there is no chance between heaven and hell that the pre-2008 suburban homesteading and shopping fiesta can ever come back. The American polity is tapped out in all sectors, personal, corporate, and public.
Notice the two words largely absent from whatever public discussion exists around these matters — “swindle” and “fraud.” The reason they’re missing is because if they happened to enter the conversation, something would have to be done about them, namely investigations and prosecutions. The president is the person in the best position to set the terms of this public discussion, and by avoiding these two words he’s blowing the chance to begin the process of correcting the tragic course we’re on.
These swindles and frauds range from malfeasance at the highest levels to indecency in the lowliest cubicles — i.e. the collusion of a revolving cast of cabinet-level officials with Wall Street executives to loot the US Treasury, the probable criminal dereliction at the mid-level of agencies like the Federal Reserve’s oversight office and the SEC, to certain and outright street grifting in the traffic of securities known to be worthless at their creation. The current fiction that the public seems to be swallowing (for the moment) is along the lines of the old “mistakes were made” locution, which is an easy way to avoid holding individuals responsible for misdeeds.
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At least this fellow has the honesty to call it for what it is … fraud!
A fraud on the Sheeple and the future generations.
How do we avoid this fiscal disaster?
Hard choices. Very hard choices.
On a national level, we have to begin to reestablish our moral compass.
Pay as we go. Not this “barbara streisand” that they use in Congress. But real pay as we go.
First thing that has to happen is we have to have honest money. No more FED funny fiat paper. We’re all adults. We know the situation is bad; we just have no idea how bad.
Audit the FED; strip the monopoly of its power. Redefine and dollar as some amount of gold.
(If I had to guess, FDR paid 20$ per ounce and immediately redefined it as $32. That was in the Thirties. We know that from 1970 to 2000, the dollar lost 97% of its purchasing power. Let’s guess the dollar was inflated let’s peg the dollar to gold. Let’s say the Treasure will exchange 1500 dollars for an ounce of gold and an ounce of gold will buy 500 dollars. No one will be lining up at that window to transact. But we will have fixed the number of dollars.)
(An easier idea is to repeal the legal tender laws and see what happens.)
Second, we need to “Save Social Security”. Hire that guy form Cato who did it in Chile and do something similar here. (Yup, some rich old folks may well get screwed. Sorry about that. It was a wlefare program anyway.)
Third, we need to FIX medicare, medicaid, and all the socialized medical programs (e.g., VA).
Forth, we need to prune government. (Bye bye Amtrak, post office, Education Department, and the countless bureaucrats.)
It will be painful, But what choice do we have?
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