But Wait -- There's More!

Tell them that brave it most,
They beg for more by spending,
Who, in their greatest cost,
Seek nothing but commending
--The Lie, Sir Walter Raleigh

At the end of the storm
There's a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of the lark
--You'll Never Walk Alone,
Rodgers and Hammerstein

It could probably be shown by facts and figures
that there is no distinctly native American criminal class
except Congress
--Pudd'nhead Wilson, Mark Twain
_______________

Today's world is rife with sensory overload.

Forget the hopeless muddle that has become Lost and the 5-second cuts in almost every domestic cinematic production -- the bailouts and stimulus bills + two wars provide more than enough distraction for one country. Add to that a President who is not quite ready for Prime Time and whose message of Change is melting faster than a double-dip of Rocky Road in a Tallahassee August and you get -- pressure.

In psychology, it is hypothesized that schizophrenia is caused by the inability to filter out the extraneous stimuli that surrounds modern man. This personal psychoses could be extrapolated to our entire society.

The problems are so great and manifold that the organism (=society) enters a shocked, protective posture which is called mental illness when manifested in the individual, but market anxiety or any number of euphemisms when characteristic of a society.

The cures that are being thrown at the problem also seem schizophrenic, or at least overlaid with a heavy veneer of denial. Paul Krugman wrote today, the Obama administration seeks to maintain the current financial system, "albeit somewhat tamed by new rules," whereas he [Krugman] sees the "failure of a whole model of banking (The Market Mystique)."

We give away the farm, then criticize a wolf (A.I.G. executives) for killing a chicken.

Analogizing the U.S. banking system to that of a distressed patient in crisis, early intervention went lacking, so the patient's condition is now stat, on its way to being code. What do the professionals do? That's right -- administer a heavy-duty palliative, like morphine. Everything feels better, while on the way to the morgue.

If the patient should survive, he can be warehoused on life-support for some time, albeit in a radically underfunctioning state. To vie with the president's recent crass comment on disabilities, The Really Too Big To Fail banks become like Jerry Lewis's Muscular Dystrophy poster children: they will never walk alone. (But we won't call it socialism, no sir.)

And all the while, the taxpayers are ridden for all they are worth while they get to "hold" some of these toxic assets; yet if any profit is to be made from this situation, it will go back to the private investors who will take a soft "risk" by buying them back. So the bankers will further profit from the problem they caused.

But what is to be done when the citizens see the irony of their situation through little glimpses like the A.I.G. brouhaha or Mr. Madoff's scheme? Those were ones we saw, but how many have gone unseen? The Congress, President and Secretary of the Treasury act duly outraged toward the bonus-takers, but it was their policy which enabled the rip-offs.

This can only happen because members of Congress are in bed with these guys, though we have the illusion of their separateness. However, all one must do is filter the chatter and isolate the facts. Facts -- unlike politicians -- do not lie.

The fact is that everyday loyal, hardworking taxpaying Americans are the victims of our government and financial institutions, both of whom prey upon our lives. The taxpaying citizen is the pivot man in a national circle jerk. We have reached a point in our history where being a pimp is more honorable than being an investment banker.

At least with a pimp, you know you're getting taken for a ride.