"Excessive" Greed

Across the TV, radio and print media spectrum, capitalism has gone into high gear to "explain" the current crisis to it's consumers, er ,I mean citizens, and reassure them that it is ALL UNDER CONTROL. The dominant narrative was pretty well laid out by NPRs Adam Davidson, one of their top propagandists, who described recession as "healthy", much like "the effects of a forest fire in maintaining a balanced system". Yes, Adam, a nice bit of naturalistic explanation thrown in with the usual spiritual parlance of moral punishment and reward. "We are very aware of the moral hazard" said Treas. Sec. Henry Paulson as he justified the Federal Reserve bailing out Bear Stearns. "It was unclear just how much risk the Feds were taking on" says the New York Times.

There is a lot that is "unclear", in fact, like how come all the "monetary policy experts" and pundits and Harvard MBA s were assuring us about the "basic soundness" of the economy a mere two weeks ago? Today they are trying to avoid " a systemic meltdown in financial markets" and running in circles. They are "stunned" and "shocked", JUST SHOCKED! The mixed messages don't help, with Bush saying in last weeks radio address that "it is not the role of the government to intervene" and today saying he will do whatever is necessary. ( this means giving huge welfare checks for Lehman Bros. and Merril Lynch) I like John Mc Cains approach, just head for Baghdad, as violence flares and we celebrate five heroic years of occupation.

Apparently Bear Stearns (and soon Lehman Bros and others) were brought down by "excessive greed", that is they crossed that unclear,arbitrary and amorphous boundary between the good greed which drives the capitalist system and too much greed, which all good Christians recognize (when they see it). I know the traders and brokers who are my fishing clients dance like angels on a pinhead around that delicate border, smoking fat Cuban cigars and drinking 12 year Scotch after wolfing down a porterhouse and creme brulee. These "Masters of the Universe" believed their own rising tide would lift all ships. They also believed little elves would make the shoes each night! They will be scapegoated as bad actors, like the dead Enron dude? and Michael Milken, Abramoff and Dot Com bubblers and Loan Sharks everywhere. They were excessively greedy!