Government Of, By and For the One Percent

All Ur Moneez R Belong 2 Me

Friday I wrote about how I hated Reagan with a white-hot passion. Today, I would like to explain why, in further detail.

Remember Reagan’s “Nine Most Terrifying Words“?

“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.'”

He then added,

“Unless you’re in the wealthiest One Percent of America. In that case, call me anytime!”

Well, that’s what he should have said. Because that was at the heart of Reagonomics, sometimes called “trickle-down” economics, sometimes called “voodoo” economics, and more recently called “put your head between your legs and kiss prosperity goodbye” economics. And George Bush practices it, religiously, and without Reagan’s late-term realization that he had to raise taxes or destroy the economy altogether. In Bush’s world, the elite One Percent are, indeed, his base.

We’ve been told so many conflicting things about the credit crunch that has been panicking the stock market and the business world. One thing everyone agrees on is that it started with bad mortgage debt. But how did the debt get so bad in the first place? Why did so many banks make such risky loans to people who couldn’t afford to pay them back? And why where they able to bundle the debts together and swap them among different entities, effectively making it impossible to tell who owns what piece of the bad debt at any given time?

Well, as we know, it was Bill Clinton’s fault. (Isn’t everything?) He relaxed the regulations in the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999. That was the root of all evil.

One policy Clinton said he doesn’t regret is his repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999, which, for the first time since the Depression, allowed commercial banks to engage in investment banking activities. Clinton said the commercial banks were an important moderating force on the risk-taking of the big investment firms that collapsed this week. “In the case of the current crisis, I believe the bill I signed allowed Bank of America to take over Merrill Lynch,” he said.