Monday, September 15, 2008

"Financial Meltdown"

The news over the weekend and this morning about the financial meltdown going on on Wall Street is more than disconcerting. Lehman Brothers filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and Bank of America buying (bailing out) Merrill Lynch means big trouble for many who have invested in those firms and certainly for their employees (people with brokerage accounts are protected by something called the SIPC - comparable to the FDIC).

Meanwhile, St. John McMaverick is vowing to clean up Wall Street after he's elected. [Pause for uncontrollable laughter.] Really?! Where has Sen. McMaverick been for the last 26 years? Oh, right. In Congress and the Senate. We don't recall him pushing for reforms during that quarter century. This is the man who claims not to know much about the economy (he'll have to leave those questions to his expert on all things, Gov. Who?). Remember also McMaverick's role in the Keating Five scandal of the 1970's involving the savings and loan meltdown - yeah, he's got experience with meltdowns!

(In a bit of unfortunate timing, one of McMaverick's financial advisers, Donald Luskin, had a piece in the WaPo over the weekend. Message: economically, this could be the best of times! With advisers like that, how can McMaverick go wrong?!)

Not a small reason for the current state of affairs is the deregulation so religiously pursued by the Rethuglicans since St. Ronnie the Government is the Problem was in office. E-coli conservatives. Bridge collapse conservatives. Katrina conservatives. Now financial meltdown conservatives. Quite a series of accomplishments!

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