Ógra Shinn Fein
An Lorgain
In AD64 the city of Rome was consumed by a great fire, which according to the historian Tacitus burned for six days and seven nights. And it was while Rome was burning around him, the emperor Nero sang and played his lyre while his citizens perished.
It seems today that history is repeating itself as the main players in the global economy seem content to scratch their heads and look at each other in shocked disbelief as the people suffer from the heat of an intense economic inferno.
The current crisis we are in was both preventable and forewarned. In a 2004 paper, Joshua Gallin an Economist with the US Federal Reserve stated,
“Indeed, one might be tempted to cite the currently low level of the rent-price ratio as a sign that we are in a house-price ‘bubble.’ ’’.
Another Economist at the US Federal Reserve, Edward M. Gramlich urgently warned about the ‘inadequate regulation of sub-prime mortgages’ in the US housing market.
It seems the only people on the news who can forecast anything are the presenters doing the weather, rather than the economists who can only analyze with any expertise what they failed to predict.
In truth world leaders have never really got economics. In the 1980’s Reagan and Thatcher were proponents of so-called ‘trickle down’ economics. This policy was promoted as recently as the US election by the McCain campaign.
This warped idea involves giving tax breaks to the wealthiest businesses and people in society in the expectation that they will spend this money in other ways and thus improve the general economy for everyone. All it did in the end was to make the rich richer and poor poorer.
This idea is one of the most nonsensical and illogical I have ever heard. The mere thought of the wealthiest people in society not contributing any of their fortune, while those who have the least being asked to fork up is both dangerous and deluded.
This warped idea involves giving tax breaks to the wealthiest businesses and people in society in the expectation that they will spend this money in other ways and thus improve the general economy for everyone. All it did in the end was to make the rich richer and poor poorer.
This idea is one of the most nonsensical and illogical I have ever heard. The mere thought of the wealthiest people in society not contributing any of their fortune, while those who have the least being asked to fork up is both dangerous and deluded.
We have also witnessed in the recent months the nationalization of banks the world over: Northern Rock in the Britain and the Federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the US. I would love to have heard the analysis of one Joseph McCarthy, the US Senator who led a communist witch-hunt in 1950’s America and who believed there were communist sympathizers in the federal government. Maybe Joseph was on to something!
The term ‘government bail-out’ has also come to prominence recently. The US congress passed an amended bill allowing $700 billion of tax payer’s money to be used to bail out the banks. Despite the initial rejection of the original bill it was amended and passed with relative ease. What strikes me is that the government is quick to bail out the banks but not speedy at bailing out anyone else.
It’s estimated that $25 billion would significantly wipe out aids for the next generation in the third world, and what about the millions of people in the United States who live in poverty without healthcare and the chance to go to university? Congress should focus on bailing them out before the millionaire bankers.
The truth is there is enough wealth in the world to clothe, educate, shelter and feed every human being no matter where they are. Despite the economic downturn thousand of bombs will still be manufactured and dropped on Iraq and Afghanistan long into the foreseeable future.
Defense spending will be maintained, the majority of the wealth will still be in the hands of an elite minority, and just like Rome everyone else gets burned while the rich just play away.
The term ‘government bail-out’ has also come to prominence recently. The US congress passed an amended bill allowing $700 billion of tax payer’s money to be used to bail out the banks. Despite the initial rejection of the original bill it was amended and passed with relative ease. What strikes me is that the government is quick to bail out the banks but not speedy at bailing out anyone else.
It’s estimated that $25 billion would significantly wipe out aids for the next generation in the third world, and what about the millions of people in the United States who live in poverty without healthcare and the chance to go to university? Congress should focus on bailing them out before the millionaire bankers.
The truth is there is enough wealth in the world to clothe, educate, shelter and feed every human being no matter where they are. Despite the economic downturn thousand of bombs will still be manufactured and dropped on Iraq and Afghanistan long into the foreseeable future.
Defense spending will be maintained, the majority of the wealth will still be in the hands of an elite minority, and just like Rome everyone else gets burned while the rich just play away.
1 comment:
Brilliant article.
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