One of the most amazing and resilient aspects of human nature is perhaps the capacity to be whipped into a frenzy whenever politicians, with the help of the establishment media, decide it is advantageous to do so. Most people are aware of the famous quote by Hermann Göring, which says that "people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders" by telling them "they are being attacked." A variation of the idea that populations can be frightened like little children and that once frightened they will, like little children, defer to their leaders for safety and protection can be seen at play today in the current talks on U.S. debt default.
In an article published today titled Obama's Ambush on Entitlements, economist Michael Hudson tells how the current debt default crisis is, to all intents and purposes, a con and the logical continuation of the massive bailout which produced the debt in the first place.
During Obama’s speech [July 25] I could not help feeling that I had heard it all before. And then I remembered. Back in 2008, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson sought to counter Sheila Bair’s argument that all FDIC-insured depositors would be able to ride out the September crisis, with only the reckless gamblers losing the gains they hoped to make on their free credit. “If the financial system were allowed to collapse,” he warned in his Reagan Library speech, “it is the American people who would pay the price. This never has been just about the banks; it has always been about continued prosperity and opportunity for all Americans.”
But of course, it is all about the banks.
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