My personal shit just doesn't seem worth posting about- this does.
Dear United States, Welcome to the Third World!
It's not every day that a superpower makes a bid to transform itself into a
Third World nation, and we here at the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund want to be among the first to welcome you to the community of
states in desperate need of international economic assistance. As you
spiral into a catastrophic financial meltdown, we are delighted to respond
to your Treasury Department's request that we undertake a joint stability
assessment of your financial sector. In these turbulent times, we can
provide services ranging from subsidized loans to expert advisors willing
to perform an emergency overhaul of your entire government.
As you know, some outside intervention in your economy is overdue. Last
week -- even before Wall Street's latest collapse -- 13 former finance
ministers convened at the University of Virginia and agreed that you must
fix your "broken financial system." Australia's Peter Costello noted that
lately you've been "exporting instability" in world markets, and Yashwant
Sinha, former finance minister of India, concluded, "The time has come. The
U.S. should accept some monitoring by the IMF."
We hope you won't feel embarrassed as we assess the stability of your
economy and suggest needed changes. Remember, many other countries have
been in your shoes. We've bailed out the economies of Argentina, Brazil,
Indonesia and South Korea. But whether our work is in Sudan, Bangladesh or
now the United States, our experts are committed to intervening in national
economies with care and sensitivity.
We thus want to acknowledge the progress you have made in your evolution
from economic superpower to economic basket case. Normally, such a process
might take 100 years or more. With your oscillation between free-market
extremism and nationalization of private companies, however, you have
successfully achieved, in a few short years, many of the key hallmarks of
Third World economies.
Your policies of irresponsible government deregulation in critical sectors
allowed you to rapidly develop an energy crisis, a housing crisis, a credit
crisis and a financial market crisis, all at once, and accompanied (and
partly caused) by impressive levels of corruption and speculation.
Meanwhile, those of your political leaders charged with oversight were
either napping or in bed with corporate lobbyists.
Take John McCain, your Republican presidential nominee, whose senior staff
includes half a dozen prominent former lobbyists. As he recently put it, "I
was chairman of the [Senate] Commerce Committee that oversights every part
of the economy." No question about it: Your leaders' failure to notice the
damage done by irresponsible deregulation was indeed an oversight of epic
proportions.
Now you are facing the consequences. Income inequality has increased, as
the rich have gotten windfalls while the middle class has seen incomes
stagnate. Fewer and fewer of your citizens have access to affordable
housing, healthcare or security in retirement. Even life expectancy has
dropped. And when your economic woes went from chronic to acute, you
responded -- like so many Third World states have -- with an extensive
program of nationalizing private companies and assets. Your mortgage giants
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now state owned and controlled, and this
week your reinsurance giant AIG was effectively nationalized, with the
Federal Reserve Board seizing an 80% equity stake in the flailing company.
Some might deride this as socialism. But desperate times call for desperate
measures.
Admittedly, your transition to Third World status is far from over, and it
won't be painless. At first, for instance, you may find it hard to get used
to the shantytowns that will replace the exurban sprawl of McMansions that
helped fuel the real estate speculation bubble. But in time, such
shantytowns will simply become part of the landscape. Similarly, as
unemployment rates continue to rise, you will initially struggle to find a
use for the expanding pool of angry, jobless young men. But you will
gradually realize that you can recruit them to fight in a ceaseless round
of armed conflicts, a solution that has been utilized by many other Third
World states before you. Indeed, with your wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
you are off to an excellent start.
Perhaps this letter comes as a surprise to you, and you feel you're not
fully ready to join the Third World. Don't let this feeling concern you.
Though you may never have realized it, you've been preparing for this
moment for years.
rbrooks@latimescolumnists.com
It's not every day that a superpower makes a bid to transform itself into a
Third World nation, and we here at the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund want to be among the first to welcome you to the community of
states in desperate need of international economic assistance. As you
spiral into a catastrophic financial meltdown, we are delighted to respond
to your Treasury Department's request that we undertake a joint stability
assessment of your financial sector. In these turbulent times, we can
provide services ranging from subsidized loans to expert advisors willing
to perform an emergency overhaul of your entire government.
As you know, some outside intervention in your economy is overdue. Last
week -- even before Wall Street's latest collapse -- 13 former finance
ministers convened at the University of Virginia and agreed that you must
fix your "broken financial system." Australia's Peter Costello noted that
lately you've been "exporting instability" in world markets, and Yashwant
Sinha, former finance minister of India, concluded, "The time has come. The
U.S. should accept some monitoring by the IMF."
We hope you won't feel embarrassed as we assess the stability of your
economy and suggest needed changes. Remember, many other countries have
been in your shoes. We've bailed out the economies of Argentina, Brazil,
Indonesia and South Korea. But whether our work is in Sudan, Bangladesh or
now the United States, our experts are committed to intervening in national
economies with care and sensitivity.
We thus want to acknowledge the progress you have made in your evolution
from economic superpower to economic basket case. Normally, such a process
might take 100 years or more. With your oscillation between free-market
extremism and nationalization of private companies, however, you have
successfully achieved, in a few short years, many of the key hallmarks of
Third World economies.
Your policies of irresponsible government deregulation in critical sectors
allowed you to rapidly develop an energy crisis, a housing crisis, a credit
crisis and a financial market crisis, all at once, and accompanied (and
partly caused) by impressive levels of corruption and speculation.
Meanwhile, those of your political leaders charged with oversight were
either napping or in bed with corporate lobbyists.
Take John McCain, your Republican presidential nominee, whose senior staff
includes half a dozen prominent former lobbyists. As he recently put it, "I
was chairman of the [Senate] Commerce Committee that oversights every part
of the economy." No question about it: Your leaders' failure to notice the
damage done by irresponsible deregulation was indeed an oversight of epic
proportions.
Now you are facing the consequences. Income inequality has increased, as
the rich have gotten windfalls while the middle class has seen incomes
stagnate. Fewer and fewer of your citizens have access to affordable
housing, healthcare or security in retirement. Even life expectancy has
dropped. And when your economic woes went from chronic to acute, you
responded -- like so many Third World states have -- with an extensive
program of nationalizing private companies and assets. Your mortgage giants
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now state owned and controlled, and this
week your reinsurance giant AIG was effectively nationalized, with the
Federal Reserve Board seizing an 80% equity stake in the flailing company.
Some might deride this as socialism. But desperate times call for desperate
measures.
Admittedly, your transition to Third World status is far from over, and it
won't be painless. At first, for instance, you may find it hard to get used
to the shantytowns that will replace the exurban sprawl of McMansions that
helped fuel the real estate speculation bubble. But in time, such
shantytowns will simply become part of the landscape. Similarly, as
unemployment rates continue to rise, you will initially struggle to find a
use for the expanding pool of angry, jobless young men. But you will
gradually realize that you can recruit them to fight in a ceaseless round
of armed conflicts, a solution that has been utilized by many other Third
World states before you. Indeed, with your wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
you are off to an excellent start.
Perhaps this letter comes as a surprise to you, and you feel you're not
fully ready to join the Third World. Don't let this feeling concern you.
Though you may never have realized it, you've been preparing for this
moment for years.
rbrooks@latimescolumnists.com