What Recession?
As amazed as I am by the lies, changes in position, and general idiocy of our 2 leading presumptive candidates for President, they are by no means the only shows in town. The news, which in an archaic theory was to act as a guardian of the public’s interest, has been rapidly dropping to the lowest common denominator as they seek to reap the benefits of higher ratings at the expense of the well-being of humankind.
And while the news cannot help but report stories such as the mortgage crisis, inflation (at least we are doing better than Zimbabwe at something like 2 million percent inflation), and bank closures, the news can pretend that everything is just fine with the economy. And indeed, if you earned what the clueless hacks we call T.V. reporters earned, than the economy would seem to have slowed, but things were still O.K.
So as the politicians who are often wealthy even before taking bribes that go with their elected office, and the down to earth folks earning well into 6 figures or more for reading a teleprompter see it, things may be tough for some, but mostly things are just fine. Predatory lending practices? Not their problem. Payday loan advances that charge a percentage that would make a loan shark drool? Not their problem. Insurance companies “disalowing” coverage for reasons no one can figure out? Not their problem. Banks like Indymac becoming insolvent? Still not their problem. Artificially high fuel costs? Well, that may be a minor inconvenience, but little more to them. I guess it is not a recession until the wealthy start running into problems, maybe that is the key. But the increased number of people who need assistance, even though they are working, well, that’s just too bad. Life isn’t fair, and to reinforce this ideal, we should simply stop noticing the increased number of homeless families, the money lost in failed institutions, and anything else that doesn’t paint a rosy picture of the world.
And that is the magic of our massive news conglomerates, because reality is just a minor annoyance to so many of us, as we watch the rosy picture on our glowing screens, assuring us that even though everything costs more, and the money we have is worth less than it used to be by a substantial margin, that we are certainly not in a recession. Oh yeah, and in other news, another bank has failed.