RE: Civil Unrest and The Economy: Why Everything Is Falling Apart
I suppose if one believes that we have solved all of the economic issues that caused the 2008 crisis then they would be reasonable in assuming that the cause of the ongoing civil unrest is unrelated to the economic issues.
the only problem with linking widespread civil unrest to economic issues is that these issues have been around literally forever in the US. This crisis with mortgage backed securities -- something like this happens every 25 years or so. Has been since before there was a federal reserve.
The last time, the SNL crisis, was literally the exact same thing. they told a certain kind of lender they could do whatever they want, the lender did. It broke the universe and the government had to step in. It doesnt seem like a big deal to you because you weren't around for but shit like gas lines, stagflation, etc were just as bad if not worse than the 2008 crisis. The depression was obv worse. And, had JP morgan not personally pledged his own money to save the day, the knickerbocker crisis might have turned the US into a 3rd world nation.
going back in time:
2008 mortgage deregulation/universe breaks/bailout.
late 70s early 80s: SNL deregulation/universe breaks/bailout
XXXX: (it didnt happen here cause the post WWII economy was insane
30s -- stock market securities overvalued (due to trading deregulation) then crash/universe breaks/ then eventually bailout in the form of new deal
1907 -- banking and stock deregulation causes the knickerbocker crisis. Universe breaks. JP morgan financed bailout.
1875-- XXXX (nothing here... it was a big boom time after the way)
1850ss, "free banking era" deregulation allows wildcat banks to overissue notes. universe breaks when wildcat banks start going under. Leads to the 1863 adoption of national banks and "greenbacks" (this is when the US started printing paper currency)
Its always the same ... unless there's a war on, finance gets derggulated, it breaks the universe, then gets reregulated. People are stupid.
Younger people won't even remember the 2008 housing bubble in 25 years (the same way most people dont know about the SNL crisis in the 80s.)
It wasn't my intent in this post to imply that anything you say here is not the case. My main point is that MBSs were not the thing, they were one small part of a chain of events which go back in time to the beginning of humanity. The decision to focus on 2008 is wholly arbitrary, as is choosing to start anywhere. The point of the article is only that economic realities have societal effects.
Well yeah, there has always been an economic cycle, and there has always been civil unrest in response to economic turmoil.
I guess my point is that looking for a "solution" to that is sort of a fools game. Even if there was no fed and we were back to the specie standard, that would still be the case. Its just the nature of a captialist economy. To quote the noted economic scholar Biggie Smalls "mo money, mo problems"