Hurricane Katrina, the costliest and one of five deadliest storms in American history, formed in the Atlantic Ocean over the island nation of Bahamas on August 23, 2005. The storm hit southeastern Louisiana as a Category 3 on Monday, August 29, 2005. As the levee system broke around the city of New Orleans, 80% of the city was covered with flood waters, which would linger for weeks. In the end some 1,835 lives were lost, along with storm and flood damages totaling $100 billion.
As deadly and costly as Katrina was, there was another disaster, which closely paralleled the killer storm. It was the disaster of inept, irresponsible, if not careless or callous officials of government, from the mayor of New Orleans (Ray Nagin), governor of Louisiana (Kathleen Blanco ), FEMA Director (Michael Brown), to the president of the United States (Mr. George W. Bush).
Fast forward about 3 years later to August / September 2008, and America is once again dealing with the aftermath of another storm. No, I'm not talking about Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, but the storm of the gross mismanagement of America's marketplace that threatens to tank our economy or turn it into a semi-socialist one. As was the case in New Orleans, the levees of the free market have failed to withstand the storm of out-of-controlled greed and the flood waters of misguided government regulations or deregulations. Once again, the innocent victims cry for help, only this time, their voices do not below from roof tops, but from the despair of being unable to keep their roofs over their heads. People are drowning in a skewed mortgage scheme that is hatching record foreclosures in the tens of thousands.
Howbeit, in their passion to stress personal responsibility -- the old mantra of "As you make your bed, so shall you lie on it" -- some people want these drowning homeowners to know that it was they who took on home loans they could not afford. So, it is not the luck of their neighbors to now make their mortgage payments. But the question is, how is that any different from telling the residents of Louisiana in the wake of Katrina, "You made the decision to build or buy homes in the path of hurricanes, in a flood zone, so why do you expect others to rescue you, or to help rebuild your lives and city?"
The really warped thing about the current storm on Wall Street is that the victims have been assigned second place again by our government officials. This is even worse than the pathetic response to the natural Katrina: We are sending in the rescue helicopters, the national guard, the coast guard, and the emergency workers of our economy to rescue those who engineered and constructed the levee system of the free market that powers Wall Street. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke at his heels, is asking us through Congress to spend at least $700 billion to FIRST rescue the perpetrators, both on Wall Street AND in the government, before we ask any more questions about the victims of the storm and flood they have help create. They are telling us that if Congress does not act NOW to airlift the connivers and bystanders, the sky will fall on the free market universe, not just here in America, but far beyond our shores.
Despite this rush to affix the collective signatures of American taxpayers to a debt of $700 billion in 7 days, a debt of $100 billion per day, we are also being told to leave behind the victims of these financial schemes, leave them drowning in their neck-breaking mortgage debts for a later time. Yes, they are losing their roofs with the grounds beneath them, but the real emergency right now is to bail out the companies and their CEOs, to bail out those who failed to monitor their bad behavior, and to bail out the president, who failed to DIRECTLY address and warn the American people about this crisis, which they saw looming over the financial horizons, just as those meteorologists saw and forecast Katrina days before it hovered over Louisiana.
So, here we are. It's Katrina II, and we still don't have a responsible government, who will see rescuing the victims of the storm and flood as the FIRST priority in their rush to obtain a bailout package. Another case of failure to lead. Is this the leadership America deserves, or should we expect better?
As deadly and costly as Katrina was, there was another disaster, which closely paralleled the killer storm. It was the disaster of inept, irresponsible, if not careless or callous officials of government, from the mayor of New Orleans (Ray Nagin), governor of Louisiana (Kathleen Blanco ), FEMA Director (Michael Brown), to the president of the United States (Mr. George W. Bush).
Fast forward about 3 years later to August / September 2008, and America is once again dealing with the aftermath of another storm. No, I'm not talking about Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, but the storm of the gross mismanagement of America's marketplace that threatens to tank our economy or turn it into a semi-socialist one. As was the case in New Orleans, the levees of the free market have failed to withstand the storm of out-of-controlled greed and the flood waters of misguided government regulations or deregulations. Once again, the innocent victims cry for help, only this time, their voices do not below from roof tops, but from the despair of being unable to keep their roofs over their heads. People are drowning in a skewed mortgage scheme that is hatching record foreclosures in the tens of thousands.
Howbeit, in their passion to stress personal responsibility -- the old mantra of "As you make your bed, so shall you lie on it" -- some people want these drowning homeowners to know that it was they who took on home loans they could not afford. So, it is not the luck of their neighbors to now make their mortgage payments. But the question is, how is that any different from telling the residents of Louisiana in the wake of Katrina, "You made the decision to build or buy homes in the path of hurricanes, in a flood zone, so why do you expect others to rescue you, or to help rebuild your lives and city?"
The really warped thing about the current storm on Wall Street is that the victims have been assigned second place again by our government officials. This is even worse than the pathetic response to the natural Katrina: We are sending in the rescue helicopters, the national guard, the coast guard, and the emergency workers of our economy to rescue those who engineered and constructed the levee system of the free market that powers Wall Street. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke at his heels, is asking us through Congress to spend at least $700 billion to FIRST rescue the perpetrators, both on Wall Street AND in the government, before we ask any more questions about the victims of the storm and flood they have help create. They are telling us that if Congress does not act NOW to airlift the connivers and bystanders, the sky will fall on the free market universe, not just here in America, but far beyond our shores.
Despite this rush to affix the collective signatures of American taxpayers to a debt of $700 billion in 7 days, a debt of $100 billion per day, we are also being told to leave behind the victims of these financial schemes, leave them drowning in their neck-breaking mortgage debts for a later time. Yes, they are losing their roofs with the grounds beneath them, but the real emergency right now is to bail out the companies and their CEOs, to bail out those who failed to monitor their bad behavior, and to bail out the president, who failed to DIRECTLY address and warn the American people about this crisis, which they saw looming over the financial horizons, just as those meteorologists saw and forecast Katrina days before it hovered over Louisiana.
So, here we are. It's Katrina II, and we still don't have a responsible government, who will see rescuing the victims of the storm and flood as the FIRST priority in their rush to obtain a bailout package. Another case of failure to lead. Is this the leadership America deserves, or should we expect better?
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