For all their knee-jerk obsequiousness to the interests of the rich, teabaggers themselves generally don’t understand the financial sector and how economies actually function. Now they’re all fixated on cutting government spending, and some of them seriously think not raising the debt ceiling would be a good thing. [Update: Ron Paul, for example. Note that one of his commenters seems to think that if the debt ceiling is not raised the U.S. would be freed from debt.]
Right now Washington seems to be locked in a game of chicken. Republicans are threatening to not pass a debt ceiling raise unless they get more spending concessions from the Democrats. The White House so far is holding tough, apparently in the belief that there are enough not-crazy Republicans that the debt ceiling will be raised.
So I had to laugh when I read this commentary by Bruce Bartlett, of all people —
As the almost inevitable debt default is perhaps only weeks away, Wall Street types are finally becoming nervous. They should have known that supporting a bunch of not-too-bright, ignorant Tea Party members to Congress was not going to work out well. I tried to warn them. Following is an article I published last year warning people just how crazy these people are and some references to the debt limit/default issue. BB
What follows is some commentary he wrote last year about how those crazy people are about to trigger “the biggest debt crisis we have seen since Alexander Hamilton was Treasury secretary.”
Wow! Bartlett was right about something?
Well, to put that in some perspective, even a blind squirrell finds an acorn every once in a while.
I think that everyone with an IQ only slghtly higher than that squirrell understands the gravity of what could, or would, happen to us, and to the rest of the world if the debt ceiling isn’t raised (something which, if I remember right, happened 7 out of the 8 years that Little Boots was President. And the only reason it wasn’t 8 out of 8 is that THE FIRST YEAR CLINTON LEFT HIM NO DEBT ‘TO CEILING!!!’).
But I had a thought. An unhinged thought. I mean even more than my usual off-the-doorframe unhinged… I don’t even really believe it myself, but I’m just throwing it out there.
What if, to accelerate the pace of the right-wing changes in this coumtry (MI, WI, OH, FL, etc.,), there are people out there who want to take the ultimate “Shock Doctrine” step, which would be for the US to default? Not only could the results be catostrophic for us here in this country, but around the entire world.
The rich and corporations are sitting on more money than probably ever in the history of the world, so they may be well set to buffer anything but the most horrendous economic storm. But, what if, after a few years of turmoil and upheaval, they can walk out into a situation where the people in the the US and the world, are so desperate (much mo so than now), that even what may seem the harshest conditions in our imaginations now would be respite for the body and soul in the future. Where no one at all, except for the really rich, has any security at all, and everyone is desperate .
Those “Shock Doctrine” (SD) experiment have already been done in South and Central America, and parts of SE Asia. Hell, even parts of the Middle East.
Now granted, the SD success has been mixed for the oligarchs. But, there are enough countries out there with a docile, desperate population, that far outweigh places where the people stand up like Egypt (and we really don’t know how that’s going to end up), so they may figure it’s worth taking the chance.
I’m not saying that this is what will happen, or that I even believe it. I’m just throwing it out there. Because, imagine if you were truly rich, insolated, and isolated right now, thought the result would benefit you and yours, and you could buy enough Senators and Representatives to make this disaster happen, what better time than now?
I think people eyes around the US are starting to open up a little, as demonstrated by some of push back at the Town Hall meetings of the Rep’s who voted for Ryan plan.
So, again, I ask, what better time than now?
My take on most of the hard-core teabaggers in Congress, people in the Bachmann mode, are fueled by passion and ideology but not much in the way of smarts. They are given to taking things to extremes in way their overlords probably didn’t intend. And I think this is an example. The big money Wall Street guys are fine with keeping their taxes down, union busting, and cutting benefit programs. But they really, really, really do not want the U.S. to default on loans, and if they think Congress might really go there, a lot of phone calls will be made and meetings with lobbyists taken.
It’s the same thing with the insurance mandate. The insurance industry loves them that mandate. They don’t want it to go away, and I understand the CEOs of the big insurance corporations have explained this to the Washington congress critters who were fired up to eliminate it. State politicians will continue to demagogue the thing, but I predict that Republicans in the U.S. Congress will gradually, quietly, let it go.
maha,
I realize that the money boys don’t want the mad scenario I painted above to happen. They’ve got a good thing going on.
My point is, that with enough of these Teabagging morons around in both houses, all it would take is a few rich and powerful people to sway them not to raise the ceiling if it was adventageous to them. Then: BANG!
Hopefully we’ll never ever again have as gullible a group of morons in Congress. But it wouldn’t take much for a small group to manipulate the representatives, knowing that it’s unlikely that there may ever be such a malleable and ductile group willing to do their bidding, convinced they were on the right side of history.
I think what I really need to do is stop watching all of those old James Bond movies, because maybe I’m starting to confuse Goldfinger with the Koch Brothers. 🙂
I’m not sure anyone would benefit financially if the U.S. went into default, not even the Koch brothers. Maybe there is some way they could benefit I don’t know about, of course. But it’s very possible lots of people might benefit politically, or at least imagine they would benefit politically. So if the word goes out to freeze the debt ceiling, it won’t be coming from Wall Street, but from somewhere else.
I just added this as an update to the post — if you want to see some real profiles in idiocy, check out Ron Paul’s site. The comments are, um, illustrative also.
I read some of them.
I had to stop about half way through, because if I read anymore, I’d feet the need to pull my brain out, hack about 80% off, and put the remaining 20% back so I wouldn’t feel like I’d stand out in that crowd.
OY VEY!
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Wall Street types are finally becoming nervous.
so he says… have a look at the VIX to disprove that lie
I don’t usually follow the VIX, but according to a 4/26 news story, “The stock market’s volatility index last week hit levels it hadn’t seen since before July 2007 and the financial crisis reached full throttle.” So that would indicate some nervousness about something, I think. See also “Wall Street Executive Warns Congress on Debt Limit.”