************FOOTBALL IS FIXED IS DAILY FOR OCTOBER************
"Let's not waste $700bn on a bail-out, but use 'big government' for what it's best at - shaping a society that is fair and peaceable.
"This current financial crisis is a major way-station on the way to the collapse of the American empire. The first important sign was 9/11, with the most heavily-armed nation in the world shown to be vulnerable to a handful of hijackers.
"And now, another sign: both major parties rushing to get an agreement to spend $700bn of taxpayers' money to pour down the drain of huge financial institutions which are notable for two characteristics: incompetence and greed.
"There is a much better solution to the current financial crisis. But it requires discarding what has been conventional "wisdom" for too long: that government intervention in the economy ("big government") must be avoided like the plague, because the "free market" will guide the economy towards growth and justice.
"Let's face a historical truth: we have never had a "free market", we have always had government intervention in the economy, and indeed that intervention has been welcomed by the captains of finance and industry. They had no quarrel with "big government" when it served their needs.
"It started way back, when the founding fathers met in Philadelphia in 1787 to draft the constitution. The first big bail-out was the decision of the new government to redeem for full value the almost worthless bonds held by speculators. And this role of big government, supporting the interests of the business classes, continued all through the nation's history.
"The rationale for taking $700bn from the taxpayers to subsidise huge financial institutions is that somehow that wealth will trickle down to the people who need it. This has never worked.
"The alternative is simple and powerful. Take that huge sum of money and give it directly to the people who need it. Let the government declare a moratorium on foreclosures and give aid to homeowners to help them pay off their mortgages. Create a federal jobs programme to guarantee work to people who want and need jobs and for whom "the free market" has not come through.
"We have a historic and successful precedent. Roosevelt's New Deal put millions of people to work, rebuilding the nation's infrastructure, and, defying the cries of "socialism", established social security. That can be carried further, with "health security" - free health care - for all.
"All that will take more than $700bn. But the money is there. In the $600bn for the military budget, once we decide we will no longer be a war-making nation. And in the swollen bank accounts of the super-rich, by taxing vigorously both their income and their wealth.
"When the cry goes up, whether from Republicans or Democrats, that this must not be done because it is "big government", the citizenry should just laugh. And then agitate and organise on behalf of what the Declaration of Independence promised: that it is the responsibility of government to ensure the equal right of all to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness".
"Only such a bold approach can save the nation - not as an empire, but as a democracy." - Howard Zinn.
Today, we were going to go for the ultimate lowdown on the bailout of the free market ideology.
But this should wait.
Optimism for a better future must always trump an ironic view of our present hyperreality.
Howard Zinn is one of the most important people on the planet.
His " A People's History of the United States from 1492 - Present" defines empire, scope of empire and longevity of empire via systemic linkage.
Indeed, his holistic approach to a Real historical narrative was good grounding for the holistic big picture overview approach of current hyperrealities that we utilise as part of our analyses of the corruptions in financial markets today.
People that were ground down under the expansion of capital are given a voice by Zinn, albeit an archived one, in the most important record of the impact, at a human level, of the non-sustainable exponential growth of this carcinogenic system.
A true rescue package was feasible.
Compare with all the stuff and nonsense that the psychopathic Paulson puts into play.
This socialising of the cost of capital could have paid for 15 years of universal healthcare in the hyperpower - our beacon of capital has 46 million individuals entirely without any medical cover (one in six of the population of the richest country on the planet).
Still, at least the bankers are healthy and wealthy...
Noam Chomsky: "In economist's terms, risk is under-priced because systemic risk is not priced into decisions. That leads to repeated crises, naturally... The designers of the international economy sternly demand that the poor accept market discipline, but they ensure that they themselves are protected from its ravages, a useful arrangement that goes back to the origins of modern industrial capitalism."
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