With news of America experiencing its greatest number of unemployed since 1945 - and probably destined to grow even further - it is more than timely to reflect on the sort of cowboy capitalism which pervaded principally the US [but not alone] for the last years. Just think the Madoff scandal said to have lost people some US$50 billion. But even that aside, there are all the various infractions and other things which have occurred during the Bush presidency.
Frank Rich, writing his weekly op-ed column in the NY Times "Eight Years of Madoffs" looks back at events of recent times and how they might be best redressed in the future:
"The biggest question hovering over all this history, however, concerns the future more than the past. If we get bogged down in adjudicating every Bush White House wrong, how will we have the energy, time or focus to deal with the all-hands-on-deck crises that this administration’s malfeasance and ineptitude have bequeathed us? The president-elect himself struck this note last spring. “If crimes have been committed, they should be investigated,” Barack Obama said. “I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt, because I think we’ve got too many problems we’ve got to solve.”
And:
"If Bernie Madoff, at least, can still revive what remains of our deadened capacity for outrage, so can those who pulled off Washington’s Ponzi schemes. The more we learn about where all the bodies and billions were buried on our path to ruin, the easier it may be for our new president to make the case for a bold, whatever-it-takes New Deal".
Frank Rich, writing his weekly op-ed column in the NY Times "Eight Years of Madoffs" looks back at events of recent times and how they might be best redressed in the future:
"The biggest question hovering over all this history, however, concerns the future more than the past. If we get bogged down in adjudicating every Bush White House wrong, how will we have the energy, time or focus to deal with the all-hands-on-deck crises that this administration’s malfeasance and ineptitude have bequeathed us? The president-elect himself struck this note last spring. “If crimes have been committed, they should be investigated,” Barack Obama said. “I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt, because I think we’ve got too many problems we’ve got to solve.”
And:
"If Bernie Madoff, at least, can still revive what remains of our deadened capacity for outrage, so can those who pulled off Washington’s Ponzi schemes. The more we learn about where all the bodies and billions were buried on our path to ruin, the easier it may be for our new president to make the case for a bold, whatever-it-takes New Deal".
Comments