BlackPerspective.net
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How The Financial Meltdown Happened, Frontline Video
March 9th, 2009
PBS Frontline aired “Inside the Meltdown” last month; detailing in dramatic fashion the financial and banking system meltdown that has taken place over the last year.
It’s a really good watch for getting an understanding of how the mortgage collapse led to the bank collapse, and the inept response of the federal reserve and Bush’s Treasury Department.
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I’m not a “Green Lefitst”, but their site has a good article on how the economic tricks of finacilization, valuation, and bust and bubble economics have brought us to the current economic state: http://www.greenleft.org.au/0000/773/39851
I don’t then come to the conclusion that out and out socialism is the answer, though (and I’m referring to real socialism, not what the far right wing-nuts label as socialism); a free market (notice I don’t say “the” free market) based economy is still the way to go; but just not a capitalist one based on smoke and mirrors valuation; nor one that is based on a philosophy of indifference to social cost and collective hazard.
And if you’re confused by my saying ‘free market but not capitalism’, that’s because I don’t define the two as synonyms because they’re not. Doing so is a political game of false conflation. Capitalism (which itself can come in different particular forms) is a form of free market, just like a Honda Accord is a form of car; but all cars aren’t Honda Accords.
posted in Politics, Socio-Economic, Uncategorized, youtube | | | View blog reactions |
4 Responses to “How The Financial Meltdown Happened, Frontline Video”
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Yobachi Boswell is creator and publisher of BlackPerspecitve.net. I’m a writer, activist and political watcher based in Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve also been know to do some spoken word and MCing in my day.
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Thanks for the link to the Frontline show. I will check it out.
This whole financial meltdown is not about capitalism vs. socialism, or whatever you want to call it.
This is a moral problem - whether is greed that drives a person to step on others to get ahead. Or dishonesty when filling out forms knowing that you can’t pay a certain amount on a mortgage. Or making bad policy forcing banks to operate outside of basic principles of loaning money to people who can’t afford it. Or all of the over spending via the credit cards when we really don’t have the money.
As the Bible says - the borrower is slave to the lender - and this country is like Amway when it comes to borrowing - we have layers upon layers of financial slavery going on.
“This whole financial meltdown is not about capitalism vs. socialism”
I agree, but that’s what the extremist on both ends try to make it about, so they have to be refuted.
What’s more particularly important is the construct of whatever system is being used, i.e. the laws and regulations guiding acceptable business practice.
As I’ve mentioned before, what humans will do left to their own devices is already known. We already know right now what will happen 50 years from now if people are extended credit to buy things that they can’t afford, and if financial institutions are left to regulate themselves. There’s never going to be a surprise about that.
“What’s more particularly important is the construct of whatever system is being used, i.e. the laws and regulations guiding acceptable business practice.”
… and the enforcement of such laws.
Right now we have regulations that are enforced selectively on some law breakers - but that just leads back to the moral problem.
[...] should watch Inside The Meltdown to understand how our current financial collapse came about; especially if you want to see how the [...]