Bear Stearns and the Collapse of the US Economy
Yesterday, while many of us were celebrating Palm Sunday, the Federal Reserve met and approved the purchase of Bear Stearns by JP Morgan for $2 a share. These same shares sold for over $170 not so long ago, and the sale values the firm at less than 1/2 the value of its shiny new headquarters. ( Isn’t NPR grand!) These are the facts. A deeper examination will reveal this for what it really is… a rescue in name only. Bear Stearns has collapsed. And it will not be the last bank to go under.
Why is the US economy in such a horrific crisis, while even the ripples cannot seriously damage the strong European market? I believe the answer, while complex, can be reduced to one simple notion. Greed. Corporate governance in America has failed because corporate greed has gone unchecked and unregulated. Manipulations of the energy market, false claims for pharmaceuticals, airlines putting our lives at risk. And we do nothing. Our Congress is bought and sold by and to corporate interests, our president refuses to act because he is himself a son of corporate privilege, is working for the interests of individuals like his father and other Reagan cabinet members, themselves playing a hand in our economic collapse as billions of dollars are lost with the collapse of a portion of their Carlyle Group.
Under Reaganomics, greed went from vice to virtue, and Republicans have done everything possible to de-regulate and allow our Wild West economy to flourish. Unfortunately, there are no hero-strangers to ride in and save the widow and her children. We can only address the crisis with a revolution, a restoration of democracy, a return to the notion of a common good. And that cannot happen as long as we play the greed game.
You may not realize that you play the greed game, but you do. So do I. We have become used to an abundance of cheap manufactured goods because we have allowed corporations to ship jobs overseas to countries where there are no protections for the environment, for workers, to brutal regimes like Communist China. We have borrow far beyond our means to live surrounded by stuff. You might not have… but I am certainly guilty. The television tells us we will feel better if we just buy x, if we take y pill, if we drive a new z. And the truth is, none of this will make us feel good, none of it will make us live forever.
We cannot address the corruption of our political and economic systems until we address our own corruption. I am a reluctant Calvinist, convinced that we are reaping what we have sown. We must return to a love of family, to a love of neighbor, to a love of community. We must return to a Christ-centered existence. Then we will see these crises through new eyes. It will not be the “criminal” illegal immigrants that we will condemn, but the historical systems of greed that left Latin American nations in poverty, and the current greed that creates jobs no citizen can afford to take.
This is a rant, but one that is long overdue. The emperor has no clothes. Naked greed and unchecked corporate recklessness has destroyed our economy. And there is no one with the will to save us. Speculation has driven the price of oil to record highs, yet this president would never release the reserves, dropping the price in an instant. And he could do so at will.
Then there is the great leader of hope and change here in Massachusetts, our very own Obama, Deval Patrick. The governor, as a candidate, promised us a bright future. All he has delivered is a casino plan. Casinos are not an economic plan, they suck money from those who can ill afford to lose it. Soaring rhetoric is nice, but many of us are feeling betrayed by Governor Patrick’s failure to deliver.
Enough ranting. Things are ugly and will in all likelihood will get worse. I can only pray for those who will lose their lives and livelihoods in the coming weeks, I can only reform myself, turn my own heart to God’s order, and away from the new world order of American greed.