Looks like the long-overdue Crash of 2020 is finally here, with the novel coronavirus panic being the catalyst that finally popped the truly massive stock market bubble--scratch that, BOIL--that was several years in the making. And there does not appear to be a firm bottom in sight yet. And shhhh!--don't even talk about the even bigger derivatives bubble yet. In other words, this can get real ugly real fast!
(And not even the FERAL Reserve can delay the inevitable for much longer, it seems.)
But as bad as it gets, better that it should happen several months before the 2020 presidential election rather than after. A big crash and/or recession before the election would virtually guarantee Trump's defeat, and by extension (hopefully) Bernie's victory. And so would finally mark the end of America's 40 year failed experiment with neoliberalism, that was started by Reagan and self-destructed by Trump. Bookended by two unlikely "dark horse" yet celebrity candidates, Reagan and Trump, that both cut their teeth in Hollywood before entering politics late in life, and who both said they would "Make America Great Again" (right!), this will be the end of an era--or more accurately, the end of an ERROR on January 20, 2021. Then we can finally pick up where we left off in 1980 when Carter almost won re-election but for the Reagan campaign's October Surprise dirty tricks (a conspiracy theory that actually turned out to be true, by the way). Yes, you read that correctly.
And thus, America's long, dark night of the soul will finally be over. Not just the past four years, but the past 40 as well. That is, of course, only if enough Americans actually get off their butts and VOTE--not just in the general election, but also in the primaries as well. The basket of deplorables will sure as hell vote regardless, so all progressives and even the fence-sitters need to get out and vote as well.
This is a good perspective but the focus needs to extend to members of Congress and to the people who fill bureaucratic posts in the federal government. As we saw during the Obama years, yes he was President but he was obstructed by Congress in trying to pass progressive legislation. There is regulatory capture in our government. Our federal government is also very much an oligarchy, why would Rick Perry, a former candidate for President, be the Secretary of Energy when Rex Tillerson had experience in the energy industry but instead was the Secretary of State.
ReplyDeleteAlas, looks like this sliver lining did not come to fruition after all.
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