September 30, 2008
It is high drama in Washington these days and who better to express the public mood than Hollywood.
Martin Rowson
The House Republicans are willing to play Russian roulette with fragile financial markets. So what now in terms of this political crisis? Bush couldn't deliver his own party for a bill he wanted. So he doesn't really have much credibility with them. He doesn't have credibility with the public either. Will the Republicans "standing up for Main Street against Wall Street" convince the public?
Schumpeter would have called the chaos on Wall Street 'creative destruction'.
Update
Megan McArdle at The Atlantic is critical of the use of metaphor in making sense of the financial crisis. She says:
Metaphors, comparative situations, are useful when you have a firm grasp of the underlying principles which make the important features of what you are discuss fundamentally akin to the important principles of whatever metaphor you wish to employ.....If you cannot explain in clear English exactly what all the salient questions and facts are about the bailout, then please do not attempt to convince others that it is best understood in terms of Dirty Harry movies or the time your Aunt Mavis lost her car keys in the garbage disposal.
Fair enough. We do resort to all kinds metaphors to disguise murky our thinking. But we are watching the disintegration of the financial system. It is difficult to understand what the financial system ceasing to function properly, a range of financial institutions collapsing, and the investment-banking industry disappearing in a couple of weeks means. It is difficult to comprehend what happens next.
What is the significance of the US ’experiencing a huge financial crisis, and the political system still doesn’t seem to work? The Americans are doing this to themselves--it’s their own failure to regulate their financial system and to legislate the proper remedy. They are shooting themselves in the foot.
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One thing that is certain is the US is operating without a president Bush has absolutely no credibility to get anything done and his administration is so discredited that they can't rally the public.
The Republicans are hoping to some tight wing people out there in voterland know who the real enemy is and will smite them --- Big Government and Wall Street. The strategy is that the Republicans are a party out of power and the they need to rebuild the party after being discredited. So they can't afford to be associated with the Paulson bailout. That's why they moved against it. They are going on strike.
It looks as if leadership on the Wall street bailout is left to the Democrats.