Dumbing Down The US
Someone else saw this first, and when I find the reference I’ll link to it, but if you are interested in the US mortgage meltdown, you have to read the European papers to find out about it. Outside of a few specialty newspapers, there is almost no national reporting on this disaster, and be aware it is a disaster. This is going to end up worse than the savings and loan mess, and the national press isn’t reporting on it.
As important as they are to the people involved, I have seen more notice taken of the Writers Guild and Stagehands strike than the millions of Americans who are going to be homeless as a result of this melt down. Because of all of the consolidation that has gone on in this country, aided and abetted by “deregulation”, every bank almost any of us are apt to do business with, is affected. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation could be flung deep in the red, and no one should count on getting back more than the stated maximum of $100,000.
In my life, a period of more than a half a century I do not remember a time when the Canadian dollar was worth more than the US dollar. When the Shrubbery took office it took 3 Canadian dollars to get 2 American dollars. A Euro is now worth $1.50 rather than $.95 it was in 2001.
We have a problem, and it isn’t going away. When the runs on the banks start, don’t say you weren’t warned.
5 comments
We had our first run a couple of months ago – the Northern Rock building society. Its misfortunes are directly linked to the US credit crunch.
At least according to NPR this morning, the U.S. Conference of Mayors is spending the week in Detroit talking about little else.
…even this morning on NPR, the talk is about mayors dealing with foreclosures and whether urban revitalization projects will be affected by downturns. No hint as to the actual calamity that is currently stalking the financial industry…
Another interesting impact that isn’t being discussed – probably because it doesn’t affect a great many people – is the impact on some U.S. citizens living along the Canadian border. I have a number of friends and in-laws who live in small border towns and routinely cross into Canada for most of their needs because it is much farther to a full-service U.S. community. They’ve seen a 30-some percent increase in their costs at the same time as the fuel to make that longer drive to a larger U.S. town has more than doubled…
This is definitely a world-wide problem, Jams, and now a big investor seems bent on blocking the Branson/Virgin buy out of Northern Rock. I would be happy that anyone wanted to buy it at this point, because the worst is yet to come and the price isn’t going to get better.
Cities are in a major jam. The lege just messed with property taxes, which created problems for Florida cities and counties, and now they aren’t going to get taxes paid on some property and all property will have to be reassessed down. The hard times are going to get harder. NPR seems to be the only ones interested.
I hadn’t thought of that, Jack. That is a major problem, because most of those people are in tiny towns. The people of Point Robinson may apply for annexation by Canada.
[…] Why Now? – Dumbing Down The US: “Someone else saw this first, and when I find the reference I’ll link to it, but if you are interested in the US mortgage meltdown, you have to read the European papers to find out about it. Outside of a few specialty newspapers, there is almost no national reporting on this disaster, and be aware it is a disaster. This is going to end up worse than the savings and loan mess, and the national press isn’t reporting on it.” […]