Thread: The Party's Over

The Party's Over
By Patrick J. Buchanan
September 19, 2008

The Crash of 2008, which is now wiping out trillions of dollars of
our people's wealth, is, like the Crash of 1929, likely to mark the
end of one era and the onset of another.

The new era will see a more sober and much diminished America. The
"Omnipower" and "Indispensable Nation" we heard about in all the
hubris and braggadocio following our Cold War victory is history.

Seizing on the crisis, the left says we are witnessing the failure
of market economics, a failure of conservatism.

This is nonsense. What we are witnessing is the collapse of Gordon
Gecko ("Greed Is Good!") capitalism. What we are witnessing is what
happens to a prodigal nation that ignores history, and forgets and
abandons the philosophy and principles that made it great.

A true conservative cherishes prudence and believes in fiscal
responsibility, balanced budgets and a self-reliant republic. He
believes in saving for retirement and a rainy day, in deferred
gratification, in not buying on credit what you cannot afford, in
living within your means.

Is that really what got Wall Street and us into this mess -- that
we followed too religiously the gospel of Robert Taft and Russell
Kirk?

"Government must save us!" cries the left, as ever. Yet, who got us
into this mess if not the government -- the Fed with its easy
money, Bush with his profligate spending, and Congress and the SEC
by liberating Wall Street and failing to step in and stop the
drunken orgy?

For years, we Americans have spent more than we earned. We save
nothing. Credit card debt, consumer debt, auto debt, mortgage debt,
corporate debt -- all are at record levels. And with pensions and
savings being wiped out, much of that debt will never be repaid.

Our standard of living is inevitably going to fall. For foreigners
will not forever buy our bonds or lend us more money if they
rightly fear that they will be paid back, if at all, in cheaper
dollars.

We are going to have to learn to live again without our means.

The party's over

Up through World War II, we followed the Hamiltonian idea that
America must remain economically independent of the world in order
to remain politically independent.

But this generation decided that was yesterday's bromide and we
must march bravely forward into a Global Economy, where we all
depend on one another. American companies morphed into "global
companies" and moved plants and factories to Mexico, Asia, China
and India, and we began buying more cheaply from abroad what we
used to make at home: shoes, clothes, bikes, cars, radios, TVs,
planes, computers.

As the trade deficits began inexorably to rise to 6 percent of GDP,
we began vast borrowing from abroad to continue buying from abroad.

At home, propelled by tax cuts, war in Iraq and an explosion in
social spending, surpluses vanished and deficits reappeared and
began to rise. The dollar began to sink, and gold began to soar.

Yet, still, the promises of the politicians come. Barack Obama will
give us national health insurance and tax cuts for all but that 2
percent of the nation that already carries 50 percent of the
federal income tax load.

John McCain is going to cut taxes, expand the military, move NATO
into Georgia and Ukraine, confront Russia and force Iran to stop
enriching uranium or "bomb, bomb, bomb," with Joe Lieberman as
wartime consigliere.

Who are we kidding?

What we are witnessing today is how empires end.

The Last Superpower is unable to defend its borders, protect its
currency, win its wars or balance its budget. Medicare and Social
Security are headed for the cliff with unfunded liabilities in the
tens of trillions of dollars.

What we are witnessing today is nothing less than a Katrina-like
failure of government, of our political class, and of democracy
itself, casting a cloud over the viability and longevity of the
system.

Notice who is managing the crisis. Not our elected leaders. Nancy
Pelosi says she had nothing to do with it. Congress is paralyzed
and heading home. President Bush is nowhere to be seen.

Hank Paulson of Goldman Sachs and Ben Bernanke of the Fed chose to
bail out Bear Sterns but let Lehman go under. They decided to
nationalize Fannie and Freddie at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds
of billions, putting the U.S. government behind $5 trillion in
mortgages. They decided to buy AIG with $85 billion rather than see
the insurance giant sink beneath the waves.

An unelected financial elite is now entrusted with the assignment
of getting us out of a disaster into which an unelected financial
elite plunged the nation. We are just spectators.

What the Greatest Generation handed down to us -- the richest, most
powerful, most self-sufficient republic in history, with the
highest standard of living any nation had ever achieved -- the baby
boomers, oblivious and self-indulgent to the end, have frittered
away.
http://buchanan.org/blog/2008/09/pjb-the-partys-over/

THIS IS THE SAME SHIFT OF BLAME THAT WE HAVE HEARD FROM THE CORPORATE GLOBALISTS FOR DECADES.

THE GREATEST GENERATION? I HAVE NEVER AGREED WITH THAT ASSESSMENT. THE GREATEST GENERATION HAD RESOURCES NOT AFFORDED ANY OTHER GENERATION. SO OF COURSE THEY WERE ABLE TO BUILD SOMETHING OVER A LIFETIME. I AM NOT SAYING LIFE WAS SO EASY FOR THEM. LIFE IS HARD. BUT THEY HAD JOB SECURITY, HEALTH CARE FROM THEIR JOB, REASONABLE LOAN RATES, REASONABLY PRICED HOUSES, DECENT SCHOOLS FOR THEIR KIDS.

AND THEN COME THE BABY BOOMERS. I DONT AGREE THEY FRITTERED IT AWAY. THIS IS A DIVERSION TO SHIFT BLAME FROM THE REAL CULPRITS OF THE CURRENT SITUATION. BABY BOOMERS DID NOT HAVE JOB SECURITY, HEALTH CARE AT WORK (NOT ADEQUATE), DECENT SCHOOLS FOR THEIR KIDS. BABY BOOMERS HAD TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS AND MILLIONS OF ILLEGALS TO COMPETE WITH.

THE CORPORATE GLOBALISTS THAT CREATED THIS MESS WOULD LOVE TO SHIFT THE BLAME TO THE GENERATION THAT THEY VICTIMIZED THROUGH THEIR GREED.

MANY BABY BOOMERS HAD TO WORK TWO OR THREE JOBS JUST TO PUT FOOD ON THE TABLE. SOMETIMES THAT IS NOT EVEN ENOUGH. BANKS JUST LOVE IT WHEN YOU RUN OUT OF FOOD BEFORE PAYDAY SO YOU HAVE TO USE YOUR CREDIT CARD AT THEIR RIP OFF RATES.

THIS SHIFT OF BLAME IS THE SAME AS SAYING THAT EMPLOYERS NEED TO BRING IN FOREIGN LABOR BECAUSE AMERICANS ARE LAZY AND "WONT DO THE JOB THAT FOREIGNERS WILL DO". THIS IS SHIFTING BLAME TO THE VICTIM. IT IS A DIVERSION TO COVER UP THE CORRUPTION THAT IS GROWING LIKE A CANCER IN OUR COUNTRY.

ASK YOURSELF THIS QUESTION. IF "THE GREATEST GENERATION" DID NOT HAVE JOB SECURITY OR HEALTH INSURANCE FROM WORK. IF BOTH PARENTS HAD TO WORK ...SOMETIMES MORE THAN ONE JOB...., IF THEY HAD TO COMPETE WITH SCAB LABOR FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES, IF BUYING A HOUSE WAS BEYOND THEIR REACH OR BARELY OBTAINABLE, IF GASOLINE HAD COST AN ARM AND A LEG, IF BANKS WERE ALLOWED TO CHARGE RATES THAT AMOUNT TO USURY, IF THEIR KIDS WERE BEING SHOT AT IN SCHOOL, IF THEY HAD TO BUY PAPER AND PENCILS FOR THEIR KIDS TO TAKE TO SCHOOL, IF THE INTEREST RATE ON THE HOUSE THEY WERE BUYING MADE UP MOST OF THE MORGAGE PAYMENT INSTEAD OF PAYING OFF THE PRINCIPAL...........WOULD THEIR SUCCESS HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE? I DONT THINK SO.

I AM NOT SAYING THEY WERE NOT GREAT....BUT JUST THAT THEY WERE AFFORDED RESOURCES THAT ALLOWED THEM TO BE SUCCESSFUL.