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By BRIAN A. HOWEY
INDIANAPOLIS - On Oct. 30, 1929, people didn’t wake up and start talking about the “Great Depression.” People had no idea on that date and for months afterward the magnitude of what had happened on Wall Street.
This week, Americans began to learn the depth of the disaster that will become known as the Bush-Cheney oil presidency. The nation’s economy is in shambles; credit is drying up. On Wednesday, President Bush addressed the nation, saying, “Without immediate action by Congress, America could slip into a financial panic, and a distressing scenario would unfold.”
It was 180 degrees away from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who told the nation that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Of course, those words came at the depth of the Great Depression. As I listened to Bush, I kept thinking, “Why should I believe this guy?” I can still remember his 2002 pronouncements on the mortal dangers Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction to us here in the American homeland.
This troubling scenario really sank in on Tuesday, when NBC Nightly News themed that day’s broadcast, “fear and loathing,” a theme made famous by gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, who after an illustrious career of cunning, savage insight and Falstaffian excess, committed suicide. America this week seemed to be following his steps.
With the Challenger explosion, the Clinton impeachment and Sept. 11, Americans could at least fathom the outcomes. With the Meltdown of ‘08, I couldn’t find anybody who really had an understanding of how this all might end up. It’s as if we’re heading down a dark rabbit hole and the best case scenario is Wonderland.
Tuesday was the cathartic day. The Dow was down 161 points, on top of Monday’s 500 point disaster. There was the Senate Banking Committee hearing, where the guys who watched over this meltdown were now proposing the solution. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke ominously told us that if the $700 billion bailout didn’t pass, “Jobs will be lost, unemployment will rise, more houses will be foreclosed. GDP will contract.”
***Please login to view the entire article.*** Tags: Barack Obama, Evan Bayh, Hunter S. Thompson, Joe Biden, John McCain, Sarah Palin
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This entry was written by and posted on September 25, 2008 at 11:55 am and filed under HPI Weekly. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
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