On Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:10:15 -0800, "John R. Carroll"
wrote:
snip
It is clear what must be done, but it is also clear it can't be
done, short of a bloody revolution and the establishment of a
second U.S. republic.

No George, but we will likely have what is the "reasonable" alternative.
Thinking that what's gone on to date has "saved" the US economy in any
serious manner is an illusion. Dillusional, in fact.
The only thing the world was saved from was immediate and catastrophic
collapse.
snip
=======
Much of this depends on your perception of the reality of
government.

You appear to be correct in your observation that the only thing
the "rescue" programs have accomplished was the immediate and
total economic collapse (which may be justification enough). As
you observe, unemployment continues to increase and the
commercial real estate bubble is beginning to explode bringing
down the regional and local banks that financed much of the
commercial expansion.

IMNSHO the corporations have captured the U.S. government and
they ain't letting go. What is now causing the "problems," other
than those staged as diversion and entertainment for the masses,
stems from the fact that there are several groups of
corporations, with divergent interests. For example, some groups
with extensive foreign operations benefit from a weak U.S. dollar
while a strong, even overvalued, US dollar is in the interest of
other, primarily financial groups, with U.S. dollar denominated
assets.

It appears that the financial and traditional heavy industries
such as automotive and mining/refining have captured the
Republican party while the new industries such as information
technology, biomedical technology, etc. have captured the
Democrats. Thus you are seeing the corporate blocs using the
nominal political parties as surrogates in their power struggles
to set governmental policy.

This is not a new insight, but an old method/technique of
socio-economic macro analysis called "interest group analysis."
While this methodology appears to have always been useful in the
more centeralized/oligaricial economies, it does not appear to
have been particularly useful in the U.S. until the mid to late
90s when the corporate takeover of the U.S. government became
significant.

If this of interest a google search on "interest group
analysis" produces about 66k hits. As is increasingly common it
appears most of the articles and applications are from other
countries. This reinforces my perception that the national U.S.
motto is "don't confuse me with the facts -- my mind is made up."


Unka' George [George McDuffee]
-------------------------------------------
He that will not apply new remedies,
must expect new evils:
for Time is the greatest innovator: and
if Time, of course, alter things to the worse,
and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better,
what shall be the end?

Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher, essayist, statesman.
Essays, "Of Innovations" (1597-1625).