The decade of decadent Corporatism

When history looks back on the first decade of the 21^st century it unfortunately may be remembered more for its greedy corporate downfalls than for the global acts of terror perpetuated by radical Islam that started with the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Beginning with the collapse of Enron in early 2002 and culminating with the bankruptcies of 2 of Detroit’s Big 3 auto’s these last 2 months, the last 7 years of corporate America have been by far the worst in our nation’s history. So sever and dramatic have these numerous collapses and bankruptcies been that former president G.W. Bush felt ‘obligated’ to bailout Wallstreet banks and brokerage houses to the tune of $750 billion in funds because he couldn’t “let the backbone of our economy collapse”.

AIG, Citibank, Bank of America and all the rest didn’t deserve one penny of our-the tax payers-money. They got to where they are by their own greed and poor business practice, and along the way nearly brought down the greatest economy in the world.

Unfortunately, the worst part may yet be to come.

Because of their collective irresponsibility on the part of these companies, the government, and the consumer (yes the public is responsible too), the politicians in D.C. were “forced” to step in with government “bailouts” and so called loans because these companies are “too big to fail”. The result was and is the perfect opportunity for the Democrat party and its leader Barack Obama to expand their socialistic policies and influences by “buying in” to all these companies to keep them from failure until their loans are repaid-which could take so long that the U.S. Federal Government could be forced to own them outright.

When it is all said and done the biggest victim of all may not even be the American people themselves, but the very idea of Capitalism itself.

These corporations took advantage of the very worst aspects of the greatest economical engine ever devised while they were under the watch of a domestically truant president-George W. Bush.

Thanks to Bush falling asleep at the proverbial domestic policy wheel while favoring the war on terror (specifically in Iraq), these corporations were able to bilk the investing public of Billions of dollars through the packaging of poorly written mortgages as investments, thereby allowing them to fleece the public at both ends through their warped Friedmanesque ideals of Capitalism.

In the case of General Motors and Chrysler, it was the sudden spike of oil prices (driven by speculation) combined with terribly negotiated union contracts, with greedy and corrupt union officials, which prevented them from being able to fairly compete in the global and domestic marketplace.

When the dust settles and the smoke clears, only time will tell how we, as a nation, come out of this decade of corporate decadence, but for now, thanks to this greed, the greatness of Capitalism is in dire straights. I only hope that it survives and bounces back well enough from the attacks of socialistic policy currently being implemented by our President to prove that, once and for all, Capitalism is the best form of economics ever created.