Eteraz.Org

Last Thursday I saw President Bush holding a press conference at the Department of Treasury, giving Americans assurance that we were financially healthy. Later in the day, the stock market tanked 387 points. No big deal, think the middle class and the poor, we have seen the market tank before and it seems to come back up, doesn’t it?

Then we saw the biggest French bank freeze $400 billion dollars. No big deal, think the middle class and the poor, what do we care what a French bank does.

Then we saw the central banks in US, Europe and Asia, pump $300 billion into various economies. No big deal, think the middle class and the poor, that’s what central banks do right? (No one asked where the money came from, nor cared that Europe injected more into its economies last week than it did after 9/11).

Then we heard that sub-prime lending in the US markets was causing all the trouble [sub-prime lending is when banks and mortgagors give housing loans to people with bad credit, who are at high-risk to default]. No big deal, thought the middle class and the poor, what does my home loan mean to the rest of the world?

Reality is, each one of these is a big deal, because each one of these things end up hurting the middle class and the poor the most. These people — we people — need to know how we were screwed over, and how our getting screwed over, screws up the rest of the world, and reduces American standing and security.

Let’s try and understand what has happened. It starts, as with most fiascoes in America today, with Bush in 2001. […]