The Boom Not Heard

Mornings are better when we don’t turn the Tube on, but most mornings it’s tuned to KEYT Channel 3, our local news station, so we can get a sense of the weather for the day ahead.

I was walking through the living room the other day when I heard Beth Farnsworth, the morning anchor say, “America’s economy is booming this morning.”

This was the day after the Federal Reserve cut the interest rate it charges member banks, igniting a rally on Wall Street. My first thought was: this is how a lie becomes the truth of the land. I don’t know if Farnsworth writes her own copy or just repeats what she reads on the ABC News website, but to equate a rising stock market with an economic boom is sheer stupidity, the kind of twaddle you’d expect to hear from that fat toad, Karl Rove.

When a journalist says “America’s economy is booming this morning,” it only goes to show how lazy journalists have become.

Booming for whom? Not the wage slaves who are making less today than they were a year ago. Not the poor saps losing their homes to foreclosure or the engineer whose job was outsourced to India and is now earning a quarter of his former salary hawking cell phones at Circuit City. Not the retiree heading back into the job market because her pension won’t come close to covering the monthly nut.

In reality, the Fed rate cut is yet another hand-out for the Investor Class, the Masters of the Universe who own this country, its political process and its lawmakers. Stock market migrations tell us very little about the American economy. The floor of the New York Stock Exchange isn’t much different from the casino at Cesar’s Palace; money is wagered, money is won, money is lost. On the whole, stock market players may be more sophisticated than the average lout who throws money away at Cesar’s, but it’s still a game of chance, where nothing tangible is created.

Morning after morning, night after night, the American news media reports on the stock market, as if every American has a stake in the outcome. When was the last time you heard the news media give more than thirty seconds to the working class? The Titans of Industry get lots of airtime to extol the virtues of free trade and market efficiency, but workers are ignored as if they have no story to tell.

For seven years, George W. Bush, Liar in Chief, has been crowing about the strength of the American Economy. Thanks to generous tax and monetary policy that favors the few at the expense of the many, Bush’s wealthy friends have scored. Under Bush, the affluent became rich, and the rich became super-rich; they hold the high ground, the prime real estate, and their lawns are forever green.

The truth is less rosy. The American Economy is fundamentally flawed – and primed to collapse. It’s not so much a house of cards as it is a house of debt.

And the pesky truth about debts is that they eventually come due.