The Titans of Cowardice

I get a kick out of the Wall Street Journal, Bible of the Capitalist class. Here’s a Page Two headline that ran a couple of days ago: “Worried Bankers Seek to Shift Risk to Uncle Sam.”

I’ve been waiting for the Titans of Finance to run to the government for help. Let’s review: banks either made unsound loans to under-qualified borrowers or invested in Collateralized Debt Obligations that included sub-prime mortgages. The loans and CDO’s were pure crap to begin with, but the banks, sniffing easy profit, put aside sound lending practices and jumped in with both feet.

Now that the sub-prime mortgage scandal has infected the wider credit market, the banks are lining up at Washington’s door with their hands out, like Skid Row panhandlers. Understand that these are the very same folks who once criticized so-called “welfare queens” for lack of personal responsibility; the same folks who criticize government programs of any kind (except, of course, those that benefit corporate interests), and the same folks who at every turn extol the virtues and integrity of the American CEO. The Capitalists have thrived during the Bush regime, an age highlighted by weak or non-existent regulation, cronyism, ethical myopia, low corporate and personal tax rates, and a cowboy mentality in the Finance industry.

Bankers despise all things “publicly financed” until their banks fuck up so spectacularly that they have no place to turn except to the public treasury. That’s when they run to Washington babbling about the need to shore up the banking system, the credit system and the monetary system – for the benefit of ordinary Americans on Main Street, of course. How quickly capitalists recover their civic consciousness when the shit hits the fan and puts their stock price at risk. It’s a hypocritical spectacle that puts the lie to the myth that the American economy is fair and equitable and open to anyone with the drive and gumption to succeed.

If it smells like horseshit, and sticks to your boots like horseshit, it most likely is horseshit.

Isn’t it ironic that American bankers and their ilk are opposed to a social safety net for average citizens, but are only too willing to leap into a safety net themselves; ironic that they resist paying a fair share in taxes, but love taking advantage of taxpayer assistance!

And you can bet, when the dust settles and the banks have shifted their risk to the taxpayers, that the Titans of Finance will earn huge bonuses for their “bold” leadership.

Only in America.