Lost

You gotta’ love the theatrical aspect of Washington D.C. politics, whether it’s the President using West Point cadets as props for his speech to justify the escalation of our Afghan war or Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke explaining to Congress how the Fed rode to the rescue of the financial system.

Way to dodge any accountability and spin the myth, Ben. That must be the reason Time magazine named you as its Person of the Year. CNN reported that, ”the central bank of the U.S. is the most important and least understood force shaping the American – and global – economy.” That’s quite an understatement. Along with the intelligence apparatus, the Fed is the most secretive and unaccountable government agency, able to stonewall Congress with impunity and pimp for its member banks with steely efficiency. I guess the good folks at CNN forgot that the Fed was complicit in creating the real estate bubble – and the tech bubble before that – not to mention guilty of turning a blind eye and a deaf ear while Wall Street went on a risk binge. Some of that shame must be laid on Alan Greenspan, the former wizard-in-residence of the Fed, but Bernanke has kept the tradition alive.

Nevertheless, when Bernanke appeared before Congress recently his message was that the Fed works just fine, thank you, and further oversight of its activities would be counter-productive and might spook global investors.

And we can’t have that, can we?

By choosing Bernanke as its Person of the Year, Time magazine, a charter member of the mainstream media society, affirmed what’s important in this country: the financial sector and the almighty buck. One problem with choosing Bernanke is that the real economy of work and wages hasn’t recovered at all. A $14 trillion taxpayer bail-out may have stabilized Wall Street and worked wonders for financial sector profits, but John and Jane Public are still waiting for a hand to help them out of the ditch; city and state governments are starving for revenue and slashing services for the most vulnerable citizens; banks remain hesitant to lend; unemployment is still high; foreclosures continue; and the gap between haves and have nots is wider than ever.

Some rescue.

Fucking up the lives of average American families in the service of bankers and Wall Street gamblers is merely a misdemeanor in this country. No harm, no foul, no blood, no ambulance as Lakers broadcaster Chick Hearn used to say.

$14 trillion could have purchased a lot of health insurance, a lot of teachers, a lot of shelter for the homeless, a lot of medical research, a lot of college tuition. Opportunity costs.

Lost.