Wall Street/Iraq War Mashup

Surprisingly little separates what's happening to the financial market and what happened during the run-up to the Iraq War, many years ago. Both are cases of folly followed by bailout. Both involve the White House asking for broad powers, to be accorded by a docile Congress as quickly as possible without bothering to subject the proposal to any scrutiny. In both cases, bystanders get ground up in the gears of history whilst the people who got it wrong, time and again, are not forced into any sort of reckoning. And there is no end in sight.

It makes sense that someone would find a way to express this connection artistically. And so we have this image, from Marginal Revolution's Alex Tabarrok, which blends the satellite images of Colin Powell's famous presentation to the United Nations with the news of our current economic meltdown.

Naturally, one imagines that if Colin Powell were to walk onto the floor of the New York Stock Exchange with a vial of anthrax, he'd likely find a number of people yearning for the sweet release of death.

Comments

[dhertzfe]

Wall Street Failing - Not Reality

Tell what is wrong with mergers and private take overs of failing institutions? It has happened before and everything has worked out. I don't understand how the WH can say all is good, the economy is great and then less than 30 days later the sky is falling? What is the WH planning? What has Ch-eney been cooking up in his bunker? How did they come up with the fixed number of $700 Billion? Why not just ask for $900 Billion? Since I don't believe anything coming from the WH since 9/11 and Iraq, plus knowing Bu$h had plans for the war before he got into the WH, I have to place suspicion on this BS.

[thewho77]

Paulson is running around saying the sky is falling, the sky is falling. It's not. Paulson wants less strings attached to the 700 billion dollar bailout than if you went and got food stamps or an unemployment check.

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

[thewho77]

These lies are as big as the WMD lies. The financial sector can't let the system fail. The financial sector has enough capital to bail out itself. If the healthy financial institutions don't bail out the sick ones, they will all be swept away!

Let them fix their own problems.

[marinade]

I don't feel much like laughing but I laughed at that photo.l

[geese1920]

This is Naomi Klein's thesis regarding disaster capitalism, or the Shock Doctrine. Government passing laws during a crisis that would never pass during times of less stress or emergency. We all remember the Patriot Act, where most congressional members hadn't even read the damn thing before it was signed into law. I am sure this is in the back of congress' minds now.

[Lpeter]

Congress is not falling so fast, This is not their first rodeo.

It's so close to no more Mr. Bush.

My friend sent me a pro McCain email.

I cannot beleive that some people are still voting for him.

This is beyond comprehension. God save us all and quickly. Peace.

[SunshineDaydream]

i do find myself having flashbacks of wmds, mushroom clouds, and aluminum tubes.

[missedith]

I have been arguing this all day long. It's so obvious I can't believe congress is falling for it...again!

[11907281]

If those 32 words are not removed then I believe that J-Mac will win in Nov. and everything up until then is window dressing on a dictatorship.

[polaris12]

What you don't hear being discussed in all this bailout talk is how we can go on paying $10 billion/month for the occupation of Iraq, continue the war in Afghanistan and afford this outrageous bailout. The first condition for the bailout should be the liquidation of our occupation of Iraq and ending the war in Afghanistan.

[UKThom]

Thank you!! I'm glad I'm not the only one who saw the parallels here.