Economic Reform Only Seems To Come Through Crises: Fareed Zakaria

washingtonpost.com:

We've seen in recent weeks the twin personalities of the U.S. government. One is impressive, the other deeply worrying. First, the good news: We have increasing evidence that Washington's response to the global financial collapse was effective. Last fall, the financial markets seized up, credit froze and the economy went into a nosedive. Almost every metric by which we judge the economy moved into its darkest territory since the 1930s. And this happened at the worst possible time. A lame-duck U.S. president faced an opposition party in charge of both houses of Congress. It was a recipe for paralysis, bickering and inaction.

Read the whole story: washingtonpost.com

Comments

[bankownedbyamerica]

The most pressing issue is why we, the American people, were fooled into thinking Obama would create more jobs.
hat tip to http://www.iamned.com .....

[socialtalker]

thats a leading comment! the american public by and large didnt believe that ANY presidential candidate would "create more jobs" in this new depression. its a false assumption and a strawman's argument.

[bankownedbyamerica]

The most pressing issue is why we, the American people, were fooled into thinking Obama would create more jobs.
hat tip to http://www.iamned.com ...

[Chernynkaya]

Please publish the post I submitted hours ago.

[FreedomCorpse]

Zakaria... wall street cheerleade­r.... yeah sure, Fareed reform. No legislation that has caused this has been repealed..­..NONE.

[SPQR1775]

BANKS CHARGING YOU TO DRAW CHECKS WRITTEN ON THEIR BANKS, SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING THAT ONLY TAKE PLACE IN THE SOUTH. I KNOW I AM A MILITARY OFFICER AND I EXPERIENCED THAT LAST MONTH. I FINALLY BECAME AN OBAMA HOME OWNER, AND HAD TO CASH A CHECK DRAWN ON SUN TRUST BUT HAD TO PAY SUN TRUST $5. TO CASH THEIR OWN CHECK BECAUSE I DID NOT HAVE AN ACCOUNT WITH THEM. SOUNDS LIKE A SOUTHERN GOOD OLE BOY SCHEME, NOTHING BUT THE GOP AND THEIR FAKE OUTRAGE, THEY CARE NOTHING ABOUT THE ISSUES. KAY BAILEY HUTCHENSON RIP INTO PERRY OF TEXAS TODAY, FROM THE SOUND OF IT, I THINK THE DEMOCRATS JUST PICKED UP A VOTE IN THE SENATE ON HEALTHCARE AND THEY BETTER SEEK HER OUT. SHE SAID TEXAS LEADS THE NATION WITH KIDS WITHOUT HEALTH INSURANCE AMONG OTHER THINGS. I WILL VOTE FOR HER AS A DEMOCRAT AND MILITARY OFFICER IN 2010 FOR GOVERNOR, PERRY, LIKE PALIN IS A BSER.

[Chernynkaya]

It is a tragic fact that we as a people can only make fundamental changes when we are forced to by outside forces- and those forces must be near apocalyptic.

We needed the Great Depression- not an "Almost Great Depression"- to enact reforms to our financial sector and to our social safety net. We needed decades of workplace brutality before we had unions and OSHA. We needed to watch black people hosed by water canons, hung, and little girls burned in churches before we enacted civil rights legislation. We needed Bush/Chene­y/Rumsfeld­/Rove/Rice to almost destroy our country before we elected our first African American President. And we will need millions of deaths and bankruptcies due to our health insurance industry before we can muster the will to enact true reform in that area too.

For those of you who prefer something biblical to help make my case, think about Exodus. How many plagues before Pharaoh let the Hebrews leave Egypt?

[basta]

We need the Glass Steagall Act of 1933 to be reinstated.

"If hundreds and hundreds of millions of tons of the best coal are cleverly and inconspicuously withheld from their intended purpose without mankind's being able to prepare itself, the result has to be exactly the same as when an earthquake or a stupendous flood destroys a large region of the earth. But a natural catastrophe cannot disrupt economic life as a far-reaching speculation can. With a natural catastrophe you know what has happened, you know what is missing, and where and how to begin to repair the damages. But with a speculation no one knows what really has happened. No one knows whether the cause is coal or money, or the lack of iron or other ores, or speculation in grains or cotton or oil (or real estate)*. Thus no one can know the source of the trouble, because it is usually known only to a single person, and he isn't telling because he intends to take his profits in the confusion.­"
* my note

B. Traven, The White Rose, 1929, page 88

[magibrotherhood]

Reform ?.......wh­at reform ?

[BannedNBoston]

The strip mall crash is coming the plunge protection team cant stop the dollar from crashing
gold goes up food and oil go up.
market gets oblitered except for select stocks

[SangZe]

Since there is no serious reform in sight, we must not be in a depression.

[vandegrasse]

As the conservatives love to say, can you really buy yourself out of a problem?

[Crass Innuendo]

Give me $180 billion and I'll let you know.

[pragmaticdallasite]

It depends on the problem

[ScreenName05]

Fareed Zakaria may be one of the wisest men alive. He is not afraid of offending either side and is willing to listen to either side when they are willing to talk intelligently. Unfortunately this doesn't occur very often, and that is why he is right about needing a crisis to solve our impending catastrophes. Too many people will not deal with change until they are hanging from a cliff and their fingers are slipping. Too many people cannot see disaster coming until it slaps them in the face - as in New Orleans and FEMA - FEMA is now estimated to be in the worst shape ever to deal with a mayor catastrophe. Too many people would prefer to put off debts and problems until tomorrow. Well, tomorrow is coming and coming very soon. Health care, global warming, energy resource battles, water battles, pollution, etc. are coming like a hurricane approaching. These problems are real and predictable to anyone who is willing to open their eyes. We still have one party that just says no, and another who wants to delay until we know everything about everything before they make a decision. Fareed may get his crisis, but we are going to get hell on earth if we don't come together and fix some of the problems approaching. Stop worrying about 2050 and start worrying about 2020 - Medicare will bankrupt the U.S. government by 2020. The rest of us can just look forward to bankruptcy a little at

[Mauiloa]

This premise can apply to health care as well.

When larger and larger numbers of people currently insured can no longer afford insurance; when an increasing number of small and large companies drop health benefits and when the right wing population finally get their heads from out of their derrieres (and off the Fox News Channel) health care reform will have become not be a choice but a critical national crisis.

Okay, the third event above will never happen, but the crisis will come regardless and they will be clamoring louder than anyone that the government do something immediately.

[Donatella]

Reform? They are only putting on a new coat of paint on a corrupt structure.

The Fed did nothing to stop the economic crisis, they actually encouraged it. Now we are giving them more powers.

Mary Shapiro did not do her job in FIRA, she gets promoted to head the SEC.

Summers was partly responsible for the deregulation that helped cause the crisis, he becomes the chief economic advisor to the President.

The list goes on and on........­.......

[CaptainVideo]

"The Fed did nothing to stop the economic crisis, they actually encouraged it. Now we are giving them more powers."

During the last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009 the bottom was dropping out of the economy. By now the decline has halted and the economy is probably growing, although the data will not become availabe for some time. The Fed did more to reverse the decline than any other organization.

[Sundialsvc4]

This is not a "crisis." This is the direct result of financial crime, including:

* Securities fraud, on the order of tens of trillions(!) of dollars.

* Swindling.

* Usury ... still going strong.

And, enabling all of it:

* Bribery. (That high-crime which our Constitution names right there alongside "treason."­)