JOLLY DAYS

Bob Rubin Reincarnated As A Pail

Another death and destruction is on its way discussion about the economy @ Moyers. Kevin Phillips has been around a long time and expects the coming recession to be around a long time. He has credibility, but, who knows really? Attempting to explain a phenomenon can be helpful and revealing; it gives you a sense of control or at least context. The problem with going beyond analysis into this type of prognostication is that it becomes a media meme, thence devolving to a self-fulfilling prophecy. Social processes have as their fundamental a sense of confidence.

You go through a painful adjustment process. The British were absolutely top dog in the world in 1914. Two world wars and 35 years later, they were having, after World War II, they were having food rationing, the pound sterling crashed, dukes were giving guided tours of their castles because they couldn't afford to maintain them otherwise. Doesn't take long. And I'm afraid the United States is coming right into that period which marks a couple of decades coming up that are going to be very difficult for America.

To his credit and credibility, Phillips attacks both parties,

It's been a bipartisan phenomenon. You can go back to the 1980s and say Reagan and George Bush, Sr., got a bubble started. Clinton got in and got an even bigger bubble going. And then George W. Bush with the biggest bubble of all. But it's not that the Clintonites didn't play. They did. Bob Rubin as Secretary of the Treasury — I mean, if he was a Hindu and he was being reincarnated, he'd come back as a pail because this guy bailed out everything you can imagine. They had the Mexican loan bailout. They had the long-term capital management bailout, the Russian Southeast Asian currency bailouts.