The Title of This Blog

When I choose the title for this blog, I was taking a stab at irony. Up until recently, this particular train wreck wasn't getting much attention. Now that it is, there does not seem to be a whole lot of press dealing with the central reason why things were allowed to get so bad. I feel compelled therefore, to offer the following explanation.

If it's okay for the highest elected officials in this country to lie, then why not us?

I am not a fan of the whole conspiracy theory way of looking at things, so I do not want any possible readers to make that connection. But, there are a few questions that need to be answered. For instance, as they say on Law and Order, follow the money. When one follows the money as it relates to the really big lie, WMD and the connection between Iraq and Sept. 11, one quickly realizes the reason why James Baker fought so hard to get W into the White House. Baker was a board member, along with Bush I, in the Carlyle Group. Who's that you say? Probably the company that has profited the most from the wars. Carlyle is a private equity firm in Washington DC founded mostly by Bush I cabinet members. It invested in defense contractors who, up until Sept. 11, really weren't making that much money. I guess they needed a war to get their cash flow running. Anyhow, Carlyle has made a ton during the last seven years. So, it begs the question, just what was the motive behind lying about the threat posed by Iraq? Further, what would have been the situation here at home had the American public been more focused on domestic matters as opposed to foreign? Would this depression have been avoidable?

I wrote the preceding last Sunday morning. What I wanted to do was posit the idea that our leaders set the tone that enabled the greedy mo-fo's in the Street to take us to the cleaners. Unfortunately, in addition to my literary ability, Frank Rich of the NY Times did it for me in his column today. I won't reprint it here, but I think that's it's pretty accurate. I think that the rating agencies and the law firms are staffed by basically honest people. But when the country is managed by people who, so obviously, are not, it becomes less likely that people will actually hold to their moral principals.

Makes sense? I kinda think so. Then there's the cult of personality exerted by wealthy people. I've never really gotten it, that is, why people are so taken by someone with money. As an example, let's suppose that I'm an idiot savant. Let's further suppose that the thing that I'm good at is brain surgery. Let's further suppose that, because I'm so good, I get $100,000 for each operation that I do and that I do two or three each and every week. I'll guarantee you that the first words out of the mouth's of almost every person that sees me get out of my Bentley limo won't be, hey, look at that idiot, but rather, wow, I'll bet that that son of a bitch is really smart. The point is (as I've said below), that when some Wall Street type, who makes $40 million annually walks into your office, most folks tend to think that what they say has some weight. When all of the folks in a particular segment of the market all say the same thing and they all made $40 million last year, the people in the rating agencies, enamored as they are by the power of money, really didn't have a prayer. They believed that the Wall Street types were right because they must be, because they had so much money. You know, I'll bet that the Wall Street types even thought that they were right. But, if they weren't, what the heck, Bush and Cheney lied, why can't we?