Bit.ly link to this post: http://bit.ly/4wORW7
This post is mainly about two contemporary American heroines. We recently "discovered" Carmen Reinhart and Barbara Berg giving talks about their very serious work on C-Span's great weekend service: BookTV http://www.booktv.org/.
We encountered Professor Reinhart who co-authored (with Co-Author Kenneth S. Rogoff) speaking on the book: This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly. This is not a book review, as we have not read the book - yet. It is on our list. We are very grateful to Ms. Reinhart for a very enlightening talk about the book and its subject.
For the first time, we feel that we can begin to understand the true nature and cause(s) of the current economic crisis. Seems boom-and-bust cycles are just "natural" in any human-based economy. When times are good, even good people turn greedy and corrupt. This fuels risk - except this time was different because of the overt risks that were taken. Warnings were sounded but largely ignored by our Fed and Mr. Greenspan. The authors found that financial risks are always associated with financial crises. Hence, we have our current crisis.
Will we come out of this one soon - or at all? Not so fast... Ms. Reinhart could not answer that one, but made it clear that more work and management are required to beat down this financial dragon. Unfortunately, we do not see Messrs. Geithner nor Summers as the twin St. George's to defeat this monster. Nor do we have much faith in St. Ben. St. Barry himself will probably have to pick up Excalibur and chop off the head of the problem.
What head, where, has to be lobbed off? The toxic assets, of course. These need to be taken off the accounting books in order to get back to a "normal" state of lending and business. But, corporations are usually chagrined and horrified to write these things off and throw them in the landfill and call these things a loss.
It might all be part of the economic pendulum. Until recently, it has swung in the direction of deregulation. Soon, it may have to swing back the direction of regulation. 10% of us (the unemployed, which is probably really closer to 25%...) think this pendulum needs to get moving again, probably toward the big red "R". Which we know a lot of people are going to have problems with. The people in power. Come on, you know who you are. We don't want to hurt you. But, when you see food riots occurring here on Main Street, don't say we didn't tell you so... Just stay out of the way...
Which leads us to Dr. Berg and her great talk about her book: Sexism in America: Alive, Well, and Ruining Our Future. The connection between the two books should become clear to you later. Don't worry about that now. Again, this is not a book review as we have not yet read the book - yet. Its on our list. (We just hope our local library has the book, they usually don't - its actually a fairly bad library...).
We were shocked and stunned into silence (like much of her audience) by Dr. Berg's very intense talk and research. Dr. Berg - in a very short time, by the way - provided several shocking examples of the fact that sexism is alive - and growing - right here on Main Street. We're going to try to provide some of these from memory. We apologize in advance for any errors - we offer this humbly in earnest.
500 female US troops are raped every year by their comrades. 800 female current troops (did that include veterans? Sorry, we are not sure) are currently homeless and suffering from PTSD. Women are still losing their jobs due to pregnancy even though it is strictly illegal.
There is also a quite staggering difference in how women are treated medically. Dr. Berg cited the case of a friend of hers who was quite clearly suffering from disease. Her doctor repeatedly kept telling her that there was nothing wrong with her. Eventually, she did suffer a heart attack and collapsed on the floor. Fortunately, her husband was late and discovered her while exiting the bathroom. What was the doctor's problem? The doctor was observing for male symptoms. Yes, things are shockingly different for the female in our society.
The most stunning thing revealed? Oh, something like 14 million American families are receiving food assistance. And, most of these are headed by women. The biggest problem for these women is how to deal with the food budget and the other economic choices for their limited funds. Remember we said something about food riots?
And, we believe that the problem is growing. Since the Reagan Administration, women's issues have been massively defunded. The obvious effects were discussed (above) by Dr. Berg. With the war in Afghanistan not stopping, we believe more troops (men and women) are in danger of the issues cited above as well as others. More American families are going to go hungry.
We think we can predict the closure of some of your local grocery stores. Not due to lack of business - but by angry, hunger-crazed mobs if this thing is allowed to spiral - silently - out of control. This is all related to something called food security. Now - that's a real problem.
Somewhere along the line, somebody had to mention the 2012 Meme. Perhaps there really is going to be some catastrophe. Perhaps both talks by Dr. Reinhart and Dr. Berg point to that.
How to help? Keep supporting programs like WIC and Food Stamps. Make that donation to your place of worship or the Salvation Army. The Goodfellows also do a good job in our town. For the holidays, our local Salvation Army was offering frozen turkeys and frozen chicken - along with other food assistance. And write off those toxic assets.
FOM: BookTV http://www.booktv.org/
This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly Carmen Reinhart
Professor Carmen M. Reinhart’s Website
Carmen Reinhart Wikipedia Link
Amazon's Carmen M. Reinhart Page
Co-Author Kenneth S. Rogoff
Amazon Link to the Book
Google Preview of the Book
Sexism in America: Alive, Well, and Ruining Our Future Barbara Berg
Barbara J. Berg Website
Amazon Link to Dr. Berg’s Book
Google Preview of the Book
2012 Meme
Honorable Mention also to:
After Words: Nomi Prins, author of "It Takes a Pillage" interviewed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (For some reason, we found the Honorable Sanders microphone problems very annoying...)
After Words: Jane Goodall, author of "Hope for Animals and Their World" interviewed by John Nielsen (Not yet viewed - of course, Jane Goodall is a heroine to many...)
Hoodwinked: An Economic Hit Man Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded - and What We Need to Do to Remake Them John Perkins (Not yet viewed)
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