Truth and lies

Seems ex-politicians are so much better at telling the truth than current politicians. Peter Orszag, budget director in the Barack Obama/Goldman Sachs administration, finally admitted we came very close to full-scale economic collapse (as if that’s not obvious by now), but he simply can’t resist claiming economic growth is right around the corner.
One out of two ain’t bad, for somebody in the White House. Never mind that’s what he said two months ago, too.

But how about Henry Paulson, former Treasury Secretary (and, before that, CEO of Goldman Sachs)? He testified to the House Oversight Committee about the Bush administration’s unpopular $700 billion bailout of Wall Street, which was triggered by the failure of Lehman Brothers last September. Specifically, Paulson casually mentioned that the Bush administration and Congress discussed the possibility of a breakdown in law and order and the logistics of feeding US citizens. As if anybody who’s been paying the slightest bit of attention didn’t notice that as well.
Kudos to Hank for letting the catabolic collapse out of the bag. But it would have been nice to mention the other side of economic salvation: The bailout passes the buck to future generations of taxpayers. Not that we’ll have many of those, once unemployment reaches totality.
An even better example is provided by Clinton’s Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, who presents the economic news in particularly stark terms. In his recent piece in Salon, he asks the question, “When will the recovery begin?” His one-word answer is dead on: “Never.”
He gets it. He actually gets it.
I’ve given up thinking the American people will stage a revolution simply because we’re intent on screwing future generations. We’ve been trading in tomorrow for today for so long we have no other behavioral model. When does the revolution actually begin? When there’s no more fuel, no more food, and no water coming out the taps.
That seems a little late to me.