globalized money

After 9/11, when President Bush urged Americans to do the patriotic thing, help the economy by going out and spending up big, it irked Lanie that most of the spending Americans did was enriching China and all the other places that our manufacturers had offshored to and she couldn’t see how this was helping us.

"We were told that all the dollars China gained from selling us stuff we didn't really need to buy -- but bought anyway because that's what we were told to -- were coming back to us in investments," says Lanie, "and while it was nice to know, sort of, that the Chinese were investing in our country, it isn't so nice now, in an economic meltdown, to realize that we now longer own our own country.”

"I'm upset that the rest of the world sees Americans as greedy monsters who deserve to suffer an economic meltdown," says Lanie. "The housing bubble and the bailout may not have occurred if Bush hadn't urged shocked Americans after 9/11 to spend up big and incur debt in order to save the economy and the free world."

"It wasn't greed that fuelled the debt, it was patriotism."

"Back in 2001 we were already in an economic slump due to the dotcom bust," explains Lanie. "Hundreds of thousands of people had done their dough investing in dotcoms or had lost their jobs, and if nothing else 9/11 mobilized the country into patriotic action."

"Massive military recruitment drives sopped up the patriotic unemployed, and the rest of us did our bit for Uncle Sam by doing as Bush urged us to do -- go out and spend up big!"

"Had 9/11 not happened, I think Bush and his neocon cronies would have trumped up some other fearful event to whip us into shape," explains Lanie, "because the economy at the time was heading south big time."

"What really irked me was that, apart from housing, all the spending we did enriched China and all the other places that our manufacturers had offshored to -- and I just couldn't see how this was helping us."

"We were told that all the dollars China gained from selling us stuff we didn't really need to buy -- but bought anyway because that's what we were told to -- were coming back to us in investments," says Lanie, "and while it was nice to know, sort of, that the Chinese were investing in our country, it wasn't so nice to imagine that these investments were also being used by Bush and his cronies to fund the invasion of Iraq, line their pockets and do other nasty stuff."

"Anyway, it was the housing spending spree which really did us in," sighs Lanie. "After we had maxed out on our credit cards buying plasmas, electronics and whitegoods we were encouraged to take out equity in our homes to buy more stuff -- in our case a new kitchen and bathroom – and then the sub-prime balloon mortgage industry popped up to encourage poor folk to buy houses they had no hope in hell of ever owning and we started to become worried."

"We were happy to use equity in our home to improve its value -- it was our home, after all, and we intend to live in it forever -- but when the speculators moved in, churning sales for a quick profit, taking advantage of poor folk, and causing house prices to spiral way beyond their true value it was the end of the line."

"Houses are like food -- basic necessities -- you don't mess with them, and if you don't have a job and can't afford them, they should be provided gratis by the state. Isn't that what all enlightened democratic countries do for their poor citizens?"

"Sure, some Americans are greedy monsters just like some people are in other countries, and because we have a bigger population than most countries there are, unfortunately, proportionally more greedy monsters here," says Lanie, "but the vast majority of Americans, like elsewhere, are decent people who are appalled at the financial mismanagement of this country since 9/11."

"When Bush told us to go out and spend, we naively believed that it was the patriotic thing to do," sighs Lanie. "We were all in a state of shock after 9/11 and if getting into debt was what we had to do in order to save our country from terrorists bent on breaking our economy and world trade, then that's what we had to do."

"Greed didn't motivate us to spend up big and get into debt, patriotism did," says Lanie, "and as much as most of us disliked Bush, we trusted that his administration knew what it was doing."

"I blame the Bush administration and weak regulation for the mess that we are in right now," says Lanie. "By encouraging us to spend, and get into debt, the perfect conditions for exploitation were set up."

"Unfortunately, not all Americans are patriotic and, in encouraging a spending spree, the Bush administration created a lot more greedy monsters to crawl out of the woodwork and prey on us," explains Lanie. "And, in a global economy, greedy monsters everywhere were also sucking the dollars out of us."

"If we had been told to save and invest in our country ourselves, like the Europeans do, China wouldn't now just about own us," says Lanie. "Our national debt is mind-boggling and I fail to see how printing more money to bail out the banks is going to help."

"On a personal level, I am angry that money that we could have used to pay off our mortgage was spent, instead, on increasing our debt via equity release," says Lanie. "Sure, we have a nicer home now but a bigger slice of it belongs to a bank which, for all I know, may be controlled by some guy in Asia who is just waiting for us to lose our jobs in an economic meltdown and default on our mortgage payments before foreclosing on us.”

“Has anyone ever wondered who is going to buy up all the foreclosed houses at fire sale prices?” asks Lanie. “Immigrants, that’s who’ll buy them. And most of them will be wealthy, cashed up Asians who grew rich on our so-called patriotic spending.”

“That’s globalization for you!”