The Future of the Financial Oligarchy: Dollars, Sense and Denial

Tarp, teabaggers, bailouts and rising unemployment. In the current economic maelstrom, some see the US on track toward a much more highly managed and regulated economy. Is it possible that "the refusal of powerful institutions to admit losses – aided and abetted by a government in thrall to the “money-changers” – may make it impossible to escape from the crisis" ? As President Obama has said, the ship of state is an ocean liner, not a speedboat. It can't be turned that quickly. But in the current uncertainty, where Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman recommends nationalization of banks and be donw with it, and banks deemd too large to fail are given "stress tests" for future solvency but the results withheld-- who can know for sure.

In this Financial TImes article, Martin Wolf looks at the influence of the financial oligarchy on the poliitcal sphere, and asks, are we just like Russia? While the answer is somewhat reassuring, there are other troubling issues, largely the self-denial by of the reality of the poor economic condition of many banks by their CEOs and leadership, that must be resolved before real improvement may be possible. Read more here:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/09f8c996-2930-11de-bc5e-00144feabdc0.html