LOGO: Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines. A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.Best Political Blog Winner, 2007 Webby Awards, People's Voice and Jury.   Dateline: Iraq - Anna Badkhen and Sarah Stillman on Assignment
 
May 17, 2008
Log in / Register

 Choose a size
Text Size

Reports

Arts & Culture

Digs
Inside the Data Mine

Ear to the Ground

A/V Booth

Truthdig Bazaar more items

 
Ear to the Ground

The Secretary’s New Clothes

Email this item Email    Print this item Print   
Posted on Mar 31, 2008

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has announced what the media are calling a “massive overhaul” of America’s regulatory agencies, but columnist and liberal economist Paul Krugman isn’t impressed. Krugman doesn’t think the administration’s cosmetic solutions will mitigate our current economic crisis or prevent the next one.

New York Times:

Anyone who has worked in a large organization—or, for that matter, reads the comic strip “Dilbert”—is familiar with the “org chart” strategy. To hide their lack of any actual ideas about what to do, managers sometimes make a big show of rearranging the boxes and lines that say who reports to whom.

You now understand the principle behind the Bush administration’s new proposal for financial reform, which will be formally announced today: it’s all about creating the appearance of responding to the current crisis, without actually doing anything substantive.

Read more

Email Newsletter

Get truth delivered to your inbox every week.

Previous item: Zimbabwe Tense as Election Results Slowly Roll In

Next item: The Next Great Depression?

Jump to Comments

Advertisement


Elsewhere: .

Comments

Are you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig.

By Bob, April 1 at 2:31 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Power Grab

This is another power grab by the world banks.  Pretty soon they will have bank-rupted us all, and they WILL take all our land.  Bush is just helping them to do that.

Reply to this | Report this

By don knutsen, April 1 at 10:01 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

As is the usual case, this administration’s only plan is to increase the power of the very institution that sat on its hands while all the predatory lending practices were practiced by the lending institutions / banks. There answer is to make higher profits avail. to them rather then regulate them. This same administration which stood in the way of the states trying to get a handle on these practices in the past. But ofcourse there is no accountability on this or anything else this administration does. The Bush family has a history with the central bank, grandaddy Prescott got in hot water over half a century ago. You have only to look at the past century to see the Bu$h family connections to simllar crooked dealings with the american’s dollar and their reaping the rewards. I’d imagine Grandad would be proud at the extent to which this currrent president has dismantled every agency that might have helped prevent this economic hardship for so many. But after-all, this is only happening to the “little-people”, not their base. And none of the Bu$h dynasty has ever had to experience any kind of hardship like whats facing so many these days, they couldn’t care less.

Reply to this | Report this

By cyrena, March 31 at 3:38 pm #
(4165 comments total)

• “…To hide their lack of any actual ideas about what to do, managers sometimes make a big show of rearranging the boxes and lines that say who reports to whom.”.. “You now understand the principle behind the Bush administration’s new proposal for financial reform….”

HA! Now there’s a bit of irony for you. Or maybe we should call it an ‘understatement.” Doesn’t EVERYBODY know by now, that this ‘rearrangement’ of ‘who reports to whom’ has been the Dick Bush doctrine-principle since the beginning?

And no, it’s NOT to hide any lack of actual ‘ideas’, since they had plenty of them. It’s to HIDE those ideas, which just happen to be the creation of a fascist/totalitarian/authoritarian regime/ tyrannical dictatorship.

And, this is DAMN sure one of the ways to hide one’s real fascist intentions. They create a shadow government behind the pretend one, and it involves setting up a whole new set of ‘who reports to whoms’ but of course we the people only see the puppet one. (AKA george bush)

I think Stanley Kutler’s piece on “The Decriminalization of Corporate Crime” encompasses this really well. Worked for Hitler, Stalin, Pinochet, and Peru’s U.S. puppet Fujimori.

And what ‘next’ economic/financial crises are they talking about, when they’ve acknowledged that THIS one hasn’t been “averted”, and won’t be diminished? What ‘next’? It’s just one long continuing fall until we crash or run the fascists/gangsters out, which ever comes first.

Speaking of which, just for the sake of whatever, (maybe putting some real figures behind the housing crisis) I checked on line earlier for foreclosures in my old neighborhood in corporate slave state of TX. (checked some nearby zip codes as well).

I was shocked and awed. Seriously…I expected some negative numbers, but even I was overwhelming by the HUGE number of foreclosures in what were previously known as middle to upper-middle class neighborhoods. I’m talking HUNDREDS. Gave me quite a shock. Put some ‘reality’ to the whole thing.

Reply to this | Report this

By Non Credo, March 31 at 1:52 pm #
(1148 comments total)

Idiot America

Americans are fatally full of all this shit that they believe in, like the magical power of “market discipline” to produce the wisest solution to any problem.

God, I wish Reagan were still alive, so I could shoot him myself.

Reply to this | Report this

By DennisD, March 31 at 1:47 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Perception is reality

“it’s all about creating the appearance of responding to the current crisis, without actually doing anything substantive.”

Perception is reality and there’s no such thing as responsibility at Bu$h Inc. - the happiest place on earth.

Reply to this | Report this

Add Your Comment

Posts by unregistered readers are moderated. Posts by members
are published immediately. Why wait? Register today!






Notify you when others comment on this article?


Are you a human?
Retype the word you see here.


Please read and abide by our comment policy.
By submitting this comment, you agree to this site's terms and conditions.

Newsletter

Get Truthdig in your inbox

Privacy Policy

 
Click here to advertise with Truthdig
 

 
Join the Liberal Blog Advertising Network
 
Robert Scheer's new book offers first-hand insight into the presidential mind
 
 
 
 
 
 

A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
Copyright © 2008 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.