In order to understand what is meant when élites speak of a “crisis”, the rational observer will naturally ask a
few basic questions. A first enquiry would concern the situation before the current crisis: what was happening in
society before the crisis was declared? By examining the status quo ante, we can gain valuable insight into what does
and does not constitute a “crisis” in the minds of ruling élites. Another, related, question concerns the measures
proposed and taken by government to respond to the crisis: what is done directly, and what is done indirectly? What is
guaranteed, and what is left to chance? It seems entirely reasonable to assume that those things considered by a
person or institution to be of crucial importance are the ones least likely to be treated as a hoped-for
byproduct of that person’s or institution’s actions. One does not generally leave one’s true
priorities up to chance. Further, it is instructive to ask who the principal beneficiaries of the measures
taken are, and at whose expense they are taken. The fact that these questions are at best peripheral to the public
debate, if they are asked at all, is instructive in and of itself.
The “Non-Crisis”
The years preceding the current crisis were characterised by two key features: increasing poverty1,
unemployment, and underemployment2 with stagnating or declining real wages3, and sharp cuts
in social benefits4 on the one side, and ever-increasing record profits and massive concentration of wealth
on the other. Over 30 million Americans suffered from hunger5, 12 million children were so undernourished as
to severely impair their physical and mental development6, 49 million Americans lacked health insurance
coverage7, those who did have insurance could only be sure that their “insurers” would spare no expense to
deny them necessary treatment, while ever more Americans were forced to depend on various forms of predatory lending
to survive. Meanwhile, corporations such as AIG benefited from the dismantlement of the regulatory
framework in the form of steadily increasing profits8. Economists estimate that between 1980 and 2005,
approximately 20 trillion dollars were redistributed upward to the top 10% of the population by income9.
This, it bears repeating, was not a “crisis”. This is what was called “prosperity”.
The “crisis” did not begin until the speculation bubble, built as it was on poorly understood,
“exotic financial instruments” backed by virtually nothing, predictably popped, causing “record losses”
for those who had been celebrating “record profits” for over a decade earlier.
Crisis Management
Based on the above analysis of what is and is not a “crisis” for policymakers, it is not hard to predict the
official response to the current crisis. Indeed, the engineers of the crisis (including some, such as Lawrence
Summers, Robert Rubin, Henry Paulson, and Timothy Geithner, who went on to become the US
government's crisis managers-in-chief) were so certain of the governmental response – which has been repeated many
times over the past several decades – that they took risks that would otherwise have been suicidal.
Given that the “crisis” lies not in the impoverishment of the population but in the entirely predictable consequences
for the financial sector of its irresponsible (and highly profitable) conduct, the response to the crisis
should come as no surprise. The immediate response has, predictably, been to pump trillions of dollars, with no
conditions and no oversight, into the pockets of those largely responsible for the crisis10. While the
public justification for these infusions of cash has been the need to restart the flow of credit, there is no such
requirement attached to the funds. While this measure has led to jubilation on the stock market, it has not –
surprise, surprise – led to any significant increase in the availability of credit. While the recipients of the bailout
funds have generally refused to account for their use – understandably, as they are not required to do so – it has
become clear that they have generally found other places to spend their free tax money, ranging from bonuses,
dividends, and mergers and acquisitions to lobbying efforts to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act, which, if
passed, would be a first step toward restoring workers’ right to organise11.
While one might be moved to ask how badly these companies could possibly be doing if they can afford to spend their
public assistance on such things, the media and government have dedicated their energies to concentrating
public attention and outrage on the executive bonuses, which make out a minuscule portion of the funds, while the
Treasury Department woos investors with the offer to buy up “toxic assets” jointly with
hedge funds, while guaranteeing government absorption of any losses incurred12. The profitability of the
speculative “investment” banks that caused the crisis, then, cannot be left up to chance.
Though the focus of the crisis management might suggest otherwise, the majority of the population has problems of
its own, to which the financial sector has added rapidly increasing homelessness and unemployment. This is not to say
that the problem has been entirely ignored in Washington, of course, where the Obama administration intends to spend up
to $75 billion13 – less than half of what was paid out to AIG alone14 (so far!) – to help those
of the millions of homeowners facing homelessness who the administration feels have bought their homes in a responsible
fashion. Similarly, the administration is acting to protect US auto executives from early retirement by forcing auto
industry workers – one of the few groups of workers to have even marginally effective union representation – to accept
substantial cuts in pay and contribution-based health care and retirement benefits. It is, of course, only fair that
those enjoying continued prosperity should make sacrifices to aid those in crisis.
The hierarchy of bailouts is telling. The speculators who are responsible for the crisis receive taxpayer funds
unconditionally and without limitation. When the funds run out, as they tend to do rather quickly, they can always get
more. The government protects them from the risks inherent in the highly profitable “toxic assets” they created. The
only apparent criterion for receiving these funds is that recipients must be partially at fault for the crisis. When
auto executives need assistance, the government is rather less forthcoming. The major auto companies must first submit
a plan for the use of the government funds, and be accountable for their proper use. Of course, this is not too onerous
a burden for the auto executives, as the “recovery plan” required imposes the bulk of the burdens on the auto workers
(the only people whose pay and benefits have been cut as a result of this crisis). Though this is certainly not as good
a deal as was offered to the principal architects of the crisis, it isn’t all that bad, either. All that is required is
a plan for the future that imposes the burdens squarely on the workers.
For the millions of homeowners facing homelessness due to fraudulent loans offered by shady
subsidiaries of “reputable” financial institutions, on the other hand, the situation is rather less rosy. In order to
get a piece of the much smaller pie theoretically available to them, homeowners must prove – how is anyone’s guess –
that they were not irresponsible in buying their homes. While it may seem a bit odd at first glance to impose such a
condition on the main victims of the crisis and not on the architects of the crisis, it actually makes perfect sense:
no financial institution or investment banker could possibly meet the burden imposed on homeowners by the Obama
administration. If a homeowner facing foreclosure cannot satisfy the government that her past conduct was responsible,
her only recourse is to find space in America’s growing tent cities. No plan for the future use of
government funds is good enough.
As harsh as the administration’s treatment of soon-to-be-former homeowners is, the rest of the population can expect
even less. At best, the Obama administration’s stimulus package will replace the underpaid, non-union, and generally
shitty jobs they lost with new underpaid, non-union, generally shitty jobs. For those lucky enough to get one. As much
as the Obama campaign talked about passing the Employee Free Choice Act, the Obama administration
has been at pains to make it clear that EFCA is not currently on the agenda15. This means that union
organisation, one of the few effective ways in which workers can improve their wages and working conditions, will
remain beyond the reach of most of the population. Similarly, the millions (insured and uninsured) nearing bankruptcy
under the weight of health care expenses, can be sure that the one reform that they almost unanimously
demand16 – single-payer health care – is, in the words of one Obama spokesperson, “off the table”. Nor, in
our current era of “Billion? Trillion? Who’s counting anymore?” is the subject of student loan and consumer debt
forgiveness, which would substantially increase the buying power of the average American and provide a powerful
demand-based stimulus to the economy, even mentioned.
To put it in the language of our Orwellian times, then, most Americans will continue to experience
unabated prosperity, undisturbed by government interference.
If we were to assume that the crisis consisted of something other than a mere predictable drop in profitability on
the part of an industry that produces nothing but profits for itself, a completely different crisis management
strategy would emerge. The first priority would be to ensure that no one loses their home or income, or has their
utilities shut off, as a result of the conduct of unaccountable institutions that have been allowed to gain control of
the economy. FDR did this in the 1930s simply by decreeing a moratorium on foreclosures, evictions, and utility shutoffs. The second priority would be to conduct a
massive investigation into the activities that led to this mess, including mortgage-trail audits of all mortgages
involved and a full-scale SEC audit of the institutions involved, steps that have
thus far been assiduously avoided by the Bush and Obama administrations. Simultaneously, the state
could acquire controlling shares in the relevant institutions and use those controlling shares to save the viable and
useful segments of the institutions (if any), while letting the remainder go bankrupt (a tactic that would also neatly
resolve the bonus issue). Once the situation has been stabilised, the viable portions of the banks could be broken down
into small, manageable, locally accountable units, and regulations could be (re-)enacted to ensure that no financial
institution ever becomes “too big to fail”.
It all depends on what one considers a crisis.
1Despite more jobs, US poverty rate rises,Christian Science Monitor, 31 August 2005,
http://www.healthnews.com/family-health/child-health/child-hunger-a-growing-issue-us-3099.html ;U.S. Child Poverty
Rates Increase Despite Rising National Incomes, Population Reference Bureau, August 2008,
http://www.prb.org/Articles/2008/uschildpovertyrates.aspx
2Hard numbers: The economy is worse than you know, Kevin Phillips, Harper's Magazine, 27
April 2008, http://www.tampabay.com/news/article473596.ece
3Where did the Productivity Growth Go? Inflation Dynamics and Distribution of Income, Ian Dew-
Becker & Robert J. Gordon, Northwestern University, 2005,
http://www.brookings.edu/es/commentary/journals/bpea_macro/forum/200509bpea_gordon.pdf
4The decline of welfare benefits in the U.S.: the role of wage inequality, Robert Moffitt, David
Ribar, Mark Wilhelm, Journal of Public Economics, 1998, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V76
-3T528W4-
1C&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=7504a3b3
8af4e85775b811c782925089
535.5 Million Americans Going Hungry, Reuters, 15 November 2007,
http://www.newser.com/story/11739/355-million-americans-going-hungry.html
6Child Hunger a Growing Issue in the U.S., HealthNews.com, 11 May 2009,
http://www.healthnews.com/family-health/child-health/child-hunger-a-growing-issue-us-3099.html
7Lack of Coverage: A Long/Term Problem for Most Uninsured, Kaiser Family Foundation,
http://www.kff.org/uninsured/upload/Lack-of-Coverage-A-Long-Term-Problem-for-Most-Uninsured.pdf ; Kaiser Daily
Health Policy Report, 22 May 2009, http://www.kaisernetwork.org/Daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=58567
8Corporate Profits After Tax with Inventory Valuation Adjustment (IVA) and Capital Consumption
Adjustment (CCAdj), St. Louis Federal Reserve, http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/data/CPATAX.txt ; Historical
profit and loss data for AIG and others available at: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2009/
9The Trillion Dollar Income Shift, Jack Rasmus, 2007, available at:
http://www.kyklosproductions.com/posts/index.php?p=57
10Bailout is a No-Strings Windfall to Bankers, if Not to Borrowers, Mike McIntire, NY Times, 17
January 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/business/18bank.html
11Bailout Recipients Hosted Call to Defeat Key Labor Bill, Sam Stein, Huffington Post, 27 January
2009, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/27/bank-of-america-hosted-an_n_161248.html
12Obama Plan Seeks Private Investors to Buy Risky Assets, Edmund L. Andrews & Eric Dash, NY Times,
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/24/business/economy/24bailout.html
13Obama unveils $75 billion mortgage relief plan, Associated Press, 18 Februarz 2009,
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29256639
14AIG: $90 Billion Bailout Funds Went to Foreign, Domestic Banks, Including Some Bailout
Recipients, Jennifer Malloy Zonnas, Huffington Post, 16 March 2009, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/16/aig-
90-billion-bailout-fu_n_175190.html
15Obama's Welcome Silence on the Employee Free Choice Act, Richard Epstein, Forbes.com, 10
February 2009, http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/09/card-checks-efca-opinions-columnists_0210_richard_epstein.html
16Single-Payer Poll, Survey, and Initiative Results (summary of data for recent years),
http://www.wpasinglepayer.org/PollResults.html ;