It'll be good to have both this political season over with, though I'm afraid we'll have to live with hard economic times much beyond the electing of new politicians. Alan Greenspan, past head of the Federal Reserve, said yesterday before some committee that he was "shocked" at what's happening in the economy and that he put too much faith in the self-correcting power of markets. He had been a champion of de-regulation all along, and it must hurt him now to admit to being "shocked." Of course, there are always cries of "Socialism" arising from the din if and when the Federal government steps in to correct some wrongs, and I think I even heard Sarah P. accuse Obama of being a socialist.
I have been re-reading a history book A People's History of the United States that I purchased a year ago at a gift shop in The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson's home. Authored by Howard Zinn, he writes from the point of view of the average, common person, not the big figures of history. It's a good read, and his populist point of view is refreshing.
Zinn writes, too, in my last issue of The Nation magazine an article titled "A Big Government Bailout" and makes the case that we have always had government intervention in our economy and gave examples, among them the establishment of tariffs to subsidize manufacturers, subsidizing manufacturers, subsidizing canals and the merchant marine, giving 100 million acres of land to the railroads, infusing cash into the aircraft industry after World War II, giving oil companies an oil depletion allowance, bailing out Chrysler Corp, bailing out the savings and loan industry, establishing the New Deal to rebuild the nation's infrastructure, establishing social security, etc.
Presently we have a lot of problems that everyone seems to be looking to the new President to solve. It'll take citizen participation to at least not answer the question of what is the biggest problem - ignorance or apathy with a shrug of the shoulders and say "I don't know and I don't care."
