"Look, just tell the Commission that you inherited the missing two trillion, and I'll pass it off on Volcker with my dazzling similes and parenthetical promises---nothing to worry about, Ben, by the time Ron Paul gets any traction with that bullshit full audit notion, all of us will be dead. Ben....Ben, can you hear me?"
This picture (later verified source Stefan Zaklin/European Pressphoto Agency) was taken recently in Washington D.C. as the two men spoke outside a bipartisan Congressional Committee meeting.
The email arrived in our office unsolicited through a proxy server. Naturally, the conversation must stand as purely speculative, as no recording was included, and no claim of direct knowledge.
But the panel they were waiting to be questioned by, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, accuses several financial institutions of greed, ineptitude or both, some of its gravest conclusions concern government failings, with serious implications for both parties. But--- imagine this--- the panel was itself divided along partisan lines, which could blunt the impact of its findings.
Probably a good bet that Ben and Alan set them straight on a few issues, allowing for the much needed blunting.
So, the goal has been achieved, mirroring many examples of convoluted political belief systems. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission's findings have been rendered unclear, therefore, only symbolic action may be taken toward solving the issue, etching yet another example of outlandish hypocrisy in the stones of history.
Now, the takeaway....The exact objective of our country's desire to discover, much less act upon, the very institutions and individuals responsible for its ruination must certainly insist on blunting the impact of its findings. After all, common sense did not receive a summons from the Committee, and greed still writes the rules.
So it goes...only when we begin dying in great numbers will the outrage begin. Too late for a nation lulled and modified into an intellectual stupor.
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