Prince Charles, Austerity, and America's Ostriches

The picture on the front page of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal shows England’s Prince in Perpetuity, Charles, and his unlikely replacement for Princess Di, being attacked by students who don’t want to pay more money for college. The students can’t escape to America to study because it’s more expensive here, even after England’s rise in tuition.

That incident put in perspective America’s approach versus the world. They’re mad in Greece and England because they have to suffer because of the fiscal crisis America Created. America doesn’t have riots because no one in government is telling us to tighten our belts and deal with deleveraging. We’re pouring money we don’t have into driving our economy with the Fed buying 600 billion worth of our own bonds. According to pundits that isn’t working and won’t.

It’s like Margaret Carlson said about body screening. She said all that’s been asked of the American people while fighting two wars is to submit to body screening and we don’t want to do that. The American people who are not unemployed are not being asked to do anything. The unemployed are bearing the entire burden. People who bought twice the house they ever could have afforded are sitting in those houses waiting for the house fairy to save them. While Ireland is moving to apply a 90 percent tax on bankers, ours are paying themselves big bonuses, which they did all through the crisis they caused.

I must admit that when things get tough for me, I put my I pod in the car and listen to Country Gospel, which reminds me of the churches in upstate New York I attended growing up. These are the hymns they have stopped singing in mainstream American churches. But I’m going back to a memory of when America was a pleasant place if you were white. The Tea Party wants to return us to that time and it’s a non starter. We have to suffer in today’s America and fix it. Americans have to face up to the fact they thought there was twice the amount of money in this country then there really was. Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns had loaned out 30 dollars for every dollar they had and Americans believed that was real money.

Yesterday we found out the tax cuts won’t disappear and we’ll be spending more money than we have and increasing the deficit. I guess none of our politicians, who are used to payoffs from companies, want to be foolish enough to tell Americans that they have to suck it up and suffer as the Europeans are ready to do. What happened to the America that fought World War Two and launched a Space Program? The only program we’ll be launching is a modified debt repayment program.

Joe Wong told his son he had to learn both English and Chinese if he wanted to be President. He said his son would need English to govern the country and Chinese to deal with debt collectors.