Take Another Look: America's Financial Crisis

I'm no economist, but in late March of this year, I wrote an article titled "America's Economic Downturn: Is the worst yet to come?" The article appeared in The Final Call and was also picked up in many Black newspapers across the country. As I read over it again after not having looked at it for a few months, I noticed that many of the companies in the news now were already identified as being in trouble back then! The point was made then as it is being made now that America’s involvement in global military conflict is primarily to blame along with America’s uncontrollable greed.

That being the case, it is important to note that many analysts still continued to sell the false reality of America’s corporate strength while President Bush and the corporate swindlers continued to play along with the financial analysts.

Well connected CEOs walked away with millions.

This current financial crisis did not appear out of the blue, even though that is what they would like for you to think.

(To read the March 2008 article referenced above, go here: http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_4562.shtml)

Carefully watch the news and how this crisis is reported over the next few weeks as we draw nearer to the presidential election. The Right wing conservatives will try to spin this current reality by saying the risky loans were made in order to help Blacks and Latinos obtain home ownership. You see, everyone has it all wrong by attributing ill motives and greed to those who ran those companies and lending institutions into the ground. These companies weren’t targeting Blacks and Latinos for sub prime loans and other forms of predatory lending. They weren’t doing it because it was financially lucrative. No. No. No. You see they were trying to help Blacks and Latinos obtain “The American Dream.”

See how skillfully deceptive that is? And as they begin to frame the debate, it just may prove to be an effective strategy in a land where most people believe what is presented on face value without looking deeper into the reality.

After thinking about that for a minute, check out the brief video clip below (37 seconds) from a press conference including Rev. Jesse Jackson, Ald. Pat Dowell, Rep. Danny Davis and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan in front of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Ask yourself, while the huge financial corporations are being bailed out, what is happening to "the least of these" the poor and those who were victimized by the rulers of the economic realm? Things are going to get worse before they get better.