U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson plans to use the second half of the $700 billion financial rescue program to help relieve pressures on consumer credit, scrapping an effort to buy devalued mortgage assets. ``Illiquidity in this sector is raising the cost and reducing the availability of car loans, student loans and credit cards,'' Paulson said in the text of a speech today in Washington. ``This is creating a heavy burden on the American people and reducing the number of jobs in our economy.'' Treasury and Federal Reserve officials are exploring a new ``facility'' to aid the market for securities backed by assets, Paulson said. Officials are considering using a portion of the bailout money to ``encourage private investors to come back to this troubled market,'' he said. The Treasury chief said the department is also considering having companies that accept new taxpayer funding get matching private capital. Buying ``illiquid'' mortgage-related assets is no longer being considered, he said.
``Illiquidity in this sector is raising the cost and reducing the availability of car loans, student loans and credit cards,'' Paulson said in the text of a speech today in Washington. ``This is creating a heavy burden on the American people and reducing the number of jobs in our economy.''
Treasury and Federal Reserve officials are exploring a new ``facility'' to aid the market for securities backed by assets, Paulson said. Officials are considering using a portion of the bailout money to ``encourage private investors to come back to this troubled market,'' he said.
The Treasury chief said the department is also considering having companies that accept new taxpayer funding get matching private capital.
Buying ``illiquid'' mortgage-related assets is no longer being considered, he said.
Which brings me back to my Old Navy shopping spree in early January. I'll admit, as much as I loathe shopping, that was a glorious day for bargains. My boxers, which I hadn't replaced in years, were in tatters. I bought several new pairs for $3 each. New pants: $19. Socks for a couple of dollars. And sweaters for $12. The store that day was full, but I was the only white person. Mostly young Latino couples and a few blacks. The tags on the $12 sweaters said "Made in Indonesia." Sweat-shop labor. Multinational. The Gap (Old Navy's parent company). Shopping malls. All the reasons why such authentically middle-class-quality clothes were available for lower-middle-class prices. This, I realized, is The Gap's strategy: use globalization to make middle-class clothes available to the lower classes at Old Navy; solid middle to upper-middle class-type clothes clothes at struggling middle-class prices at The Gap; and yuppie/upper-middle-class-level clothing at solid middle-class prices at its "high-end" store, Banana Republic. Each offers you an affordable and real climb up the socio-economic ladder. Like Wal-Mart. Here a cruel and almost funny cycle revealed itself. Think about it. The $12 sweater in the Old Navy bin is made by grossly underpaid Indonesian sweatshop workers. Their exploitation allows me and the Latinos to stock up on nice sweaters for prices far less in real terms than these sweaters might have cost a decade ago. But the exploitation also feeds the resentment against America that draws Indonesians towards Islamic extremism. That extremism feeds terrorism, which leads to America's military response: war. The war is fought predominantly by America's underclass -- the very people who shop at Old Navy, the very people who benefit from the sweatshop labor that produced the terrorism that drew them back onto the battlefield.
Which brings me back to my Old Navy shopping spree in early January. I'll admit, as much as I loathe shopping, that was a glorious day for bargains. My boxers, which I hadn't replaced in years, were in tatters. I bought several new pairs for $3 each. New pants: $19. Socks for a couple of dollars. And sweaters for $12. The store that day was full, but I was the only white person. Mostly young Latino couples and a few blacks.
The tags on the $12 sweaters said "Made in Indonesia."
Sweat-shop labor. Multinational. The Gap (Old Navy's parent company). Shopping malls. All the reasons why such authentically middle-class-quality clothes were available for lower-middle-class prices. This, I realized, is The Gap's strategy: use globalization to make middle-class clothes available to the lower classes at Old Navy; solid middle to upper-middle class-type clothes clothes at struggling middle-class prices at The Gap; and yuppie/upper-middle-class-level clothing at solid middle-class prices at its "high-end" store, Banana Republic. Each offers you an affordable and real climb up the socio-economic ladder. Like Wal-Mart.
Here a cruel and almost funny cycle revealed itself. Think about it. The $12 sweater in the Old Navy bin is made by grossly underpaid Indonesian sweatshop workers. Their exploitation allows me and the Latinos to stock up on nice sweaters for prices far less in real terms than these sweaters might have cost a decade ago. But the exploitation also feeds the resentment against America that draws Indonesians towards Islamic extremism. That extremism feeds terrorism, which leads to America's military response: war. The war is fought predominantly by America's underclass -- the very people who shop at Old Navy, the very people who benefit from the sweatshop labor that produced the terrorism that drew them back onto the battlefield.
what goes around... The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it. Chinese Proverb.
I had this problem when getting a shoe shine in Acapulco once. I wanted to give the kid a few dollars when he was only asking for a 10th of that. My reasoning is that I would pay double at the North Hollywood stand I would visit, and I had a good time talking to him. My girlfriend told me that I was ruining the economy.
So, is this kid grossly underpaid? If he is, does he know about it? Is he able to be rabble roused because most people were paying what he was asking?
Should the people in Indonesia get $9 an hour plus paid holidays and medical? Should they get a living wage commensurate with the economy they are in and the level of education/responsibility required? Should they get a percentage of the profits that The Gap makes in addition perhaps?
All that being said (or asked), it seems like there is a disconnect with coming off the farm and finding a job in the city, working for more money than could be made otherwise, then at night studying to be a suicide bomber.
Either that, or I am hiding my guilt for having bought clothes at an Old Navy Year End sale 8 years ago. Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.
Frank Delaney ~ Ireland
