But prominent economist James Galbraith recently told Bill Moyers:JAMES GALBRAITH: The overwhelming emphasis, in the administration's program, I think, has been to return things to a condition of normalcy, to use a 1920s word, that prevailed five and ten years ago. That is to say, we're back to a world in which Wall Street and the major banks are leading, and setting the path- BILL MOYERS: To restore what was. JAMES GALBRAITH: To restore what was- BILL MOYERS: Instead of reform what is. JAMES GALBRAITH: And I don't think what was can be restored. BILL MOYERS: And you say that's the objective of the administration's policies? Geithner, Bernanke, Summers, the President himself? JAMES GALBRAITH: To the extent that there's a defined objective, that's it, yes. I think in the immediate day-to-day work, they've largely been preoccupied with keeping the existing system from collapsing. And the government is powerful. It has substantially succeeded at that, but you really have to think about, do you want to have a financial sector dominated by a small number of very large institutions, very difficult to manage, practically impossible to regulate, and ruled by, essentially, the same people and the same culture that caused the crisis in the first place.
JAMES GALBRAITH: The overwhelming emphasis, in the administration's program, I think, has been to return things to a condition of normalcy, to use a 1920s word, that prevailed five and ten years ago. That is to say, we're back to a world in which Wall Street and the major banks are leading, and setting the path- BILL MOYERS: To restore what was. JAMES GALBRAITH: To restore what was- BILL MOYERS: Instead of reform what is. JAMES GALBRAITH: And I don't think what was can be restored. BILL MOYERS: And you say that's the objective of the administration's policies? Geithner, Bernanke, Summers, the President himself? JAMES GALBRAITH: To the extent that there's a defined objective, that's it, yes. I think in the immediate day-to-day work, they've largely been preoccupied with keeping the existing system from collapsing. And the government is powerful. It has substantially succeeded at that, but you really have to think about, do you want to have a financial sector dominated by a small number of very large institutions, very difficult to manage, practically impossible to regulate, and ruled by, essentially, the same people and the same culture that caused the crisis in the first place.
BILL MOYERS: To restore what was.
JAMES GALBRAITH: To restore what was-
BILL MOYERS: Instead of reform what is. JAMES GALBRAITH: And I don't think what was can be restored. BILL MOYERS: And you say that's the objective of the administration's policies? Geithner, Bernanke, Summers, the President himself? JAMES GALBRAITH: To the extent that there's a defined objective, that's it, yes. I think in the immediate day-to-day work, they've largely been preoccupied with keeping the existing system from collapsing. And the government is powerful. It has substantially succeeded at that, but you really have to think about, do you want to have a financial sector dominated by a small number of very large institutions, very difficult to manage, practically impossible to regulate, and ruled by, essentially, the same people and the same culture that caused the crisis in the first place.
BILL MOYERS: You mean, the people who could have prevented the dam from breaking were too busy fishing above it, and reaping big rewards to want to fix the crack in it? JAMES GALBRAITH: Sure. The Federal Reserve, in particular, knew that the dam was cracking. Alan Greenspan, I think, almost surely knew this, and chose to wait until it had washed away. BILL MOYERS: Why? JAMES GALBRAITH: They let all of this run, because they were getting a superficially stronger economy out of it. The ownership society, all that was a scam, basically, designed to lure people who could never afford these mortgages into accepting them. And yes, I think they, any rational person, certainly people in the industry, knew that this was not going to last. There was a little industry code, I've learned, IBGYBG. "I'll be gone. You'll be gone."
The whole interview is worth reading. "Ce qui vient au monde pour ne rien troubler ne mérite ni égards ni patience." René Char
