Breaking the oligarchy

Via Jay Ackroyd, a good weekend read, The Quiet Coup, by former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, Simon Johnson, who sees the only way out of the financial morass, but it's not pretty.

But there’s a deeper and more disturbing similarity: elite business interests—financiers, in the case of the U.S.—played a central role in creating the crisis, making ever-larger gambles, with the implicit backing of the government, until the inevitable collapse. More alarming, they are now using their influence to prevent precisely the sorts of reforms that are needed, and fast, to pull the economy out of its nosedive. The government seems helpless, or unwilling, to act against them.

Basically, we need to break up the bankster oligarchy. Unfortunately, nothing about Obama's little tete-a-tete with the banksters yesterday, or the current fixes on the table, convinces me that anyone has the political will to do what needs to be done.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]