There is enough to be depressed about these days. Throughout our history, politics have always been mean and vicious, but it seems worse lately. That impression is verified by long-serving politicians who speak longingly of a more collegial past.
And the disingenuous double talk can get to you. Politicians today lament the burden on future generations of our public debt. Where was this concern when we could have used the surpluses of the Clinton era - yes, he left office with budget surpluses - to make some payments on the public debt?
But no. Politicians insisted that the surpluses should be immediately returned to taxpayers in the form of tax cuts - even as we went to war, first ever accompanied by tax cuts. No use diminishing the appetite for war by insisting that everyone in the nation bear some cost of the war.
Even former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan, who railed against budget deficits during his entire career, did a sudden pirouette, insisting that it would be better to give the money back to people immediately than to pay down the public debt. And this was prior to the Great Recession, before we needed reduced taxes to goose the economy. Where was that "concern for future generations" that we hear so much about now?
Heck, with no draft and the nasty fighting done by a volunteer army, make sure those tax cuts go to our wealthiest and most powerful citizens whose sons and daughters will surely never go to Iraq or Afghanistan. And continue to tax billionaire hedge fund managers at the 15-percent rate while everyone else pays higher rates. "We don't dare tax the super rich," we are told. "We don't want to diminish their incentive to create jobs," as if they were using their cash hordes to create them now.
And the suede shoe artists of Wall Street who created sub-prime mortgages and derivatives based on those toxic assets? Even as their financial house of cards collapsed, they insist that "uncertainty" created by regulations stymie their creativity. Credit default swaps? Synthetic collateralized debt obligations? If this is "creativity," who needs it? So, the solution to the crisis created by deregulation is more deregulation?
Forget it. Reasonable regulations that were enforced, more or less anyway, worked for more than 50 years, until they were stripped away, unenforced, or totally ignored. Fed Chair Greenspan failed to use enforcement powers he had, insisting that markets would solve all problems. This, even after the earlier savings and loan fiasco, the Enron debacle, and the Long Term Capital Management hedge fund failure that required emergency action by the Fed, flashing warning signs irresponsibly ignored.
The maestro, as he was called by fawning media stars and politicians, didn't want to risk his rock star status by spoiling the party.
The decline of financial regulation, along with the slash-and-burn brinkmanship politics that time and again bring the international financial system to the edge, is deadly and still threatens the system.
We can be thankful that during our 45-year nuclear standoff with the Soviet Union that rational people were in charge, on both our side and theirs. But now, with outsourcing, collapse of the housing bubble engineered by Wall Street recklessness, and related policies that have decimated our middle class, we have put ourselves in a hole.
Even in sports, there are continuing incidents of bad behavior among athletes and greed among owners, not to mention the farce that is the NCAA. It's hard not to be cynical these days.
But alas. A sense of decency and fairness still exists among ordinary people. Here are two recent examples - from the world of sports, no less.
It is Sept. 1 and the San Francisco 49ers are playing the San Diego Chargers at Qualcomm Stadium. A full-time student and mother of four is a vender in the Club level of the stadium. She trips on a stair and all the money she has taken in for the day, about $1,000, flies out of her hands, some of it over the rail to the lower field section level.
Her customers lean over the rail, screaming to the people below, "That's the server's money!" The people in the Club section, and those in the field section below, collect the loose bills flying around their sections. According to the vendor, every dollar was returned to her and she was able to give the concession company its cut and retain her share for her day's labor.
It was a touch of class, and speaks well for the fans of the San Diego Chargers. Here's another one, closer to home.
An educator from a high school in or around Madison - he doesn't specify which one - writes in a letter to the Wisconsin State Journal of their football team struggling with a losing season. He had met sophomore UW linebacker Chris Borland at an earlier event. Based on this meeting, he asked Borland if he would speak to the high school team during their homecoming.
Borland and teammate, Greg Russo, spent a day at the high school not only with the team, but visited classrooms, speaking, signing autographs, and taking pictures. This is an example of athletes giving of themselves and setting an example for others.
We UW graduates and fans surely enjoy the recent, and hopefully continuing, success of the Badgers. And it adds tremendously to our enjoyment knowing that Coach Bielema is recruiting athletes who, in addition to being successful on the field, set good examples off the field.
There are many people contributing effort and talent for the broader good. We see it locally in the many people around here who strive to make this a better community.
As long as a sense of fairness and decency exists among the people at large, there is hope for this economy and this nation.
- John Waelti's column appears every Friday in the Monroe Times. He can reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net.
And the disingenuous double talk can get to you. Politicians today lament the burden on future generations of our public debt. Where was this concern when we could have used the surpluses of the Clinton era - yes, he left office with budget surpluses - to make some payments on the public debt?
But no. Politicians insisted that the surpluses should be immediately returned to taxpayers in the form of tax cuts - even as we went to war, first ever accompanied by tax cuts. No use diminishing the appetite for war by insisting that everyone in the nation bear some cost of the war.
Even former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan, who railed against budget deficits during his entire career, did a sudden pirouette, insisting that it would be better to give the money back to people immediately than to pay down the public debt. And this was prior to the Great Recession, before we needed reduced taxes to goose the economy. Where was that "concern for future generations" that we hear so much about now?
Heck, with no draft and the nasty fighting done by a volunteer army, make sure those tax cuts go to our wealthiest and most powerful citizens whose sons and daughters will surely never go to Iraq or Afghanistan. And continue to tax billionaire hedge fund managers at the 15-percent rate while everyone else pays higher rates. "We don't dare tax the super rich," we are told. "We don't want to diminish their incentive to create jobs," as if they were using their cash hordes to create them now.
And the suede shoe artists of Wall Street who created sub-prime mortgages and derivatives based on those toxic assets? Even as their financial house of cards collapsed, they insist that "uncertainty" created by regulations stymie their creativity. Credit default swaps? Synthetic collateralized debt obligations? If this is "creativity," who needs it? So, the solution to the crisis created by deregulation is more deregulation?
Forget it. Reasonable regulations that were enforced, more or less anyway, worked for more than 50 years, until they were stripped away, unenforced, or totally ignored. Fed Chair Greenspan failed to use enforcement powers he had, insisting that markets would solve all problems. This, even after the earlier savings and loan fiasco, the Enron debacle, and the Long Term Capital Management hedge fund failure that required emergency action by the Fed, flashing warning signs irresponsibly ignored.
The maestro, as he was called by fawning media stars and politicians, didn't want to risk his rock star status by spoiling the party.
The decline of financial regulation, along with the slash-and-burn brinkmanship politics that time and again bring the international financial system to the edge, is deadly and still threatens the system.
We can be thankful that during our 45-year nuclear standoff with the Soviet Union that rational people were in charge, on both our side and theirs. But now, with outsourcing, collapse of the housing bubble engineered by Wall Street recklessness, and related policies that have decimated our middle class, we have put ourselves in a hole.
Even in sports, there are continuing incidents of bad behavior among athletes and greed among owners, not to mention the farce that is the NCAA. It's hard not to be cynical these days.
But alas. A sense of decency and fairness still exists among ordinary people. Here are two recent examples - from the world of sports, no less.
It is Sept. 1 and the San Francisco 49ers are playing the San Diego Chargers at Qualcomm Stadium. A full-time student and mother of four is a vender in the Club level of the stadium. She trips on a stair and all the money she has taken in for the day, about $1,000, flies out of her hands, some of it over the rail to the lower field section level.
Her customers lean over the rail, screaming to the people below, "That's the server's money!" The people in the Club section, and those in the field section below, collect the loose bills flying around their sections. According to the vendor, every dollar was returned to her and she was able to give the concession company its cut and retain her share for her day's labor.
It was a touch of class, and speaks well for the fans of the San Diego Chargers. Here's another one, closer to home.
An educator from a high school in or around Madison - he doesn't specify which one - writes in a letter to the Wisconsin State Journal of their football team struggling with a losing season. He had met sophomore UW linebacker Chris Borland at an earlier event. Based on this meeting, he asked Borland if he would speak to the high school team during their homecoming.
Borland and teammate, Greg Russo, spent a day at the high school not only with the team, but visited classrooms, speaking, signing autographs, and taking pictures. This is an example of athletes giving of themselves and setting an example for others.
We UW graduates and fans surely enjoy the recent, and hopefully continuing, success of the Badgers. And it adds tremendously to our enjoyment knowing that Coach Bielema is recruiting athletes who, in addition to being successful on the field, set good examples off the field.
There are many people contributing effort and talent for the broader good. We see it locally in the many people around here who strive to make this a better community.
As long as a sense of fairness and decency exists among the people at large, there is hope for this economy and this nation.
- John Waelti's column appears every Friday in the Monroe Times. He can reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net.
