Let me preface this by saying I am not an economist. I probably know less about the economy than John McCain. But I still have a lot of questions about what is happening. So here goes:
Have you wondered why Osama bin Laden, or any of his counterparts, haven't attacked the US since 9-11? Oh come on! Surely you don't believe it is because George Bush has protected us so well. That he has prevented explosive toothpaste from coming into the country.
I think that there are two possibilities: first, bin Laden hasn't done anything because we are doing it to ourselves. Second, perhaps he is doing something, but it is economic, not physical.
Yesterday we had a diary about Ben Stein's comments on our economic disaster. Inky99 emphasized this statement by Stein who is talking about the profits from this disaster:
In fact, they can be so large that one might well wonder if the whole subprime fiasco was not set up just to allow speculators to profit wildly on its collapse...
If this had been done by bin Laden, we would call it "economic terrorism". Why don't we call it that in any case?
The terrorists resorting to economic terrorism tend to calculate that the States would be more inclined to concede their demands when threatened with major disruptions of their economy than when confronted with large civilian casualties, but with no economic damage. PAN-ISLAMIC JIHADIS AND ECONOMIC TERRORISM
Let's look at the economic impact of 9-11. I couldn't find definitive numbers on the cost, but the GAO did a review of the different studies and came up with an overall number of $83 billion in direct/indirect costs. Bin Laden estimates the impact as over $1 trillion. Economic Impact of 9-11
$700 billion dollars is significantly more than the $83 billion 9-11 impact estimated by the GAO. Why aren't we looking for the economic terrorists who are trying to take down our economy?
If this were an embassy that were being held hostage instead of our economy, George Bush would be saying "We don't negotiate with terrorists."
"Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," Mr. Bush said. "We have heard this foolish delusion before. New York Times
Dick Cheney made a similar statement toFox News.
Now we have a group of economic terrorists (their identity unknown to us) who are holding the US (and perhaps the world) economy hostage for $700 billion dollars for starters. And the Administration is "negotiating" like crazy. And like the Patriot Act after 9-11, Bush is using this crisis to take away not only rights (the right of oversight for example), but money ($700 billion) from US citizens.
Why are we letting this happen?
Who are the economic terrorists? Grover Norquist and his "drown government in a bathtub" group? Osama bin Laden who has discovered how to game the US economy and do it without risking loss of life of Al Quaeda operatives? Saudi Arabia who has the money to do it? (Are they doing it because they are friends of Bush, or because they really hate Bush?) China who also has the money to do so? An economic war with the US wouldn't involve loss of life. And the Administration might be so stupid that they don't realize it is a war.
There are a number of discussions on Economic Terrorism. Many are associated with eco-terrorists which are not really relevant to our current situation. Here are a couple of cites that seem helpful.
Economic Terrorism: The Radical Muslim War Against the Western Tax Base by Shawn O’Connell, Small Wars Journal, July 2005
Economic Terrorism Round Table, Geneva, Switzerland, July 2005 (discussing Economic Terrorism as opposed to the Economic Consequences of a Terrorist Attack. "Economic terrorism would be undertaken by transnational or non-state actors. This could entail varied, coordinated and sophisticated or massive destabilizing actions in order to disrupt the economic and financial stability of a state, a group of states, or a society (such as market oriented western societies) for ideological or religious motives."
Capitalist Economic Terrorism by Robinson Rojas, June 2005 "...capitalist economic terrorism (free-market fundamentalism) can disjoint a society. The winners are the ones who have at their service a political class serving their interests by unleashing political and economic terrorism (otherwise known as globalization) all over planet Earth. They are building a larger U.S. empire. Modern Caligulas like Bush et al are the top layer of that political class."
Video on "King Paulson" analyzing the "crisis" "First you put the taxpayer in peril,then you ride to his rescue....You know, some people would call this terrorism. You created this mess. Now you demand the power to fix it or the world will explode."
Whether this is actual economic terrorism or not, the effect is the same. Will we learn from "The Shock Doctrine" that we don't have to give up everything to solve these problems? Will we stand up to the Bush Administration and say "Enough"!!