The public perception of the ongoing fiasco in governance has moved from sheer, mute incomprehension to goggle-eyed panic as the scrims of unreality peel away revealing something like a national death-watch scene in history's intensive care unit. Is the USA in recession, depression, or collapse? People are at least beginning to ask. Nature's way of hinting that something truly creepy may be up is when both Paul Volcker and George Soros both declare on the same day that the economic landscape is looking darker than the Great Depression.
Those tuned into the media-waves were enchanted, in a related instance, by Rick Santelli's grand moment of theater in the Chicago trader's pit last week when he seemed to ignite the first spark of revolution by demonstrating that bail-out fatigue had morphed into high emotion -- and that the emotion could be marshaled against public policy. The traders in the pit on-screen seemed to color up and buzz loudly, like ordinary grasshoppers turning into angry locusts preparing to ravage a waiting valley. "Are you listening, President Obama?" Mr. Santelli asked portentously.
In August Peacenik thought some of Peacenik's doom and gloom posts were satiric and over-the-top. Today Peacenik is unable to imagine how bad things will be by the end of the day. The future has arrived in a hurry. AIG needs $60 billion to get through the week. Auto makers are putting a gun to the heads of world leaders and demanding a bigger bailout. The banking system stress tests which are supposed to determine which banks will survive the week are exposed as little more than kindergarten colouring tests. George Soros and Paul Volker have declared the financial system defunct. The DOW and TSX approach levels that only the fringe doomers dared predict. Today the DOW will probably crash the 7000 level, to the downside. Pensions, 401k's, RRSP's, REIT's, and mutual funds are evaporating. Unemployment is soaring. And the Leafs are only 12 points out of eighth place and are starting their annual push to almost make the play-offs. And it is sunny out. It is time for everyone to slowly, carefully, and quietly, step back from the abyss.
