Death Is Easy

DEATH IS
EASY
by
Russell Madden


Freedom As If It Mattered

FREEDOM, 
As If
It Mattered
by
Russell Madden



Guardian Project

The Guardian
Project
by
Russell Madden




Random

RaNdoM
by
Russell Madden




 
 

 

A FINANCIAL FABLE

by

Russell Madden

 

 





Once upon a time, American financial institutions actually examined the credit-worthiness of those who came seeking loans. People who had little income, little prior credit history, and/or unsatisfactory experience with previous credit usage were denied loans or, in marginal cases, perhaps granted a loan but at higher levels of interest to compensate for the increased risk of default they represented.

A significant percentage of those refused credit in some areas of the country were black. This was because a higher proportion of blacks — for whatever reasons — in those areas had low incomes, lived on welfare, or had other characteristics representative of those who might fail to repay a loan.

Then along came Big Brother who sternly declared that financial organizations were...dum-de-dum!...RACIST!!! Don’t you dare “red-line” certain districts! Don’t you dare refuse a greater percentage of loans to blacks than other racial groups! Don’t you dare make loan decisions based on long-established actuarial information! RACIST! RACIST! RACIST!

Properly chastised, banks and such began fulfilling the racial quotas for loans that BB had determined they should follow. Low and behold! Affirmative action for credit! Lower income black people buying houses! Yeah! Racism abolished! Greedy bastard bankers punished!

In its magnificent munificence, Big Brother decided to hurt help everyone in the country by reducing interest rates to levels so low that huge new groups of people decided they wanted in on the action. In order to pay for all their warmongering and massive new socialistic welfare programs ensure that even more folks got screwed assisted in fulfilling their dreams, BB cranked up both the literal and figurative printing presses, spewing incredible amounts of unbacked currency into the national and worldwide economies. Inflation frakked over Americans traveling aboard made it easier for foreigners to buy our goods and services. Financial institutions drowned in overwhelming piles of credit they sought to dole out to anyone who shoved a greasy palm in their general direction.

No down payment mortgages! Interest-only loans! Adjustable rate mortgages! Fifty-year loans! Invest! Flip! Sell! Make a killing! Woo-hoo! A good time in the ol’ town tonight!

Oh, no! Oil prices soar! (No relationship to our troops blowing up the Mideast, of course...) The purchasing power of the dollar plummets! (No doubt the fault of nasty, obnoxious business owners...) Mortgage defaults soar! (Bastard banks...) Crisis! Crisis! Crisis! Whoop-whoop-whoop! Alarm! Alarm! Alarm!

It’s the fault of the financial institutions! Those predatory demons! Preying on poor people! Preying on poor black people! Racists! Giving people loans the lenders had to have known the innocent, ignorant slobs could never pay back. Big Brother must rescue them! Guarantee more loans! Increase inflation even more by lowering interest rates! Print more money! Create more credit! It’ll help this time! It really will!

Trust me
....

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me...


(from Don't Get Me Started!, 12-19-07)