Paulson & Bernanke: snake oil salesmen

We certainly are having a crisis in this country, and it is based simply on these two things:

1. Too many people want too much credit.

And 2. The government itself depends on too much credit.

That's it.

Today, on Capitol Hill, Ben Bernanke is saying that the current woes are having a 'ripple effect throughout the economy' and that this is restricting the consumers' ability to get credit.

Isn't that what the financial system should be doing, placing more restraint on credit? It seems the time is ripe to restrict some credit, all around, not just for those who can't "afford" it. The entrepreneurial and the affluent think they can still "afford" more credit. 'Let the suckers eat cake,' they imply, not: we're all in this together. We aren't really upwardly mobile if it's mostly based on borrowing. That's just a house of cards and a nation in a shambles.

The rich make their money off those high interest rates and defaults and write-offs. They are getting anxious that they won't be able to so easily keep feeding off their deflating, downscaling, depression-prone neighbors.

The American Empire used to be based on good old-fashioned imperialism. Now it's just based on buying stuff we can't afford. The crisis is not that the poor or middle class are squeezed but that finally even the rich can't afford to keep up with the pace of their ravenous desires.

That's what's really got Paulson and Bernanke and the White House and country club Republicans in a tizzy.