Samuel

Crisis Precipitates Change

A Pantoum* By Samuel J. Rutledge

Who doesn’t want to get rich?
A million bucks sounds pretty good,
and we have a little something to invest.
What have we got to loose?

A million bucks sounds pretty good
and it’s so easy to ignore the obvious.
What have we got to loose?
Only our home and life savings.

And it’s so easy to ignore the obvious
until it all comes crashing down.
Only, our home and life savings
aren’t ours anymore.

Until it all comes crashing down
wealthy executives make off with life savings that
aren’t ours anymore.
They end up with taxpayer bailouts to boot.

Wealthy executives make off with life savings that
we unwittingly invested in their high flying schemes.
They end up with taxpayer bailouts to boot,
While we have to rent for the first time in 50 years.

We unwittingly invested in their high flying schemes
to take the money and run.
While we have to rent for the first time in 50 years
the house sits empty and growing mold.

To take the money and run;
The only rational answer.
The house sits empty and growing mold
and we’re heading for the hills.

The only rational answer
at times proceeds from desperation.
And we’re heading for the hills
because we don’t know what else to do.

At times, proceeds from desperation
provide the spark we need to learn a new way
because we don’t know what else to do.
We learn from gnarled handed wise ones.

Provide the spark we need to learn a new way!
True wealth only rises from land and labor.
We learn from gnarled handed wise ones,
loamy soil between their fingers.

True wealth only rises from land and labor.
Who doesn’t want to get rich
loamy soil between their fingers?
And we have a little something to invest.

* “The pantoum is a form of poetry similar to a villanelle. It is composed of a series of quatrains; the second and fourth lines of each stanza are repeated as the first and third lines of the next. This pattern continues for any number of stanzas, except for the final stanza, which differs in the repeating pattern. The first and third lines of the last stanza are the second and fourth of the penultimate; the first line of the poem is the last line of the final stanza, and the third line of the first stanza is the second of the final. Ideally, the meaning of lines shifts when they are repeated although the words remain exactly the same: this can be done by shifting punctuation, punning, or simply recontextualizing.”
- From Wikipedia

American Automakers are never going to recover. Another bailout will buy them some time. A few months or a few years, depending on how deep the giant money hole turns out to be. So far, it doesn’t look like we’ve hit bottom. 3 month T Bills are trading at .01% in what looks to my untrained eye like an unbelievable flight to quality, and the Dow is down another 445 points today to close at 7,552 and change. I rattle that off like I know something about what it means, and the truth is I don’t. I’m no economist (although I do read The Economist every week). But the folks who know about these things seem to be scared shitless. Oregon’s Governor released his budget, and some projections were released to the state legislature yesterday. Hear tell, jaws were hitting the floor in Salem. It’s worse than anyone thought. And the picture here in Oregon is a little rosier than the national picture.

In times of trouble, I’m all for Keynesian solutions. The economic crisis is one problem that can be solved by throwing money at it. But not at Detroit. Throw money somewhere it’s needed. Throw it at human services, and at unemployment insurance, and at nationwide job creation programs for jobs that have a future. Don’t throw it on companies that are trying to sell yesterday’s technology (internal combustion) to tomorrow’s consumers. Let them fail, opening the market to new, innovative companies that can sell transportation products that meet our need for green, efficient vehicles.