It’s Been 10 Years

Well, it’s been 10 years since the economy swooned and nearly fell off the cliff. Recently, there has been a few news articles about that scary time and more importantly, some introspection about whether we have learned anything since that time. Some articles have noted that many financiers have come away from the Great Recession even wealthier whereas the average American have seen declining prospects. Invariably, the articles talk about the growing inequality and the pulling away of the 1%. And quite a few tie the Great Recession to the rise of the Trump cult.

Did we learn anything? I’m not sure. We had a Consumer Finance Board created to regulate the financial industry but the Republicans have weakened it. No financiers went to jail; instead, quite few, if not most, came away wealthier than before. It just doesn’t seem fair that the financiers can nearly destroy our country and walk away even wealthier without any consequences. No wonder some of the voters have gone off the rails.

I’m trying to find the articles that I read but I’m having trouble. Here’s what I found. The first is a book, the second is New York Times’ own take on the Great Recession and the aftermath, and the third is an economist’s take on what went right and wrong with the response to the near disaster. Well, near disaster for the wealthy; it was a disaster for regular people.

1. Here’s the link to a book review.

2. This one is the New York Time’s opinion: Middle class thrown under the bus.

3. And here’s the economist take on the aftermath: Botching the Great Recession

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Updates: More articles are being written everyday on this topic

4. This one is damning: Ten Years After the Financial Crisis, the Contagion Has Spread to Democracy

Largest banks were funneling “as much cash as they wanted to their shareholders even as it became clear those same banks could not pay their debts.”

Ten Years After the Financial Crisis, Huffington Post, Zach Carter, 9/15/2018

5. And of course one about the folks in the Trump administration: As Financial Crisis Shook the Nation, Trump’s Team Saw Payoff

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Closing note: I’m in the process of trying to write two other postings but the holdup is in the design of the visual images. One post will require more than one visual image because my “great” idea says to do so. Once the visual images are complete, I’ll be able to post my latest. So in the meantime, my posting frequency declines and what posting I do will be smaller.