Stateside: Forget the blah, blah, blah

In what must be one of the most bizarre moments of my life, on Wednesday I was asked by someone standing in line ahead of me at the bank if I was there to withdraw money. “Jeez, what kind of idiot is this guy?” I wondered, thinking he must be intending to rob me on the way out. Well, thanks for alerting me, dodo, and fat luck if you do—I was about to withdraw the princely sum of $10.

The question seemed doubly odd since he was a middle-aged Asian gentleman who was there with what seemed to be his pre-teen daughter helping her deposit a check. Then the penny dropped. He was asking if I was going to take my money out to put it in another bank or under my mattress. “No,” I said, “I like this bank.”

Nonetheless, I stared even harder at the big FDIC sign under the teller’s window, which assures all the bank’s customers that their deposits up to $100,000 are guaranteed. Then the woman in line after me got into the conversation asking if I really thought this was a good bank, and if I didn’t, which other bank would be better?

Crikey! Is this the same country I moved to in 1999?

Well, yes it is. So if you want to know what this crisis is all about, don’t watch the corporate media—who’ll trot out the “experts” from here to fraternity and still miss the point. Do yourself a favor and listen to this podcast featuring Greg Palast, recorded in March 2008. And read Palast’s Air America commentary from the same month.

And also watch this video posted by BrasscheckTV in March 2008. If you really want to go deep, then also check out the 1992 video that the BrasscheckTV page links to further down the page.

And when you’re done, watch these two interviews Charlie Rose did on Wednesday and Thursday of last week with his friend—and financial contributor to the program—Hank Greenberg of AIG.

rosalea.barker@gmail.com

--PEACE--

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