Food for Thought

For days now, I´ve found myself watching the latest chapter of the sub-prime mortgage scandal unfold hourly as that once infallible bastion of all good in capitalism, the US financial market, spirals toward possible catastrophe.

So what happened?

Simply put, this totally preventable crisis can be blamed on unadulterated greed and a lack of enforced regulations.

Average people throughout the great United States of America have lost their homes in numbers that have not been seen since the days of the Great Depression and this trajedy has not received even a murmur from the US government concerning financial aid. Bad luck, they are told. However, now there will be a bailout of US$700 billion dollars to keep the system afloat. This money will go to the failing investment banks, even as some of them are pay out dividends to their shareholders.

Such a number is incomprehensible. It is not one that one sees often (especially when it is used in conjunction with bankruptcy). Moreover, the US$700 billion doesn’t take into account the hundreds of millions of (possibly) useless IOUs that the Fed already has in its possession from Lehman’s Brothers and other investment banks which might no be the worth the paper on which they are printed.

The bill has just begun to be tallied, ye Great Republic… (more…)

Hello all and welcome to Food for Thought’s introductory post. Food for Thought was, until recently, published weekly in The Euro Weekly News, a group of newspapers published in both Spain and Portugal. We recently parted ways but I’ve decided to keep my article going as a blog, free of any time and topical fetters that I may have previously experienced.

The response was excellent and I hope it can be mirrored here.

Food for Thought is a lively discussion of many of the world’s foibles, failures and successes; be they political, social, moral, or otherwise. Fingers will be pointed and blame will be meted out in healthy doses, no matter be you president or proletariat.

I am hoping that it will evoke responses and a following from those who believe that things can be better, not just for some but for all.

Check in, post your own comments and let’s make this a salon for all those who want to exchange ideas and criticism. It might take me a bit to get things up to the level I want but I will.

So join me. After all, it is always better to dine with others than to eat alone…

Owen Thomas