‘Da Nile:’ Many Tuning Out The Economic Squeeze

New York, August 4: We have all heard the line, ‘DA NILE is not just a river in Egypt.’ Denial can be a pervasive social and political phenomenon. Some of us just don’t want to know the truth or face its consequences. Maybe that’s why we envelop ourselves in national myths to survive. We want them to be true. Remember the slogan, “What, me worry?”

Take our worsening financial and economic crisis. It’s hard for many of us to believe its happening. The President keeps saying the economy is sound. Our credit cards still work. We have had recessions before and the system rebounded. Why not this time? Have confidence. Be positive. Stop all this “whining:” shut up, and things will get better.

That’s the kind of response I have had, even from progressives, to the film, columns, blogs and book I have been producing on these issues. A plummeting economy, failing banks, rising unemployment, rocketing inflation just does not seem to engage the way the partisan wars do. We live in a sports crazed country, and a celebrity obsessed culture. We want to debate personalities, not problems. We like red carpets and balance sheets in the red. Anything else is a, uh, bummer man.

When I made my film In Debt We Trust, some critics called it “alarmist.” While it exposed the subprime rape of so many communities, even though it understated the calamity that we are now confronting, it was still considered by some too “scary” or “negative.”

Some responded: “If people are deeply in debt, it’s their fault.” Who cares about all the slick marketing maneuvers by the big credit card companies? We don’t seem to want to know, as if the cultural zeitgeist mandates the mantra: ‘entertain us, don’t inform us.’

When I began sending PLUNDER, my book investigating this calamity, around to publishers there was a similar response, even though the market meltdown had begun. My patient and committed agent Victoria Skurnick made a serious professional effort to sell it, but the buyers, who all said it is well written, weren’t buying. They wouldn’t accept its analysis.

I soon found that the denial and distraction I encountered in trying to distribute In Debt We Trust was also in vogue in the book-publishing world. There, “business” books must conform to certain genres/templates and story telling trumps analysis.

Tips on how to make millions sell; polemics on how we are all losing don’t. People who are in the industry or comment on it — often TV “names” — have whole libraries of their books in circulation even though they have little to say. Just look at how much attention former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan’s book received with nary a mention of his role in stimulating the subprime boom. (I even met the God-like authority on his book tour and he kindly signed a dollar bill for me!) Less well known “News Dissectors” and independents are not considered as part of these cognoscenti.

In a world dominated by markets, marketing makes the difference. One publisher I spoke to came right out with it: he didn’t think it would pass muster with the book buyer at Barnes & Noble. No B&N, no book!

Mine is a book about the economic bubbles that burst. What I have encountered in trying to place it are cultural bubbles that haven’t.

In the meantime, I continue to write blogs and commentaries about the threat of a further collapse of the system. Again, some responded by not reading my arguments, but rather ventilating at me with a stream of simplistic slogans.

Writes one: “This is so stupid. A lot of the problem is Americans as usual spending more than they have and the dumb banks who let them get away with it. I feel sorry for neither.” Never mind that individuals don’t have the power of banks nor often understand how they have been defrauded! Writes another: “… do you believe in God? Why? You’ve seen no proof of it. You don’t have to see proof of a thing to see its results or consequences.” Duh?

A third: “I think the media has to take a lot of blame for all the derogatory remarks written about the economy and this country day in and day out.” Huh? It was the media that took billions in ads from deceptive mortgage and credit card companies and never investigated their scams and schemes. This writer adds: “PLEASE….just once in a while, write about something pleasant and with good common sense.”

A fourth: “As usual you don’t have a clue, just fan flames. It is not Bush’s bail out, its your damn demagogs , (sic).. you know the jack asses. Imploding economy, really?”

Trillions lost, housing market in free fall, credit markets seized up, jobs gone, inequality deepening, etc. etc. Really? Yes, really!

A fifth comment, and the winner in this circus of denial: “You’re hysterical, and, worse - out of focus!! Try saying something new — and constructive.”

Right, even as this knee-jerk “critic” ignores my report on an organization’s constructive efforts to help 20,000 homeowners in distress.

Sadly, too many of us don’t want to hear it because to hear it is to fear it, and to fear it is to feel impotent to change it. Easier, isn’t it, to retreat into partisan certainties (or personal putdowns) without considering what that whopper of a just announced deficit will mean for any new federal programs in the future?

Even worse, tuning it out makes it harder to press to get white-collar criminals on Wall Street prosecuted after they showed us that the biggest bank robberies today are not of banks, but by banks.

In a curious way, the denial by the public and pols about the financial crisis mirrors the avoidance that was dominant in the financial world where so many knew something was wrong, said nothing and did less. A former investment banker, Abigail Hoffman, wrote about this in the Financial Times:

“The subprime meltdown is a perfect example of the ‘emperor has no clothes’ phenomenon. These were complex products, yet obfuscation was considered acceptable. Bank chief executives should have asked more questions. I suspect they saw the juicy profits and hoped underlings understood the risks.

Investment banking culture has a cult aspect to it. If you work on Wall Street or in the City, you toe the party line. Despite lip-service to ‘diversity’, diversity of thinking is not encouraged. This atmosphere of craven conformity breeds at first complacency and then mistakes.”

So if it can happen in that world, it can happen in ours; yes, even in the progressive community and among liberal Democrats who invest energy grousing about McCain and O’Reilly, and don’t press Obama to engage with the deeper crisis. At best, his new ‘emergency” plan only touches the surface.

It’s always fun to shoot the messenger. It’s like, if we don’t admit it’s happening, it will go away. Sorry, I hate to disillusion you: it won’t.

– Cosimo is about to publish Danny Schechter’s Plunder, a book-length investigation into our economic calamity. Schechter edits and blogs for Mediachannel.org. Comments to Dissector@mediachannel.org

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I agree with everything you have written here. I believe it to be even more frightening when you add these comments to Naomi Klein’s thesis in the Shock Doctrine and we realize that the truly free market radicals of the right wing live for such moments so that they can ramrod their poliies through the legislative process without the proper scrutiny and debate. After all, this is how Phil Gramm slipped the legislation through that set up the housing crash with The Financial Services Modernization Act that replaced Glass-Steagall (the legislation that helped prevent another banking failure such as was seen during the Great Depression) and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act in 2001 that exempted from regulation energy trading on electronic platforms. And it is reported that Gramm is still very much alive in the McCain camp so his election would be a major disaster for the U.S. economy.

There are people not living on the pink cloud. Surviving in spite of the best efforts of the banksters, the credit car companies and the vendors of fuel who in the American West are charging vigerish on the inflated fuel bills they are collecting. Try 35 percent per month on the unpaid propane which has never even been a fossil fuel.
Shylocking is the coming profession with the politician playing as an accomplice.

Thank you Danny. You have always been ahead of the curve and that fact has pretty much left you standing alone seemingly barking at the wind or appearing foolish to the chattering crowds.
Your message has reached many of us who do appreciate your efforts and have heeded the warnings.
For several years now, I have been trying to warn my own grown children and extended family.
They replied with groans and moans about my always being the bearer of negative tidings and some went so far as describeing me as paranoid.
Now, one of them is trapped in a predatory loan, another is frustrated and angry that in spite of working 60 hours a week she is not able to save enough (due to the high cost of everything else) to put a down payment on a traditional home loan.
Since I was the bearer of such dire predictions, they now look to me to tell them how to fix it all.
Other than telling them to decide what they can live without, I tell them to help one another.
I tell them about the depression era and what people did to help their neighbors.
I tell them about the WPA and the public works systems. I tell them about entire communities that banded together (as one big family) and shared what they could. And I still warn them about the possibility of another stolen election.
Danny you have been describing the problem(s) for years now. Perhaps it is time to write about the solutions.
Yes, it is imperative these criminals are exposed and go to jail. This is an absolute necessity, so that our society (as a whole) does not descend further into lawless chaos.
I tell my family that it is time to think of
helping their neighbor(s) and community (as a whole) as an essential concept and element in their own individual survival plans.
They now understand why politics matters. They are putting down their Game Boys, Nintendos and opting out of cable 24 hour on demand movies. They are paying very close attention to national and local politics.
Now, that we have their attention, they need to understand and be told why their own survival depends upon the community (tribal sharing) concept.
Peace

BJ, you seem rather judgemental and excrutiatingly niave in your post.
News FLASH! The welfare you spoke of, does not, in fact, exist any more.
You can ALL thank the Clintons for that. The truth is, nicotine and alcohol has always been the (cheaper) medication for the unwashed, unholy and un-politically conected poor masses. You think for one moment I am joking? NOT!

Consider for a moment that nicotine (whether in ciggarette form, patches or gum) is an appetite suppressant. A single mom or even a married one for that matter, is grappling with the high
cost of food, fuel, medical care and clothing for their children.

Consider she is working two jobs, sleep deprived and her nerves are frayed to the nub. She is weighing her options. She can sacrifice her own hungry belly ( grab a ciggarette or a beer (another powerful appetite suppressant) or call her doctor (if she has one) pay a baby sitter and a medical office visit. Let’s add it up together now. Office visit: $250.00 (w/o insurance) and $150.00 with private health insurance.
Next she can decide to pay the $99.99, co-pay (if she has medical insurance) for the anti-depressant and $149.99 co-pay for sleep aids.
Or she can grab what her pocket book will actually accomodate (in the short run) and provide herself (at the convenience store near her home and probably within walking distance a some small amount of, albeit temporary, relief.
To see this for what it really is BJ, you have to actually get in the trenches and get a little dirty yourself.
Unfortunately, imost are listening to Linbaugh or worse, John McCain. Instead of of sitting in your self absorbed judgemental towers with your (I assume) good health and private insurance, I suggest you climb down and take a closer look.
In the name of all that might be holy or sacred STOP BLAMING THE POOR.

Dear blondesprite:

You do not know of what you speak. What makes you think that I don’t have or never have had problems? I have to tell you that you are the one sitting in the tower of babel. I can also tell you a dollar hamburger from the local burger joint is better than a bottled beer or cigarettes - cheaper - and will be less likely to cause future health problems. I know that chewing on a stalk of celery or carrots - head of lettuce also curbs ones appetite. I know that cooking those and adding salt make it taste a little better and making a warm soup out of it also curbs ones appetite and provides a little nutrition to boot. ALL of those are healthier and cheaper and better than beer or cigs. Alcohol is not an appetite depressant except that it might make one’s stomach feel full momentarily. It is a depressant. So perhaps if they quit the drinking the wouldn’t need an “anti depressant.” Not to mention, mixing alcohol with anit depressants is crazy. I certainly wouldn’t be mixing sleep aids with alcohol (and if the poor can afford prescription sleep aids, they are better off than me) I am a single parent. I average 4 to 5 hours of sleep a night if I am lucky. My ex is dead and left my daughter with nothing, but all else to his new wife. I don’t have a college education, but I work hard and make better than some that I know who do have one, yet struggle to be considered lower middle class.. I don’t have coverage for my daughter’s asthma and just one of her medications costs $148.00 last month, the other two were $98.60 and $89 each as well. Each month they go up. So I know a little bit about such medical bills. I have to drive 50 miles a day to and from work and my daughters school - so I know a little about the gas crunch. I spend at least $100 weekly on gas. Thus I only keep one vehicle. I work on the average 50 to 55 hours a week. So the term welfare might be outdated but it was used to get a point across to all. Aid is out there. I know, I deal with it daily. And I know a few personally who have it. I have never listened to Limbaugh nor McCain - FYI. I do have some health issues of my own, but my daughter comes first. Thus, I don’t spend my money on cigarettes nor beer or any other such garbage. I am not blaming the poor. One can be poor, but wise enough not to overspend on unessary and selfish items. I believe in God and his protection of me. Thus my belief allows me not to rely on temporary and useless addictive substances that put me in bad physical health, keeps food out of my child’s mouth and puts me and my child on welfare. So you see, blondesprite - your holier than thou attitude and opinion of me is wholly wrong. Perhaps you should quit standing over the trenches in your own cloud of finger pointing and get in them yourself.