While The Candidates Spar On Policy Points, Rome Is Ready To Burn

There is still an air of unreality in the economic debate that is increasingly dominating the election.

For one thing, it is still “AAU” (All About Us), as if what happens in the US economy in a globalized world is somehow separate and disconnected to what happens to people “out there.”

It is as if our growing deficit, subprime crisis and dropping dollar only affects the United States. Of course, that’s not true. OPEC has blamed the rising price of oil on speculators, the subprime scandal and the deliberate decline of the dollar.

The gigantic movements protesting US trade policy in South Korea shows that people worldwide do not want to be controlled by US corporate policies. All around the world workers are also challenging rising gas prices.

… We are mostly hearing about meager stimulus checks, not strategies for sustainability. We are bombarded with polarizing issues, not probes into the interests behind them.

What’s missing of course is that this verbal duel is taking place in the middle of unending wars and three global calamities — food, fuel and finance –that thus far have not been really popularized or discussed with the voters.

Smirking Chimp