For a long time, many American corporations have been dealing with phony profits with resultant large salary and bonus payments to the corporate big-wigs and their friends on Wall Street. Most of them have just been content to engage in "Crony Capitalism" and "Creative Financing". All this while the hard core (aka pseudo) Republicans have been content in blaming the Clintons - Bill followed by Hillary, Saddam Hussein, Iran and more recently the illegal immigration.
The rigged financial game just got un-rigged. Even now, the sub-prime mortgages (five to ten percent of all the mortgages in USA) are being used by the financial institutions to get tax payers to cough up money, so that they can continue with their "Crony Capitalism" under the cover of preserving the "Service Industry" and the "Manufacturing Sector". Let us hope the salary caps and the freeze on bonus and dividends that the Democrats want to place on the management (of all these near-bankrupt companies) will make all realize that the time for the 'pigs feeding at the trough' is over. Now the Republicans referring to the bail-outs are not talking about the "Nanny Government". Though some Republican Congressmen to their credit are asking the corporations (who are seeking govt. help) some tough questions. The game the hard core (aka pseudo) Republicans now are playing are the near-racists jokes on Obama, while the country is sinking and being robbed by "patriotic Americans". When the press wants to be serious, they talk about Palin. I was heartened to see the view expressed on Fox News Channel, that Republicans have to come up with policy alternatives and solutions to the problems, rather that just be whiners of what the Democrats are doing. The conservatives - via their news channels, talk-radio hosts and commentators, will soon be irrelevant, even with Republicans, if they are not more intellectual. The attempt to make easy-money (aka profits) is of course not only confined to USA. It also involves Europe. These include the trans-national financials like International Banks, Hedge Funds, Credit Default Swaps, Sovereign Funds etc etc. Unfortunately as the big corporate giants struggle and trash-around to stay alive, a lot of grass will be trampled upon. Many Goans in the diaspora may find their jobs threatened and some forced into early retirement. Seeing how things are going on in USA, likely the same is going on in India; as the economy and the stock market nose-dives. Likely there will be a severe damper on the year-end holiday revelry in the Goan Paradise. Regards, GL ------------ Marshall Mendonza it is advisable to postpone expenses wherever possible besides tightening the belt at home. Perhaps Gabe or Mervyn or anyone else with insight could give us a low down in layman's language on the current economic crises and where it could lead us and how best we should be able to cope up with it.
