Ramble: How Now Brown (Economy)....

Geez, Louise. Can you believe this mess?  The art of the economy is being tempered, big time, with the media toning down the coverage of the (dire) financial meltdown, at least as far as the graphics go.  Just like with death, we are dealing with euphemisms: stocks have “slid”, markets have “gyrated” but not “crashed”  and companies have been struggling and tottering and floundering so that failure is  not part of the lexicon. Even the Wall Street Journal is staying away from words like crash, panic, pandemonium, apocalypse...

What it is depends on the definition of is.  When I left town, this week, I thought it was going to be a wild week.  Well, that wild week is c0ntinuing  and now I'm back from Colorado's Vail Valley. 

My last leave-taking was much more symbolic.  Still, a shift-shaping week so let's look at the graphics of it all.  I give you my own rendering at left.  Wall Street will never the same. 

I've looked for art that can represent this eclipse/ellipse.  The best is this week's Newsweek with Treasury Secretary  Paulson as the King of the Economy.   Do we need a scepter waved? What is interesting is the dual covers for Time Magazine, one with the Everyday Joe, right,  falling down the economic drain (for the U.S. domestic cover with the title: How Wall Street Sold Out America) and the other, showing the Bull of Wall Street , at left, (for the International markets).  The photo for our very political times, and the photo with the story for the rest of the world.  Well, the tv has been off so all I've done is note the headlines.

Fickle, thy name is woman markets.

The biggest Wall Street story most Americans haven't yet heard of is the $62 trillion unregulated credit default swaps market.  Hedge funds are private and not traded on a central exchange.  No art with this, though.

Well, these are stories that have all happened while I've been enjoying the beautiful aspens turning in Vail.  The drive back to Santa Fe was most glorious.   Sometimes things happen so quickly, though, that the cover art can't explain it.

My take, as a mom? We need to understand how to live within our means, even when the rest of our culture and society will do anything to sell us everything. I've only had one child who was thoroughly instructed through the educational system in the important aspects of personal finance.  That's sad.

Recession Art - the best was New York Magazine's  The Panic of 2008 by James J. Cramer, left, which is so old by now (and not yet in my mailbox).  Such is the speed of the markets and change.

Pure dissonance: CNN's Nancy Grace on the missing Caylee story. This is another dead white girl sort of distraction story.  I happened across this in channel flipping last week and saw that about $250,000 is the reward posted for Caylee, but I wonder how much money CNN is making on Nancy covering the story?  Let me not go off, though, on how deeper content is buried in the tabloidization of the news.

Crazy times.  I still stand by my own art.  Tough times.  Now and ahead.

Comments

[tut-tut]

You've summed it up quite succinctly, especially with the "dead white girl" distracter. I've been dumbfounded that this is being carried by major network news, at least during the a.m. breakfast shows.

[anthony]

What is absolutely ludicrous, is that people are all looking at Wall Street and saying "they are the Villains". President Clinton, President Bush, and ALL of our elected officials, proposed and passed bills that gave new and wider lending ability to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. We have clips of first the house,then Clinton, then Barney Frank and Dodd, and we have it all on C-span. People beating their chests telling the downtrodden that "we have spoken for you" and arranged cheap financing of everything from cars to rims and homes. Our elected officials told the Financial institutions to stop discriminating against the poor and minorities. So the lenders lent money, Fannie and Freddie bought these loans, repackaged them with some good loans and resold them. Our House, our Senate and our Presidents (TWO not ONE) were all taking credit a few years ago. It was well intentioned but it was the "great failed experiment". It was Democrats, it was Republicans. But to watch Washington all point everywhere but themselves is laughable. So lets all fry Wall Street and look to the idiots that started it all to fix it? At this point, it needs fixing, its no longer liberal or conservative, rather "we hit an iceberg and are sinking". Did anyone on the Titanic ask what party the Captain was registered in? This can be fixed, it's just a shame the culprits are getting the ball again.