That Old Martial Spirit
A great orgasm shuddered through the money world last week when Mario Draghi paused between scamorza con arugula
tidbits to remark that the European Central Bank (ECB) would stop at
nothing to keep the financial blood of Europe circulating. Of course you
wonder how many pony glasses of Campari he knocked back before that
whopper came out. The markets squirmed with glee. I suppose it feels
good to have quantities of smoke blown up your ass.
This
is the last month of the Great Pretending over on that lovely continent
of exquisitely preserved towns and the corniche winding down to the
crashing green sea, and the lunch table under the grape arbor... I mean,
compared to, say, the universal slum vista of tilt-up, strip-mall
America along the deafening highways, with the wig shops, tattoo dens,
pawn shacks, dollar stores, parking lot swap-meets, and supersized
citizens waddling through the greasy 100-degree heat of a new climate
regime. When things blow, as you may be sure they will, at least the
Europeans will sink amid all that loveliness while the American
experience will be more like getting flushed down a toilet.
The more you reflect on the Draghi remark, the more you wonder whether
absolutely anyone out there is paying attention to the fact that there
is no money backing up these pledges of continued bailouts. All the
major banks of Europe are functionally insolvent and all of the nations
that charter the banks are structurally insolvent, and the economies
that depend on the circulation of funds around this Euro organism really
cannot escape some sort of cascading collapse. The big unknown element
of the story is how angry and batshit crazy the citizens of all these
countries will get when summer ends. I don't believe they will fight
each other just now, but it is very likely that the lampposts of all
these lovely towns and cities will be decorated with swinging corpses of
bankers, ministers, and a choice selection of politicians while a fight
over the table scraps of a 30-year-long debt banquet occupies the folks
in the streets.
Over on this side of the Atlantic, the
question arises: where are the good guys? Why is there not one national
political figure in the USA who has a comfortable relationship with
truth? Perhaps the elimination of truth in our banking and governing
affairs is so complete now that there is no truth left to have a
relationship with. Or perhaps no American person of integrity believes
in the system enough to defend it. Which raises the corollary question:
where are the brave persons who would oppose this baleful culture of
lies, swindles, and rackets?
I never tire of reminding
readers that life is tragic. Individuals and groups in societies make
bad choices or fail to meet a challenge that history presents. When
persons fail, events take over and lead all persons where events will.
Hence, events will take over the election clown show between an errand
boy and a horse's ass. The distracted, degenerate public of tattooed
soccer moms and men wearing baby clothes have no idea how quickly the
supermarket shelves can go empty. The banking system is headed over
Niagara Falls and it will take all our comforts and conveniences with it
as it goes over.
Generally people prefer order over
chaos, so don't be too surprised if some general in the Pentagon
reluctantly decides that there is no choice but to step in and become
the government. This would be an awful and momentous thing in our
history, but it is exactly what we've asked for with our pornographic
politics of lying, grifting, swindling, and racketeering. What I
describe, of course, is the flip-side of martial law. Once civilians
declare it, things have a tendency to get martial real fast - meaning
that the feckless and hesitant civilians who allowed the situation to
develop get swept out of the way in favor of anyone who can get
something done. And what will have to get done in short order is the
reorganization of a banking system to get money flowing again and the
reopening of supply lines for food and medicine in particular.
This is not an outcome I promote, you understand, but it is the
scenario that a foolish people in a depraved nation are sleepwalking
into. Take away the pizza pockets and the Pepsi and anything can happen.
We may even live to see Mitch McConnell roasted on a spit in some
Kentucky parking lot.
