Expensive estates and beach-front homes in Hawaii might well provide insight into exactly who runs this country and answer the question as to whether or not the United States has indeed become a special interest plutocracy, where the finance industry is now the sacred cow that reports to no man (or woman). Indeed as Wall Street battles regulation and fights for lower taxes, side-stepping transparency and accountability along the way, it does indeed seem that the driver, drunken with excess greed, that killed the innocent pedestrian (the average US consumer and worker) was indeed rewarded with ownership of the corner liquor store (the bailout). We’ll look at the Hawaiian real estate barometer in a moment for the pièce de résistance.
Warren Buffet tells us that we should get over our anger at Wall Street and get on with life, that the bailout was necessary and without it the economy would be in vastly worse shape. While I agree with the latter half of this statement, the fact that financial institutions were so inherently embedded at the foundation of our quality of life – based on decades of their encouragement of people/companies to live on credit and leverage themselves into homes – tells us all how they got there. Of course the financial industry’s collapse would have imperiled us all, credit-heroin addicts reeling from the pangs of withdrawal as our dealers wallow in self-pity.
For most Americans, life is sliding in the wrong direction. “Incomes are down about four percent since the recession began in December of 2007.” Washington Post, September 28th. And unemployment and fears associated with job and income loss remain the biggest breaks on any economic recovery. Statistically, some economists argue that since economic growth has begun under their archaic measurements, the recession is over, but you have to be a completely insensitive idiot to believe that statement.
While I don’t agree with much of anything that the Tea Party adherents stand for – lower taxes and de-regulation that can only really benefit those that got us into this mess in the first place – I have to admit that their reaction to a government beholden to special interests is right on the money; their solutions are, however, only a recipe for greater economic disaster. Where is the pay-back of the estimated $2 trillion (probably an ultraconservative number, by the way, but I am trying to be pragmatic) hit that Wall Street excess cost the U.S. economy, a number that has to be multiplied by the global damage that emanated from Wall Street wannabees in other countries as well? Where is the drunk driver getting jail time and financial liability for the hit-and-run destruction left in his wake?
Back to the Hawaiian real estate barometer. AOLNews.com (September 27th) ran an article asking who owned the priciest homes in those chi chi islands? Foreign magnates, especially from the nouveau riche from China and other obvious Asian powerhouses? While 20% of those luxury homeowners are non-residents, nary a one from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc. reports AOL. Out of the top 25 most expensive island homes, only two are owned by entertainers. “You might anticipate that some technology heavy-hitters would own $30 million second (or third) homes in Hawaii, and yes, four computer/software-based fortunes are on the list, starting with Michael Dell's $60 million manse,” says AOL, adding: “How about those who made fortunes in coal, oil, natural gas, retail, aerospace, mining, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, railways, autos, the media or real estate development? Zero, zip, nada. Only one business mogul is in the 25, and that fortune was built in health care services.”
But the truth of which sector really owns premium Hawaiian land is the one that doesn’t make anything, and makes money when markets rise… or fall: finance. “Investment bankers, hedge fund managers and others whose fortunes flow from financial services own half of these super-costly homes.” AOL. With the Supreme Court giving corporate America a virtual carte blanche to finance election campaigns of friendly politicians (Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission) and with the bulk of disposable cash sitting in the coffers of Wall Street players, it seems pretty obvious how to get elected in this country, unless you “Meg Whitman” your own mega-wealth as you endeavor to buy elected office.
Don’t get me wrong; we absolutely need and value a solid financial sector; it is indeed the lifeblood of a strong economy. But we really have to create value from the products, resources, technologies and services we create and provide in order to have “internal national sustainability” in a global marketplace. The “I’ll go anywhere in the world where there is a buck to be made even if it hurts my own country” – particularly pernicious in an industry that does not have to take the time to build a factory or establish an infrastructure base in international investment (the case with the financial sector) – remains a recipe for “more of the same” sometime in t he future. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Poet and philosopher George Santayana.
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