Heck of a Job Brownie, I mean, Bernie

On the morning of October 14, in the midst of our financial crisis and the Dow Jones trading at 9388, the Federal Reserve announced that it would be taking even more drastic measures to "save" Wall Street. Specifically, the United States taxpayers were about to buy stock in the nine largest banks in the country. $250 billion of stock.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernancke stated: "These steps will allow us to restore more normal market functioning, and encourage private capital to further support the reinvigoration of financial markets">

It did nothing of the sort. Today the Dow Jones is at 8378 almost 11% lower with extreme volatility each day. The so called credit crunch continues to exist. Markets throughout the globe are melting down. Foreclosures continue to rise. More and more workers are losing their jobs.

Yet another example of an over exuberance in the belief of success that has been the hallmark of the Republican control of Washington for these many years.

Mission Accomplished. Heck of a Job Brownie. The fundamentals of the economy are strong. If you have a Bazooka in your pocket you probably won't have to use it.

Leave it to savant idiot Alan Greenspan to shed some light on why this keeps re-occurring.

In testimony before Congress this week Greenspan stated: "Well, remember that what an ideology is, is a conceptual framework with the way people deal with reality. Everyone has one. You have to -- to exist, you need an ideology. The question is whether it is accurate or not."

Notice that Greenspan correctly does not define ideology as merely political. Rather, an ideology is how you deal with everything. I would argue it not only dictates how you deal with reality but helps define reality for you.

Republican policy makers during the Bush years, like Greenspan, have had flaws in their ideology or belief systems. Those flaws lead to compounding disastrous decisions repeatedly.

The belief that Iraqis could be viewed as a homogeneous entity that would rise up to depose Saddam and welcome anyone who helped.

The belief that everyone in America must have some means to find out about the risks of natural disasters and be able to find their own way to remove themselves from danger.

The belief that capitalism and the free market can cure any economic ills.

The belief that the best way to help the lower and middle class is to help the well off.

These are basic ideologies with flaws and they come from people who never really lived like most Americans and never really cared to.

November 4 will be time to ensure we get a new set of leaders with some new belief systems. Ideologies that reflect reality rather than ideologies that project a reality that very few people have the luxury of living.