Absolutely not. I think I was misleading in talking about the establishment's "wiles" -- a word that suggests the aforesaid is cleverer in its obfuscations than is the case. I consider Ronald Reagan & Associates "Exhibit A" in making that argument: There was never anything particularly creative or subtle about their chronic misrepresentations; people at large believed them because they WANTED to believe them. CEOs likewise get a free ride these days; they have to satisfy astonishingly low standards of logic and evidence to get people to buy the free-market line.
BUT, history shows there is nothing like the bursting of a speculative bubble to clear the air of credulousness at large. Greenspan et al. can waffle on all they like, but if we really are staring something like 1929 in the face, the age of uninhibited marketplace "solutions" to everything is well and truly over.
Or I could be wrong. In that case, I propose a new national motto: "Mundus vult decipi -- ergo decipiatur." (The world wants to be deceived -- therefore let it be deceived.)
Carl Remick
-----Original Message----- From: Doug Henwood [mailto:dhenwood at panix.com] Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 1998 12:41 AM To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com Subject: RE: stox -- and the probability of resistance
Carl Remick wrote:
>Re "one thing about the stock market crashing -- it would spell a death
>knell to
>privatization of social security."
>
>That's what I surmised the other day, but Doug said the always wily
>establishment would force privatization on through to pump the market
up
>again. I have no doubt about the wiles of the powers that be, but I
>think this would an impossibly tricky maneuver to pull off in the face
>of a great panic -- which indeed just might be on the horizon.
Well, Carl, you're the PR professional. Don't you think they could pull it off?
Doug