Government Efforts To Blame Everyone Else For Economy Working Out Beautifully
Obama, in particular, is benefiting from efforts to straw men the hell out of American big business.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama benefits from a broadly held perception that others bear the bulk of responsibility for state of the U.S. economy, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll published on Tuesday.
Asked who was responsible for the economic meltdown, 80 percent in the poll blamed banks, financial institutions and corporations. Some 70 percent also blamed consumers for taking on too much debt and the former Bush administration for lax regulation. Only 26 percent said the Obama administration was not doing enough to turn the situation around.
You’ll notice how they had to combine the people blaming consumers for taking on too much debt and the Bush adminsitration for deregulation in order to get to 70%. I guess we’re not allowed to know how many picked each choice.
Regardless, the efforts by our political leaders to manufacture populist outrage over AIG bonuses and executive gold parachutes has, indeed, worked beautifully in obscuring the ugly (for them) truth about the economic downturn: It was brought on by government intervention in the credit markets. It was government encouraging lenders, through regulatory pressure and the promise of bailouts, to loan indiscriminately.
But everyone is so busy kvetching about the latest executive bonus news to hold the politicians accountable. Which is just the way the politicians, and their enablers in the media, love it.
