More “ham-handed” government regulation and oversight, not less, might be just what we need ( ). But after a string of disasters from Enron to Wall Street, one must ask at what point corporate America forfeits its insistence that it can best police itself. Sure, the vast majority of companies and their people are upstanding folk who want to play by the rules. In its weakened state, it now may be going down for the count, with knockout blows delivered by the hubris, incompetence, greed, and conflicts of interest in key sectors of corporate America. Here’s another fundamental fact: This economy, as experienced by folks on Main Street, was already staggering some time ago. That’s a fundamental picture of where we are, and where we are headed. Oh, and merchants are refusing dollars in India and accepting Euros in Manhattan. Then there’s gasoline, food, and heating, basic expenses that are suddenly breathtaking. The overvalued stock market looks like a casino of smoke, mirrors, and all-too-frequent bubbles. People have no savings and have maxed out their credit cards. Tax codes have become skewed to the very wealthy. Jobs and entire industries have gone overseas. Two incomes are required where one used to suffice. Some of the fundamentals, macro and micro, anecdotal and otherwise, that matter to the majority of Americans are these: Wages and buying power have been virtually stagnant for decades. It was those “fundamentals” that Herbert Hoover was extolling just before the Great Depression hit. Just look at the “fundamentals” - and I don’t mean the fundamentals the experts love to cite when claiming that the economy is basically doing OK. Ordinary people, like yours truly, have understood for years that this country was not on sound economic footing. But this belated “recession” call seems particularly academic - a meaningless quibble over technicalities while the American Dream goes up in smoke. Harvard professor Martin Feldstein ( ), former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, says it could be the worst since World War II. The experts are finally seeing the light: most now agree we are in a recession.
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