It's All Your Fault

The L.A. Times has a cover article devoted to explaining how we will be responsible if the economy tanks. Consumers' free-spending ways face obstacles breaks down some of the numbers that have been crunching working people while speculating wildly about where the economy is going, mostly trying to say that things should be fine.

The real zinger is at the end of the article:

"Predicting a recession is pretty simple. Since consumer spending is 70% of the economy, if we become cautious and close our wallets, then we go into a recession,"

So, economic crises are not the stuff of speculation and over-production. The housing market bubble, which was fueled not simply by sub-prime mortgages but by high-end residential investments, won't have anything to do with it. The higher prices people are paying for food because that industry has found an opportunity to gouge working people with the excuse of ethanol won't be at fault. It will be because silly people get nervous and spend their money on food ...

Wal-Mart said its customers were spending more on lower-margin items such as food and less on clothes and other higher-margin goods.

Don't worry, Congress is already hard at work trying to make sure that hedge fund managers don't get hurt by our fickle buying habits.

Terrorist Attack in the Heartland

Two weeks ago, terrorists struck New York City. No one was too surprised, as it is New York City, after all. But yesterday terrorists struck Minneapolis, collapsing a major bridge that's responsible for 200,000 cars a day. At this point, only 9 people have died, and there is no clear number on the injuries.

But these aren't the terrorists that the media keeps warning us about. These are not the terrorists who come from a foreign country or "foreign" religion to wage war against a nation which has devastates their economy and people daily. These are the terrorists that sit on city and county governing bodies, deciding to cut funding to basic infrastructure and deny necessary maintenance. These are the terrorists who make the conscious decisions to undermine public health and safety by closing down hospitals. These are the terrorists that, despite record profits and booming economies, see the need to keep the corporations in power even more firmly entrenched in power down to every last penny.

Reports by the Minnesota Department of Transportation in 2001 indicated problems with the bridge, particularly with steel joints because of "unanticipated out of plane distortion" of girders. The report also noted a lack of redundancy in the main truss system, indicating that a single point of failure could collapse the bridge. A 2005 report recommended replacement of the bridge, though the decision was made to avoid that option.

Even if this collapsed bridge on the I-35W turns out to be a fluke, it remains emblematic of the collapsing infrastructure all around us. The ruling class is carrying out a war, and they don't care who the casualties are.