I had a friend once who was convinced by a phone scammer to pay $600 towards "sales taxes" so that he could come over to a car lot and pick up a free late-model Buick. His rational mind screamed at him that it was a hustle, that here was no car. But the desire for a new car compelled him to rattle off his credit card particulars to a cold-calling stranger. He called me immediately after he hung up."
"Of course its a scam," I told him. "Call the credit card company now and stop it."
"But I can't," he said. "If I do there's not even the possibility of a Buick."
It is a wonderful, trusting and optimistic instinct that lets us think that the powers that be have a Buick for us, that our sunny little economy, so cherished and familiar, is coming back to us, and that the triple-smart good guys now in charge and burning the midnight oil can make it all better. Our collective fingers are crossed.
But as a newly regular reader of The Automatic Earth, I have grave doubts about what can be done within the current political and economic systems. I've been an Obama supporter as long as he's been on the scene. I think he's shown good political instincts, and has the right values for the moment. Unfortunately it's all too big for a Washington solution. Obama and his team are like those skilled and courageous firemen at the World Trade Center. Skill and courage can sometimes be pretty meager assets.
I doubt that within the government, the regulatory community, or the financial industry there exists the imagination or the will to embrace substantive change. Powerful moneyed interests will be protected, and we will see the crisis deepen. What will happen then, especially at a grassroots level, is the question. Will we see an America that is more nativist? racist? generous? cooperative? fascist? informed? ignorant? spiritual?