Greed

There are two very telling news stories today that go to the heart of the rot which is eating at the core of our society and which the Republican party and Mr. Bush have been guilty of supporting since the advent of Ronald Reagan. The first story concerns the virtual collapse of Lehman Brothers. Lehman was one of the giants of the financial community, and today it is barely hanging one by its fingernails. Over the past year, its stock has lost some 90% of its market value. That means that, if you purchased Lehman's stock last year, today nine out of every ten dollars you invested is gone, gone, gone. What has brought the giant so low is, surprise surprise, the mortgage meltdown crisis. Well, for what it is worth, another name for this could be "greed run rampant." Think about it.

The other story in todays headlines is an emerging scandal at the Interior Department. It seems that for most of the Bush administration's watch, the folks who were in charge of some ten billions of dollars per year of royalties owed the government for oil, gas and minerals removed from public lands have been playing fast and loose. There are allegations of ethics infractions ranging from acceptance of gifts (read bribes) through drugs and booze to sexual encounters between government overseers and people from the private sector who were supposed to be being watched by the public employees. Again, greed and its attendant vices of excess and moral laxity are being seen by the same people who are bringing us John McCain as acceptable behaviors.

Dear lord! According to the story I read, this has been going on for the last eight years. You can't tell me that nobody has noticed anything over the past eight years. What this tells me is that all of this was probably well known, but over looked as being...OK. This is what we are all trying to get to: expense account fun and games. Well, no. This is a cancer eating at our society, and, unless we get serious about treating it, it is going to be our doom.