by Howard Kunstler
\nKunstler.com<\/p>\n
Beyond the Kubler-Ross maelstrom of denial, anger, depression, etc., besetting this spavined republic, lies the actual grief provoking it all<\/strong> \u2014 especially the shocking loss of national purpose embodied by the muppets and puppets onstage nightly vying to bring out the worst in us in an election season far from just silly. Judging from their demeanor in the so-called debates, the candidates seem not only sick of their opponents but of themselves, a fitting outcome perhaps in a nation that hates what it has become.<\/strong><\/p>\n The moment that got me in Sunday night\u2019s Democratic boasting contest, hosted by CNN, was Hillary crowing about the great achievement of Obamacare \u2014 getting thirty million uninsured Americans on some kind of health plan!<\/strong> The part she left out, of course, is that most of those plans have deductible ceilings in the multiple thousands of dollars, guaranteeing that the policy holder goes bankrupt if he\/she seeks medical help. Who does she think she\u2019s fooling, anyway? This sort of arrant lying is what drives millions into the camp of Trump.<\/strong><\/p>\n Even valiant old Bernie muffs every opportunity to explain the death-grip that Wall Street crony politics has on this land<\/strong>: the US Department of Justice did nothing under six-plus years of Attorney General Eric Holder to prosecute criminal misconduct in banking. And then President Obama, who is ultimately responsible, did absolutely nothing to prompt that Attorney General into action or replace him with somebody who would act. Obama\u2019s lame excuse back in the days when informed people were still wondering about this, was that the bankers had done nothing patently illegal enough to warrant investigation \u2014 a claim that was absurd on its face.<\/p>\n Obama didn\u2019t do any better with the regulating agencies that are supposed to make criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, especially the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged with keeping financial markets honest. <\/strong>There was nothing that difficult about those criminal matters now fading in the nation\u2019s memory: for instance, the bundled bonds (CDOs) of \u201cnon-performing\u201d mortgages designed to pay off the issuers handsomely when they failed. A child of ten could have unpacked the Goldman Sachs Timberwolf<\/em> bond caper. Eventually Goldman and others were slapped with mere fines that could be (and were) written off as the cost of doing business.What a difference it would have made if Lloyd Blankfein and a few hundred other bank executives were personally held accountable and sent to cool their heels in federal prison.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n