Bread and Circuses

First of all a word of thanks to Barefoot for brining to mind today's quotation, a true pearl of wisdom proving that "the more that things change, the more they remain the same." With that acknowledgement aside, let us fondly recall the words of Decimus Junius Juvenalis, better known as "Juvenal" (ca 60-130 CE), who wrote:

"... long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions - everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses..."

An essay that is particularly relevant to the "circuses" part of the above quotation can be found at "A Winning Combination? Economic Theory Meets Sports" (Regional Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, January 2009). Once you understand that our "winning" economy can be explained in terms of "winning combinations" such as the Detroit Lions and the Atlanta Braves, government-centralized economic planning suddenly seems like it isn't such a bad idea after all.

As to the "bread" reference, be sure to check out the portion of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) website entitled "Failed Banks List," which "... contains useful information for the customers and vendors of these banks. This includes information on the acquiring bank (if applicable), how your accounts and loans are affected, and how vendors can file claims against the receivership."

The only shortcoming to this otherwise informative web site is that the failed banks aren't listed until after they've failed and it's too late for you to get your "bread" out of the local money-laundering shop. It does, however, do an excellent job of providing the reasons that your checking account is now in the hands of a bank on the other side of the county.

If your literary tastes run more along the lines of pure fiction, or perhaps even in the Eugène Ionesco-esque Theater of the Absurd genre, be sure to visit the Treasury Department's Emergency Economic Stabilization Act Web Site where you can see a collection of pork that is sufficient to strike fear into the hearts of every Islamic holy man between Cleveland, Ohio and downtown Islamabad, not to mention the entire Israeli government.

Once you have reached your saturation point relative to bread and/or circuses, you might recall that both the 100 reincarnations of Brutus and Company ("Getting to the point since March 15, 44 B.C.") and the legislative body better known as "Ali Pelosi and the 435 Thieves" have been assuring us that they, as a group, are as pure as the driven snow atop their former homes on Mount Olympus regarding even the slightest degree of culpability in the current financial quagmire. Unfortunately, the published record does not support their claims that they too were caught completely by surprise when the house of financial cards collapsed under its own weight late last year.

According to another web site maintained by the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, "The Financial Crisis: A Timeline of Events and Policy Actions" (Online Version or a 21-page downloadable PDF), the chain of events began on February 27, 2007 when "Freddie Mac" (the younger sibling of "Fannie Mae") announced that it would no longer purchase worthless mortgages and equally-worthless mortgage-backed securities. Other low points in this saga occurred on July 31 of 2007 when Bear Stearns liquidated two of its highly leveraged hedge funds that had invested heavily in various types of worthless-mortgage-backed securities and on August 16 of that year when the commercial debt of Countrywide Financial was downgraded to one step above cat-box liner and toilet paper.

So what about all this "Congressional Oversight?" Where in Hell were Chuck Schumer and Barney Frank while all this was going on? Probably out soliciting "campaign contributions" from the same businesses that were trashing the financial industry!

Personally, I think that it's time for a little retro-politics. In Juvenal's day, if a member of the Senate was found guilty of neglecting the public's best interest he would have been taken to the Coliseum and forced to take on the winner of the Lions vs. Christians game. If we're being fed a diet of bread and circuses, I say "Why not make it interesting?"