In Who's Hands Our Fate?

I read an article in today's Wall Street Journal about currency speculation affecting the Euro. The Euro is under a lot of pressure because of sovereign debt problems, most notably in Greece, but also Spain, Portugal and Ireland. I was quite affected by an account of a dinner party at a private townhouse somewhere in Manhattan on the 8Th of February, hosted by the investment firm of Moness, Crespi, Hardt and Co. This was billed as an "Idea Dinner" and the topic of conversation was opportunities for wealth acquisition through speculation on the embattled Euro. Lemon roasted chicken and fillet minion was served and the guest list included several "heavy hitters" in the hedge fund game including representatives of George Soros. Soros single handily wrecked the UK Pound in 1992 and made a bundle doing it. Three days after the dinner, the euro took yet another pounding. It appears that sometime between cocktails and desert, these distinguished gentlemen decided to throw the European Union to the wolves. The article reported that if the Euro ever drops to parity (one to one) with the US dollar, a lot of these guys are going to get very rich (or I should say, richer). The journal also said there is potential for what it calls "a career trade" in other words an opportunity for an individual to make so much money he could go buy this own country somewhere and live like a king without lifting a finger for the rest of his days. Imagine having billions in your checking account at the expense, of course, of the working people of an entire continent.

This article set me to imagining my fictional Greek counterpart. I'll call him Stavros. (Stavros was a character on "Kojak" but it's all Greek to me). Stavros lives in Athens. He has been married a number of years and has a couple of kids. His family is everything to him. He works as a clerk or some other low level white collar job. He likes a beer (or an ouzo or whatever) now and again and goes to an occasional soccer match but he has no serious vices. He enjoys watching his kids play the violin, perform in the school play or run up and down a soccer pitch. Stavros is a regular guy. Unfortunately, Stavros has a problem. His government, through it's own incompetence corruption and political dirty dealing, has run a up a huge debt that it cannot pay and the financial jackals are gathering. Stavros does not know how this is going to affect him. Will he lose his job? Will his kids school close? What about medical coverage, will his ability to take family members to a doctor if needed be eroded? What does his government mean by "austerity programs"? Who is going to have to get "austere" and how "austere" do they mean?

Another thing that Stavros doesn't know is that his fate is being decided on another continent by a room full of fat cats in expensive suits over lemon roasted chicken and fillet minion. These guys don't know Stavros and wouldn't particularly care about him if they did. In fact, if Stavros and his wonderful family wound up in an Athens homeless shelter, or worse, This group wouldn't lose a wink of sleep over it. They would rest easily with the clear consciences that were given to them as a reward for their religious devotion to the "free" market. Nobody elected this crew yet they have more power then almost any elected official.

Now there is probably an argument here for checking "out of control" government waste and some other conservative catch words, but the problem is that these guys in New York have meetings like this all the time and their influence is worldwide. If they don't see an opening through some government's debt, they find a chink in the armor somewhere else. At that level they stand to make billions if they guess right and lose pennies if they are wrong, while down at the bottom, guys like me and Stavros, and our families, neighbors, schools, hospitals, fire departments, garbage collectors and on and on and on, get screwed.

In the last three years we have witnessed in this country what our "Captains of Industry" have done for us with their creative finance and other gimmicks. They have plunged us into the worst recession since the 1930s and there is a real possibility that we will not recover fully from it, at least not in my lifetime. Now, there is plenty of blame to go around here and not the least to the general public who happily participated in the greed fest in a variety of ways, but it does begs the question: How much influence over our lives and our futures do we want some body's dinner guests in Manhattan to have? How long our we going to allow billionaire investors to have the power of life and death over us? How do we go about unstacking the deck because this game is definitely fixed and we really need to look into changing it.

It is pretty clear to me that it is very dangerous to rely on big business for our livelihoods. The fact that we do rely on them so heavily is because we have become so affluent that we actually fear any sort of erosion in our "standard of living" whatever that is. In others words, we are addicted to wealth. The only way we will ever thrive in the long run is to break this addiction.

How do we do it? The first step is to reevaluate what we actually need to live as opposed to what we just want. What are the basic needs: food, shelter and sanitation. How many of these things are we reliant on big corporations for and, more importantly, how many of these things can we produce for ourselves? Do we absolutely need it new or can we get some of it through thrift stores? Can we grow tomatoes in the back yard and maybe trade a few to our neighbor, who raises chickens for eggs. I live in a heavily urbanized area and I have done exactly that. Think about when we buy the things that we have to buy at a store. Do we have to get it at Wal Mart, or is their a "Mom and Pop" option. It is always healthier to invest in ones own community then to have our wealth sucked out to far away places to fund some body's lemon chicken and fillet minion party. I am not advocating giving up our homes and form communes in the woods but I am saying that there are things we can do to help take back our economy and give us back more control over our own lives. We are blessed to live in a prosperous democracy where we still can think for ourselves and produce for ourselves if we choose to. No transition is without pain but transition is going to come whether we like it or not. In self-reliance there is security.