Well, Christmas is done and the houseguests could leave pretty much any time now. Thanks for coming, and come again when you can’t stay quite so long. With Christmas over, it means that 2009 has been wrestled to the ground, and it’s time to drive a stake through its heart.
The first year of Obama’s term has been exciting. Perhaps not quite what we were all expecting, but exciting, anyway. I guess we successfully avoided a second Great Depression, and settled for a Pretty Good Depression instead. A year ago there were dire warnings that the banking system was so close to collapse that we should anticipate the ATM machines all clogging up and checks not clearing. It didn’t come to that, though a trillion dollars got shoveled out the door without a whole lot of accounting.
We should all feel better for that, though our houses have lost half their value and retirement savings will run out by the time you are 66. If you really shop around, you can get 1.5 percent on a savings account. After taxes and inflation, you only lose a little principal each year. Under the circumstances, this is viewed as a success.
I was thinking about that when I made breakfast the other day. My toaster came from a bank. There was a time when banks not only paid interest on deposits, but as a bonus they gave you a cheap electric drill or a toaster with every new account. It’s a cheap toaster, but it has outlasted the bank that gave it to me by something like 20 years. The bank died in the savings and loan crisis in the 1980s. The toaster, on the other hand, continues to work day after day, year after year. It hasn’t required a bailout, though bagels sometimes get stuck in it.
Now banks don’t care about deposits. They borrow money from the Treasury at 0 percent and lend it to credit card users at 21 percent. So they are doing quite well these days. If they don’t have to talk to retail customers, that’s even better. In the same time they could open a modest savings account for a retail customer they can borrow billions from Uncle Sam. The Treasury, of course, is broke, so they borrow the money from China at 3 percent, lend it the banks at 0 percent, and lie to the Chinese that we have some plan for paying it back someday. Investing in toasters (which are made in China) is looking like a great idea these days.
While the economic meltdown pushed two wars off the front page, we still have two wars. The proposed exit from Iraq, if it is happening at all, is a slow-motion affair. Meanwhile, the new, improved war in Afghanistan is getting bigger, if not better, all the time. There’s not much clarity on either one of those. The withdrawal from Afghanistan in 18 months isn’t really a withdrawal. Obama said troops will start coming home then, but apparently he meant two soldiers, and not necessarily any more.
The health-care reform effort has raged on all year, but the only accomplishment is an object lesson in how worthless and corrupt Congress is. The Senate spent more time debating whether to debate the proposal than they have actually dealing with the substance. Then, when dealing with the substance, they have done the heavy lifting for their big campaign contributors. The doctors start out with “first do no harm.” Congress isn’t bound by any such rule, and allows a single Senator to block everything. There is a big push to get a vote on something anything in the Senate before the end of the year. My guess is that we will be getting a lump of coal out of this one and the insurance monopoly will decline to insure you because of it.
Then it goes to reconciliation, where the special interests can water it down further, and lard it up with special favors. It’s enough to make me sick except, with my insurance coverage, I can’t afford it.
Through a difficult year, with problems heaped on problems, Obama did what Obama apparently does best. He gave speeches. Obama speeches were as ubiquitous as “Seinfeld” reruns. They were great speeches, filled with lofty goals and elegant metaphors. His speeches were literary marvels, delivered with a cool and calm tone. They were free of clutter such as details, specifics, or actual results. Unemployment is still over 10 percent, the economy is on life support, nobody has a clue what the goal is in either war, health-care “reform” is likely to make things worse, and nothing will come from the big climate conference in Denmark. But you can bet Obama will give a lovely speech.
Meanwhile, how about that Tiger Woods?
Tom Clyde served as Park City attorney in the 1980s and is the author of “More Dogs On Main Street.” He has been a columnist at The Park Record for more than 20 years.