PrintOctober 3, 2008
The Abyss-ification of political rhetoric
Anyone see a pattern here?
By Monday, Mr Steinbrück was having to orchestrate Germany's biggest bank bail-out, putting together a €35 billion loan package to save Hypo Real Estate. By then Europe was "staring into the abyss," he admitted. Belgium faced worse. It had to nationalise Fortis (with Dutch help), a 300-year-old bastion of Flemish finance, followed a day later by a bail-out for Dexia (with French help). . . .
"The world is on the edge of the abyss because of an irresponsible system," Fillon said, alluding to widespread anger over past lax regulation of financial markets and excessive lending.
and of course, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman chimes in today, as well in a column titled (what else?): Edge of the Abyss
And the people who should be steering us away from that abyss are out to lunch
Mother Jones magazine columnist Kevin Frum's column from yesterday was titled:
Staring Into the Abyss
