By Danny Schechter.

Where Are Progressive Voices On The Economic Crisis Wrecking America?

Boston, MA: The media reform conference was just starting in Minneapolis
when word bounded in from New York that the market dropped 394 points as
oil prices rose and, to borrow an Iraq war word, unemployment “surged.”
The number of unemployed people grew by 861,000 in May — rising to 8.5
million, a major jump even as the stats don’t count people who have
given up looking for work.

We need a National Conference on Economic Reform, and fast.

At the rate the markets are melting, President Bush, who has sought to
compare himself to Churchill and Reagan (and occasionally to Harry
Truman) when he is not being a divine messenger, may leave office with
the legacy of Herbert Hoover, the president who failed to foresee, much
less stop, The Great Depression. His faith-based remedies have backfired.

For reasons I have been grappling with, the economic crisis is just not
that compelling or sexy to the many progressives who are stirred into
action by every ugly utterance by Bill O’Reilly, or any partisan burp in
the war of words between Hill, Bam and Mac, to put the political race in
the language of the writers of the headlines in NY tabloids.

Cheering on political personalities or mounting one more issue oriented
e-mail campaign is certainly easier than confronting the economic and
power imbalances caused by the structural conflicts in our economy.

Knock, knock, people, I am sorry to intrude.

As one of the early organizers of the media reform battle, I haven’t
lost any of my passion about the campaign to stop media concentration or
keep the Internet free and the net neutral.

At the same time, the deeper crisis we are facing goes beyond a
one-track issue-oriented focus.

It is astounding to me how few of us discuss the way economic and
business issues are discussed, or connect with the fight against
foreclosures and growing economic inequality.

Last week, it was reported that l out of every 10 homes are at risk,
while we heard reports, OMG, about celebrities being affected in the
Hamptons and Beverly Hills. Actually, the foreclosure rate is the
highest ever recorded! The percentage of equity Americans have in their
homes is now below 50 percent.

We cannot assume that the economic crisis is covered any better than the
war, or electoral issues. In fact, just as our media was accurately
accused, by no less a manipulator than Scott McClellan, of being
“deferential enablers” on the war on Iraq, it played a similar role in
covering-up the build up of the subprime/subcrime problem. Many outlets,
engorging on ads from lenders and credit card companies, looked the
other way along with non-regulating regulators.

My own recent attempt to put the issue of financial news on the agenda
at the Media Conference was met with indifference.

The Democratic primaries only barely touched on the financial crisis.
There was far more buzz about sex, race, and religion than class and the
colossal rip-off by Wall Street firms who “securitized” millions of
mortgages.

Late last week, there was little uproar when Attorney General Mukasey,
ruled out any major investigation into the scams that the bankers
profited from. Some of us were too busy denouncing that other evil M -
Rupert Murdoch.

Where are the whistle blowers to expose a new wave of insider trading or
to focus on the role of speculators in commodities that has led to a
global food crisis? This has been reported – NYT: “Oil futures surged to
$138, fueling suspicions of a commodities bubble”— but not really
investigated.

While economic bubbles pop and others are created, many of us seem to
live in a bubble of denial and detachment from the machinations of
corporate power and how it is destroying the lives of millions of
working families.

For weeks, I watched and read many economic reports on how the economy
is coming back, (i.e. ‘we are closer to the end than the beginning’) and
the crisis is over, until it became clear that it wasn’t.

Economist Nouriel Roubini reported at week’s end:

“The complacency that took hold of financial markets - after the bailout
of the Bear Stearns’ creditors and the extension of the lender of last
resort support of the Fed to systemically important broker dealers – is
rapidly fading away as financial markets and financial institutions are
again under severe stress.”

Add to this, reports of mounting inflation, or that credit cards may be
imploding next or that oil supplies are, in fact, peaking, and, then, we
get a glimpse of a deepening crisis and a tragically incompetent response.

Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis adds:

“Furthermore, banks are tightening credit because they have to. The FDIC
is expecting a wave of bank failures. And then there is this not so
trivial problem of $5 Trillion Hidden Off Bank Balance Sheets.

Those assets will come back on bank books, and when they do it is going
to cause more shareholder dilution, and there will also be less lending.
This was the biggest credit boom in history fueled by insane lending
practices. A 30 year boom is not corrected in 6 months of pain.”

Some bankers are petrified. Mitch Stapley, a Fifth Third Bank Executive,
called this “A CRISIS OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS.” He added, “I’m not
talking New Testament biblical, I’m talking Old Testament hellfire and
brimstone. This is the worst credit crisis we’ve ever seen.”

According to Gerald Calente of the Economic Trends Institute: “the panic
is on”:

“Chain stores are closing, credit keeps tightening and economic
conditions are worsening. The government is going broke, the people are
broke, the nation’s fighting two costly wars and losing both … and the
President warns there may be more.

Avoiding intelligent discussion of the dire implications of the oil
shock, the next credit crisis and President Bush’s warnings that Iran is
a potential military target, the nation’s news has been focused on the
elimination rounds of The Presidential Reality Show.”

The information about what is really going on is there, if you search
for it. What’s missing for many people is what it means—the context and
background that enables us to connect the dots and think about what to
do. There are scores of financial bloggers out there, but many political
activists don’t know who they are.

What’s also missing so far is any serious fight back by politicians,
candidates, unions and progressive groups. Economic justice is now just
one of a long laundry list of issues. Bernie Sanders is talking about
it; Barack Obama should tune in. He’s been documenting the collapse of
the middle class.

The failure of the Congress to enact any measure for relief on the
foreclosure front or the Senate to pass a global warming bill
underscores the paralysis in Washington. It’s a check/checkmate
situation, pathetic but real.

President Bush has already said he needs a “magic wand” (honest!) to
stem the economic erosion. His administration helped create the problem,
but has no clue on how to solve it.

Help me answer this question I received from an Indonesian friend
watching the American political spectacle on CNN: “If Obama will be the
US president - what will happen - will there be any significant change
especially in regards to the economic collapse?”

What do you think?

Clearly, we have to pay more attention and ask ourselves what can be
done, what should be done and what we can do. We have to press the
politicians we support to push for economic justice.

The economy we save may be our own.

– MediaChannel News Dissector Danny Schechter made the film IN DEBT WE
TRUST (InDebtWeTrust.org) to warn of the crisis. He has just written
PLUNDER, a book investigating the economic calamity we are in. Comments
to dissector@mediachannel.org