Who knows if a bubble that bursts won't burst again?

  The market guys who write stories for The Wall Street Journal are smiling again. They think the good times are rolling in again. To back up their happy mood, they write things in carefully coded jingo, like this: "Major U.S. banks and securities firms are on pace to pay their employees about $140 billion this year — a record high that shows compensation is rebounding despite regulatory scrutiny of Wall Street's pay culture." or: "....Total compensation and benefits at the publicly traded firms analyzed by the Journal are on track to increase 20% from last year's $117 billion — and to top 2007's $130 billion payout. This year, employees at the companies will earn an estimated $143,400 on average, up almost $2,000 from 2007 levels.

   The numbers game. But one might ask: If a bubble bursts once, may it not continue bursting? Especially if no fundamental changes have been introduced into the system. Needless to say, the U.S. government has been has been more than generous with multinational corporations, real estate speculators, and all kinds financial opportunists, handing them money on a silver platter to patch up their bad business practices.

   Meanwhile, the Pentagon shows no sign of down-sizing its unending spending spree, keeping the sparks alive of the war machine that has characterized the United States since the wars against the indigenous peoples, not to mention the war against Mexico, the Spanish American war, the First World War, the Second World War, the war against Korea, the war against Vietnam, the countless military interventions in Latin America, the present war against terrorism, the beefing up of U.S. bases in Latinamerica...

 

  There's a a sort  insanity in the business mentality that perhaps makes analysis a task for fortune tellers. Wall Street or big business or whatever term you prefer used the lax control on financial matters during the Bush Administration to stack up profits, then launch a world-wide slowdown and then turn around and use those trillions the government has so generously given them to return to bubble levels of profitability within a year--even though the rest of the economy is still suffering through the worst recession since World War II.  It's mind boggling.

  Is it not likely that If Wall Street can dump the worst recession in memory, then organize a come back in less than 12 months, it might also be blowing up another bubble whose collapse might well be every bit as bad as the present one. Maybe politicians should start thinking about the wisedom of feeding the wolf on the theory that he might then not show his teeth.  Half measures do not seem to be the answer. The financial lobby is too strong. the Pentagon is used to spending the taxpayer's money on wars and military adventures abroad.

   So, without going into further complications--the world's evolving geopolitical structure, for example, and the ability of Washington to continue its role as the dominant power--it is likely that the world, and you and I, and everyone should be prepared for another bubble. Where it pops is anyone's guess. But it certainly will pop.