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Where's The Outrage?
Despite the downward economic spiral, there is no clear plan to pull us out. Dan Rather on why he’s finally getting angry about it.
In this week of seismic economic news, I had the opportunity to talk to one of the very few people who seems to have a real grasp of what’s going on— Elizabeth Warren, Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard University and Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, which was established by Congress last October alongside its authorization of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
In discussing Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s newly announced approach to the bank bailout plan and the background and ramifications of the ongoing financial crisis, Professor Warren’s demeanor was every bit as calm, measured, and professional as her credentials would suggest.
Your reporter, however, found that the more he learned, the madder he got.
Outrage is seldom justified and rarely wise, but in this fix it is both. Nevertheless, what we have gotten and are getting still is blather.
In the hours following the interview, a question that had been nagging at me for months now was growing in volume and insistence. That question, regarding the economy and our government, is: Where’s the outrage?
Where is the outrage from We The People? And where is the outrage—or sense of outrage—from the Treasury Department, from Congress, and, yes, from the White House and the new president himself?
We are in a downward economic spiral and the worst is probably yet to come. The situation threatens our own and future generations. Yet there is no transparency, no accountability, and no clearly-stated plan to pull us out.
Outrage is seldom justified and rarely wise, but in this fix it is both. Nevertheless, what we have gotten and are getting still is blather.
We got it from the previous presidential administration and its Treasury secretary, and from both sides of the Congressional aisle. Now we’re getting it from the new office holders. It’s a version of “We know what we’re doing, we’re deep in the process of addressing what’s wrong, but we’re not going to give you any details. And forget about transparency, much less accountability.”
This is not supposed to be the American way. The American way of meeting a challenge of the magnitude we’re facing now does not involve dithering, hiding, or dealing in sophistry.
The last president, Treasury secretary, and Congress somehow failed to grasp this. We had hoped, and still hope—although hope is waning—that the new Washington power structure would be different.
But are they? Do they really get it? Do they understand and are they prepared to act, decisively and quickly, on the core problems?
As I understand it, the most important two things to know about the debacle we’re living through are:
1. There is a fundamental question about whether and when a financial institution is insolvent—that is, whether and when it owes more money than it has in assets. Once that question is answered, we face a choice. Is the wiser course to let an insolvent institution go bankrupt, strip down the equity investments in it, write down the debts, and try to get its balance sheet straight? Or, is it to support the current investors and equity by way of trying to attract more of both?
This is a profound policy question that needs answering, quickly. Treasury Secretary Geithner seemed to be saying in his first news conference Tuesday that he favors the second way. But, frankly, it was hard to know for sure, and it remains unclear whether he really believes that is the best way.
2. Household financial problems are acute for many millions of Americans. They are out of work. They can’t pay their mortgages. They struggle to pay off their credit card debt, having to contend with what not so long ago would have been illegal, usurious interest rates. The stream of revenue that these families produce is declining, drastically and daily.
This winnowing stream represents the lifeblood for Wall Street, for businesses large and small, and for our economy as a whole.
Our elected representatives in Washington need to start seeing these two pictures as components of an interconnected whole—or to start acting as if they do. Our huge economy is comprised of a vast collection of families, and the health of our markets and our financial institutions revolves around those families.
So far, however, there has been little if any real help for these families, the hard-working, trying-to-make-it members of the middle class and the working poor.
Again and again, they are told, “Help is on the way.” Where is it? And while those in power in Washington dither over these people’s problems while prioritizing the problems of financial institutions, where’s the transparency and accountability?
Author’s Note: This piece owes much to my aforementioned interview this week with Professor Warren, who neither has knowledge of nor bears any responsibility for this article. In tone and substance, it is mine and mine alone. Professor Warren can be seen on the next edition of Dan Rather Reports, on the cable and satellite channel HDNet, which will first air next Tuesday night at 8PM Eastern, 7 Central, 5 Pacific time, to be repeated at various times during the week.
Dan Rather is anchor and managing editor of HDNet's Dan Rather Reports. For 24 years he served as anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather. His books include The American Dream, Deadlines and Datelines, The Camera Never Blinks, and The Palace Guard.
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what a disappointment. You said nothing. it seems like a bit of hype for your show. What is great about the beast is the blogs have real substance to them. One would expect more from a leading journalist!
Dan Rather, please retire. Spend time with your family. Enjoy life. You are ao irrelavent to todays times. PBO so far has been the most transparent president we have had in a long time, if not ever. He hasn't been president a month yet and the likes of you are complaining. Please exit the scene your curtain is calling. Take a bow.
Exactly...if the backlash were a pin dropping, you wouldn't hear it over the sound of a pin dropping! A doctor: outrage and malpractice. Plane crash: outrage and lawsuit. Chemical plant: outrage, lawsuit and probably goes bust.
When one doesn't do his job right, he faces consequences. Not this generation of greedy catastrophic failure causing bunch of bankers wrongly trusted and grotesquely well paid to understand money and money related risk management. They are the foxes guarding the hen house with the golden egg laying goose and the government is the naughty kid with the wire cutters at the fence!
I like Dan I really do. But it's been less than a month. If Obama says everything will be fine and it isn't, he's screwed. If he says it's all going to hell and it isn't, he's screwed. He's trying to be cautious. If we couldn't get outraged about Bush driving us into this depression, we're not going to immediately castrate the man trying to help us out of it.
Outrage requires the belief that its point will be served. Who among us can hold that belief today? Congress has been bought off; the Great Fractionation produced by the blogosphere has robbed the media of focus; malefactors receive huge bonuses. People need all their energy just to get through the day.
And so, Marie, I take it in your brave new world dissent isn't allowed. Oh, wait, that's just as it was under Bush. Squashed. Hmm....brave new world? Maybe not. There's your answer, Dan -- there can be no outrage when people who ask questions are muzzled.
Mr. Rather,
Thank you for your comments. You have put into words the real fears that my family and others are facing right now. And you're right: Where is the outrage? Are we becoming a nation of sheeple?
Unlike the two posters before me, I don't see your remarks as "Obama bashing," but rather a stated concern about our present economic state and the people it effects.
When I wake up in the morning, I see a country that I don't know anymore. When we put the concerns of banks and Wall Street over the needs of everyday people, we are reinforcing the issues that touched off this crisis in the first place. Indeed, where is the outrage?
I was happy to see a new administration in Washington, but as the days tick by, I become more disillusioned. I've never believed that government is there to solve all of our problems, but this crisis seems beyond their capabilities. The added $13 in my paycheck each week does nothing to quell my fear.
Kind regards to you. I am sorry the other posters were unable to respond to you in an intelligent way.
Mr. Rather, your rant is as bloated and pointless as the bailout's current ineffectiveness. Other than display your very big problem with coherence, I have just wasted my time reading a long advertisement for your upcoming interview with a Washington insider.
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Want outrage, reframe the argument... The way I see it my children, my wonderful, innocent children, have had their futures stolen by Wall Street. My generation can not pay back this debt. It will be left to my children and grandchildren. I am honestly concerned whether my grandchildren will have a better quality of life than mine. Stealing from a baby is outrageous.
Outrage isn't possible in the polarized state of the polity. One side, goaded by cynical spin experts, will claim the other in expressing legitimate concerns, is attacking for rhetorical advantage. So we sink together.
I guess the outrage is the same place it was in 1963 when you helped covering up the JFK assasination.
The Zapruder film didn't show anything significant.....remember?
Bravo, Mr. Rather. You've nailed it. And as for therealmarie, now you know what it was like to support Hillary -- we were all just supposed to get out of the way so therealmaries could just take over. And Mr. Rather, THIS is their world. It is truly, madly, outRAGEously the biggest mistake this country ever made and it's only gonna get worse.
Mr. Rather makes an excellent point: we are still waiting for "change we can believe in."
Hey Dan, where was your outrage during the Bush administration?. Your obstructionist viewpoint is showing.
However, isn't it a good feeling that you don't have to be afraid to expresss your views now?
Not afraid to express views? Hmm, I am a retired soldier and a conservative, I suppose that puts me on the "right wing" of politics. The DHS say in a recent publication that I need to be monitored because we right wingers might be "domestic terrorists" amd are prime candidates for recruitment by racist organizations. The DHS also admits that they don't have anyinformation to back up this claim. Sort of like going to court and saying "He's guilty!" "I can't prove it but toss him in jail anyway." Yes, there is total freedom to express your views under the current administration......as long as you agree with the Obama.
Reading your comment Scrapette, is like watching a blind man walk in front of a train.
Bush wasn't even articulate enough to BLATHER
To slam Dan is just rude and senseless. President Obama is just a man, just like Dan. Neither are perfect or miracle workers.....
Future looks so damn dismal its not that difficult to understand why Rather or anyone for that matter chooses to rant.
As I write this the Dow is down 173.95 points to a low low low 7,765.58 --------- Just as scarry to me is of course the dying
S & P as well as the Nasdaq. Our nest egg is slowly disappearing and if anyone thinks they have the answers to stop the hemmoraging I beg of them to step forward and be heard.
Oh, there's plenty of outrage. It's just misdirected.
Look at how many people are outraged that the Democrats didn't adequately spank the Republicans.
Look at the outrage that the Democrats weren't able to get everything they wanted.
Look at the outrage that there are any tax cuts at all in the stimulus package.
Look at the outrage that 3 Republicans were able to even influence the spending package.
In fact, too many people are outraged that our government is working the way it is supposed to.
Dan Rather is spot on as usual. Great job! And to those who don't think so, you need to think about what it means to be an American. Laying on the couch, ingesting processed food and processed news is great for the military/industrial/energy/healthcare/banking complex, but it is the evasion of your duties as a citizen.
We need to be out in the street as they are in most other countries in the world. That's what our founding fathers did and what they would be doing if they were here today.
Mr. Rather is a tremendous asset to this country. Please keep up the good work!!!
Amen. If I weren't afraid I'd lose my job doing it, I'd be trying to organize vigilante mobs to stalk Park Avenue with buckets of tar and bags of feathers. The Madoffs, Thains, Fulds, and yes, Geithners of the world deserve no less.
We're a fat, lazy, complacent society... but in all fairness to Obama, he doesn't quite have it as easy as FDR did. When FDR took over, the unemployment rate was 30% (more than double the current rate, even if you go by the traditional counting method), and there was a palpable chance of radical populist revolt from both the right (facists) and left (communists). He didn't need to tell the fat cats that extreme action was needed to save capitalism from itself, and save democracy for the future of America. It was painfully obvious.
Instead, Obama has a situation where things are bad, but not yet desperate. The masses mutter and blog, but don't yet organize or take to the streets. Without the people up in arms, how can he face down the moneyed interests?
Write your Rep: writerep.house.gov/writerep, write your senators senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm tell them how you feel. write Obama, whitehouse.gov/contact/, tell him he promised transparency. Let all these folks know that you vote and you expect them to represent you.
These folks may believe we are sheeple until we straighten them out - no representation - no VOTE.
Hey, Dan--I think some of your outrage is a little bit misplaced. Yes, finance companies, mortgage companies and others looking to make a fast buck came up with outrageous loan deals--from interest only and ballon mortgages to get people into homes they couldn't reasonably afford.
But it was these people who made the choice to go ahead with buying houses they couldn't afford then and, in this economy certainly can't afford now. We don't save, we spend. We don't wait until we have the money to buy something, we buy it today and worry about how we're going to pay for it tomorrow. And then our beloved elected officials, believers all in Reaganomics and deregulation turned a blind eye to it all. As a result, the market is littered with toxic assets whose prices far outstrip their worth. Now won't somebody, please, please rescue us???? Pathetic
There was lots of righteous indignation thrown around in that so called hearing at the House Banking Committee yesterday. For the most part those politicians weren't looking for answers, they were looking to place blame and demonstrate outrage so that they can get reelected. My question to you Mr. Rather, is, what are you running for?
The fact you're getting called "Mr. Rather" by more than one shows the deference you've earned over the years.
Where was all this outrage during the Bush years when you were still running a news organization, when the obscene interest rate mauling was in motion through congress?
It's the presses' job to highlight what's going on. I had to turn to alternative sources, like those out of our country to truly understand what was happening in the US.
You all were near radio silent for 8 years and I can appreciate the fear that kept you there. I'm going to assume you have really good reasons that happened, why don't you talk about it and tell your own profession and the public know what needs to happen to make the news media informative and activist once more.
If you combined your outrage with specific calls to action, e.g.,: "Write your congressman. Educate your neighbor, Attend local government meetings where spending decision are made", people would act less paralyzed and more active and hopeful while we have a chance to avoid Pre-WW II Germany.
Otherwise all the bad news and rants in the media are frankly paralyzing.
You Liberals, So how long are you going to let nobama blame everything on BUSH? 4 years down the road he will be running against Bush again, and you fools will follow the mesiah. When will you liberals hold this guy accountable? I agree a month is way to early to pin him down, But 1 year or 2 and its still looking like a failure with you hold the mesiah to his word.
Thank you.
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