The Creed

One of the lesser appreciated merits of blogging is its ability to allow the everyman to go on record. We here at the Middle certainly fit the bill, and have some prognostications we wish to get off our chest. So, without further adieu and in not entirely random order, we believe:


That, out of a remarkably small group of contenders, (notably including Jeremy Grantham and Bill Gross) the Credit Bubble Bulletin's Doug Noland has assembled the most cogent analytical framework through which to comprehend the mechanisms, feedbacks and incentives of our finance based economy, and to a large degree its implications.

That, by way of simplification, Noland's thesis is that the mountain of dollar denominated claims that have been created, is becoming increasingly unstable and will result in extreme systemic collapse as soon as the US Federal Reserve loses its power to reliquify the system during the imminent financial crisis. The endgame could either be that the Treasury won’t work with the Fed given the scope and nature of the busted credits that will eventually cripple the financial system, or more likely, the credibility of the currency itself.

That, the extent to which the majority of individuals, both learned and otherwise and certainly the punditry, have neither incorporated nor explicitly rejected this powerful condemnation of the current state of affairs, or even it less pointed like-minded commentary (e.g. Volcker), is nothing short of remarkable. I have never heard an even remotely compelling counter-argument, only Kudlow like bellicose indignation.

That the slippery ethical slope has become unbounded, to the point where hedonistic self-interest has for all intents and purposes vanquished Kantian duty. In place of duty, of wisdom, of community, of sacrifice, of charity, of honesty, we have an epidemic of myopia- ubiquitous opportunism, cronyism and CYA masquerading as due diligence, petulant and compulsive gratification and, at some deeply buried level where a conscience refuses to die, moral relativism- all as the car accelerates toward the cliff.

That the lethal combination of profound greed, unchecked materialism, an awareness that, "everyone is doing it", (to say nothing of getting rich), and a willful cognitive dissonance, i.e. that the ultimate consequences will be manageable if only because they have been historically, has led us to the point where our wishful thinking is no longer valid. Indeed, over recent generations we have managed to stay off the shoals of social disintegration and extremism, (with their attendant horror), whilst rebounding strongly from fallout far less grievous. However, in taking these happenings to mean that more fundamental and dire risks are beyond the pale of plausibility, that some unseen, unarticulated force or forces will see our society through the consequences of our excesses, we have corrupted ourselves to the point where the conditions that once furnished this stability no longer exist.

That, while evident in abysmal civic participation rates, the behavior on display on daytime talk shows and the local news (the constituency on which most of such scorn is typically heaped), etc. nowhere is this conquest over decency more evident than amongst the people in which society has vested power and trust, or whom are nonetheless powerful. That government, community and religious leaders, tycoons, corporate executives, media moguls and pundits, Wall Street, hedge fund & private equity operators, etc.- these most of all have evidenced this descent into self-destructive behavior.

That great intelligence is devoted to the cause of ignorance when the need is great, and the need of the self-interested has probably never been greater than it is here and now.

That individual responsibility has waned in time as a vindictiveness has waxed. That both shortcomings are now at hyperbolic extremes- in the latter case so much so that a woman who pleaded against jail time for a boy who seriously injured her by throwing a frozen turkey out of his car window and through hers made the news and editorial pages of the top broadsheets in the country- over multiple days.

That it is barely worth noting the miserable regard with which individual responsibility is treated in practice even while its rhetorical standing has never been more lofty. There are the obvious public scandals: Enron and its ilk, the Bush administration, Congress, Ted Stevens, Douglas Fieth, Richard Perle, George Tenet etc. There are the less obvious ones that have yet to make themselves known broadly, e.g. the current farce that are the credit rating agencies. But one needn't know anything of the public sphere to be well familiar with the depths of this moral tragedy, it having so permeated every nook and cranny of our society.

That coupled with all of this immoral behavior are, (blatantly self serving), ideological justifications and unrelenting legitimation or 'spin' that the masses are by now so inundated with as to be shell shocked into acrimonious docility.

That the spin, partisan rhetoric, and a perversion of the concept of objectivity and 'balance' has overwhelmed our ability to make judgments, undermined any attempt to create boundaries and reinforced the free for all of moral relativism that has fostered each successive transgression.

That part of the self-serving ideology has been to stir up chauvinism and xenophobia in the masses and manipulate its fervor in the service of attaining and keeping wealth and power.

That these efforts have been incredibly successful, so much so that a frighteningly large swath of the citizenry of the United States are now impervious to any information that doesn't flow from an approved source, (and are well taken care of by the curators of their respective ideological la la lands).

That the opportunist progenitors of this surge of mindless machismo, having created the monster, have on occasion lost control of it, as for instance in its stifling of their illegal immigration policy, and that this unintended but foreseeable consequence is ominous. The forces that have been unleashed are truly unstable, and could come to empower the most amoral and indecent charlatans and ideologues- circumstances that echo those that facilitated history's most diabolical crimes.

That the ramifications of the erosion of constitutional safe-guards, the rule of law, independence of the media and standards of all stripes are mild for now but would/will not be remotely so when and if the nation finds itself mired in far deeper crisis, a time that we would require the notion of their sanctity the most. Are we in danger of overthrow by a fascist dictator? Not now, no. But given the depths of economic dislocation, hyper-inflation and unemployment to come, the weakening of the glue that has heretofore held our democracy together could prove decisive in its ultimate undoing.

That the picture that all this paints is one of a ticking time bomb. Of a rubicon being approached whose crossing will change the history of modern day Rome, if not for good, certainly forever.

Manhattan on a Brooklyn Train

It never ceases to amaze me how easy it is to spot the Manhattanites captive on my Brooklyn bound train. The furtive glances, the uneasy looks on their faces as they anticipate their stop. Most are out of the train by 14th St, but occasionally you get some ambitious types on a field trip to Tribeca or their friend's place in one of them 'luxury' buildings downtown. Unless protected by the herd, these are the ones that struggle to find someplace to rest their eyeballs, whose forehead can even sometimes be seen to glisten with sweat. As they say, life is about the small pleasures. Frank McCourt likes eavesdropping on old folks complaining about bowel ailments in the park- for me, there's nothing like a subway ride.

The Middle's Mission Statement

The Militant Middle will record for posterity my insights and positions on all things political, cultural, sociological, psychological, financial and economic, but mostly their intersection. It will probably also host a number photos of my daughter and of my favorite travel destinations, with preferences for two birds with one stone. The name itself is as old as my formative political experiences of the 1990's. Coming as I do from a capricious generation the 'middle' is something like the gutter in a bowling alley- we tend toward it, and there's no where to go from there. However, being devoid of ideological passion doesn't mean we aren't angry. This blog will endeavor to explain why and to do so by ripping off to whatever extent possible the crushing erudition of heros like Edward Said, Frank Rich and whomever else I fancy. So, without further adieu, let's get started.