Angry White Man and the EPA

There is a once-popular term in our culture, coined the Angry White Man. Michael Douglas has portrayed one and most would consider Rush Limbaugh as the stereotypical example. You don't hear this term very often anymore. It was very popular during Clinton, but after Bush came to power, the term faded away. I don't have any murderous streaks, nor am I a fanatical right-wing true believer. However, I am white and I am angry. I am angry with the past 8 years. I am angry with how a lot of my civil liberties have been taken away using fear. I am angry that the current Administration is being so nice to the bankers, while behaving in a very different manner to the auto industry. The seemingly bi-polar attitude is confusing and disappointing.

Now onto the EPA. I was watching Frontline tonight and they were talking about how the Chesapeake Bay and Puget Sound are really messed up from pollution. This caught my attention as I live in the Seattle area. A though occurred to me as I did dishes after the program: Why isn't anyone framing the big banks as big polluters? Wouldn't that help the public and Congress understand just how crazy-good some of these bankers have it? We all know about the term 'Toxic Assets' (now "Legacy Assets") so why don't opponents to the bailouts frame the argument that these banks have completely polluted our clean waters of the economy, and to let the polluters do the cleanup with taxpayers picking up the tab is just silly. Has anyone tried to frame the situation like that? Does that argument even work here? What's needed is an EPA-style Superfund cleanup. Now a Superfund cleanup usually makes the responsible party(s) do the cleanup, but there is a lot of government oversight involved during the cleanup to make sure that the cleanup actually happens. These bailouts and TARP just seem like we are writing blank checks, with very little oversight and complete trust that the banks will 'do the right thing'. TPM has a great report card on the Obama Administration, and I agree with the grades given. I voted for Obama and am very supportive, but I just feel completely disillusioned and disappointed with how he's been treating the banking management.

So as an opponent to the bank bailouts, I am calling these bankers economic polluters and it is time that they paid for the cleanup. Paid for the cleanup with money, shareholder losses, reputation losses, etc.

I emailed the Planet Money guys about the Bankers as Polluters idea, so we'll see if they respond to my comments.