Prometheus 6

Did you see this? I didn't think it was possible to create a a plausible or legitimate narrative where blacks are responsible for the consequences of neoliberalism. I was wrong.

I saw that. That video has been around a while.

Your second link is interesting, though even older. I hadn't seen that one.

I thought I should note I don't see where the video places responsibility forthe consequences of neoliberalism on Black folks. I had to watch it again to make sure.

I don't think so much that this video explicitly calls out black folks as it reinforces the standard narrative that the banks were "forced" to make bad financial decisions. The way the spin goes is that "somebody" (it's never exactly stated who) forced "someone" at the banks to make bad loans to bad credit risks (aka poor blacks.)

Never mind the fact that even if this spin were true, nobody forced the banks to make the loans at usurious, impossible to repay rates. Nobody forced them to repackage the loans as securities and to lose track of how much bad debt they actually were holding onto. Nobody can explain why the presumably poor uneducated debtors were fully at fault for not foreseeing the bad consequences of their reckless actions whereas the lenders whose entire skill-set and raison d'etre is making loans should be let off the hook for not foreseeing the bad consequences of their reckless actions.

Then when we start questioning the underlying assumptions we realize it was the Republican Bush administration who pointedly and repeatedly stated as a goal the idea of doing away with public housing and maximizing home ownership among the poor (the so-called "ownership society") throughout its tenure, and incessantly bragged about it up until things went sour. And it was Republican deregulators who allowed all kinds of shifty loan practices to become the norm, who had years to keep the bubble under control by raising interest rates and/or capital gains taxes. And it was greed, greed all around, yes there were some greedy poor people, but the record shows it was the rich who were getting the most out of this Ponzi scheme, whose lobbyists and media organs drummed up the mantra of "lend, baby, lend" so that every American thought it his patriotic duty to flip houses.

I know I'm preaching to the choir but it just makes my blood boil to see the conventional wisdom hard at work finding some way to blame black folks for this country's debacles.

I don't see where the video places responsibility for the consequences of neoliberalism on Black folks

It goes to your last point about progress. The current narrative promulgated by Will, Cavuto, and others is growing in frequency and legitimacy just as we have the potential for cross- racial and class alliances.

Well, if you want to shake off neoliberalism, you just have to show its definition

Originally coined by its critics and opponents, "neoliberalism" is a label referring to the recent reemergence of economic liberalism or classical liberalism among political and economic scholars and policy-makers. The label is usually used by people who oppose liberalism; proponents usually describe themselves simply as "liberals".

Liberalism supports free markets, free trade, and decentralized decision-making. Liberalism of world's countries can be measured on economic freedom indices.

...is identical to American Conservativism BECAUSE the define economic inequality over against any other type of represssion. Most likely because it's the only type they themselvescan be affected by.

This is why I don't call myself a 'liberal.'

This is why I don't call myself a 'liberal.'

Fair enough, but the casual reader should note that there's an equivocation in the word "liberal." Almost all Americans who call themselves "liberals" don't at all mean economic liberalism but social liberalism, i.e. equal rights, social activism, progressivism, things which fit into the stated agenda of the Democratic Party. Economic liberalism is something which McPalin would profess to support, basically meaning an economic hands-off approach by the government backed by a legal framework which encourages transparency and the lack of corruption, as you say, similar (economically) to American Conservatism, although the religious/social aspect of our Conservatism is at somewhat at odds with liberal goals.

There are just as many flavors of conservative as liberal. Back when I first because political I told folks I was as conservative as a Black man born in 1957 could possibly be. That's why 'neo'-liberal and 'neo'-conservative...both harken back to the meanings of the words 'liberal' and 'conservative' as used in the late 1700s.

Anyway, progressive has one unmistakeable meaning (until the language starts wandering again).

Why does a good little white liberal like Katrina just sit back and not challenge Will when he makes comments like that? What does he mean by non-productive borrower? Sounds like a euphemism for what Kissinger called "useless eaters" around the world. But the people who are most to blame; powerful white people that control the industry, are hiding in plain sight. I really hope people are wising up to this.

Rhetorical question, right? Because there's a reason vanden Heuval didn't respond to him...you just won't like or respect it.