Here lies my dissent from what I heard at the conference: since America is bankrupting itself so comprehensively at every level, the wished-for “funding” for the green rescue program will not be there in any case.

Capital, as represented by Wall Street, is itself flying to pieces this year as its stock-in-trade of paper certificates loses legitimacy in the face of the overwhelming fact that the society behind that paper will be decreasingly capable of producing surplus wealth – which is what capital is.

The unwind of “positions” now underway among the big bankz is the process of previously anticipated capital accumulation vanishing down a black hole. It will be gone forever.

 
This is the year we find that out. Bear Stearns was not the only sick puppy in the kennel. When another one wobbles and crashes, will the Federal Reserve step in again and accept its worthless CDO paper as collateral on another $30 billion loan, and another, and another, and so on?

And will the individual mortgage default homeowner shlubs just watch all this go down on CNBC without any action beyond “penetrating” the lobby of a Manhattan skyscraper?

I don’t think so. What goes down in the Hamptons will go down in Aspen, too.

Regards,

James Kunstler