Welcome To The Thunderdome

by digby

Via corrente, here are Part I and II of an Al Jazeera special on the California meltdown and the shock therapy Governor Shwarzenegger is rather enthusiastically proposing. It’s well worth watching all the way through.

Be sure to note the commentary from the crazed libertarian radio freakshow “Jon and Ken” which represents the major political information resource in the state. It’s that bad. And it makes you realize just how twisted the political culture in this state has become.

I keep hearing about how the feds bailing out California would be a moral hazard. Undoubtedly true. Twenty four billion is a lot of money. Besides, the government is preoccupied with twisting arms to bail out European banks with 108 billion for the IMF. And there are those trillion dollars in inscrutable loans from the Fed to the banks and Wall Street firms. And the TARP. And money for Iraq.

It would be wrong to reward California for failing to properly anticipate the failure of the financial system. They made their beds, right? The young, poor and sick won’t learn their lesson otherwise. It’s tough love.

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