The Parable and Paradox of Santa Henry
Eugene Elander
OP-ED PIECE:THE PARABLE AND PARADOX OF SANTA HENRY It’s not long until Christmas, and throughout our fair land,Santa Henry’s soon coming, with largesse in his hand;Every lender and bank, whether naughty or nice,Has Santa Henry to thank, as each grabs his own slice.
It’s certainly true that U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson doesn’t look much like the traditional depiction of Santa Claus. However, in 2008 America he is playing that role with a vengeance which will undoubtedly affect and afflict all of us for decades to come. Indeed, Santa Henry’s trillion-dollar giveaway to those who caused much of the present financial crisis is already arriving. While it may seem paradoxical, not to mention inappropriate, to reward those who got us into the present economic mess, Santa Henry is loyal to his former Wall Street colleagues, investment bankers, and other assorted cronies. They are Santa Henry’s Elves, in a manner of speaking. Consider that Santa Henry’s case for this trillion-dollar-plus bailout (it’s occurring in stages to make it look smaller, but we should know better) changed totally recently.
He had advocated for most of the Fall of 2008 the need for the U.S. Treasury over which
he presides to buy up “toxic assets” such as bad and unwise loans made by the financial sector, to rescue those financial institutions from their own greed and bad decisions. The
U.S. Congress was panicked into giving him his way, to the tune of the larger part of that
trillion dollars, under threat of a total financial meltdown if Congress did not comply.
As the weeks passed after Santa Henry got his way on the first round of the bailout, some of us began to wonder what was being done with such an unbelievable amount of money. Little effect was seen: homeowners were still losing their homes, companies were still going belly up, while financial institutions such as AIG staged lavish celebrations fueled in part with bailout money. It has been much like rewarding the fox for eating the hens. But just when hard questions began to be asked, and left unanswered, by Santa Henry and other bailout advocates and leaders, we were treated to an astounding press conference. Santa Henry told us that he and his ilk were not in fact going to use that good old trillion dollars to buy up toxic assets, bad loans, and other remnants of the incompetence of the leaders of our financial sectors. No, Santa Henry had seen a new light, a new unholy grail to pursue, while stating blithely that he would never be one to fail to change his mind when confronted with new “facts” – facts largely of his own creation, of course. The Parable and Paradox of Santa Henry by Eugene F. Elander Page 2 Now, Santa Henry has had a new vision, an epiphany, a revelation……you get the idea. He will use that trillion-or-so-dollars to buy stock and other ownership interests in our financial sector, making the U.S. government a partner with those who failed to watch their own stores in the first place. His new approach is somewhat like the fox buying a part interest in the henhouse from the weasels. Santa Henry alleges that the former approach, the one Congress reluctantly approved,
would just be too slow to meet the worsening economic and financial crises in the United States. This implies that he must believe that buying part interests in financial firms represents a faster bailout, although why he would think that is another paradox. After all, once the financial sector has our trillion dollars (more will come from horrendous U.S. public debt increases than from already-strapped taxpayers), why should they use that money to save our financial system? Obviously, our economic gurus, having ignored the worsening home loan crisis for years, and then having failed to act on all the other signs of economic malaise such as massive job losses and the record low in consumer confidence, have neither the ability nor the will to propose realistic solutions.
What is really needed, for starters, would be a thorough review of relevant history, such as FDR’s New Deal, the historic World War II Bretton Woods monetary conference, and
even the history of the 1980s savings-and-loan crisis and that bailout in the United States.
We could also learn a great deal from how other nations, such as Sweden, have handled
their own banking and financial crises. There are undoubtedly solutions to the present
short-term financial emergency and long-term economic malaise facing the United States.
Finding and utilizing those solutions must become a major focus for our nation, and in particular for the incoming Obama Administration. We must engage our best and our brightest minds to solve our financial and economic problems. The historical track
record of presidents from FDR to Truman to Eisenhower to Kennedy to Ford to Clinton proves that solutions do exist and can be implemented by competent people of good will.
Such solutions are unlikely to be found or implemented by Santa Henry, however; his
Elves played a major role in creating our economic and financial problems. Santa Henry’s newfound approach, like his immediate previous one, is much like the fox dividing up the henhouse and giving it, along with the chickens, to the wolves and the
weasels. Meanwhile, another set of chickens is coming home to roost at Santa Henry’s door – and at our doors also, if we fail to act effectively, and very soon.
Eugene F. Elander Contact Author
Author's Biography Eugene Elander won the Young Poets Award at 16 from the Dayton Poets Guild for his poem, The Vision. He was chosen Poet Laureate of Pownal, Vermont and was a member of the Poetry Society of New Hampshire until moving to Dahlonega, Georgia.. His three new verses titled America the Beautiful: September 11, 2001 were widely acclaimed and read into the Congressional Record by U.S. Senator Chris Dodd. He has won numerous other poetry awards and has authored three volumes of poetry: The Right Click, The World Click, and Journeyings, all written from 2004 to 2006, in the U.S. and Sweden. Mr. Elander is an economist and college lecturer, and has been an agency executive director, emergency management consultant, investigator; and former animal control officer, deputy code enforcement and health officer for Farmington, New Hampshire. He and his wife Birgit, who co-authored The World Click, divide their time between Georgia and her homeland, Gotland, Sweden. Several other novels are underway, including a sequel to The Goat of God, and he is president of his own Elander Press
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