Scene:
Oval Office at the White House
Characters:
Barrack Obama, 44th President of the United States (P44),
Central Banker (CB)
Act 1
CB: Here’s a list of financial institutions that need a bailout.
P44: A bailout? You guys have been preaching capitalism for years. “Let the bad businesses fail,” you always say.
CB: These are unusual times, which require a different approach.
P44: Unusual? You guys set up this problem. You gave away too many loans to people and businesses that they could not pay back. Before the loans defaulted, you bundled the loans up to sell to greedy corporate buyers. These buyers should have known better. Let them fail!
CB: Unfortunately, these buyers have a big part of the economy. If they fail, their investors and depositors will fail.
P44: Good. It will be a good lesson for the next round of lenders and speculators to be more cautious.
CB: You don’t understand. These are unusual times.
P44: You made your case. Go away. I’ve got other things to do.
CB: Remember that we central bankers have levers to control the economy. With one keystroke, we can send the USA into a depression. . . . . You will get all the blame. . . . . Where do you want to be in that list of “Best and Worst Presidents.”
P44: Let me look at your list.
THE END
This past year, I have sensed a change in political satire on Medium. It’s getting harder to tell the difference between satire and reality. In case you are wondering, this piece is satire. But it is also so believable.
For several centuries, the philosophy behind central banks is that they need to be managed by trained bankers who understand monetary theory. Their levers should not be pulled by elected or appointed politicians looking for quick votes or a vengeful streak or outright corruption. It’s not hard to imagine the carnage if Prez45 had his hands on these central bank levers.
But central banks are not without their own controversy. And they seem to be unaccountable to anyone but themselves. We could say that central banks are rogue bureaucratic institutions, which our politicians have little control over.
If we want to wrest control over central banks and other institutions that have gone rogue, we need to build a democracy that can properly handle them. This link describes how average people can build this democracy:
For only 10 hours a month!
Central bankers and other vested interests do not want us to build this democracy.
That should be enough reason for you to start building it.
Published on Medium 2023
The Political Donor: A 1-Act Play
