“What we're observing, in all its bizarreness, is the ancient paradox of what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object. The irresistible force in this case is the U.S. economy... The immovable object is a wall of debt that now can't be paid back." BUSINESS WEEK

Preface By Robert D Manning, author of Credit Card Nation

Over the last decade, U.S. industrial employment has been ravaged by Neoliberal “free trade” policies and corporate outsourcing while workers have struggled to retain the basic vestiges of the American Dream. Sadly, as the post-industrial society has eroded the industrial heartland of middle-class America, the mall has replaced the factory as the engine of the US economy. Indeed, one of the distinguishing features of the “new economy” is that it is more profitable to finance consumption than production. And, as real wages have declined and basic living expenses have soared, American families have become increasingly dependent upon consumer credit and debt to maintain their lifestyle and, too often, simply to survive.

Through his movie and the compilation of his most perceptive articles in Squeezed, Schechter exposes the corporate forces that are corrupting our fundamental democratic institutions of governance through a symbiotic financial-industrial complex: FINANCIALIZATION. Already U.S. Congressman Bob Ney (R-Ohio), past Chairman of the powerful House Financial Services Committee, has resigned over his influence peddling schemes and is currently serving a prison sentence. Many others have left to become million dollar lobbyists for the industry that they were once responsible for regulating. Others, like past Secretary of Treasury Robert Rubin of the Clinton Administration have become executives of financial services companies with multi-million dollar compensation packages; Rubin was recently elevated from Senior Vice-President to Chairman of beleaguered Citigroup as it grapples with its massive subprime mortgage losses.

The problem with the deregulation of the U.S. financial services industry is who CAN or has the fortitude to save the new Gilded Age Executives from a corporate ethos that exhorts: “Greed is Good”? From Sandy Weil who “earned” a billion dollars during his decade at the helm of Citigroup (which coincided with billions of dollars in consumer class-action settlements for questionable business practices) to Stan O'Neal, the past CEO of Merrill Lynch whose gamble on subprime loans cost him his job and the company over 11 billion in losses, yet “earned” him a $160 million severance/retire ment package. ...

Download Squezed: America As The Bubble Bursts by Danny Schechter

PDF format, 3MB, 182Pages.

INTRODUCTION: “It’s the economy, stupid”

Maybe Bill Clinton was right in his first campaign for the presidency when he promoted a slogan that pushed economic issues to the top of his agenda. Since then, they have been eclipsed, and, for years, the fallout from 911, the debate over the Iraq war and focus on the impact of the Bush Presidency have dominated our attention. But now, economic issues are back with the intensity of a hurricane to force us to confront them. Speaking of hurricanes, Senator Chris Dodd has called the subprime scandal, “a 50 state Katrina.” And in the epicenter of this storm are two words that have tended to be buried: credit and debt.

Usually, when we hear about economic distress, it takes place in someone else’s country; often in Africa or some place you have never visited conjuring up images of desperation and sadness. The same is true when you hear about debt. When rock stars like Bono or Bob Geldof crusade for debt relief, they are doing so, however successfully – and there is a big debate about that – around conditions in what we used to call the Third World and what others refer to as Developing Countries, even when they aren’t. What is more rarely discussed is economic deprivation and exploitation in our own country and what we think of as “The West.” We may hear stories about individuals with problems but we rarely hear about deeper economic forces and the institutions that create and perpetuate the problems, Discussions of how our own economy has been transformed in a way that accelerates deep economic inequality and all the suffering that flows from that have been minimal.

As a journalist, blogger and filmmaker, economic issues are not foreign to me. I grew up in a working class home in a family of unionized workers who spoke of the importance of solidarity with people fighting for their rights and economic security. When I became active in civil rights and human rights movements, I was exposed to how economic forces were driving the mistreatment of minorities and workers in other countries. ...

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