The poem’s major subject revolves around the unravelling of the US fiscal sector – and peculiarly its impact on investing Bankss – in the aftermath of the recent planetary economic recession that affected the US and most of the universe economic systems. Some of the macroeconomic constructs addressed – tacitly and explicitly – include: executive compensation. and the concern rhythm ( Paxton. 1 ) .

The crisis is said to hold chiefly been triggered by the bomber premier mortgage crisis. Traditionally. investing Bankss and other loaning establishments have financed their customers’ adoptions from the sedimentations they collect from the members of the populace. With the demand for recognition finance to buy indispensable points such as places lifting exponentially. the sedimentations became unequal to finance the adoption demands and many of these fiscal establishments resorted to innovative fiscal merchandises such as the securitization theoretical account or mortgage backed securities.

Here. the fiscal establishments sell bonds. Those purchasing the bonds are guaranteed of acquiring their money back after a certain continuance plus an attractive involvement. and the money raised from drifting these bond is advanced to the borrowers ( in this instance. prospective householders ) . The bondholders will be paid back their money whether the borrowers pay the bank back or default. Therefore. it can be seen that the investing Bankss here shoulder significant hazards ( Zeese. 1 ; Rasmus. 3 ; BBC. 1 ) .

The chief job was that these loans were made out to a section of the market that is considered hazardous due to its low income and hapless recognition history. This section has been referred to as the sub-prime mortgage section. Equally long as the monetary values of places continued to lift. this theoretical account of funding place purchases made sense because the borrowers could refinance their place purchases. However. and against all outlooks. the existent estate bubble that had been so drawn-out in the state explosion. and place monetary values began swerving South at a dramatic rate. The import of all these is that the bomber premier mortgage borrowers were unable to pay back what they had borrowed. They defaulted. taking to monolithic foreclosures ( Zeese. 1 ; Rasmus. 3 ; BBC. 1 ) .

The loans that had been made out by the fiscal establishments were in the melody of one million millions of dollars. When these borrowers defaulted. the Bankss were left keeping toxic assets. which they wrote down taking to monolithic losingss. A figure of them were pushed to the threshold of bankruptcy. These include: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Goldman Sachs. AIG. Merrill Lynch. Bears Stearns and Lehman Brothers ( Zeese. 1 ; Rasmus. 3 ; BBC. 1 ) .

It is this background that provides the context for the verse form. The poet parodies the false sense of security that these establishments had projected – for long. investing bankers such as Lehman Brothers had been viewed as beacons of stableness in the American economic system. doling out invaluable advice to Americans on maters economic.

But as the poet shows. the bomber premier mortgage crisis unmasked them for who they are. left them at a loss of what to make. and they have turned out to be “the blind taking the blind” ( Paxton. 1 ) . One wonders how. with all their wisdom. the investing bankers could hold hedged their hazards upon such a hazardous market as the sub-prime mortgage section.

One of the immediate responses to the fiscal crisis was the rollout of a bailout bundle by the US authorities ( whose worth was “seven hundred million expansive. ” in the words of the poet ) ( Paxton. 1 ) . The weakness establishments were major donees of this bailout bundle. Harmonizing to Nanking ( 1 ) . Bears Stearns was bought by JP Chase for $ 236 million. with the Federal Reserve Bank supplying a astonishing $ 30 billion to ease its purchase. Courtesy of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. the authorities is said to hold put in some $ 400 billion in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The AIG on its portion received at least four hard currency bailouts. all of them amounting to $ 180 billion in entire ( Nanking. 1 ) .

The poet strongly inquiries the moralss behind these bailout bundles. given that the crisis that affected the investing Bankss was mostly self-inflicted. For illustration. apart from hapless judgement ensuing in the sub-prime mortgage crisis. the jobs which the Bankss faced were besides catalyzed by hapless direction patterns such as inordinate executive wage.

The jobs confronting the Bankss besides broke out at a clip the issue of executive wage was coming under the limelight. For illustration. Linn ( 2 ) writes that in 1970. top executives were gaining 44 times what subordinate workers got and that by 2007 this had jumped to 344 times what the subsidiary employees got. More relation is the fact that the CEO’s of Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. two of the failed investing bankers. received a sum of over $ 117 million in malice of taking their organisations down the drain ( Bass and Beamish. 1 ) . Lloyd Blankfein. Goldman Sach’s top foreman. got $ 54 million. when the bank made a loss. with the 116 investing Bankss that had been short listed for assistance under the bailout bundle holding paid a cool $ 1. 6 billion as fillips to their CEO’s.

AIG was chew overing paying its CEO $ 165 million. when it had made a loss of over $ 60 billion ( Bass and Beamish. 1 ) . Given that these Bankss had been advanced hard currency under the bailout program ( which itself is from taxpayer financess ) . it is logical to asseverate that it is the mean American ( who earns 344 times less what the CEO gets ) who is being made to pay for the errors of the CEO’s. It is this lewdness that the verse form seems to mouth off about. Listen to the poet: “And it said that failure was the lone offense. If you truly screwed things up. so you were through ; Now––surprise! ––there is a different point of position. All that brainsick rooty-tootin’ And that aureate parachutin’ Means that someone’s doing millions––just non you! ”

Plants Cited:

BBC. ( 2007 ) . The downswing in facts and figures. 21 Nov 2007. 28 May 2010. hypertext transfer protocol: //news. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/business/7302341. short-term memory

Bass. Frank and Beamish. Rita. ( 2008 ) . AP Study Finds $ 1. 6B Went To Bailed-Out Bank Execs. 22 Dec 2008. 29 May 2010. hypertext transfer protocol: //corridornews. blogspot. com/2008/12/investment-bank-executives-pork-out-on. hypertext markup language

Linn. Allison. ( 2009 ) . “AIG flap gives ammo to critics of high wage. ” MSNBC. Mar twentieth 2009. 29 May 2010. hypertext transfer protocol: //www. msnbc. msn. com/id/29791834/

Nankin. Jesse. ( 2009 ) . History of U. S. gov’t bailouts. 1 Nov 2009. 29 May 2010. hypertext transfer protocol: //www. propublica. org/special/bailout-aftermaths # penncentral

Paxton. Tom. “I am altering my name to Fannie Mae. ”

Rasmus. Jack. ( 2008 ) . Fannie Mae. Freddie Mac: stage two of the fiscal crisis. Sep 2008. 28 May 2009. hypertext transfer protocol: //www. zcommunications. org/zmag/viewArticle/18717

Zeese. Kevin. ( 2008 ) . The causes of the car crisis. 25 Nov 2008. 28 May 2009. hypertext transfer protocol: //www. rips. org/zeese251108. htm