Don't underestimate the man on the street. He's smarter than you think, for one, and for two, he has a lot of time to mull things over now that he's unemployed.
A People's Hero has arisen in the American South. Watch his YouTube video and sympathize with the angst of the common man (warning: vulgar language, NSFW):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoEbMrZ5uaA
He comes off as the quintessential American J6P redneck. Yet, he's knowledgeable, analytical, current, and brilliant. He watches TV and knows that a sharp increase in M1 *should* effect the money supply, he makes note of corporate policy at Microsoft, and he hit the nail on the head by calling out Thain and Geithner, pronouncing the latter's name correctly, BTW. He's not afraid to tell it as he sees it; he has access to the Internet, is probably armed and could be dangerous. Good thing he's calmed by the opiate for the masses. The other opiate for the masses.
Given the excesses of the US's moneyed and political classes, methinks, along with the People's Hero, there's something of a disconnect between their values and everyone else's. Consider these few items from just the last several weeks: the $100 million+ presidential inaugural; Al Gore's private-jet travel to lecture on global warming; the CEOs of US auto companies travelling in private jets to beg for taxpayer bailout money; AIG's post-bailout, weekend-long $100,000+ party for employees; billions paid in bonuses to management of failed, taxpayer-bailed banks and securities firms; John Thain's interior decorating at Merrill Lynch; and the penthouse/home detention of admitted Ponzi-scheming, ex-chairman of NASDAQ Bernard Madoff. And all this partying down in public view is not only in very poor form, it's the stuff that revolutions are made of.
Governments of peaceful countries can be toppled, and violently. In October 2008, there were serious rumours that the Iceland government would fall. In December, Icelanders stormed their central bank and last week they surrounded the Parliament building for several days. Their siege ended with the resignation of their prime minister and other members of his government.
Similar to Jim Cramer's July 2007 televised meltdown telling home viewers to walk away from houses with underwater mortgages, the above six-minute rant could become a rallying call for the growing, "I'm not going to take it anymore" disaffected.
