Paul Krugman put it this way in this morning's NY Times, "In Noah's Flood Crying Fire, fire."  The scaredy-cats among us react swiftly to cries of "Beware".  Someone is always telling us to beware this or beware that because things change and change is challenging.  I would much rather things remain the same for as I grow older I want my bed, my food, and my naps to be just so.  I would much rather my knees not pain me nor my back and neck not worry me but there are things that I cannot control for at many times, things control me.

My problem with the points made by Mr. Krugman is that there are "scaredy-cats" who are the manipulated.  The manipulators are people in power, people who have theirs and see no reason why things should change.  The manipulators are also the types who like use their superior knowledge of conditions to take advantage of those who are complacent and think that everything will remain the same forever.  That is not the way it works.

What is happening is that the manipulator today is crying INFLATION and other such words about the economic conditions which mildly put, are falling into a deepening depression.  Crying out that the depression is deepening and that conditions are worsening for those who have lost their homes and their investments does not help to get us out of this bad time.  What is needed is not a Hero on a white horse brandishing a sword promising to save us (just imagine Obama on that horse).  What is needed are ideas about how to help those in need of help and ideas and measures to prevent the manipulators from taking advantage of these bad times.

Carol has brought up the absence of Roosevelt style CCC camps and NRA's and WPA's.  They were needed and seemed to do the job - back then.  Times are a little more complicated now and the manipulators who take advantage are bigger and badder than ever.  Mr. Ponzi was a piker compared to Mr. Maddof.  I guess we could use CCC camps but we have had versions of those camps over the years (Example, The Peace Corps) with young people going to other countries to help the needy in those countries.  What we need is a lot more than that.  What we need is the repair of all the work put in place in the 1930's that is falling apart today.  This is in addition to the new projects that have to wait until the old work is finished. We still want to go deeper into space.

Let the cry be something like: "More Ideas!" and "More Controls over the Manipulators".  Give the common folk a break.  Let the common men and women have the same opportunities as the BMW driving crowd.  It is time to stop crying FIRE, FIRE in the flood Noah prepared for.