David Ignatius Says

The world is run by organized criminals. We still like to pretend that the world is run by governments which have neat little boundaries, and their own currencies and stamps and intelligence services and police forces. Those were the rules of the game during the cold war, but they've changed. Power has slipped from the governments into the hands of private organizations. In New York, private currency traders have more power of the dollar than the Federal Reserve. In Russia, the mafiya has more power than the army. In Mexico, the drug lords have more power than the President. In Japan, the politicians are just a front, the real power is held by the corporations and the yakuza. Real power around the world does not reside with governments any longer but with private industries. Real power is secret power.

When the last depression hit, the male role model was strong, quiet, honest, and decent (the radio show Jack Armstrong, All American Boy according to a cute bio I read called "The Lutefisk Ghetto"). In the last decade, the most popular movie is the Godfather and fraud is considered clever.

When the Mexican peso was crashing, people bought what they knew they would need like food or shingles for their house. I will post a picture of my new water heater when it shows up.