Our contemporary times come with many anniversaries we’d just as soon not celebrate. We just passed the 17th remembrance of the terrorist attacks of 9/11 from 2001 and soon all of Sonoma County and beyond will mark the first anniversary of the North Bay wildfires that destroyed almost 6,000 houses and killed 44 people.
And, it was 10 years ago, on Sept. 15, 2008 that the global financial crisis cratered a series of Wall Street banks and hurled a tsunami of bankruptcies, mortgage foreclosures and collapsed markets across oceans and continents, including here.
If we are looking back at what became our Great Recession we must remember that 15,000 Sonoma County homeowners suffered mortgage foreclosures and lost their homes (equal to three times all the homes lost in last year’s wildfires, including Coffey Park and Fountaingrove.)
In 2010 alone, there were 2,275 personal bankruptcies filed in Sonoma County. A decade later, the personal wealth lost in the local housing market and from impacted retirement and 401K plans has not been recovered.
It’s true that Sonoma County’s housing values are now at record high levels, even above the pre-2008 market. But how can we celebrate these economic benchmarks when only one in five local families can actually afford one of these houses?
In the aftermath of the Great Recession taxpayers bailed out all the big banks and Detroit car manufacturers. Most of the new laws put in place to protect against another global financial crisis have been recently wiped off the books.
Now we hear we must prepare to bailout PG&E over its potential lawsuit losses from the wildfires. We wonder how much these “too big to fail” cases are going to cost us little guys this time?
And we wonder what other “too big” entities we might have to bail out next? More banks? More utilities like AT&T or Comcast? What if Facebook or Google explodes? Somebody will have to clean up all those billions and billions of stockholder and investment debts.
PG&E serves 16 million customers, which qualifies it as an old-fashioned monopoly. It is currently valued at $68 billion and is privately owned by stockholders.
But a new set of California state laws just enacted could require little ratepayers like us, not the bigger stockholders to pay up to half an estimated $17.3 billion settlement from the 2017 wildfires personal loss lawsuits. This is business as usual, just like when PG&E filed bankruptcy in 2001 and California taxpayers paid $45 billion in that bailout.
Hey, it’s only money. The worst case “too big to fail” scenario could be the loss or decline of our democracy. When one private company (Google) controls over 90 percent of all internet searches, how is that good for free choice and commerce? Amazon collects 50.6 percent of all internet sales. Is that healthy for our future economy?
Our memories are too short. Just 10 years removed from the Great Recession, five banks again control over half of America’s combined personal and corporate assets. A different five mega-corporations control 90 percent of all media and news sources.
How can we truly call America a democracy or people’s republic when we don’t even control our TV sets, pocketbooks or political choices? In the 2016 presidential election there were more fake Russian-controlled Facebook messages delivered (136 million) than there were actual American votes cast (129 million.)
One definition of a greater America would be where the little guy isn’t always the one who pays for bailouts. Too big to fail must never mean too big to be held accountable. Too big begets too much wealth and undemocratic power.
The best defense against monopolies always has been a free marketplace, controlled by individual choice and fair competition.
Any moves in that direction by voters in the next elections would be a better cause for celebration than marking the next record day on Wall Street.
