Cartoon 667: Winners

Economically one financial demographic has had the most benefit from the financial bail out.  That group is the richest 1% of Americans in the Investor Class.  They own most of the stocks, bonds and funds. They are also the ones that have been most devastated at the onslaught of the financial crisis. They were watching their wealth evaporate.

The Investor class was not completely naïve. They knew they were part of a financial ponzi scheme of immense proportions. It did not matter because they were getting wealthy.  Each investor believed they would not be one of the ones left standing when the music stops. What they had not anticipated is how few chairs would be available when the music actually did stop. 

Up until mid-October the Investor class was not really that concerned. They were going to let the Democrat Presidential candidate hold the lead until the last moment and jerk the rug out. A Republican President could continue to foster business lassiez-faire.  The few Republicans in Congress could block most undesirable legislation. When the mid-term elections occurred a resurgence of Republicans would replace Democrats. The businesses were encouraging their employees not vote for the anti-business Democrats.  Wal-Mart, as the largest American private employer, made the news papers headlines because this was the message the managers were giving their employees.

The Investor class did not mind the Republican financial conservative rhetoric, as long is that all it was. But when the government allowed Lehman’s to fall and started forcing sales and mergers, the investor class panicked. They were watching their profits go up in smoke. The straw that broke the camel’s back was the Republicans blocking the first bail out funding.

The investor class reasoned that the ideological part of the Republican party would be a real impediment to securing their wealth. Their grass roots constituency was advocating let the big Wall Street firms fail. The investor class did an about face and decided they were better off with a Democrat as president. They also reasoned that they would just have to switch from buying Republican Congressmen to buying Democrats.

The Republicans forgot who their most powerful benefactor has been and paid a price with the elections.