A little background is in order. The phrase harkens back to ancient Greek theater. It seems that “some” Greek writers had a penchant for introducing seemingly intractable problems into the plots of their plays, and then using a machine, such as a crane, to lower one of the Greek gods onto the stage in order to use his or her power to solve all of the problems. According to Wiki, Aristotle himself criticized the frequent use of external devices to resolve plot problems.
The ongoing financial crisis has revived the use of the phrase. As the European debt crisis has steadily worsened, the European “authorities” have steadily advanced their ever-growing list of promises as to how they will “solve” the crisis. But, even though it seems reasonable to say there will be no divine intervention into Europe’s debt crisis (or the U.S.’s, for that matter), the “authorities” have resorted to invoking it over and over again.
The latest: yesterday, Standard and Poor’s has announced it is reviewing for downgrade the credit ratings of the 15 EU nations that it does not already have on “credit watch negative” and that it may decide to downgrade some of those nations (including France!) by not just one but two notches. Today S&P announced it was considering downgrading the European bailout fund itself, called the EFSF, because it is in turn funded by the very broke countries it is intended to bail out. Circular finance can be fun! In response, the latest EU deus ex machina, as always in the form of a rumor just before the US markets close, is in:
From Zerohedge, “FT Releases Mother Of All Rumors:
EU OFFICIALS WEIGH RUNNING TWO RESCUE FUNDS TOGETHER, FT SAYS
EU WEIGHS RUNNING TWO RESCUE FUNDS, MORE IMF SUPPORT: FT
EU WEIGHS GIVING ESM ACCESS TO ECB FUNDING, FT SAYS
This is really funny because no one has any real money anymore, not the IMF and not the ECB, and everyone knows it, just like everyone knew that the “Super Duper Committee of Congressional Tools” wouldn’t cut anything at all, let alone balance the budget. The result after years of this pathological lying by Congress, the Administration, the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, France’s Sarkozy and Germany’s Merkel (Merkozy!), etc etc, is what Jim Sinclair refers to as the MOPE, or “Management Of Perception Economy.” Truth doesn’t matter, and it hasn’t mattered for so long that no one even cares anymore, and everyone merely has a good laugh at the latest lie. Maybe that’s their intent after all: to cajole us all into “Buying Stocks Now!”, propping up Bernanke’s “Wealth Effect” of a rising stock market, so that we’ll all go to the malls and spend, spend, spend.
Deus Ex Machina!
Or not.
By the way, passive acceptance of government lying and corruption as normal by the general population is one of the hallmarks of a third world tinpot dictatorship. Isn’t it?
