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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2009
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 OPINION 
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Hitchens: We're Now a Banana Republic

Accountability is nil, the president useless

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(Newser) – The credit crisis has laid bare the failings of US government, writes Christopher Hitchens in Vanity Fair, putting us on par with other banana republics such as Zimbabwe and Venezuela. How else to describe this "collusion between the overweening state and certain favored monopolistic concerns, whereby the profits can be privatized and the debts conveniently socialized"?

In a banana republic there is no government accountability—and have you seen a single figure resign, or even apologize, for presiding over the financial markets' self-destruction? Bush is positively Mugabe-esque as he swings from despot to helpless figurehead. Hitchens sees "an almost perfect metaphor for Third World conditions: a money class fleeces the banking system while the very trunk of the national tree is permitted to rot and crash."

President Robert Mugabe addresses the crowd upon his arrival in Harare, Monday, Sept. 29, 2008.
President Robert Mugabe addresses the crowd upon his arrival in Harare, Monday, Sept. 29, 2008.   (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)
Vice President Dick Cheney leaves a luncheon with Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Vice President Dick Cheney leaves a luncheon with Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)   (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
President Bush makes a statement on the economy, Friday, Oct. 10, 2008, in the Rose Garden.
President Bush makes a statement on the economy, Friday, Oct. 10, 2008, in the Rose Garden.   (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
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But still, the chief principle of banana-ism is that of kleptocracy, whereby those in positions of influence maximize their own gains, and any shortfall is made up by those unfortunates whose daily life involves earning money rather than making it. -

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