XINHUA: Why has the American Dream become the American Nightmare?

The Beijing Daily News and Xinhua rub their hands and cackle with glee at the American financial crisis.

The writer of the article, attributed only as "Feng", seems to not know of the 1930s Great Depression, judging by his "worst crisis ever" pronouncement. But cmon, admit it - that's what we're all hoping for. We all love a good stock market crash, all those alpha-types suddenly hitting rock-bottom....and - hey hey - another Great Depression will surely prolong, and might even save the species! [Update 21/9: The writer is not actually just "Feng", but rather "Wen Feng", a pseudonym of a honcho of the paper's parent company which has appeared before spitting forth red-blooded "home truths". Thanks, Joel]


WHY HAS THE AMERICAN DREAM BECOME THE AMERICAN NIGHTMARE?

From: Beijing Evening News

America's Lehman Brothers, after 158 years of history, has collapsed, initiating a US financial crisis that has spread through the world economy, causing panic in world markets. The American government has issued emergency loans of $85 billion to on-the-edge American International Group. Not long ago, the American Government took over crisis-strciken Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, making this the worst financial crisis in America's history, and there's yet to be seen any capability of stopping the bleeding, with serious problems appearing concerning companies like Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.

America boasts of its "mature capitalism" and that it has the most effective management-ladders - so why has a financial disaster like this appeared? Not long ago , experts from these very companies were the economic authorities every country referred to. With their own illnesses incurable, they talked eloquently of others': When it came to China's economy, they unanimously opined that China's financial management was weak, that it was the Chinese economy's lurking danger. The reason (they said) was that China's financial institutions were state-owned and not free enough, that they couldn't operate in accordance with the market. With these words still ringing in our ears, America's market-operated, perfectly free financial institutions haven't collapsed - they've been bought by the Government. What could possibly explain this?

American people have always been very arrogant, ordering others around. When a nation is strongly self-reliant its people conclude that everything about it is always right, that anyone deviating from America's line must be "executed or convinced otherwise". It seems that the world can only have "American standards" and no others. At every turn it has demanded others be "responsible stakeholders". The writer emphatically disagrees - who should be responsible for this? Is America or the world responsible? Or are China's masses responsible? The American government is only responsible to America, it doesn't care about other people's hardships. This time the disaster is an American one, one that's bringing disaster to the world, and you might say it's been very irresponsible in its behaviour.

In the end, the financial disaster that has happened in America is the myth of the American system being shattered. [Can't transate, i'm not good enough]. This is a lesson to all those flatterers of the Western system who said it was the "ultimate and final" model. As an American said today on a television broadcast: "It was originally thought that everyone could realise the American Dream, but this is an American Nightmare." (Text: Feng)

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Original link: 美国梦为何成为美国噩梦