Gail Collins, "A New Era in Political Corruption": Influence Peddling, Market Manipulation and Illicit Drugs Sustain the Economy

Corruption involving New York State politicians? Who would ever believe?

In her latest New York Times op-ed entitled "A New Era in Political Corruption" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/06/opinion/collins-a-new-era-in-political-corruption.html), Gail Collins provides a laundry list of recent misdoings in the Empire State and its environs:

• "We have a Democratic state senator, Malcolm Smith, under indictment for trying to buy the Republican New York City mayoral nomination."
• "Also there’s Eric Stevenson, an unremarkable assemblyman from the Bronx accused of taking bribes from some men who wanted to start adult day care centers. Among other things, he introduced legislation prohibiting anybody else from opening a similar facility anywhere in the New York City area."
• "[Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington] recalled the recent discovery that Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey had been using his influence to try to resolve a multimillion-dollar Medicare billing dispute for a Florida ophthalmologist whose company contributed more than $700,000 toward the election of Senate Democrats, Menendez included."
• "One of the stranger elements to the New York story was word that a Bronx assemblyman named Nelson Castro has been wearing a wire for the feds for virtually his entire political career. He originally got into trouble when election officials noticed nine voters were registered as living with him in his one-bedroom apartment."

Bribery among politicians, both Democrats and Republicans? Is there anything "new" about that? Is there anyone among us who is shocked?

On the other hand, I am still horrified by the 2007 cancellation of the Uptick Rule, which has contributed mightily to America's prolonged economic downturn by enabling hedge funds to short shares, i.e. sell shares they do not own, in almost unlimited quantities, and permitting them to benefit from resultant investor panic (see: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.co.il/2013/02/paul-krugman-rubio-and-zombies.html).

More recently, I was overwhelmed after hearing about friends' children, who became hooked on hard drugs in suburban high schools.

And so, despite yesterday's dismal jobs report, which let us know that the "labor force participation rate has not been this low — 63.3 percent — since 1979, a time when women were less likely to be working" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/06/business/economy/us-adds-only-88000-jobs-jobless-rate-falls-to-7-6.html?_r=0), influence peddling, market manipulation and illicit drugs remain growth sectors in an otherwise dismal economy.

"Change"?  "Forward"? How about "Over the Cliff and Into the Abyss"?