Clusterfuck Nation author James Howard Kunstler says “a cascading collapse of international finance is underway.” And it makes makes the 1929 crash and the events of the 1930s “look like an orderly small town auction of somebody’s grandmother’s effects.”

Back in that sepia day, America had plenty of everything except ready cash. We had, especially, plenty of our own oil, and — you’re not going to believe this but it’s true — the stuff was selling for as little as ten cents a barrel, it was so abundant. And yet still, America in the 1930s plunged into a dark depression of inactivity, loss of confidence and impoverishment.

This time around, things could get more disorderly.

Personally, I think we may be beyond the reach even of fascist authoritarianism, because unlike the programmed industrial masses of the 1930s, we are unused to regimentation, to lining up at the factory gates and the movie theaters.

Back then, society was so regimented that everybody wore uniforms in-and-out of the military. Look at movies from the 1930s. Every man-jack wore either a necktie and hat or overalls. The industrial masses behaved like termites. Once unemployment hit, they were waiting to be told what to do, to line up for something.

It worked fabulously for Hitler, who took every advantage of this mentality. Luckily, the US went for Roosevelt (both FDR and Hitler entered office the same winter of 1933, by the way).

FDR was more like everybody’s kindly Uncle Frank, and his reassuring persona enabled Americans to suck up their bad luck and altered circumstances. Many of them retreated to the family farm (which still existed then) and waited things out — and, anyway, the melodrama of the Great Depression soon resolved in the Second World War when Hitler’s love of regimentation led him into military misadventure.

He shouldn’t have picked a fight with someone who had so much petroleum — end-of-story.

Okay, what happens here and now?

To this point events have been proceeding under a veneer of still-just-barely-credible authority. We (as represented by Congress) have allowed Mr. Paulson to advance and activate his remedies.

As things unspool further, he will be out of credibility, perhaps in a few days, and it’s unlikely that his successor will have any either. Mr. Bernanke has simply gone AWOL. Notice, he has vanished from the media landscape.

We may soon be hearing the declaration of various “emergency” measures involving the allocation of food and the rationing of oil products. The Big Bailout of last week may be partially rescinded as it becomes obvious that it has had no effect — I believe about half the $700 billion has already been allocated, which is to say: lost.

I realize these things sound pretty extreme. But forces have been set in motion and momentum rules.

One thing for sure: the American public is about to undergo a severe mood adjustment.

Source: All Fall Down