Socialism supposedly died in 1989 but like Dracula it has enjoyed a busy afterlife. Both on this blog and elsewehere, the Wall Street bailout has been described as socialism for the rich. Major public figures have taken praising Karl Marx. And John McCain and Sarah Palin have taken to accusing Barack Obama of being a socialist.
And now Barbara Ehrenreich, a self-admitted leftist, confesses that socialists are actually responsible for the current crisis. An excerpt:
Surely you have heard by now of the imminent socialist takeover of America, and if you find the prospect unlikely, ask yourself: How many socialists do you know who lost millions in the recent stock market crashes? Just as I thought—none—and that’s not only because you don’t know any socialists. The truth is that we, the Socialist International Conspiracy, not only saw this coming, we are the ones who made it happen.
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First, we selected a cadre of crusty punks from the streets of Seattle, stripped off their Che t-shirts, suited them up in Armani’s and wingtips, and introduced them to the concepts of derivatives and dental floss. Then we shipped them to Wall Street with firm instructions: Make as much money as you can, as fast as you can, and as soon as the money starts rolling in, send it out to make more money by whatever dodgy means you can find – subprime loans, credit default swaps, pyramid schemes – anything goes. And oh yes: Spend your own earnings in the most flamboyantly gross ways you can think of — $10,000 martinis, fountains of champagne – so as to fan the flames of class resentment.
sans everything 
Jeet, maybe I’m missing your own finessed irony, but Ehrenreich is saying the exact the opposite of what you’re taking her to say. Color me chagrined if you’re not being literal.
Hi — sorry, I thought my irony (like Ehrenreich’s) was obvious. Given what I’ve written elsewhere on the blog, I didn’t think that anyone would guess that I thought the global financial crisis was engineered by a socialist conspiracy.
Welp, I’m red.