It makes you wonder if some politicians got elected in more stable times and (wrongly) don't see it as their job to respond to instability.

It would be like pilots being trained on simulators where nothing goes wrong, and then when an emergency happens they just think it's not their job to solve it and sit tight as the plane crashes.

Of course in real life pilots DO train for emergencies, they do it throughout their careers, so that when it happens they know what to do instinctively. Do politicians need something like this to remind them of what their job is?

Does the media also need this emergency training?

@FediThing
They were the ones who warned people of the danger and now have a contract with their voters, a service contract without an exit clause. When so much has been said in praise of American democracy, one expects them to be professional and honor their contract, not to mention find the spine to do something about their much tooted "democracy".

Not all politicians are the same, of course, but the very few exceptions prove how hyped the system is. We'll see if Europeans are any better.

There has been decade after decade of politicians being told that the markets will take care of themselves, that they should stay out of the way and just say the nice things that get them donations and votes. Democracy is confined to rhetoric.

The whole "end of history" philosophy implied that radical events like the great depression or the second world war would not happen except in the history books or in poorer "lesser" countries.

I don't think most current first world politicians or reporters have the mental tools needed to deal with existential threats. They have never seriously considered how to respond.

@FediThing
The markets taking care of themselves is the Big Lie of capitalism that is exposed in every crisis. Obama bailed out the failed banks when the markets should have taken care of them.

The other thing that is done, is present democratically elected governments as some kind of obstacle to business, as if business ought to have more political power than people. That's oligarchy's narrative, and has been in the works for decades, eroding whatever democratic achievements people had.

1/