NPR had an interview on Obama’s new – sort of new – Chief of Staff, Bill Daley. Obama had brought Daley on to improve his position with the business community. He wanted to improve his position with the business community because….well, shit! I don’t know. It must have something to do with changing the way Washington works, it couldn’t have just been because he wants their campaign donations. Anyway, the buildup to one of NPR’s questions surprised me, The Chamber of Commerce, just across the park from the White House here, has put out a statement that I read as supporting Speaker Boehner’s plan, the plan that he is pushing in the House….

It turns out that, as NPR put it, Despite Daley’s business cred, when it came to one of the biggest crises of the Obama presidency to date, the business community did not have Obama’s back. I have always thought – OK, maybe not always – that there were the Tea Party people, who really didn’t understand economics and the stimulus thing, but were noisy;  and the real money, who did understand economics and would keep the GOP sane. I guess not.

To back up, I grew up being told that what made the United States great was our big middle class. That having a few rich people and lots of poor people like some banana republic was bad: bad for democracy and bad for business. I believed it then and still believe it now. I thought  everybody believed it; I thought is was one of the collective axiomatic cornerstones of my country. I know everybody wants to get as much as we can, but, when push comes to shove, I thought that people will do what they think is best for the country.

I have read about rich people bringing down countries by getting all the money; but they always seemed to be talking other places, backwaters like – I don’t know, maybe – Romania in  the eleventh century or Nicaragua during the 1960’s , not here in the good ‘ol USA.

Then I thought, listening to NPR, maybe the rich were so out of touch that they were like the Tea Party people and just didn’t understand the damage this tax code is doing, how far we are moving way from a big middle class.

But now the stock market seems to be saying they did understand. That this agreement is bad for biz and they still want it so they can keep their personal money. They seem to be saying We may be fucked as a country but, at least, I get to keep more of my money.

Meanwhile, according to the New York Times, Nordstrom has a waiting list for a Chanel sequined tweed coat with a $9,010 price. Neiman Marcus has sold out in almost every size of Christian Louboutin “Bianca” platform pumps, at $775 a pair. Mercedes-Benz said it sold more cars last month in the United States than it had in any July in five years, and Wal-Mart is now selling smaller packages because some shoppers cannot afford multipacks of toilet paper.

I guess that I am all three,enraged, scared, and sad.