There is a great cluelessness afoot in this land. It's padding around in Europe and Asia as well, but here in the U.S., it's staggering around with giant clomping feet, and its favorite stomping grounds are the economic punditry centers of Wall Street and Silicon Valley.

Consider this article by Joe Nocera about the AIG scandal. In it, Nocera argues that the anger over the AIG bonuses is irrational and self-hurting. He's completely missing the point on both accounts.

For most Americans, anger about the economy -- indeed, sheer blind lynch-the-bastards rage -- is not irrational at all. The American future has just been looted by a small class of thug investors. The average American makes less now than he or she would have in 1973, and probably works longer hours for worse benefits. That, on top of a grinding away of all manner of public goods -- things regular people depend on, like schools and libraries and childcare, not to mention a functioning climate -- has left the average American in a profoundly tenuous condition: and it was all done for the profit of a tiny percentage of the wealthiest people in this country. Describing that reality is not class warfare, it's history.

In this situation, anger is a completely rational response. The only way that things will be righted is through real change, and the only hope of real change in a system as corrupt as this has become is to blow the lid off things, to open them up to sunlight, with or without the permission of the exposed.

That's the power of transparency: it is the cure for corruption.

And corruption is what has gotten us into the mess we're in. If we had a perfectly fair and enlightened government, with a strong regulatory apparatus and a fair legal system, we would not now be arguing about corporate looting or wasted ecosystems or how to provide basic health care. The biggest reason we haven't already built a bright green economy where all boats rise is that a small class of people has profited so enormously from continuing obviously broken systems to absurd degrees that they could afford to dump billions of dollars into candidate coffers, astroturf campaigns, ideological think tanks and lobbyists to bullshit everyone else. Again, history.

So I think the AIG scandal has not gone nearly far enough: we need to see that anger spread to inquiries and whistle blowings across the business world. The point is not to be anti-business. Most people in business are good people; we all need a thriving economy in order to provide sustainable prosperity. The point is that we can't get a thriving, sustainable economy through open looting and a complete collapse of ethics, which is what business during the Bush administration became.

What worldchanging people need to do in this crisis is continue pointing not at the scandals, but at the system. We should all support efforts to force the workings of government and the economy into the open: Yes We Scan, FarmSubsidy.org, DeSmogBlog and Exxon Secrets, and a host of other great efforts.

The world needs a transparency revolution. That starts with people howling for justice, but let's not let it stop there. Let's use this opportunity to bring anti-corruption transparency to our financial institutions, regulatory apparatus and business media. Let's put a little sunlight on the subject. Let's demand full disclosure on all public money. Let's demand shareholder rights to accountability, and open regulatory records. Let's hold our philanthropic institutions, university endowments and pension funds to a higher standard. Let's demand greater objectivity and professionalism from the business media. Let's teach openness and transparency as a path to profit in business schools. Let's close loopholes, reveal offshore accounts, and root out tax cheats. Let's blow the whole thing open.

Let's demand a financially transparent world in exchange for our bailouts.

Image by Ji Lee. Source: Portfolio Magazine.