June 2009: Bailout

Here in the U.S., it seems like everybody is getting a bailout these days. Bankers, car manufacturers, insurance companies, homeowners, and others are coming to the government, hat in hand, asking for a bit of spare change. Irate taxpayers are protesting in the streets against further bailouts. Enterprising entrepreneurs are figuring out how to get in on the cash outlay, one way or another, and getting rich in the process. But just who exactly is bailing out whom here? And to what end? 

Of course, across the globe, bailouts aren't the norm. There is no government in Somalia to bailout its people, who have suffered under anarchy and tyranny for 20 years. There are no bailouts in Thailand, where protesters rage against the government. There is no bailout in Europe, where governments are already stressed by excessive debt. And of course, there are many in the U.S. who won't receive any bailout, people living on the streets, people who have exhausted the welfare payments offered to them.

In our June issue, InTheFray Magazine would like to tell some of the personal stories of bailouts. We'd like to hear how a bailout -- or the absence of one -- has changed someone's life. We'd like to explore this idea in all of its various meanings, so please don't restrict yourself to the current economic crisis, and please don't think solely in economic terms. Bailouts can come in many forms and we'd like to take a look at a variety of them. We encourage you to explore the idea from many different perspectives.

Contributors interested in pitching relevant news features, poetry/fiction, cultural criticism, commentary pieces, personal essays, visual essays, travel stories, or book reviews should e-mail us at bailout-at-inthefray-dot-org. Send us a well-developed, one-paragraph pitch for your proposed piece NO LATER THAN MAY 11, 2009.  First-time contributors are urged to review our submissions guidelines at http://inthefray.org/submit and review recent pieces published in InTheFray Magazine at http://inthefray.org.