Serious financial people are "Thinking the Unthinkable," and shocked to find themselves doing so. They're late to the game. Many liberty lovers have been thinking our own unthinkable thoughts for quite awhile now...
PIMCO CEO Mohamed A. El-Erian, calls the bank bailouts "Socialism." He rightly observes that the US government...
"privatized massive gains and socialized massive losses." Growing numbers of people throughout the world are beginning to "believe the capitalist system is not fair."Should the FED Save Europe?
El-Erian identified politicians and policymakers as major barriers for economic growth. He noted that American society has "transferred enormous power to the politicians and policymakers." And unfortunately, "politicians are driving." He said it is like policymakers are driving the car without a map on an "unfamiliar road and all of us are sitting in the back seat." "They haven't told us where we are going" nor have they provided a "vision for the U.S. economy." Instead the politicians are "arguing amongst themselves;" there is "no clarity." (When Economic Unthinkables Become Reality)
Hell no! They would do this by printing more money and laundering it through the IMF, which means in reality they are assessing a tax on each of us, further destroying our savings and our spending power, and handing our money over to Europeans. Money is not wealth, it is a measurement of wealth. Printing more money is like redefining the length of an inch or how much a pound is. You change the perception, but not the reality.
Feed the Progressive Beast!
Meanwhile, intellectually-dishonest crapweasel Paul Krugman has, Surprise! found more things we can tax. What this stubborn statist won't mention is that government already blows the dollar equivalent of one-quarter of all US economic output, while collecting only around 17% of GDP. See the gap? Libs do, and they want to close it by confiscating an unprecedented amount of personal earnings. Government hasn't spent this much since WW II, but tax collection has always averaged around 17% of GDP. It's the spending, stupid!
A Government of Goldman Sachs, by Goldman Sachs, and For Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs and the other Wall Street pigs, flush with taxpayer money, are the rosy cheeked picture of health. Now, the story is out about How "Dirty Hank" Paulson took care of his cronies. Is anyone surprised? The Goldman Sachs mole who penetrated the US Treasury did what he was supposed to do.
These Wall Street vermin have infested our government and they are sapping the foundations like the termites and rats that they are. Worse, they do it shamelessly, in broad daylight. And they get away with it. Our banking system is rotten, and the parasites have almost killed the host.
"The World" goes in debt to "The Banks"
The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. Now, the rest of the world can see what it was missing.
[...] It dwarfed the Treasury Department’s better-known $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Add up guarantees and lending limits, and the Fed had committed $7.77 trillion as of March 2009 to rescuing the financial system, more than half the value of everything produced in the U.S. that year. (Secret Fed Loans)Instead of bailing them all out, our government should have let them go bust and then clapped them all in jail for irresponsible lending and concocting financial stinkbombs.
29 comments:
"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."
Henry Ford
The majority of people have not a clue what is going down. Few have any interest in the topic. Thanks for making the effort!
If the banks were allowed to fail then many, many people would have been utterly screwed because of it. I'm sure everyone would have felt the negative impact from an event like that to some degree.
But that's not to say that allowing the banks to fail is a bad thing. I think we, as a nation, have lost sight of what it means to sacrifice. We're told every day by politicians, the media, and the culture in general that the age of sacrifice is over, that everyone can have everything without feeling the pangs of loss.
In fact, we're told that it's immoral for anyone to feel hardship or loss. Because society as a whole has bought into that, we're going to be screwed for a long, long time.
If people knew what was going on, bunkerville?
I posted on something very close to this post, too, and it's clear WHY people don't really know what's going on..........
and the Corzine story is a perfect illustration of that.
You have a point Jack. Our savings, pensions, etc are all tied up in the market. People would get screwed, but it would be a fast screwing and it would be over.
As it is now, money losing value, paychecks and savings shrinking, this is one long and painful rape with no end in sight.
I am just as angry as the OWS people (and probably more informed) at the banks and financial moguls, but I want different solutions. Making these pigs feel the pain of their greed would be a good first step.
The reaping of the whirlwind in the global economy is fast bearing down upon us all!
As far as I can, no entity is willing to stem the tide.
I will be the first to admit that I don't completely understand every tid-bit regarding the American or global economy, but from what I do know and comprehend, we are in a world of hurt and trouble.
I know enough to start telling our ridiculous and incompetent government to STOP the SPENDING now! We simply cannot afford to spend and spend have nothing to back it up.
It does fit in with the definitio of socialism, wherein the government (which is the state, the ruling elites, the rulers) control economic matters which would otherwise be left to the people.
Is it too late to abolish the FED?
Instead of bailing them all out, our government should have let them go bust
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What would have been the consequences of that failure.
Last time we let it fail things didn't work out so well. Hoover tried the evangelical playbook and figured private charity would resolve it. Uh, no.
So we are left with a very powerful banking system which owns the press, the legislature, the culture, the president, the supreme court and probably your home. So how do we dismantle it.
If OWS brings attention to the problem the press flays them for not having the answer. Well, they're saying our government SHOULD have the answer and it's clear either it doesn't or it is too owned to do anything.
So we can let them steal everything that isn't nailed down and listen to the short bus sing a chorus of "Don't Tax Them" or ... damn, first we have to accept the problem and the lack of any political movement ready to act against the banks. Please don't bring up the Baggers. Dick Armey and the Koch Brothers and Grover Norquist are part of the problem.
z. it really is touching how much you hate Obama and want to pin all financial problems on him but let's take a look at MF Global.
Now ever since Enron (actually before but not on that scale) we have had companies playing fast and lose. Some of it legal, most of it not.
We just watched the American investment banking industry tank because they went wild and bet everything on the over thinking housing prices could continue upward. They took wild risks and didn't think they could fail.
Now Corzine, let's call him Jon le Flambeur decides he's got a hunch on European bonds and lets it all ride. Most of the money isn't even his but so what.
In other words, for all the talk of regulating these buttheads it's the same old game.
And I swear, some of us will just get the vapors if we talk about regulating or taxing this trash.
I'm glad someone else quoted Henry Ford. He was a very smart guy, and onto a lot of things that have been bedeviling world economies for at least a century.
He wrote a book about it, which was considered so vile, so offensive and so out of order that he was forced -- by the REAL powers behind the scenes and their visible minions -- to recant his testimony and make a public apology.
Ford's book was too narrow in the focus of its harsh indictment, but it should be clear to anyone with keen perception and a modicum of insight that SOMEONE did, indeed, do all the awful things Ford catalogued early in the last century, and is continuing to do them to this very day.
The horrors of the twentieth century responsible for the violent deaths of hundreds of millions --,and the maimed, deprived, displaced, impoverished existence of countless millions more was not the result of SPONTANEOUS uprisings.
ALL of it was carefully planned by scheming manipulators and financed by -- ta-ta-ta-TAH-ta-TAH! -- INTERNATIONAL BANKERS.
Those guys backed Lenin and Hitler both!
Currency manipulation by the Central Bank was responsible for the Great Depression.
Every one not a member of The Elite is considered nothing but a pawn in the Great Game our overlords play -- always to their benefit and against our best interests.
When you look at what has transpired since the post-Civil War period -- most of it since 1900 -- what other possible explanation could there be?
Nothing happens in a vacuum.
Little men with picks and shovels and others who work assembly lines do not manufacture war materiel, do not start revolutions and do not force nations into international combat. "Someone" must goad and organize them into action.
Now who loves protest, dissidence, dissonance, rage, discontent, mob-violence and hysteria the most? Who and what has been most responsible for promoting anarchy, upheaval and destruction? Who taps into the latent Envy, Spite and Lust for Vengeance simmering beneath the surface of the Have-Nots? Who cynically deploys the Have-Nots by forever fueling and channeling their fury in endless games to achieve World Domination -- the stated goal of Marxism, Fascism and Islamic Fanaticism alike?
Cherchez l'argent, toujours, mes amis.
~ FreeThinke
The Rothschilds?
Ducky, Ducky, Ducky...
In one breath you say "So we are left with a very powerful banking system which owns the press, the legislature, the culture, the president, the supreme court and probably your home."
In another, you advocate raising taxes and giving them more.
How do you reconcile that?
Government should be governing... passing broad and equitable laws, building/maintaining infrastructure, and yes, even regulating. Government should not be in finance, they should not be in business.
Everything you seem to despise about capitalism stems from government overinvolvement in it, what SF labels crony capitalism.
Cheers!
Well Finntann, that is certainly a valid criticism. We have a dilemma.
What seems to be the primary difference between myself and the Libertarian right is that I see "small government" as a means of giving the current corporatist power structure a carte blanche.
The "small government' folks aren't corporatist but the do advocate a system that will maintain the current power structure.
We need to reform government and government won't allow itself to be reformed. it's a nasty freaking problem but we better realize that the oligarchs aren't interested in our well being.
Great retort, Finntann.
Why don't you run for office? I'd vote for you, even though we often disagree.
~ FT
Ducky,
You don't seem to understand that "our" government has been taken over by International bankers and International Corporate elites.
With the full force of government behind them -- including the armed services -- these brigands can do just about anything they want, and because our government no longer represents the electorate, it has become our enemy. The way things are set up now "none can call [their] power to account."
What you seem to be advocating is the importation and installation of more and more hungry, little foxes to spoil the vines and guard the National Henhouse.
You claim to be a Leftist-Progressive, right? Well, how could strengthening the hand that stifles and oppresses The People possibly help them get out from under?
We all need to appreciate the vast difference between Capitalism and State-Capitalism or Crony-Capitalism. The former has produced great marvels, the latter is hopelessly corrupt.
~ FreeThinke
The Epic Failure of Republican Trickle Down Economics
When President Obama on Tuesday declared that decades of Republican trickle-down economics "never worked," conservatives were predictably apoplectic.
But for all of their protests of "class warfare", "socialism" and worse, Obama was being kind to the Republican ideologues. After all, as the historical record shows, from economic growth and job creation to stock market performance and just about every other indicator of the health of American capitalism, the modern U.S. economy has almost always done better under Democratic presidents. Despite GOP mythology to the contrary, America generally gained more jobs and grew faster when taxes were higher (even much higher) and income inequality lower. And while the U.S. recovery from the Bush recession remains painfully slow, most economists - including the nonpartisan CBO and some of John McCain's own 2008 advisers - believe President Obama saved it from the abyss.
http://crooksandliars.com/jon-perr/epic-failure-of-republican-trickle-down-economics
You don't seem to understand that "our" government has been taken over by International bankers and International Corporate elites.
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Put down the freaking crack pipe, gramps. Can you name the members of the cabal?
Libdude: Please don't stink up my blog with leftist lies from kooks and criers.
Your statement is completely void of provable fact.
To prove it, I'll ask you to explain trickle down, explain why it is bad, and then define the opposite and give a historical example where it worked.
The government's been coopted, Ducky.
Dirty Hank took care of Goldman Sachs, and Tiny Tim is carrying on the tradition.
Can't you see the difference between being the referee and being a player?
Government needs to have teeth, but they're latching onto the fleshy parts of the wrong crowd...
I agree with your analysis, SF. Unfortunately, "too big to fail" has been codified via Dodd-Frank.
Ducky, THINK....and what comment are you bouncing off of? There are no words deep enough to describe my dislike for Obama, but I don't 'hate him' and I certainly would like to pin all our financial problems on him but, sadly, there's enough blame to pass around.
I do blame him for getting us SO much deeper in trouble than any Republican could have THOUGHT of getting us into... Obama's more like FDR than some like to think.
And, no thanks, I don't need any lesson from you on that, either.
Differences of opinion don't mean DUCKY WINS.
"Figures {numbers} don't lie, but liars figure."
SilverFiddle said:
"These Wall Street vermin have infested our government and they are sapping the foundations like the termites and rats that they are. ..."
Yes, but shouldn't we dig deeper and remind ourselves why and how this has happened?
I believe infiltration of government by Business and Banking began as a defensive response to the early forms of Government intrusion, intervention and interference -- the time of TR and Wilson. Like any Power initiative once established it grew into a monster as horrible as the ogre it set out to combat.
"Good laws lead to the making of better ones; bad ones bring about worse. As soon as any man says of the affairs of the State, 'What does it matter to me?' the State may be given up for lost."
~ Rousseau (1712-1778)
"When we consider that this government is charged with the external and mutual relations of these states; that the states themselves have principle care of our persons, our property and our reputation ... we may well doubt whether our organization is not too complicated, too expensive; whether offices and officers have not multiplied unnecessarily, and sometimes injuriously, to the service they were meant to promote."
~ Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
The great thinkers throughout history have had all the answers. The trouble has always been the innate selfishness of human nature, the peoples’ abysmal ignorance and their hidebound reluctance to accept received wisdom.
In refusing to obey The Gods of the Copybook Headings*, mankind keeps running full tilt into one stone wall after another.
__________________
* See poem of that name by Kipling
~ FreeThinke
FT... no one's ever had "all the answers".
Do you ever think to try saying something supportive, Finntann?
Facts and figures don't begin to get at the truth. They're the pollen, flowers, leaves, twigs and branches of an enormous tree the root of which is grounded in and nourished by Principle.
Your approach seems more interested in tearing down than drawing logical conclusions from basic principles.
Precepts articulated hundreds of years before Christ across many disparate cultures reveal that little has changed in the human condition except for our advances in Science, Engineering and Technology.
Morally and spiritually we remain close to the feral state from which we emerged untold tens of thousands of years ago.
A species, we have put our faith in materialism and like the Jews of the Old Testament still tend to believe that military conquest, dominion and the forced physical unification and conformity of all human tribes to one set of rules could bring about "heaven" on earth.
I know that you, personally, don't believe that, but it's been the prevailing ethos since time immemorial.
Our salvation could only come about by increased awareness of our essentially spiritual nature, which in most cases remains unawakened.
The great Seers knew what they were talking about. Jesus Christ knew what He was talking about.
That few-if-any give spiritual values any credence and most "sophisticated" people dismiss morality as "naive" in this dog-eat-dog world does nothing to invalidate the eternal truths wise an brilliant men have shared with us over millennia.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
~ FreeThinke
Ducky said: "And while the U.S. recovery from the Bush recession remains painfully slow, most economists "
It's been the Obama recession for a long time now. After all, unemployment went up 20% after Obama took office. Obama's "stimulus" only made the problem worse, and he has blocked efforts to improve the economy.
As for trickle down, the Dems answer is to cut off the trickle.
Ducky,
They are going to fail eventually anyway. By bailing them out we are prolonging the pain and piling up debt on future generations. Keynes has failed.
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