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TechnoratiNow Is the Time to Resist Wall Street's Shock Doctrine
I wrote The Shock Doctrine in the hopes that it would make us all better prepared for the next big shock. Well, that shock has certainly arrived, along with gloves-off attempts to use it to push through radical pro-corporate policies (which of course will further enrich the very players who created the market crisis in the first place...).
The best summary of how the right plans to use the economic crisis to push through their policy wish list comes from Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich. On Sunday, Gingrich laid out 18 policy prescriptions for Congress to take in order to "return to a Reagan-Thatcher policy of economic growth through fundamental reforms." In the midst of this economic crisis, he is actually demanding the repeal of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which would lead to further deregulation of the financial industry. Gingrich is also calling for reforming the education system to allow "competition" (a.k.a. vouchers), strengthening border enforcement, cutting corporate taxes and his signature move: allowing offshore drilling.
It would be a grave mistake to underestimate the right's ability to use this crisis -- created by deregulation and privatization -- to demand more of the same. Don't forget that Newt Gingrich's 527 organization, American Solutions for Winning the Future, is still riding the wave of success from its offshore drilling campaign, "Drill Here, Drill Now!" Just four months ago, offshore drilling was not even on the political radar and now the U.S. House of Representatives has passed supportive legislation. Gingrich is holding an event this Saturday, September 27 that will be broadcast on satellite television to shore up public support for these controversial policies.
What Gingrich's wish list tells us is that the dumping of private debt into the public coffers is only stage one of the current shock. The second comes when the debt crisis currently being created by this bailout becomes the excuse to privatize social security, lower corporate taxes and cut spending on the poor. A President McCain would embrace these policies willingly. A President Obama would come under huge pressure from the think tanks and the corporate media to abandon his campaign promises and embrace austerity and "free-market stimulus."
We have seen this many times before, in this country and around the world. But here's the thing: these opportunistic tactics can only work if we let them. They work when we respond to crisis by regressing, wanting to believe in "strong leaders" -- even if they are the same strong leaders who used the September 11 attacks to push through the Patriot Act and launch the illegal war in Iraq.
So let's be absolutely clear: there are no saviors who are going to look out for us in this crisis. Certainly not Henry Paulson, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, one of the companies that will benefit most from his proposed bailout (which is actually a stick up). The only hope of preventing another dose of shock politics is loud, organized grassroots pressure on all political parties: they have to know right now that after seven years of Bush, Americans are becoming shock resistant.
297 Comments so far
Show AllI think did not like the conditions that Obama had tied to his approval:
They are talking about the Bail Out the whole show
http://www.ca/politics (Thursday)
Don Newman talks to this young guy who tells us not to blame Polson (sp?) - you know the guy who blames future generations for the banks failing
Afterwards, (about 15 minutes in) DN talks to Henry Champ who tells us the gossip in Washington and says that McCain is heading the the Republicans behind the private bail out for the banks.
They don't show commercials so it goes blank, then they talk about unrelated polls for a few minutes and then the politics pool (you can skip it)
Bill Blaikie, who tried to get worker and environment protections into the FTA/NAFTA starts talking about the American economy at (about 43-44 minutes in).
DN then goes back to Henry Champ (about 51 minutes in) and talks more about Chris Dodd who said that McCain wasted everybody's time for about two hours.
Didn't Clinton say "It's the economy, stupid"?
This finacial "catastrophic emergency" created by the Powers that Be (PtB) is just one of the last steps on the Yellow Brick Road to full-blown Fascism.
Cheney and Bush will invoke the powers they've granted to themselves, declare the emergency, cancel the election (or the innauguration), and bring on the guys in the black Darth Vader outfits. It's not going to be pretty....
Sorry for repeating this point - but this is important. As a systems programmer years ago in the heart of the finance industry, I had the opportunity to see to super secret data as part of my job. All stock holdings and trades are computerized and held by SIAC and DTC. All the information is there. Every time a school playground anywhere is financed by a bond issue, it is centrally recorded. So it could take work to trace the transactions, mine out the data and find the value of what we are buying, but it can be done.
I noted that the Partners'Accounts in each bank and brokerage house held a different array of stocks and traded differently from the stocks being traded by the company on behalf of the general public. There is worthless junk and there is still good stuff.
Will this likely bailout get us the good Partner stuff and the solid assets or just the junk? Will the taxpayers own the good stuff afterward? Will we, the people, keep the profits if the economy recovers?
It looks like this horrible bailout will go forward and lots of our assets will go down the drain. The Democratic Party amendments to this debacle break some of the secrecy that Paulson wanted and throw out a few flimsy life rafts to homeowners. It is not sufficient.
So I recommend that the bailout be very limited to an emergency payout of a mere 1 billion right now - and the rest would be contingent on full disclosure of the value of the holdings, both good and bad. The banks and brokerages should voluntarily disclose their records, or the Congress should issue a subpoenas to obtain them.
Then the taxpayer would know the value of what we are buying and have "options" to buy the good stuff at a discount (just as the CEOs do) as the reward for paying for the fraudulent practices that have gone on. In the future, the taxpayers will have the good investments in their portfolio for good purposes, including Social Security. Hey socialism for the rich seems to be acceptable. Why not capitalism for the average
Joe?
I DISSENT
An Essay Against A Government Bailout
September 23, 2008
By: Kenneth D. Peterson, Jr.
I will not go softly! There is a terrible, horrible crisis looming we are now told. But the Government will save us if only we will allow the most extravagant intervention into private affairs that this country has ever contemplated. The politicians and the media blare breathless sound bites about fear of collapse, fear of the future, fear of real estate, fear of failure. Have we forgotten that FDR said the only thing we need to fear is fear itself? Have we forgotten that six years ago when there was a similar full court press by the political and media elite to exploit our fears the reality in Iraq did not live up to the hype?
The political classes of both parties said that in the face of this unimaginable crisis they would take the weekend – imagine that, a whole weekend! – to create a Solution. The Solution must now be implemented immediately before we can even fully understand what it is. This is a classic "rush to judgment" so that we may not notice that the Solution aims to destroy the fundamental ideals of individual freedom, accountability and responsibility that our nation's Constitution was meant to defend.
I dissent and ask that you communicate your own dissent.
Our financial situation has two issues: Liquidity and Solvency. If a bank lends money to someone and the person defaults and the collateral is not worth the outstanding loan we can call this a "bad loan." Who should suffer the loss? Should we make the renter who lives next door absorb the loss? Should we make the shareholders of a bank that made good loans suffer the loss? This seems ridiculous! To suggest, as do our earnest politicians, that all the citizens of the United States should suffer the loss is literally nonsense. The one who must suffer the loss is the one who made the loan. Anything else is organized theft. If the bank did not inquire as to whether the borrower could repay the loan, or if it did not require an adequate equity cushion, then it must be responsible for such "stupid loans". The same goes for those who bought those loans and thereby became the lender. The result of enough such loans should be insolvency. Moreover, a lender that leverages itself 30 to 1 and then pleads for a bailout when values fall 4% does not define a national emergency and should not be taken seriously.
I dissent.
On the liquidity side, let us first be clear that there is lots of liquidity. Money Market Funds alone have more than $3 TRILLION in them. This is a lot of money sitting at low interest rates waiting to be invested in something that will return more. Cash deposits at banks adds more. Thus, there is no fundamental problem with the amount of money around. The political elite apparently feel this money should be allocated to a better purpose. I agree from experience that lack of liquidity can have bad consequences for those who are solvent.
The lack of liquidity problem can be solved with patient money. But this is hard to come by in an atmosphere of fear. When one cannot tell whether any particular hardship is caused by illiquidity or insolvency the resulting uncertainty demands a high price for patience. Are we to imagine, however, that the people in the Treasury or Congress are somehow smarter or wiser than the people at Bank of America, Morgan Stanley or Berkshire Hathaway in differentiating the two? The real difference I see is that the political elite can force millions of innocent citizens to underwrite Government's power trip while private parties must persuade us to freely part with our money. This is coercion, not liberty.
I dissent.
If those in Government really are smarter they would perform a greater service to the nation by starting a fund where they place their net worth at risk, along with the President, the Fed Chairman, Senators Obama, McCain, Biden and Clinton, Speaker Pelosi, Chairman Rangel and the other leaders of Congress. They can accept co-investors who trust their investment judgment and then make loans to those solvent financial institutions needing liquidity. If they can correctly differentiate between the insolvent and the illiquid they will make a lot of money, and they should. If they cannot, they will lose their equity, as they should, but at least non-investor citizens would not have been forced to bail out deadbeats and our Constitution would not be shredded!
I love the ideals America has stood for, like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I am proud that our Constitution makes us different from the EU, China, Mexico or Russia. I am not ready to sell out under panic pressure from our politicians for an "easy", but wrong, Solution.
I dissent and invite you to join me.
"Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
Hoorah.
BeetleOut
Meanwhile, Mccain makes Obama look better and better, and Obama makes Nader look way better still. All the while, Nader is sounding like the man who ought to be in charge -- if anyone is to be. If I manage to stir myself to taking this presidential circus seriously (by voting in it) I will either mark my ballot for Nader or McKinney. I'm plenty tired of voting for the lesser of two weasels.
Can the American people really not handle serious discussion about the state this nation is in, and the possible, realistic, adult ways to deal with it? No? ( No ). . . . ( maybe not ).
Raise you hand if your tired of living in the land of nit-witted, overfed, cry-babies --- overseen by dueling packs of pigs and hyenas (see Elephants and Jackasses) who put on a corporate-funded "Punch and Judy Show" for the peasants' amusement every four years.
Oh. . . . maybe I'm on the wrong page with this.
beetle out
YOU ARE! THIS BAIL OUT DEAL IS ANOTHER - GEORGE BUSH TRYING TO STICK IT TO THEM JUST BEFORE THEY GO ON HOLIDAY! LET THE THING WAIT OR THEY GO ON HOLIDAY A WEEK LATER. THIS IS TOO DAMN IMPORTANT TO DO THIS NOW! LET IT ALL FALL APART AND PUT THE MONEY INTO REBUILDING THE ECONOMY IN A CONSERVER MODE ECONOMY AIMED AT THE PEOPLE. THE NEW JOBS AND THE 700 BILLION SHOULD BE USED TO HELP THE CLIMATE CHANGE ISSUE AND A MOVE AWAY FROM NUCLEAR AND FOSSIL FUEL. HERE IS THE CHANCE TO DO IT AND ALL THE JOBS THAT INDUSTRY WOULD CREATE! THIS IS NOT SIMPLISTIC AND IT COULOD BE DONE.
BeetleOut
Meanwhile, Mccain makes Obama look better and better, and Obama makes Nader look way better still. All the while, Nader is sounding like the man who ought to be in charge -- if anyone is to be. If I manage to stir myself to taking this presidential circus seriously (by voting in it) I will either mark my ballot for Nader or McKinney. I'm plenty tired of voting for the lesser of two weasels.
Can the American people really not handle serious discussion about the state this nation is in, and the possible, realistic, adult ways to deal with it? No? ( No ). . . . ( maybe not ).
Raise you hand if your tired of living in the land of nit-witted, overfed, cry-babies --- overseen by dueling packs of pigs and hyenas (see Elephants and Jackasses) who put on a corporate-funded "Punch and Judy Show" for the peasants' amusement every four years.
Oh. . . . maybe I'm on the wrong page with this.
beetle out
BeetleOut
Meanwhile, Mccain makes Obama look better and better, and Obama makes Nader look way better still. All the while, Nader is sounding like the man who ought to be in charge -- if anyone is to be. If I manage to stir myself to taking this presidential circus seriously (by voting in it) I will either mark my ballot for Nader or McKinney. I'm plenty tired of voting for the lesser of two weasels.
Can the American people really not handle serious discussion about the state this nation is in, and the possible, realistic, adult ways to deal with it? No? ( No ). . . . ( maybe not ).
Raise you hand if your tired of living in the land of nit-witted, overfed, cry-babies --- overseen by dueling packs of pigs and hyenas (see Elephants and Jackasses) who put on a corporate-funded "Punch and Judy Show" for the peasants' amusement every four years.
Oh. . . . maybe I'm on the wrong page with this.
beetle out
BeetleOut
Meanwhile, Mccain makes Obama look better and better, and Obama makes Nader look way better still. All the while, Nader is sounding like the man who ought to be in charge -- if anyone is to be. If I manage to stir myself to taking this presidential circus seriously (by voting in it) I will either mark my ballot for Nader or McKinney. I'm plenty tired of voting for the lesser of two weasels.
Can the American people really not handle serious discussion about the state this nation is in, and the possible, realistic, adult ways to deal with it? No? ( No ). . . . ( maybe not ).
Raise you hand if your tired of living in the land of nit-witted, overfed, cry-babies --- overseen by dueling packs of pigs and hyenas (see Elephants and Jackasses) who put on a corporate-funded "Punch and Judy Show" for the peasants' amusement every four years.
Oh. . . . maybe I'm on the wrong page with this.
beetle out
BeetleOut
Meanwhile, Mccain makes Obama look better and better, and Obama makes Nader look way better still. All the while, Nader is sounding like the man who ought to be in charge -- if anyone is to be. If I manage to stir myself to taking this presidential circus seriously (by voting in it) I will either mark my ballot for Nader or McKinney. I'm plenty tired of voting for the lesser of two weasels.
Can the American people really not handle serious discussion about the state this nation is in, and the possible, realistic, adult ways to deal with it? No? ( No ). . . . ( maybe not ).
Raise you hand if your tired of living in the land of nit-witted, overfed, cry-babies --- overseen by dueling packs of pigs and hyenas (see Elephants and Jackasses) who put on a corporate-funded "Punch and Judy Show" for the peasants' amusement every four years.
Oh. . . . maybe I'm on the wrong page with this.
beetle out
To resist, or not to resist, the outcome will be the same. This has been a repeating story since the 1920s
http://theformofmoney.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2008/9/23
and long before that when Solon tore down the Pillars of Burden
http://theformofmoney.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2005/10/3/1277862.html
With that said, the global implications of collapsing global economies will offer many other opportunities for resistance. Hold steady.
Nobody but an idiot would think or believe that Palin has any foreign policy experience.
Nor would they believe all the trash thats been floated against her, 95% of which proved to be fabricated or just false.
What puzzles me is what is everybodys great fear of this gal? She has little governing experience, she has NO foreign policy experience, she can't even be allowed to be interviewed by the press. Whats the big fear?
As to the bailout.....
Could someone xplain to me why we should turn this bailout over to one man, a guy that last week says "don't worry", but this week says "danger is so imminent you must make me Emperor."
Why should any CEO, CFO or COO collect full pay or God forbid a bonus for driving their company into the ground.
Why should we bail them out without full equity positions in each firm?
And is this the answer? We need a lot more evidence than the word of the guys that got us here. And it makes me a little leery that Morgan Stanley and others want to participate. Money to be made in this proposal? If thetas the case, its a bad proposal.
As far as Paulsons argument that if we limit CEO's pay and bonus packages they won't participate. Let them go under then. Isn't it criminal to put your benefits ahead of the benefits to your company and its shareholders?
BeetleOut
In the putative words of Lily Tomlin:
"I find that no matter how cynical I get, I just can't keep up!"
I think I'm pretty cynical so far. But, I suspect that I'm falling a little behind. And yet, I worry that too much cynicism might be . . . . too much.
On one hand, I want to screech at Bernanke, and Paulson, and the Little Bush Child, and Congress: "Don't you dare pile any more debt on the American taxpayers (and their progeny) while rewarding the thieving rascals who profited so emperorily in this scam!"
My other, more cynical hand, says: "Bring it on! Let's burn this nasty village to the ground!"
I'm working on trying to be more optimistic in my old age. I've been working to remember to tell myself:
"My grave is half FULL."
There. That feels much better.
beetle out
Unrelated, but I thought to make you laugh.
The following headline was on Aljazeera today, stating:
Palin Meets World Leaders!
”The Alaskan governor held brief meetings with Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, and Alvaro Uribe, Colombia's president, in New York on Tuesday.”
The crash course in foreign policy. Palin meets two small time US puppets.
Here you have it. For all those who were bitching that the sexy fundamentalist did not have foreign policy experience.
This bailout is the financial equivalent of the Patriot Act. The Treasurer rules supreme and his decisions can not be reviewed by Congress. His decisions are not binding to existing laws and he is the sole arbiter as to who or what gets bailed out. This time Paulson's hubris has gotten the better of him. How else do you explain a bailout bill that is only 3 pages long? This explains why so many people have read it. When they read it they are mad.
So I called my congressman this morning and I told him no to this bailout and I told him that if Wall Street comes knocking to tell them to, "Go pee up a tree!"
This bailout is already becoming radioactive due to the massive amount of outrage by the public. Let's see the politician who has the guts to pass this one. Its election year and the shock doctrine is loosing its shock value.
In other news a fiscally responsible city, mine to be precise, went to Capitol Hill to plead for a mere 2 Billion dollars to deal with the excessive cleanup here in Houston after Hurricane Ike's devastation. It's amazing that he even had to go at all given there are still dead tree stumps all over the place, many traffic lights are out and 616,000 are still without power. Yet we're already trying to stop a $700 Billion dollar bailout and Houston has yet to be even offered the $2 Billion it requested just to cleanup the city.
"A party for Pompeii, a party for Rome but where is the party for the people?"
- Michael Parenti
I agree that Paulson is setting up huge gains for Goldman Sachs and now Warren Buffet who can see a great deal when he sees one.
But as you mention, Obama will be pushed away from reform.
http://www.boppoll.com
Tough times!
Remember, this is BI-PARTISAN. Obama/Rubin, Bush/McCain/Paulson - all in GS pocket. Buffett, knowing this, thought he had a sure thing.
YouDecide: great comment - you have hit the nail on the head and with such elegant simplicity, too....
Let me just repeat: LET THEM FAIL--- LET THEIM FAIL --- LET THEM FAIL (AND GO TO JAIL...)
similar thoughts here:
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/17/us_seizes_control_of_aig_with
While here in Europe we have not yet reached the stage of the US (where the shit has kinda hit the fan, if you excuse the language...)yet people here are also angry and depressed about the crumbling facade of our democracy and the growing influence of the corporate lobbyists in Brussels (European Union)
Here in Austria, where I live, we have parliamentary elections next sunday, but there is nobody to vote for... (if you want a paradigm change in the relations between society (the people) and the economic elite...
Thank God we are not a "superpower", but a tiny, neutral country with no military to speak of, and no desire to rule the world, but we DO have healthcare for all and a good education system. But the "liberal" ideology (concerned with the freedom of investors an capital, not people) is also gaining more ground here.
Yes, it seems we are ruled (more or less) by (financial)markets and the sick ideology that created this system, born in the 19th century. I am ashamed to say that an Austrian economist bears a great part of the guilt: Friedrich von Hayek, the godfather of market rule, whose godchildren like Milton Friedman spread the BS that generated this mess. Hayek`s booktitle "The Road to Serfdom" gets a very different meaning though from the current perspective..
How much this absurd doctrine has brainwashed people is summed up in a sentence someone wrote here: "The profit motive is NATURAL and LIFE-PROMOTING. - this is total crap -
Nature knows no profit motive nor did so called "primitive" indigenous people until we showed them...
Man is not an "economic man" but a social human being, indeed the latest neurobiological research shows that we have in fact a "social brain". We feel empathy, solidarity, a desire for helping other people (it makes us feel good), we need acceptance, respect and love, not profit to keep us going. Of course we nee to pay our bills, but even back in ancient Greece, philosophers made a difference between production for use and production for gain. The latter is not per se all bad, bad if the gain is never big enough, the system will kill itself in the end (like a cancer that keeps growing...)
A weird interpretation of Darwin´s theory of evolution led to the false interpretation of ruthless economic behaviour as normal and even desirable. (Mandeville, etc.)This was of course just an excuse. For centuries, a God fearing, Christian morality had kept the early stages of capitalism in check but with the advance of the "enlighenment" (kind of a misnomer), this changed (which is not to say, we should go back to a time of superstition and ignorance) and once ethical considerations became separated from economic behaviour, the big game was about to begin.....
"Competition" (and gain from it) cannot and must not be the ruling principle of society and neither is nature all about big fish eating little... Co-operation and solidarity is much more important... Wall Street is a cancer, let it die, by starving it, do not feed the growth..... and introduce heavy taxes on speculative earnings (to prevent new metastases)
Excellent! Thank you, tocqueville22!
Agree! We need more people like that in DC!
I dont suppose youd consider relocating, tocqueville22??
What a stupid question
The mighty capitalist system, in it's current steroidal manifestation of deranged and reckless extremism, has elevated the concept of "survival of the fittest" to the status of an Infallible Deity. Yet here we are with the worlds shrewdest risk managers in the business of "survival of the fittest" (AKA the finanace industry, AKA the insurance industry), having collapsed in a pathetic heap due to their own greed, incompetence, connivance and cannibalism, pitifully begging to be let back on Mommy's teat. Privatise the profit, socialise the loss. I always thought welfare bashing was an artform with the GOP. It seems there is now an exception to the welfare bashing rule - corporate welfare. Corporate welfare is a GOP core value akin to serving your country or God.
I got drunk and fell over the other night and woke up the next morning and had no money. I think it's only fair that the US Government should bail me out by putting that $50 back in my wallet. Otherwise my budget will be RUINED this week and INNOCENT PEOPLE WILL SUFFER!!!!.
Live by the sword....
snydly
Those who would take over the earth
And shape it to their will
Never, I notice, succeed.
The earth is like a vessel so sacred
That at the mere approach of the profane
It is marred
And when they reach out their fingers it is gone.
For a time in the world some force themselves ahead
And some are left behind,
For a time in the world some make a great noise
And some are held silent,
For a time in the world some are puffed fat
And some are kept hungry,
For a time in the world some push aboard
And some are tipped out:
At no time in the world will a man who is sane
Over-reach himself,
Over-spend himself,
Over-rate himself.
LaoTzu #29 600 BC
Blessed Unrest--by Paul Hawken--------great read
Thank you for the beautiful poem. It reminds me of William Blake and Gerard Manley Hopkins.
Joe
That is beautiful and wise. That's why the sl;eeping tiger is over-running the Reaganites who got us into this mess.
Alan MacDonald
Naomi, it's even bigger than you think:
"Now is the Time" to restart and complete the American Revolution!!
In today’s Washington Post George Will quotes Rep. Barney Frank who said, "No one in a democracy, unelected, should have $800 billion to spend as he sees fit. . . . That's not the way to run a democracy." ---- but then ‘economic royalist’ Will goes on to use the scare of socialism, communism, etc. to argue that democracy should prevail in only the 'political' sphere of our indivisible political economy, while economic Empire should rule the economic sphere.
This is NOT what the American Revolution taught about expunging the whole of the combined political AND economic tyranny of the British Empire --- and this overreaching ruling-elite 'corporate/financial Empire', which has now almost killed our democracy by hiding behind the facade of its two-party, 'Vichy' government, is going to rue the day it tried to attack "a bridge too far" ---- just as the Red Coats did at Concord!
The latest mass protests in Boston (and coming to NYC this week) against the Bush/Paulson “corporate financial Empire’s” demands on the people are lighting a fire that this empire will live to regret.
The news of mass protests from Boston is not a second Boston T(reasury) Party, but a continuation of the "outrage" against Empire that started the original Boston Tea Party!
This "outrage" in Boston is a new 'shot heard round the world' against a complete political economic empire (like the political AND economic British Empire) that allows a ruling-elite 'corporate/financial Empire' to metastasize from the economic realm and take-over the political realm.
We patriots need to now continue and culminate the American Revolution, that allows America's world-changing concept of 'democracy' to freely spread from the political realm to the whole of our indivisible political economy.
'Free market democracy' is a myth --- a lie that never existed and was made up by the ruling-elite's 'corporatist Empire' to make their economic take-over of our waning political democracy sound more friendly than the truthful term; 'fascism'.
What we're facing is a far bigger battle than just the fleecing of this supposed 'bailout'.
What we are facing is the final showdown between the economic empire of ruling-elite financial royalists against the very concept of America's most innovative contribution to the world: democracy --- vs. the chance, with our courage, to finally complete the American Revolution against the rule of empire in all aspects of our lives and liberty.
Today we have the opportunity of finally achieving the successful completion of the American Revolution; where the triumph of real democracy, rather than empire, in how men govern themselves, addresses the inexorably combined power of our indivisible political economy.
The good news of this epic crisis is that the real American innovation of democracy will finally (after 232 years) be applied to both the realms of political and economic self-governance, rather than only to the political sphere --- because empire, left alone in the economic sphere, has been perverting and trying to overthrow democracy since 1776.
This is not a choice between 'free market democracy' (which is only a PR lie told by the 'corporatist Empire' behind the facade of their two-party 'Vichy' government) and the scare term of 'socialism' --- but rather the long-delayed, final battle of the American Revolution, between democratic self-governance in the unified political economy of our country, or an economic empire of their corporatist/fascist elite metastasizing from the economic realm to the political realm and the whole of our society.
The continuation of the American Revolution in Boston and New York this week is being started 'by the people' not by the governors, senators, fake president and others beholding to the Corporatist Empire --- just as the original American Revolution was stated 'by the people' in Boston, Lexington, and Concord, and NOT by King George's appointed governors and 'political tools' in the colonies.
Economic Empire will always subsume and destroy the indivisible political economy of any people if empire is expunged only from the political sphere and allowed to fester and grow like a cancer spreading from the economic sphere of a hidden royalist ruling-elite.
That's why the American Revolutionary army drove the economic royalists all the way out of our country --- and kicked their asses from Castine Maine to St. Andrews!!!
No traitors, loyal to economic empire, can be allowed to stay in any nation that wants full democracy and self-governance ‘by the people’ over their indivisible political economic life blood and society.
Our founding fathers well knew in their genius of democracy that only democracy must prevail throughout their lives, society, and nation. That’s why corporations operating through the British Empire, like the British East India CORORATION were so hated and excised beginning at the Boston Tea Party.
Good stuff!
George Will is a legend in his own mind. He has never impressed me, and the majority of his predictions consistently have been wrong. He can try to impress people with his blustery philosophical diatribes, but to me, that is all that they are - blustery and unimpressive.
I want to hear someone like Noami summarize this whole deregulation bullshit into a simple ploy starting with the Reaganomics free market crap and the S&L scam that implicated both Bush's bro Neil and Senator McSame and then onto greater things, Bush's pal Kenny Boy in Enron, and oil and gas futures skyrocketing, and privatizing war, and now lawlessness on Wall St from McCains buddies.
Why isn't there an image forming in the public mind that implicates these same players? Where there's smoke there's fire! Right now the public sees these "crises" as independent events that are unfortunate. They do not see the connection between the players and the crises. In these relevant times nobody has brought up the Keating 5. At that time the S&L scam was the biggest bank robbery in the history of the world. Wow! John McKeating 5 is going to save us from Wall St everybody. DOn't you feel better?
I believe these bastards, the neocons and friends of Kissenger, have put away hundreds of billions in their Swiss bank accounts. They are using the underground CIA-type of power to steal from every baby's mouth in one fell swoop!
And nobody suspects anything but accidental greedy deals on Wall St...it just doesn't add up folks! This whole thing has been orchestrated for 20-30 years. The S&L was just the beginnning.
I agree that a "People's History" of the financial crisis would help counteract the bullying and fraud we are now experiencing. Naomi Klein is among the lucid and honest writers who could do that.
"Why isn't there an image forming in the public mind that implicates these same players"?
My experience is that many people have built up a pretty good Gestalt image of what is happening in economics by piecing together many items and clues over the years. But lacking self-confidence in their own thinking, suffering from distortions, confusions and lack of detail in the news media, they are often hesitant to assert their opinions. If someone could fill in the blanks, connect the dots, it would help them validate and sharpen their perceptions and give them the confidence they need to act in their own self-interest.
Joe
A question for us all to ask: Have/will our federal Representatives and Senators actually read the rescue measures before voting on them, or will it be like the USAPATRIOT act, even with the text further changed in the middle of the night.
"When you believe in things that you don't understand, then you suffer"
Stevie Wonder
Joe
You Decide
I am an economist, business person and an American. Here are 10 points to send to your congress people.
1. Let the investment banks fail. Someone will step forward if the function is needed.
2. They were the experts at risk management. They failed. Let them fall.
3. The money went somewhere. Where did it all go? Who got obscenely rich and where is the money?
4. The bailout plan will devalue the US currency by over 10%
5. The bailout plan is not needed. Businesses fail. Others step forward.
6. If we can consider $1 trillion in bailouts to the lambskin wallet crowd, let's bailout through infrastructure projects around the world, people desperate for food and work.
7. See No. 1
8. The devaluation of the US currency if the bailout goes through means $5+ gasoline and higher food prices.
9. See No. 1
10. No one is above the law or the review of the courts. If Paulson is granted such authority, you may check the box that says you now live in a fascist country.
I only have a minor in economics and totally agree with the above......
#3. Swiss banks. The Swiss opinion of the US government is so low that polls in Switz weeks after 911 were near 100% in the belief that the US government did 911 to its own people. They may not be able to share details about where all the money goes and deposits it after the S&L scam or Enron or now Wall St, but they know stuff that we don't know via word of mouth.
The USA must abolish the CIA.
The world needs to have transparency on Swiss Bank deposits larger than 1 billion.
The UN Security Council must get rid of permanent vetoes.
Peace.
"I wrote The Shock Doctrine in the hopes that it would make us all better prepared for the next big shock."
Forgive me this simple question Ms. Klein, but who pray tell is "us all"? Because if it is, as I suspect, your circle of friends, you know, the Birkenstock wearing, Starbucks drinking, Barnes & Noble crowd, then you are preaching to maybe the most impotent segment of the US population. Marx called them the petty bourgeois.
Check this out Ms. Klein, American bourgeois democracy is being held under water. It will drown, never to be resuscitated. The liberal intelligentsia of the petty bourgeois spins its wheels in the mud of this reality. On this point Al Gore’s quixotic campaign to sound the alarm on the ecological disaster right around the corner is instructive. In An Inconvenient Truth Gore lays out the incontrovertible facts of global warming, hoping to organize and agitate to a tipping point that changes governmental policy. A young Al Gore saw Dr. Martin Luther King do just that in his confrontation with racism. Despite titling his recent book “The Assault On Reason” Gore and clings to the idea that rationality still has influence in American ruling circles. The real inconvenient truth is that even the great Dr. King could not generate an effective civil rights movement in this era and that the rape of the planet will not end until a stake is driven into the heart of capitalism.
The sad truth is that the petty bourgeois cannot defeat the capitalist ruling class! They are a timid and passive group who, in this time for warriors, gather at the gates of the palace to nag and complain essentially to each other. There are scores of Internet websites, magazines, newspapers, radio programs and networks, and some small television networks where liberal, left, progressive, and other commentators show up to whine out loud. They rail against the outrages and inhumanity of the U.S. government and the Bush Administration. They point out the duplicity, the corruption, the hypocrisy, the inhumanity, and the utter criminality loosed in the world today but to no useful end since capitalism will not be reformed nor shamed to death. Pointing out the defects of capitalism has become as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. The ruling class brushes its liberal democratic critics off like gnats as long as they stay away from the third rail. But let one of these voices dare mention unity based on working class-consciousness and a mobilization to strike at profits and great danger would shortly thereafter visit.
No matter the danger, it must begin to be spoken by a warrior vanguard: socialism is the only way humankind will live into the distant future on this planet. Only a working class with a consciousness of itself and united across all racial, national and cultural boundaries is capable of seizing power. Only a working class in power will see to the end of this madness and willingly share our available resources for the sake of human survival.
Even if we agreed on the overwhelming journey you suggest, what is the next step? The devil is in the details. One suggestion - focus your rage on those who are causing the problems, not those who are attempting to help solve them and on their imagined beverage and shoe wearing habits.
Joe
Exactly. Very wise and well said Joe.
Poet, get a grip. You're completely off the rails. Malcolm might not be kind towards our beloved Naomi (and I think she's more than great), but he's basically got the correct perspective about what's wrong with the big picture.
Your "troll alert" is hysterical, and juvenile, and you're missing the target by a mile. And your defensiveness clearly shows that some of Malcolm's remarks have hit the target. "Resistance is not futile and we need not be assimilated."????!!! What the... "ASSIMILATED". Get your vocabulary in shape for f....k's sake.
How about that Malcolm for a battle cry when the proletariat hordes have had enough and they're at the "gates of the palace" (as you put it), waving weapons, fire in their eyes, determined to take down their oppressors, screaming in unisson:"Resistance is not futile and we need not be assimilated"!! That ought to do it.
Malcolm, your righteous indignation is admirable and your way of expressing it is witty and moving: "The sad truth is that the petty bourgeois cannot defeat the capitalist ruling class! They are a timid and passive group who, in this time for warriors, gather at the gates of the palace to nag and complain essentially to each other". Well said. Gotta love that. Pretty close to the mark in some ways.
But I'm not with you on a couple of things.
Naomi in my opinion is worth more than her weight in gold. She does painstaking research and analysis and her take on the political/economic situation is courageous and exceptionally close to the mark, in my opinion.
We can't change such a complex (warped) system without understanding what's going on. An analysis is part of the struggle. You say: "Pointing out the defects of capitalism has become as easy as shooting fish in a barrel". Again, I love the way you say things and you have the communication strength of someone who's convinced and very confident. But I don't think it's that easy. I do think we need people like Naomi.
The next phase, in my opinion is easy to say, terribly difficult to do...and old as the hills: ORGANIZE. That's for people like you and Joe, I guess, and everybody who has the analysis, the communication skills, the willingness, etc., etc., to get people to work together. Naomi basically says exactly that. She stresses that in this case (Wall St. meltdown), as in any other similar situation, nobody is going to save us from the bad guys. We have to do it...we the people. ORGANIZE. That's what she always stresses. She can't do it, anymore than most of us can't do what she does so well. I do think you've got the wrong read on her.
But I'm somewhat with you about a lot of tough-talking leftoids, who often are over-educated, cocooned and confused idealists who yap, and write the odd letter to their reps but couldn't organize a 2-pitcher lemonade stand.
And Malcolm, I don't agree either with overthrowing the capitalist class. I don't believe in Marxist revolution, nor a Marxist dictatorship. It's been tried, and while there were some good things, it's been a dismal, cruel failure.
We're stuck with capitalism, and a well-functioning democracy can control it enough to make it work for the majority. I believe that deeply, and I'm sure you disagree with me perfectly, and you find that naive. So be it. The vast majority of people in any given country are workers, people who actually create wealth and aren't parasites. When we have a truly democratic party that represents that majority, the will of the majority can express itself and make as much sense of capitalism as is possible on this planet. But we need to ORGANIZE.
And voting Nader right now to allow McCain to move into the White House is not a step forward.
Troll alert, troll alert! Resistance is not futile and we need not be assimilated.
Poet
Everyone in America, except the wealthy, should start proceedings to claim personal bankruptcy. Everyone would be off the hook to pay mortgages, loans, credit card bills, etc. What would the government do? Would they bail the citizenry out to stop an implosion of magnitude they couldn't imagine?
Unfortunately they have passed laws making it very difficult for the average person to declare bankruptcy. I have heard that your first house is not protected in a bankruptcy hearing, but additional houses are protected. Twisted.
Joe
It is true. I tried it. (esp in the midwest).
I have med. bills that equal about the same value as my little house. And I am being charged interest on them. I make paymets of hundreds of doolars every month, and only break even. I supose I will die with this debt. I REALLY resent that the Dems (esp Biden) wena long with this bankruptcy bill and the credit card crap.l
Hmm, the timing for those new tougher bankruptcy laws was interesting, wasn't it? You don't suppose these guys knew what was coming, do you? And they wanted to make sure the big guys would be able to collect their money, no matter what, because they knew what was coming down the pike? And remember those anti consumer laws were BI-PARTISAN.
How can anyone not see the life here. The abundance of thought by such caring people. It truly is a rewarding experience.
Especially the long winded 'I'll convince you with my impeccable logic, lucid opinions and studied wisdom. Sweetened with my self-effacing humility."
This is why...
I wanna Twinkie too, mommie!?
Great article!
I hope you can read this without problems, it tells you how Sweden went about it when they faced a very similar situation in 1992.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/22/business/krona.php
This 700 billion dollar bailout program is starting to smell mighty fishy. If bad mortgage backed securites are the problem then going in and bailing out the individual mortgage holders should solve the problem. But no, the White House is insisting that the bailout go directly to the banks which still won't solve the problem of the bad mortgages.
Either there is something we are not being told or this is looking more and more like one giant ripoff of the taxpayer.
Lobo Gris
Precisely!
As a person who investigates for a month before I buy a vacuum cleaner, this rush to spend $700 billion of my money, and yours, is unacceptable. It's my money and I have a right to UNDERSTAND what is happening and what the ALTERNATIVES are.
1. What EXACTLY would happen if NO money were spent. How would it affect me and other average people? I do not want to hear from Paulson. He has a bad track record for predictions. (BTW, thank you John Stewart for your diligence in digging up and making us laugh with what these guys said just a few months ago.)
2. What would happen if all the money were spent on giving homeowners a few free mortgage payments?
3. What would happen if $700 billion were spent kicking up the economy on clean energy projects and training displaced workers for those jobs. (The CEOs could be the janitors, after training in what it means to do real work.)
4. How much of the expense could be covered by re-couping execs compensation for the last few years. I hear Lehman bonuses are 2.5 billion for this year.
PS - Do you know the Bob Marley song "We're Gonna Chase Those Crazy Baldheads Out of Town"? It keeps running through my brain when I see Paulson, Cheney, Rove.
Joe
Good points!
I don’t know anything about economics outside of balancing my checkbook for the $450.00 (four hundred fifty) that I receive every month from Social Security, but I can tell you that whoever thought of the present financial "debacle" is more intelligent than all the scheming foxes put together. As a double-edged swards, the plan has two objectives: enriching the already filthy rich at the expense of the American public, and screwing up the world economy to the benefit of the rich in America again.
How? Well, look at all the junk stuff that foreign investors bought from the U.S. and paid for it with good money. They’re not worth much now. It’s like someone borrowing a lot of money, stashing it away, and then declaring bankruptcy.
Hey, may be I better concern myself only with balancing my little checkbook.
JKMaguire, "We do need to get back to the streets. They will listen. But first they will ignore us."
"I believe they have laughed at us too. Next they will fight us, then we win."
Surely you can see how vague you are being. Your response was nothing but rhetoric. Can you suggest anything specific?
And where is Peter's evidence? In the 19th century. God help us.
So, these corporations are about to be nationalized? Where're my shares? Why are we nationalizing intangibles? Why aren't we nationalizing the energy sector? Oh, that's still making money. We can't assume that until it's in the red.
Nice comment qbaldsmoove - This all seems like one last gigantic tax break for the rich, paid for by my kids.
Ms. Klein's opinion is both factually and morally untenable.
1. It is not true that speculators create unsustainable booms which governments then stabilize; rather, it is government interference in the economy which always and everywhere causes the destructive business cycle.
For nearly the entire 19th century, the US recognized more individual rights by keeping its economy essentially separated from its government - more closely approaching the system of individual rights and freedom called capitalism. With individual buyers and sellers free to act on their own best judgment in virtually all markets - and prosper or fail accordingly - the race went to those most able at production, not theft. The US had a century of falling prices, privately issued objective money, no national "bubbles" and, excepting a civil war to eliminate a threat to individual rights, largely uninterrupted economic progress - what some Keynesian economists would call a deflationary boom.
2. Collectivist calls for "nationalisation" are merely rationalizations for theft -- of wealth that first had to be created by individuals and their voluntary incorporations seeking to earn ever increasing profits from the fruits of their labors when others voluntarily chose to purchase those fruits.
Like all other forms of legalized looting, collectivism is immoral because it destroys each individual's natural ability to think, produce, and own his life and its results - for better or worse.
For centuries, collectivists have counted on a contradiction: some people are to live by one moral code - production and mutual voluntary trade to mutual advantage - while others are to live by another morality: mooching, looting, and dictating the terms under which the producers are to live and be sacrificed.
Like Bush and Greenspan, Ms. Klein's tactic of scapegoating producers as "reckless gamblers on Wall Street" has worn shabbily thin. The profit motive is natural and life-promoting. Allowing it to flourish by instituting capitalism - where government's sole job is to protect individual rights from the initiation of force or fraud - is the only moral course.
So let's break with centuries of collectivism and advocate individualism and capitalism. We could start by backing our money with something objective like gold - instead of by the whims of 12 Fed governors every 6 weeks. Then stop requiring banks to make loans to inner city residents with bad credit...
The choice is not between conservative monopoly dictatorship or conservative hegemonic dictatorship. It is between dictatorship and democracy.
The profit motive is natural and life-promoting when nature limits growth. When money-hoarding bypasses natural controls, growth is unlimited and the profit motive turns into cancer that kills life.
"...Like Bush and Greenspan, Ms. Klein's tactic of scapegoating producers as "reckless gamblers on Wall Street" has worn shabbily thin. The profit motive is natural and life-promoting..."
- As this ridiculous passage so nicely illustrates, all libertarians have their heads stuck deeply up their asses, as they worship the little plastic icons of Ayn Rand that they've shoved up there.
()*&$&*%/%?/$%"?/e$%t?&*()_(*&?$"/?&*()&?$/%&*()_+*&?$%/?*&()_+(*&?$%?*&()_+(*&?%$
??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Like Bush and Greenspan, Ms Klein....
Anybody who can write a sentence starting like that, putting those 3 in the same bag is seriously off the rails....
"...centuries of collectivism...", "...government interference...", "a century of falling prices...privately issued objective money...", "...collectivist calls for 'nationalization...merely rationalizations for theft...", "...collectivism is immoral..." and more blather and repetition of the same tired right wing dogma. You should be a stand up comic. Your knowledge of history is pathetically 'thin' or superficial.Your final paragraph spills your racist guts, gold lust and economic stupidity.
Individualism is not being denied. But capitalism is not individualism, just as corporations are not persons. I could care less what the SCOTUS says. Money is not free speech. Money is a bribe.
Go back to school. You are laughable.
"For nearly the entire 19th century, the US recognized more individual rights by keeping its economy essentially separated from its government"
What a completely ASSININE statement. One word- SLAVERY. Go straight to hell.
Wealth is not "Created" by people absent of a Government. Governmnet puts in place the mechanisms by which an economy can operate. The lack of speculative bubbles in America in the 19th centruy had more to do with the slower pace of technological change then "Nationalization".
If you want to look at how wealth was truly created in 18th and 19th century America, please do not suggest it was the "free marketplace" and the "Magic of capiltalism" without looking first at the THEFT of the land from the Indinegnt poulation. The exploitation of that lands resources to build wealth. The use of Slaves in the Southern US and the exploitation of labor wherein children worked in Coal mines, women were lcoked away in factoires to work 12 hour shifts and laborers worked in Company towns where everything they had was owened by someone else.
There a tendency of far too many to look at 18th and 19th centruy America with rose colored glasses. The facts are those mining compnaies, those Railroads, those Lumber compnaies, those Gold miners..were all involved in mass theft.
The reason this boom happened in America and not Europe, is that because in Europe all the lands were already OWNED by the Nobility.
Those millions of people who immigrated to the new world did not suddenly discover a work ethic when they landed in the new World.
They participated in mass theft.
Peter,
refreshing insight and not the usual banter of current people. It may go even deeper into history than you say, but at least you have better depth than Klein and company.
By the way, just wait for the gallery and their comments to beat up on you!
gikady
You should be beaten up, too.
Ms. Klein says,
"A President Obama would come under huge pressure from the think tanks and the corporate media to abandon his campaign promises and embrace austerity and "free-market stimulus."
Too late, he is already copping out - http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE48M91V20080923?sp=true
Let's see, while the war in Afghanistan will apparently not suffer from this bailout, his healthcare plan will.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch - It is not only Paulson who comes out of Goldman-Sachs (GS), but Rubin, one of Obama's economic advisors as well. Both, coincidentally, are/were Treas. Sec., Paulson under Bush, Rubin under Clinton. GS one of top contributors to both Obama & McCain. GS rivals not bailed out but liquidated, sold or absorbed and some now being investigated by FBI. Buffett, no fool, just put 5 billion into GS. GS now smelling like a rose.
Does anyone else smell something else? Teapot-Dome, anyone?
Apparently it's not only the media or the think tanks that have Obama's, as well as Bush's, ear ....
Is anyone "shocked" by this?
As Naomi explains in the "Shock Doctrine", Hayek and Friedman of the Chicago School's neoconservative movement tried to give scientific and mathematical legitimacy to their free market theory.
Their theory was seriously flawed.
In moneyless nature, no living thing can hoard more resources than it can physically and personally defend.
This ensures abundant resources and a large, healthy pool of individuals for interspecies competition and natural selection.
Easily hoarded money, compounding interest and concentrating money-power, inherited fortunes, private armies with WMD's that kill indiscriminately all bypass natural controls.
Self-multiplying money allows the weakest, the dumbest, the ugliest and the most unfit to rule over the strongest, the smartest, the most beautiful and the fittest members of the human species.
The free market can only work when wealth and power are naturally distributed, not unnaturally concentrating in fewer individuals. When there are limits to how much money-power each person can hoard.
The National Initiative for Democracy is endorsed by Senator Mike Gravel and by Noam Chomsky. It's a way out of this mess:
http://ni4d.us/
I believe we should structure our system on the natural order of things as EZ points out.
snydly
Those who would take over the earth
And shape it to their will
Never, I notice, succeed.
The earth is like a vessel so sacred
That at the mere approach of the profane
It is marred
And when they reach out their fingers it is gone.
For a time in the world some force themselves ahead
And some are left behind,
For a time in the world some make a great noise
And some are held silent,
For a time in the world some are puffed fat
And some are kept hungry,
For a time in the world some push aboard
And some are tipped out:
At no time in the world will a man who is sane
Over-reach himself,
Over-spend himself,
Over-rate himself.
LaoTzu #29 600 BC
Blessed Unrest--by Paul Hawken...great read!
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is not up to the job and needs to be replaced now. He has run through the lions share of the money the Federal Reserve had and is now looking for a blank check from working Americans. Ben your fear has taken over and we can no longer forgive you for the errors of Allen Greenspan for now the errors are yours this time and your time has passed.
Bernanke has exposed himself as totally political and Republican. No shock there. He needs to be replaced with someone who has a more balanced viewpoint regarding economic issues.
Toast, "we need to get back to the streets"
I've been involved in street protests and they were ignored by the government. It is your belief that with a larger protests our politicians will listen to our demands?
What if they don't? What further leverage can we employ? Most people cannot afford to strike. Rioting will only provoke a reaction that will rush us further into a fascist state. Most Left Wing people won't even withhold their vote from the democrats for fear of allowing the republicans to win.
I certainly support protesters, but I don't see them as movement capable of creating change. They are more like pep rallies for a game that is never played. So I'm really curious what you mean by taking to the streets, how will this be effective?
We do need to get back to the streets.
They will listen. But first they will ignore us.
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win"
Ghandi.
I believe they have laughed at us too. Next they will fight us, then we win.
Keep the faith.
We need to go back to the streets IN GREATER NUMBERS. I think that the proterst of the Vietnam war helped sway politicians alot. Of course, wel dont have a draft now.
After that, we need to go BACK to the street. And again.
They cannot kill us all. Well, yes they can. By continuing the rape of the middle class policies that they are promoting now. By spending up our treasury in war. By bailimg out an industry that totally needs to take its medicine--except that both parties are so hooked on"privitization" (even of working peoples' pension funds) , that now, ther is a hazard for everyone in letting it fall.
We can differentiate who gamed the system and weho did not. It would be difficult. But, no more difficult than paying off Wall Sts. debst for 3 generations.
We need to go back to the streets IN GREATER NUMBERS. I think that the proterst of the Vietnam war helped sway politicians alot. Of course, wel dont have a draft now.
After that, we need to go BACK to the street. And again.
They cannot kill us all. Well, yes they can. By continuing the rape of the middle class policies that they are promoting now. By spending up our treasury in war. By bailimg out an industry that totally needs to take its medicine--except that both parties are so hooked on"privitization" (even of working peoples' pension funds) , that now, ther is a hazard for everyone in letting it fall.
We can differentiate who gamed the system and weho did not. It would be difficult. But, no more difficult than paying off Wall Sts. debst for 3 generations.
We need to go back to the streets IN GREATER NUMBERS. I think that the proterst of the Vietnam war helped sway politicians alot. Of course, wel dont have a draft now.
After that, we need to go BACK to the street. And again.
They cannot kill us all. Well, yes they can. By continuing the rape of the middle class policies that they are promoting now. By spending up our treasury in war. By bailimg out an industry that totally needs to take its medicine--except that both parties are so hooked on"privitization" (even of working peoples' pension funds) , that now, ther is a hazard for everyone in letting it fall.
We can differentiate who gamed the system and weho did not. It would be difficult. But, no more difficult than paying off Wall Sts. debst for 3 generations.
We need to go back to the streets IN GREATER NUMBERS. I think that the proterst of the Vietnam war helped sway politicians alot. Of course, wel dont have a draft now.
After that, we need to go BACK to the street. And again.
They cannot kill us all. Well, yes they can. By continuing the rape of the middle class policies that they are promoting now. By spending up our treasury in war. By bailimg out an industry that totally needs to take its medicine--except that both parties are so hooked on"privitization" (even of working peoples' pension funds) , that now, ther is a hazard for everyone in letting it fall.
We can differentiate who gamed the system and weho did not. It would be difficult. But, no more difficult than paying off Wall Sts. debst for 3 generations.
We need to go back to the streets IN GREATER NUMBERS. I think that the proterst of the Vietnam war helped sway politicians alot. Of course, wel dont have a draft now.
After that, we need to go BACK to the street. And again.
They cannot kill us all. Well, yes they can. By continuing the rape of the middle class policies that they are promoting now. By spending up our treasury in war. By bailimg out an industry that totally needs to take its medicine--except that both parties are so hooked on"privitization" (even of working peoples' pension funds) , that now, ther is a hazard for everyone in letting it fall.
We can differentiate who gamed the system and weho did not. It would be difficult. But, no more difficult than paying off Wall Sts. debst for 3 generations.
snydly
CONGRESS WILL CAVE. Hope they think to limit the bailout to US corporations and prohibit those corps from going off-shore for the next 20 years or until the $ is repaid w/interest.
The simple, fair fix is to mandate re-fi, low, fixed, fair interest rates on the problem loans, and if the gov helps make mortgage payments, it would get equity in the asset. The bureacracy and paperwork are already in place to implement and monitor. Piece of cake. The ethical lenders would not be hurt, but the greedy and speculative would feel the pain, cut their own CEO's pay and probably be boughtout by stronger , ethical firms. That would also keep people in their homes, keep the houses off the market and improve liquidity.
But, alas, I fear that's not what the Bushies are after...
What it takes is more than a goddamn 30 second memory. We all vent, then on to the the next situation, forgetting all about the former.
We have been conditioned to do that, as a consumer culture.
Ms. Klein has laid out a systematic thesis that spans decades; just remember it, instead of whining about somebody else's intelligent quota and, she's right, it wouldn't be so easy to roll us again.
Once again Naomi Klein has solidified the kind of things that have been floating around in my head since this financial meltdown began.
One of my initial thoughts had "Shock Doctrine" written all over it.
There is a certain measure of pleasure that I detect in the wealthiest neo-cons as each of the crises have unfolded over the past decade. It is barely masked in their public responses and their shallow cliché-scripted attempts to appear to be the least bit concerned about anyone but themselves and the class of people who benefit most from their actions.
In the end, as they are certainly not likely to lose the kind of life-sustaining foundation to their lives that the poorest and least well-off will as a result of their continued chicanery, they will enter the final stages of the construction of the great neo con funnel that will direct what taxes they are able to squeeze out of the workers into their pockets.
What is also obvious is how disloyal to the idea and physical being of the nation state, the United States or any other, their actions and ideology have betrayed them to be. They actualize the antithesis of patriotism and love of country, place, city, landscape, and people. They denude the legal and cultural landscape of any society or country that they touch by demanding that it serve them. They are extra-national and are in the business of creating and profiting from entities that answer to no nation, democratic or not. They are busily creating a new kind of high medievalism in which they have traded places with the powerful and absolute dictators of the extra-national domains of the leaders of the great religions of the past who exercised almost absolute power over all kings and other nation states, and certainly over the starving, diseased masses. Once it was god, now it is capital. No wonder they marry both as they compel the public to support them!
Democracy, in the end, means little to them... because they will not abide by its premises and will assume unequal status among the serfs and indentured servants that they create and from whom they demand homage… and life or death in their wars between themselves for the paltry remains of the resources upon which they gorge as they ruin the earth's generous store of gifts and plenty.
And while it is certainly an act of futility to vote outside of an enforced two party system in which both parties have become willing accomplices, or are entirely beholden to these behemoth corporate bishops, popes, Suleimans and dalai llamas in this neo-con, neo-medieval, new world order, it is difficult to do anything but opt out and vote one's conscience, hopeless or not, as we witness a governing system that will, by its nature and habit, cave in on itself through its insistence on continuing to define its legislative and regulatory failings as compromises: though, as any ex drunk or cocaine junkie knows, one cannot compromise with an addiction.
"In the end, as they are certainly not likely to lose the kind of life-sustaining foundation..."
Oh yes they are. The correct stement is: In the end, they are certainly going to lose their lifes. Guaranteed.
Bobv
Translation: Don't vote for Obama.
Many trolls use fewer words to say the same thing.
This has the smell of a classic sweatshop pump and dump. Paulson wants to raid the public treasury to inflate stocks while the smart money dumps shares, leaving the masses in bread lines.
Very good point. As I have said before, as a systems programmer years ago in the heart of the finance industry, I had the opportunity to see to super secret data as part of my job. You are prohibited from disclosing details or using this "insider information" for trading, but nobody can stop you from thinking.
I noted that the Partners'Accounts in each bank and brokerage house held a different array of stocks and traded differently from the stocks being traded by the company on behalf of the general public. Will this likely bailout get us the good Partner stuff or just the junk? Will the taxpayers own the good stuff afterward?
Joe
We are about to find out EXACTLY, PRECISELY how stupid the vast majority of Americans really are. In this vast, nearly cosmic, financial SCAM which the United States has now become, the so-called people are faced with the necessity of telling the Repimplicans and Germ-o-crats they will not be saddled with the desert of debt their corrupt masters are attempting to dump on their front lawns in the middle of the night. All they have to do, by the hundreds of thousands, is send a simple email or letter, or make a phone call, to their local corrupt representative and tell them NO! They will respond to that kind of pressure. It will take perhaps 10 minutes. Then there's McCain and Palin, the snakes who've emerged from the bodies of George Wanker Bush and Cheesedick Cheney after they shed their skins. To vote for them is tantamount to performing a lobotomy on yourself using a can opener. It's now time to bleep or get off the pot. What are the "people" going to do?
I don't know Mordechai, I fear the phone and letter thing will fall flat. This one might need a general strike.
There’s no excuse for allowing the collapse of the U.S. economy to happen.
No amnesty, no pardons.
Pursue the Bush administration beyond January 20 until they are brought to justice.
FREE AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY (DIRECT) DEMOCRACY
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Stop the "bailouts"........send the troops into Wall Street, and find the WMDs !!!!
Bring these Stock Brokers / Terrorists to justice. Sent these "white collar" crooks to Gitmo for the "water-boarding" treatment. Then hang them !!!!
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Wait until you all se my signs I am making. Got some great pictures of some CEOs, and there will be some cool captions on the signs. I am going to plaster them all over up here.
Coffeelover,,,,,,,,
Dung Carts and Stretched Rickshaws
It was the day that Main street swallowed Wall street’s worst
no not spicy Blutwurst
but like a sausage it got both ends a goin
more than a breath of excess
for Main streets toxic trillion dollar indigestion
It took quite a little squeeze
to get that worst approval through
the promised bust needed more than a little green
to thin out the mean
like ‘a continental’ style worth
as real wealth looked for a safer berth
Is it too late to look for tar and feathers?
or oil specs with lesser levers?
The dung carts don’t have enough room for all the heads
and the rickshaws don’t have enough stretch for all the execs
So please
build a wall around Wall street
steal their water and their figs
They need check points and tolls
predator deprogramming schools
one hundred percent collateralization rules
So don’t bulldoze their Mc mansions
Let them sing their cherished songs:
‘AIPAC uber alles’
‘Es ist mir Wurst’
It was the day that Main street swallowed the wurst
BOTTLE is right. KMAN2 needs to get a clue or else get off of CD. I am the only person who speaks for me, and I support Obama.
Obama may not be everything to everyone, but he is light years ahead of the joke ticket McCain/Palin that the Republicans are running. If you think the Bush era has been hideous, you ain't seen nothing yet if McCain/Palin are elected. Both McCain and Palin are outright liars and see nothing wrong with it. The have no standards of decency whatsoever. McCain is running another ad on network TV tonight that is full of lies. McCain is a clueless asshole. And Palin is - I can't even think of words to describe how she disgusts me.