EMAIL SIGN UP!
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Donald Trump Blames Crisis on Divine Intervention
As the Job Losses Mount, the Government’s Bailout Flouders/Fails
It has taken a while for the stars to align and the truth to come dripping down. Now we know who caused the financial crisis:
GOD DID IT.
Just as Jerry Falwell saw a divine hand behind 9/11, our golden boy icon of Capitalism By My Rules, Mr. "You're fired" Donald Trump, has now unearthed the secret, blaming the recession on the ONE above.
The Donald came up with this conspiracy -- along with the not totally unreasonable assertion that the banks engineered the disaster -- in a lawsuit filing offering a reason for not paying on a big construction loan from a German Bank for a skyscraper he was building in Chicago. He cites an Act of God -- "unlikely events," clause in his contract to justify not paying.
A New York Times columnist also recycles a Trumpian fairy tale in which this master publicity seeker reveals that in some cases he told banks NOT to finance his projects because they were a "bad deal." The banks, he claimed, went ahead anyway. This could be true, given what we have learned about banking practices. (He will no doubt sell them the Brooklyn Bridge in the future.)
So now the proverbial S is hitting the fan on every front. Xmas shipping will not save us this year. We are being warned about the likely onset of stag deflation. Sounds bad.
The brilliant young economist Max Wolfe -- soon to star in my film in the making based on my PLUNDER book in the selling -- says the latest jobs report is a recipe for more pain on the way.
"We have lost 533k jobs in November and over 2.5 million for the year 2008. Thus, we see the worst jobs report in 34 years... We have seen the Fed and Treasury swallow toxic assets as the markets turn more and more assets toxic. Today's job losses assure many more delinquent and default experiences for creditors... This is a sad day for the world economy."
(Note: These figures don't count people who have stopped looking for work, an estimated 637,000.)
And our government's response? If there is a plan, it is this: Open the sluice, get the money printing press working overtime, and try to bail the sinking ship. (Is that where the term bailout came from?) The costs are stratospheric and going up. In fact, we have just learned that the stock the bailout boys bought to supposedly make money for the American people dropped over $8 billion in value just last week.
Nicholas Jones writes on the Seeking Alpha finance website:
"The $3.2 trillion spent thus far is a massive figure, but dwarfs the $8.5 trillion that is all but committed. Unfortunately, I don't expect it to stop there. I would be fully shocked if we don't see that $8.5 AT LEAST DOUBLE from here.
The problem is that nobody really understands the true size of these figures. It's shocking how quickly America just accepted whatever -illion it was whether it started with a M, B, or T. I mean, what the hell... what's $30 billion for Detroit when Citi just got $300 billion and the Fed has doled out some $2 trillion in other lending programs."
Clearly, we need a new TV show: Who wants to be an ILLIONAIRE?
... Slum dogs, are you listening?
We still need a full investigation into how Wall Street firms, asleep at the switch regulators and a passive media drove this crisis. We can't ignore compromised politicians either. A Joint Economic Committee study says: "Government Policy Blunders Largely Caused the Global Financial Crisis."
Missing in all of this is what our goal is. Is it to just rebuild the financial architecture that already failed, to go back to status quo ante, to put the same bankers and institutions that betrayed their customers and investors back in business? The goal should not be to revive financial markets as they have been but to remake them. As Nobel-winning economist Joe Stiglitz explains, "The failure of our financial system to do what it is supposed to do matches in destructive grandeur the macro-economic failures of the Great Depression."
Has going backwards now been redefined as going forward?
The resolution of this crisis is too serious to be left in the hands of the people who created it. Yet they have the power and the purse. Ben Bernanke has finally come around to the notion that we have to do something about housing. This most obvious crisis is being considered last.
May I remind you that this distinguished Chairman took a while to "get it." (Maybe it is something in the water in Princeton.) A New York Times columnist reminded us of a hearing back in 2005:
"It came in November 2005, toward the end of his all-day Senate confirmation hearing, when Senator Paul Sarbanes brought up the mortgage business. Mr. Sarbanes, the ranking Democrat on the Banking Committee, then pointed out that the number of people taking out adjustable-rate mortgages soared in 2004. 'Are you concerned about the potential for a bubble in the housing market?' the senator asked Mr. Bernanke. 'And specifically, does the drastic increase in the use of risky financing schemes, including interest-only and even negative amortization mortgages, concern you?'"
"Mr. Bernanke replied that the Fed was reviewing its guidelines for these loans and planned to issue new ones soon. The guidelines, he added, 'would have on the margin some beneficial effects in reducing speculative activity in some local markets.' At no point, though, did Mr. Bernanke suggest that he was concerned."
Gag me with a spoon.
And now dear fellow recessionaires, let us think about what to do.
First, we need to suspend all trust in these wannabe saviors. Next, we need to organize a massive people's campaign for economic fairness. After that we need to use media campaigns, protests and lobbying to demand that an economic state of emergency be declared.
We need
1. TO STOP FORECLOSURES: An immediate moratorium on all foreclosures
2. TO PROVIDE DEBT RELIEF: A rollback of credit card interest and write downs of what's owed. 110 million Americans are said to be in arrears on loans.
3. FORGE AN ECONOMIC PLAN FOR THE MIDDLE CLASSS, not this current leave no banker behind approach.
Idea: Create a powerful Economic Czar to whom Treasury and the Fed must report. I would suggest someone with compassion and insight take the helm, someone like former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, the one progressive in Clintonland. We may need a small man for this big job.
We also need people's council to advise him including economists like Nouriel Roubini, Max Wolf, Jamie Galbraith, and Paul Krugman, leaders from NACA and ACORN, Union and church people, folks from food banks etc.....
Oversight and accountability are essential -- as Elizabeth Warrren of Harvard, who is on a Senate panel, said earlier in the week, the government has no plan and is floundering with Hank Paulson's ping-pong approach.
Even Donald Trump knows, or he should know that the Good Lord helps those who help themselves. Top-down imposed solutions are NOT working.
We need a bottom-up and far more democratic approach.
Barack Obama was elected with the support of an activated public. If he is to make a dent in this crisis, he needs continuing active and critical support. As I have said many times; "It's not the ship that makes the waves; it's the motion on the ocean."
Motion, people. Motion.
- Posted in
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
42 Comments so far
Show AllThis is no doubt the same God that appeared frequently before George Wanker Bush, wearing a gossamer flight suit and crystal boots, telling The Wanker of his greatness and that he, God, will from now on reside in Bush's "gut", the seat of glory, and lead him to the promised land of political and historical immortality. No one ever said Satan wasn't a great costume designer.
Thank you for the laugh, Mordechai! After working/volunteering all day at my local food bank, it is good to be treated to a bit of humour.
If the gay and lesbians didn't do it, or the pro-choice people, then it was all the democrats fault. Everybody knows that - Just listen to the people on the television. The gays and lesbians make God destroy cities with hurricanes and tornadoes, but everything that goes wrong with war, the economy, and all that kind of stuff, is because of things the democrats did.
I think we need a few more measures than the three proposed in the article. I do not know how Schechter missed the most important step of all:
BRING BACK THE GUILLOTINE!
Also, televise the beheadings on broadcast tv, not just cable. Give it a long build-up, like the hype around the Superbowl or the Academy Awards. Sell advertising for two million dollars per thirty seconds and use the revenue to offset the national debt. The host can be a tuxedoed Dennis Leary making unsulting and mordant remarks as George Wanker Bush and Cheesedick Cheney, hands tied behind their backs, ride in a tumbrel drawn by mangey burros toward the Reflecting Pool where the executions take place. Play The Star Spangled Banner as they walk to the guillotine. Have interesting camera angles, like a minicam on the guillotine blade so we can watch it fall and dispatch the criminals. Slow motion replays. Color commentators like Joe the Plumber. The Neilsen ratings would be off the charts.
You betcha! The only change I would make is that I would have Saint Sarah hosting, and she would do it to in order to prolong her 15 minutes. Besides, she has a high tolerance for blood and gore and could continue her commentary unabated regardless of how grisly the scene.
I have to add, that it'd be great to actually see some of those "talking heads" continuing their verbiage after the "final cut" of their late propagandamming careers.
I know, I'm really bad sometimes ( and I'll seek punishment for asking for this referenced continuation of their grotesque comedy, in such a gruesome situation ). But really now, inquiring minds do want to know and hear those emotive screams -- especially after their owner's long avowed advocacy of justified war and killing -- and that only those deserving death have ever died.
Namaste
P. S. I'm considering if being drawn and quartered might better illuminate simple addition and subtraction for NCLB challenges ( biology, history, theater, and math ).
BRING BACK THE GUILLOTINE!
But first comes the revolution. How to institute a revolution in this ultra-security state? Where most people are unwilling to sacrifice their meager comforts for the chance of something better. That's the question: what is the breaking point when a majority say enough is enough?
There's a saying that goes something like, "The best kept slave is one that doesn't even realize that he's shackled".
On the bright side, the more extreme the conditions become before the breaking point, the more extreme the reactions will be after that point is reached.
Or another quote, this one from Goethe's "Faust", I believe: "There are none so helplessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free."
Now now now...this is a situation of serious drain bamage. disorinteered typers type casted need compisson - I mean compassion.
"We still need a full investigation into how Wall Street firms, asleep at the switch regulators and a passive media drove this crisis. We can't ignore compromised politicians either...Motion, people. Motion."
In a Nut$hellGame?
http://flickr.com/photos/tkcs/2925400509/
"we need to organize a massive people's campaign for economic fairness".
Where do I sign up? The government is screwing the middle class and they need to be held accountable for their inaction. The United States is in a meltdown headed for the New World Order and it CAN be stopped by WE THE PEOPLE.
Let's not forget that the puppet masters at the very top are reaping insanely huge "profits" on the "loans" "our" government is accumulating. Imagine the skim on the projected $1 trillion deficit, or the $11 trillion national "debt," and then try to imagine a reason why said puppet masters would do anything to "fix" the economy, which is working all-too perfectly for them, f**k you very much.
If I loaned you, say, just a measly $1 million at 10%, and all you could afford to repay was the $100,000/year vig, why the hell would I do anything to help you pay off the principal? As a matter of fact, I'd do whatever I could to stop anyone else from helping you, too, until you fell so far behind, I'd make you a deal you couldn't refuse - gimme your business, house, car and your kids' piggy banks, and you're off the hook.
Welcome to the system.
It's shocking how quickly America just accepted whatever -illion it was whether it started with a M, B, or T.
We don't really accept it, come-on -- it is stuffed down our throat like a bad pill. Once a slice of our paycheck is mailed to Washington, we no longer own it and have no say as to how it is spent.
There is an old saying that every person eventually reaches his or her level of incompetency. I wonder how long ago Bernanke reached his?
Clearly God wants the people of the world to be poor.
mordechai 1:59 pm:
You've outdone yourself.My small addition to your scenario,since there are thousands who deserve such a fate,back-up emcees of Johnathan and Penn and Teller with their routines of fake gore and snarky wit.And somehow an endurance test by Criss Angel would determine the length of any retribution session.
To anyone reading this with a gentler soul than mine-it's how I cope with all the harm done and carnage committed by my country.The future of my grandchildren has been compromised by these neocon scumbags.
That the Donald went with a tried and true cop out is not surprising, given that he is a vain glorious douche bag, who despite his PR spin of being a "self-made man," comes from money. Now that his fellow class members are screwing up royally and a microphone is being pointed at him, an indictment of his class a la Warren Buffet (which would be honest) is not forthcoming as it would be a repudiation of what he still holds dear: the failed economic model that has gotten us into this mess we are currently in. Considering his persona celebrates said failed economic model, he is stuck with the image he constructed.
www.wunderman-comics.com
Isn't that model just a fig leaf for plunder, and if he and his fellow fiends intend to continue the plunder, they are not likely to surrender their shrinking fig leaf, no matter how minute it becomes, are they?
What would Nader do - I bet he would set a limit on credit card interest rates - maybe 3%. Also, since many consumers have been forced to put medical/dental expenses on credit cards, we need a Single Payer system - IMMEDIATELY. That would help the auto companies and also all of the rest of us.
DWIGHT BAKER
DONALD TRUMP NOW HAS HIS NAME IN LIGHTS FOR WHAT?------IS HE A DIVINE SEER!?
I THINK NOT. Poor old Donald is just one more pitiful lost soul that has bet his entire life on making money some by crook and some by hook, he like many more of the billionaires in America and around the globe today think that their s- - t don’t stink and they are right as right can be because of their MONEY.
The gospel truth about America today------- is that we are the only nation on planet earth to fulfill JESUS CHRIST COMMANDS to preach HIS GOSPEL TO EVERY ONE IN ALL THE NATIONS.
But what have been wrong with getting that done are many folds and just one of the problems has been the likes of Donald Trump. All who have that NEED for GREED then hording what is laid back has no place in America if we go forward and do the commands of the LORD JESUS CHRIST.
I'm planning on moving to Gilese 581c.
GOD did what "good (GODLY) Christians" expected him too do folks. Don't u get it? He gave ALL the $$ too the RICH (the saved). Why should he give any of it too the rest (losers) or as the faithful know them (the damned!)
>> 1. TO STOP FORECLOSURES: An immediate moratorium on all foreclosures
What for? Why not accelerate them?
I've been living within my means for the last 25 years and wondering why the construction worker and the cashier that live next door have a bigger house and more toys then we do (engineer and teacher). It hasn't been fun paying for children's education instead of taking out student loans and driving the same old car since the 90's.
Face it Americans, you aren't making as much as you used to and borrowing, for many, is what is making it seem otherwise. Foreclose the homes and restore a more realistic balance between wages and the price of housing when they sell for what they are really worth. Face the fact that our increases in productivity are lining the pockets of investors instead of workers. Quit looking for credit and look to wages for the answer.
>>We still need a full investigation into how Wall Street firms, asleep at the switch regulators and a passive media drove this crisis. We can't ignore compromised politicians either. A Joint Economic Committee study says: "Government Policy Blunders Largely Caused the Global Financial Crisis
It was NOT policy blunders. It was deliberate and it was planned. These wall Street firms saw an opportunity to make themselves 10's of BILLIONS of dollars simply by shifting debt around and took that opportunity.
They PAID the Politicians to ensure that this looting was not stopped and was in fact promoted.
They HAVE their money now...many billions of dollars and now use the crisis they created to get billions more.
What should be done is all persons with assets over 5 million dollars should see all those assets stripped away, nationalized and used to pay for the fiasco.
Instead the Governmnet wants to protect the assets of those uber billionaires PLUS give them evem more money.
It sure was not policy blunders and this is not rocket science. It was plain and simple thievery in broad daylight supported by huge propaganda operations and a powerful and well-armed semi-police state. Anyone with a high school education and average intelligence can see right through the scheme if they can ignore the propaganda. Sometimes I feel like the Charlton Heston character in "Planet of the Apes" when he screams "It's a madhouse!" That is just what the USA in the 21st Century is.
Sioux Rose
GW NORTH: Sound analysis.
Yes Gwnorth and Siouxrose. It was not a blunder. It was plunder.
I have said it before and I will say it again, at the risk of sounding like the obnoxious proud parent I am. My own young son described the practices to me years ago as a newbie lawyer when he observed the bundling and selling of bad mortgages over and over again further from the source. He predicted that it had to end in a profound collapse of every sector of finance.
I have nothing but contempt for the perps and the so-called experts who did not see it coming or give us warning. They are useless.
Joe
Sioux Rose
JCLIENTELE: North stated it WAS plunder and premeditated, and I agreed with that. I think you missed something? We agree! And are hip to "Disaster Capitalism" inclusive of its domestic/USA applications.
I was agreeing with you. : I
Joe
God is always on the side of the rich people.
Well, that is the essence of the Puritan Ethic: that since God blesses those He loves, you can tell who they are by the size of their pocketbook.
The simple truth is that there's no such thing as a Free Market. There is no Invisible Hand. The bottom line is what the barket will bear, which being translated says "how fast can we make the masses pedal?"
Instead of socialism for the rich, we need to organize an integrated economy which builds common wealth. That's what we do when the bubble bursts anyway, but we need to be consistent about it. The American Dream is not about making $400,000,000.00 in a year like Mitt, Cornelius, Nelson or Andrew. It's about having a home and good schools, health care and opportunity. We need to take our money back from the capitalists, and use it to create commonwealth. Please notice that we are bailing them out, not vice-versa.
Well, that is the essence of the Puritan Ethic: that since God blesses those He loves, you can tell who the righteous are by the size of their pocketbook.
The simple truth is that there's no such thing as a Free Market. There is no Invisible Hand. The bottom line is what the barket will bear, which being translated says "how fast can we make the masses pedal?"
Instead of socialism for the rich, we need to organize an integrated economy which builds common wealth. That's what we do when the bubble bursts anyway, but we need to be consistent about it. The American Dream is not about making $400,000,000.00 in a year like Mitt, Cornelius, Nelson or Andrew. It's about having a home and good schools, health care and opportunity. We need to take our money back from the capitalists, and use it to create commonwealth. Please notice that we are bailing them out, not vice-versa.
Well, that is the essence of the Puritan Ethic: that since God blesses those He loves, you can tell who the righteous are by the size of their pocketbook.
The simple truth is that there's no such thing as a Free Market. There is no Invisible Hand. The bottom line is what the barket will bear, which being translated says "how fast can we make the masses pedal?"
Instead of socialism for the rich, we need to organize an integrated economy which builds common wealth. That's what we do when the bubble bursts anyway, but we need to be consistent about it. The American Dream is not about making $400,000,000.00 in a year like Mitt, Cornelius, Nelson or Andrew. It's about having a home and good schools, health care and opportunity. We need to take our money back from the capitalists, and use it to create commonwealth. Please notice that we are bailing them out, not vice-versa.
I'm so sick of the rich, uber rich in this country and their political pals in office covering theit butts. Revolution is in the air and I for one say grab it like a shot!!! We need to take back this country from the Neo-Con bastards and the Blue Dog Democratic blood suckers, make the rich pay for the suffering this time around. I know I sound like a left wing nut-job, I'm sorry if I have offended you, but I'm angry, upset and confused over this whole mess.
I'm mad that folks lived beyond their means, I'm mad the lenders let them get away with their greed by compounding that greed with their own greed, I'm mad at the Banks for covering up their greed to the point that everyone except the very rich are suffering, I'm mad at the government who for the past 8 years have driven this country into the ground, I'm so angry at the Republican Party for their corrupt policies, I'm angry at the religious Right who cared more for their sense of righteousness that they bought the Republican bullsh*t!!!
I'm mad at myself for allowing for years this crap to go on and not take the fight to the streets, or protest, because I was too busy trying to say afloat and keep my head above water...no car, no home, I did not live above my means, I've rented apartments all of my life, no credit cards, just poor health, low-paying jobs and faith that someday America would wake up!!
I think its time to wake up, and fight back and go after those respondsible so that this kind of crap will not happen again in my children's life time, or their children's life time!!!
Well they all said Greenspan was God several years ago and showered him with accolades and the medal of freedom. So if God=Greenspan I agree God did it.
YOU'RE FIRED, DONALD!
German philosopher Johann Most (1846-1906):
"The more man clings to religion, the more he believes. The more he believes, the less he knows. The less he knows, the more stupid he is. The more stupid, the easier he can be governed! The easier to govern, the better he may be exploited. The more exploited, the poorer he gets. The poorer he gets, the richer and mightier the domineering classes get, the more riches and power they amass, the heavier their yoke upon the neck of the people."
Donald and his ilk would have us all in sackcloth begging for less.
I had another idea for resolution of this entire problem; a true sabbatical year is called, wherein all debts are cancelled with no recriminations at any level, cancel all corporate debt, private debt and government debt; the entire shebang should be set back to zero.
Then eliminate all fractional reserve banking practices, all forward selling and any system whereby money is created out of the air and not by labor.
The challenge to humanity then would be for those that can truly produce profit from innovation would excel, the money would go to real achievers and not scurrilous carpetbaggers, silk clad corporate elites or treasonous political rat bastards all of whom would steal the teeth right out of your head.
I see an inevitability and inertia surrounding these current economic events, that is beyond stopping and has become fatalism defined to perfection.
However, Donald's reasons for blaming God are grounded by far more earthly reasons, because when in doubt remember this; it's always about the money.
"connecting dots December 9th, 2008 12:28 am
German philosopher Johann Most (1846-1906):
"The more man clings to religion, the more he believes. ...""
THAT IS illustration of [stereotyping] people who are not individually known at all, and that's a dumb animal sort of thing to do. JM definitely did not understand what religion means, except in only one of the senses that are defined for the term. And anyone thinking his therefore stupidity was right and intelligent is someone who basically mocks all persons who are [intelligently], instead of numb-skully, religious; f.e., you mock Palestinians, many of whom are religious and intelligent; you mock Christians who are intelligent about their religious beliefs and their social conduct, and activism; and so on.
The activist nuns against war make JM stand out like the idiot he was and evidently remains.
But, and again, he was right, a [little]; only he badly described the reality he was really referring to and therefore wrote and/or spoke in entirely stereotypical manner, which makes him a lousy or poor communicator.
connecting dots also wrote,
"Donald and his ilk would have us all in sackcloth begging for less."
Yep, they already have me there, in that sort of situation, too.
I'd spontaneously agree with what c... dots said in that sentence, but then not for 'all' of us; and by that I mean that the rich know that they need people to have money in order to consume what the rich have to sell and get rich from selling. They always need a portion of the masses to have plenty of money to keep the richer people "happy", else the wells will all be dried up.
The rest of us, though; yep, he and ilk would have us all as c... dots wrote. And I sure don't like the situation, personally.
Also, Trump and ilk are religious; they make a religion of their greed, they are obsessed by and really worship mammon, which incidentally means that they are awfully dumb animals. Rich, but still and awfully dumb animals. Oh, as well as sociopaths, to say the least, and often psychopaths. They like to profit from wars of aggression for conquest, for control of and profiting from other peoples' resources, and that is to most definitely be psychopathic.
We need more locally owned and operated banks around the country. We need a massive infusion of real small business loans across the country. We need a federal jobs program, hiring people to maintain our infrastructure.
There used to be a time when you could go to your local bank and barrow $500.00 for low interest. Today you forced to use payday loan companies that charge 30 to 50 percent of more.
Small business actually hires the most people in this country. There's no reason why a lot of the products we need can't be produced locally if we had the companies to make them. There's people out there that would love to barrow the money to start these businesses but can't get the money to do it.
In my area along there are quite a few campgrounds on government land that have been shut down. All we need to do is hire someone to oversee and maintain them campgrounds and that will benefit many people by offering them a safe place they can go and get away from it all cheaply.
This is just three ways that the government can improve the country. It's always been my opinion that this country is at it's greatest when the people are working. The system we have now is putting to much money in the hands of the few and ignoring the needs of the rest.
Rickster
I believe that when Herr Most opined the words that I quoted, he was using them in an allegorical manner as well as observing a truth or reality.
Inasmuch as religion serves the purposes of the rich, it also serves as a salve for the frustrations and impotence of the poor.
Napoleon also voiced a similar opinion when he said "Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."
In this instance with Trump, his comments are entirely self serving and transparent, we all should be surprised if they were not.
It is plainly obvious to me that the rich have used the tenets of religion to control and mold the masses since time immemorial, whilst all the time claiming aspiration to the same beliefs.
The chameleonesque ability of the elite to morph their moral colours from one phase to another purely by adoption of a pose or stance is stereotypical manipulation; from going "slumming" to "dressing down", their attempts to remain connected to all of those that they would otherwise use or indeed abuse is indicative of a deep felt fear by them that the worm will ultimately turn.
Thus in defence of his own exalted position Trump prefers to blame God rather than for him to be seen for what he really is; insert picture of earthworm or weasel here.
In conclusion much as Trump pithily uses religion or God as an excuse, he is in fact by inference stating that he is also of exalted position; as nothing in the realm of man had the power to derail his project the issue must remain with God and it is to him that he lays the blame, he might even believe this.
If one were to continue with this analysis to a logical conclusion, it might be noted that one who is at odds with God and who casts blame at him, might be considered to be from the other side, in fact evil.
When I use the word "God" I use it in a generic sense of benign great being, you can chose your own religious blueprint to imprint upon its makeup.
watch full movies online
full movie downloads
divx movie download
online forex
learn forex
forex strategies
solar panel kits
solar for home
solar generator
iphone wallpapers
play roulette
play online blackjack
blackjack casino
play video poker online
poker website
horse racing systems
play online roulette
play online bingo
play online craps
play slot machine online