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Who Can We Bank On, Who Who Can We Trust, as Crisis Sharpens?
Washington Seems Tethered At The Hip To Wall Street and Does It’s Bidding
This makes me nervous for two reasons. First, it portends a long drawn out legislative battle on health care reform with more time for industry lobbyists and the Congresspersons and Senate persons on their payrolls to compromise away or wreck the change we so deeply need.
Second, it confirms that the lobbyists for financial institutions -- the people responsible for the collapse of our economy -- have been scheming and wrangling to gut the reforms that could stop another economic breakdown. Reviving this industry without restructuring and re-regulating it just guarantees another disaster down the line.
Bear in mind that that disaster is already underway despite what you may be reading about "green shoots" and signs that a turnaround is coming because unemployment didn't go down as much as expected -- only 500,000 plus a month.
In fact, many observers see a deeper crash still coming with a depression quietly deepening, even if most us cling to our perennial optimism and trust in the changemaker we can believe in. The Telegraph's Ambrose Evan-Pritchard, who unfortunately has been more prescient than wrong, whines:
"Those of us who still question whether the world has purged its toxins are reduced to the same tiny band of moaning Druids from early 2007, when we shook our heads in disbelief as the carry trade swept Iceland to fresh madness and bankers laughed off sub-prime rot at Bear Stearns.
We learned then to thicken our skins with walnut juice, lie down in dark rooms, and dissent from Goldman Sachs."
You may recall Dennis Kucinich asking his colleagues aloud if he was in the Congress of the United States or the "board room of Goldman Sachs" as if the former is a wholly owned subsidiary of the latter. Or perhaps, there was a merger between the two in the sense that Wall Street may be down but by more means out. It is "clawing back" its influence with a new lobbying surge which is allowing Goldman and the big banks to pay back their TARP Money and get out from under the specter of new regulations, compensation limits and the like.
The Empire inside the Empire is striking back.
Meanwhile we still live with a fog of misinformation, disinformation and no information. Basic information about monies from the Federal Reserve to Banks and financial institution has not been disclosed. Bear in mind the Banks control the Fed-and free marketers ran the economy, not the government.
Writes Bob Chapman of International Forecaster:
"Not one banking or Wall Street executive owned up to what really happened to cause the crisis. They are totally lacking in honesty, integrity and decency. As it now stands we'll never know the true inside story of what really went on. We have seen no civil or criminal charges against any of these crooks. Not even investigations. Whatever happened to RICO. Over the past 25 years our financial industry has descended into darkness and corruption and the people who caused it are getting away scott free."
Wow, what an indictment! Example: do we really know the purpose or the TARP program that gave money to banks that apparently didn't need it, but didn't say no. (The other side of giving loans to borrowers who couldn't afford them?)
The Ritholtz blog suggests:
Its was $700 billion dollar pile of money in search of a justification for its existence.
Most people still look at TARP the wrong way. When trying to discern what the true basis of it was, we eliminated what made no sense whatsoever, and what was left were a few strange ideas. When you eliminate the impossible, what’s left, no matter how improbable, becomes the best explanation.
What was that explanation? In Bailout Nation, we discuss the possibility that The TARP was all a giant ruse, a Hank Paulson engineered scam to cover up the simple fact that CitiGroup (C) was teetering on the brink of implosion. A loan just to Citi alone would have been problematic, went this line of brilliant reasoning, so instead, we gave money to all the big banks.
Oh, that explains it.
Shamus Cooke writes on Global Research:
History will likely show that these bailouts involved the largest transfer of wealth ever - from the working class to that small group of billionaires who own the corporations. This fact is recognized by most people now and is such common knowledge that even the mainstream media feels comfortable discussing it. . . matter-of-factly.
These corporations have also exerted tremendous influence in other realms of politics, working towards destroying Obama's campaign promises of health care, job creation, civil liberties, the Employee Free Choice Act, peace, etc.
In each case, the promised reform was gutted of its essence, and "compromise" versions of the bills are now being discussed: instead of universal health care, we will likely be universally mandated to purchase health insurance; instead of "job creation" we are told that the stimulus has "saved jobs" (contrary to the evidence); while troops are "drawing down" from Iraq, the war in Afghanistan/Pakistan is being escalated; instead of allowing workers to organize unions easier, a compromise version of "Employee Free Choice Act, minus card check - seems more politically 'pragmatic', etc.
At the heart of the crisis is the plight of homeowners who we know were defrauded in large numbers, victims like the Madoff investors. Yet the former are getting reimbursed to some degree, the latter are not. Bills to help them have been killed with Matt Renner on Truthout reporting:
"A new analysis from a government watchdog group shows senators who killed off a consumer-friendly change in law aimed at addressing the foreclosure crisis received more money in campaign contributions from the industries their vote aided. Senators who voted against the consumer-friendly amendment received $3.98 million from the financial industry during the 2008 election cycle, while proponents of the bill received $2.65 million."
Could this be more corruption? Of course, but they call it politics as usual. And, even worse, is that foreclosures are still rising and now affecting non-subprime lenders with little relief in sight.
Back to the banks: I have been reading complex web posts showing how the stress tests of banks were rigged and more may be needed. I have been reading about how the unemployment figures undercount folks out of work with the real numbers probably doubled, with minorities possibly tripled. I have been reading essays arguing that the notion that the government is "saving jobs" is not quantifiable with no statistical back up.
I have been following the campaign to get the Federal Reserve Bank to disclose its showering of money on financial institutions-something it refuses to do.
Who can we trust and bank on? The President wants to give us confidence but seems to be playing a confidence game. The Banks are dissembling when they are not lying. The most trenchant critics -- may they be wrong--believe a total collapse is in the offing.
And the rest of us, mostly puzzled and paralyzed, unable to comprehend the severity of the situation, the billions, no make that trillions, gone. How do we make sense of the game playing in State Governments like those in California and New York a caricature of responsibility. The jobs are going and the Banksters are still going for it, sucking up what they can in a race to the bottom.
Who can we trust? Who Can We Bank on? You tell me.
- Posted in
40 Comments so far
Show Allthe problem has its roots in the Business and Economics schools at the Universities.
And those roots go back to the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Some historians believe that its purpose was the save JP Morgan, et. al..
there was indeed what can be characterized as a "WAR" between BankSTERS during that time.
for VERY in depth history -- naming the actual individuals, groups, treaties, dates, places, statements, involved:
check out a series of articles (LONG ONES, you have to be patient to follow the details but well worth it to understand the history of americna capitalism itself, and evolutions from mercantilism, etc...) --
By the Asiatimesonline contributor
HENRY CK LIU.
such topics as
"THE HISTORY OF MONETARY IMPERIALISM.. DOLLAR HEGEMONY".
"BANKING BUNKUM: Alan Greenspan - the Wizard of Bubble Land".
etc.
i can only say that everything else that has been transpiring or getting "exposed" - is explained by this guy.
or go directly to hiswebsite of articles.
HENRYCKLIU.com
TITLES below are just a SMALL sampling:
THE SHAPE OF US POPULISM
Part VI: The Birth of the New Deal
Part V:The Great Depression, the New Deal and the 2007 Credit Crisis
Part IV: A Panick-Striken Federal Reserve
Part III: The Progressive Era
Part II: Long-term Effects of the Civil War
Part I: Legacy of Free Market Capitalism
ROAD TO HYPERINFLATION IS PAVED WITH MARKET ACCOMMODATING MONETRAY POLICY
Part I: A Crisis the Fed Helped to Create but Helpless to Cure
Part II: Central Banking History of Failing to Stabilize Markets
Part III: Inflation Targeting
Hong Kong Election and Sovereign Democracy
PATHOLOGY OF DEBT
Part I: Commercial Paper Market Seizure turns Banks into their own Vulture Investors
Part II: The Commercial Paper Market and Special Investment Vehicles
Part III: The Credit Guns of August heard around the world
Part IV: Lessons Unlearned
Part V: Off-Balance-Sheet Debt
SUPER CAPITALISM, SUPER IMPERIALISM AND MONETARY IMPERIALISM
Part I: A Structural Link
Part II: Deregulation: GLOBAL WAR on LABOR
http://henryckliu.com/
below is an example, a very short excerpt on what LIU explains how things work;
=============
Bank deleveraging with Fed new money cancels private debt at full face value with money that has not been earned by anyone, i.e. with no stored wealth. That kind of money is toxic in that the more valuable it is (with increased purchasing power to buy more as prices deflate), the more it degrades wealth because no wealth has been put into the money to be stored, thus negating the fundamental prerequisite of money as a storer of value. This is not demand destruction because decline in demand is tmeproarily slowed down by the new money. Rather, it is money destruction as a restorer of value while it produces a misleading and confusing effect on aggregate demand.
Thinking about the value of any real asset (gold, oil, etc.) in money (dollars) terms is misleading. The correct way is to think about the value of the money (dollars) in asset (gold. oil, etc.) terms, because asset (gold, oil,etc.) is wealth. The Fed can create money but it cannot create wealth.
Central bankers are savvy enough to know that while they can create money, they cannot create wealth. To bind money to wealth, central bankers must fight inflation as if it were a financial plague. But the first law of growth economics states that to create wealth through growth, some inflation needs to be tolerated. The solution then is to make the working poor pay for the pain of inflation by giving the rich a bigger share of the monetized wealth created via inflation, so that the loss of purchasing power from inflation is mostly borne by the low-wage working poor, and not by the owners of capital, the monetary value of which is protected from inflation through low wages. Thus the working poor loses in both boom times and bust times.
Inflation is deemed benign by monetarism as long as wages rise at a slower pace than asset prices. The monetarist iron law of wages worked in the industrial age, with the resultant excess capacity absorbed by conspicuous consumption of the moneyed class, although it eventually heralded in the age of revolutions. But the iron law of wages no longer works in the post-industrial age in which growth can only come from mass demand management because overcapacity has grown beyond the ability of conspicuous consumption of a few to absorb in an economic democracy.
That has been the basic problem of the global economy for the past three decades. Low wages even in boom times have landed the world in its current sorry state of overcapacity masked by unsustainable demand created by a debt bubble that finally imploded in July 2007. The whole world is now producing goods and services made by low-wage workers who cannot afford to buy what they make except by taking on debt on which they eventually will default because their low income cannot service it. All the stimulus spending by all governments perpetuates this dysfunctionality. There will be no recovery from this dysfunctional financial system. Only reform toward full empolyment with rising wages will save this severely impaired economy.
How can that be done? Simple: Make the cost of wage increases deductible from corporate income tax and make the savings from layoffs taxable as corporate income.
May 25. 2009
if anyone caught the paragraph by LIU i excerpted below:
it fairly explains the ENTIRE foreign , military, dollar hegemony , corporate raiding policies of the united states.
in order to PROP UP the value of the dollar and every item in the US economy as opposed to the rest of the world;;;
the USA has to resort to an imperial militaristic culture , indeed, to make "the world safe for capitalism and our cultural and economic assault" (general smedley butler, US marines)...
for it is in FOREIGN parts that the REAL assets - real wealth reside - gold, uranium, silver, copper, tin, diamonds, oil, gas -
and then on the surface pretend that it is the DOLLAR that is VALUABLE but not the other way around. in this manner - the US control of Global Finance is put in effect..and if NECESSARY - protected as "national interest" - by Military conquest.
no wonder the USA recently is very worried about China suddenly "increasing its GOLD deposits" as china increases mining operations - for having the world's largest geological deposits - as the USA has fallen behind in holding gold reserves to back up the Dollar...as well as Germany recently demanding that ITS gold reserve bullions in the US territory be immediately TRANSFERED to German Soil....
countries ARE preparing to gradually "deleverage" from the US dollar -- the Foundation of American capitalist "Monetarism"...
================
HenryCKLiu
Thinking about the value of any real asset (gold, oil, etc.) in money (dollars) terms is misleading. The correct way is to think about the value of the money (dollars) in asset (gold. oil, etc.) terms, because asset (gold, oil,etc.) is wealth. The Fed can create money but it cannot create wealth.
"Make the cost of wage increases deductible from corporate income tax and make the savings from layoffs taxable as corporate income."
This is and has long been corporate tax law.
and those roots go back to White Man Theft of Land in the americas.
THIEVERY is what's it all been about, FROM THE VERY BEGINNING.
from cradle to grave. why should it be surprising? it's in the VERY DNA of the USA.
in many ways -- the former CIA "economic hitman" -- John Perkins -- in his recent books and interviews revealed it properly:
"what most americans don't really realize or admit is: we are living our Lifestyles ONLY because it is merely PART of a VERY, VERY VICIOUS system of exploitation that Dehumanizes and Enslaves People Everywhere...this is part of our Empire Project...and i was part of that Building of empire".
Who can liberals and radicals trust in PredatoryCapitalismLand? .30, .45, and .50, mostly.
there was a statemen by the General Smedley Butler, US MARINES - 1933
after 30 years of "serving" -
in speeches he revealed:
"We are a Nation of Predators. our Foreign Policy has always been geared towards gathering as much of the world's resources unto ourselves at the expense of others...the True purpose of our Armed Forces is to make the world safe for Capitalism and our Cultural and Economic Assault....it has nothing to do with freedom or democracy or justice...
the masters who rule this country have their Big Banks, Big Finance, Big Corporations ...and their Big Muscle is our armed and security forces..I was its Chief Enforcer...
you wanted to pacify Nicaragua or Panama or Dominican Republic so our Corporations and banks can get in for control...? i'd do it for you.
you wanted to make China safe so our Big Oil and Energy companies can run Unmolested? i'd do it for you...
there is no Money Racket that the US Armed Forces is blind to..
and they had their Big Brains men..using the Media, people who identified and decided who are threats to be destroyed. countries , leaders, etc...
the Problem with US americans is -- if our Dollar can't buy more than 6% at home of value. we go abroad so it can buy 100% more...and where the Dollar Goes, the Flag Follows, where the Flag goes, the ARmy Goes....
For years -- i have had my suspicions that what I was doing was truly EVIL...and I will have nothing more to do with it.
we are TRULY a Nation of Predators".
I paraphrased somewhat - but it can easily be googled or in website:
"a few good marines".
The Obanka administration just like the Bushwacker administration have made sure these thieves have been well taken care of. It doesn't matter who gets elected to office. They are all bought and paid for by Wall Street criminals. It ain't gonna change until these bastards have their heads on pikes in front of Wall Street.
We all learned that the Crash of '29 caused The Great Depression in our dumbed-down education, right? What is not taught is that the banksters then withdrew liquidity from the financial sector BEFORE that crash, then followed the Depression. Same exact sequence occured this time around, in fact Mike Whitney just yesterday wrote that Fed Chmn pulled more than $100Billion from the "system" in Sept 08. And as we've seen since, $Trillions have been lost and N+1 Billions have been given away. Thousands have lost jobs and homes. All of it legal. And more is probably on the way.
So, rather than look for some one or thing to trust, we should sharpen our understanding to recogognize the lie(s) which gives away the truth(s). To start with divide the total bailout dollars by the number of taxpayers. Real simple to see whom our government protects and serves.
"Can it possibly be true that the Congress can't walk and chew gum at the same time?"
Being proved every day.
This administration and this Congress are proving so arrogant and so focused on their own little "mean spirited" agenda, they could care less about the average citizen. They remind me very much of Bush and Co. except they don't even seem to be that competent.
So we can't trust this bunch or this President which means the only real option is to replace a bunch of Congressmen and Senators. To work on things at the State level as their grasp for power fails as it surely will.
Obama's enthusiastic embrace of the problematic bankster bailout prior to the election, and his speedy decision to outsource of the US Treasury, now a division of the same Goldman-Sachs appropriately referenced by Kucinich, tells you who NOT to trust.
As the health-care debacle also proves, our political and financial elites are utterly untrustworthy. So I have the same question.
· Yr Obd't Servant
From article: "Could this be more corruption? Of course, but they call it politics as usual."
Yes, quite.
We don't have corruption in America, it is institutionalized.
When no one trusts our public or private institutions (which are increasingly indistinguishable) then a medieval breakdown of society will happen, or is already happening. The Empire, like all empires, will crumble from within, due to corruption, overstretched global military and the huge expenditures that go with it, as well as the theft of public resources and finances by the Bankster Finance classes.
Overwhelming corruption has played a part in the end of every empire I ever read about. It is now happening to us. George Wanker Bush and his eight year reign of terror was but a small taste of what lies ahead.
Your key word is 'overwhelming.' Corruption is ubiquitous, and greed is America. It's very easy to become pessimistic...
And we thought Bush was running us off a cliff. I don't consider the main problem to be our wimpy President who seems more concerned with his own career than the needs of the people of this country or even the slime pit Congress has become. It's the approximately 220 million people in this country who are letting all this happen. Let's face it. The corporations have the numbers on their side. What do they care if a few voices are howling in the wilderness? They can afford to ignore us. After all, that's what the general public is doing.
When Johnson escalated the Vietnam War, I realized that something was wrong. I didn't know anything about it, but I wanted to find out what was wrong. So I started researching the subject. And what I learned blew away all my assumptions about my country. I felt sickened and ashamed. I started running around trying to convince everyone we were going in the wrong direction. But no one wanted to listen. I refused to stop because it felt wrong to stop. I didn't understand why no one wanted to listen. I do now. Without thinking about it, Americans know that our government's polices of pillage of other country's resources is responsible for our standard of living, and they don't want to give that up. So they just don't think about what is being done to other people. It's easier to live with themselves that way. But guess what. Our chickens are coming home to roost. The corporations are turning their sights on our wallets, big time. Their greed will destroy them. Will we let them destroy us first?
As far as I'm concerned, there is no gray zone between truth and lies. Either you are attempting to clarify or mislead. Dissembling is on the mislead side of the line - a lie.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
"Without thinking about it, Americans know that our government's polices of pillage of other country's resources is responsible for our standard of living, and they don't want to give that up. So they just don't think about what is being done to other people. It's easier to live with themselves that way."
That may be true in some cases but most people I run into seem to be just plain clueless. They are completely wrapped up in their own lives and make no attempt at even thinking about our governments policies and what it is doing to people around the world.
NC-Tom, yes, they're clueless, because they aren't thinking about it. But there is a level in all of us that knows exactly what is happening. We can cast a veil of denial over our eyes, but then we aren't being honest with ourselves.
Don't
Even
Notice
I
Am
Lying
I learned the way children bury - forget - unbearable memories is to never look back. They still carry them in every cell of their bodies, but on a conscious level they have no memory. I have two brothers. Our childhood was horrific and both my brothers spent years hating our parents for all the things they did. Now, my second brother thinks he had a wonderful childhood with near perfect parents. My oldest son's jaw is hanging open because he remembers the stories he used to hear from that brother. People can tell themselves anything and believe it if that's what they want to do. I don't judge my brother for that. He's doing the best he can to get through life, and I hope it works for him.
So people want to believe the US is out spreading peace and freedom everywhere it goes. They cling to the belief that we are a great and honorable country. They get defensive and angry if someone tries to give them facts. They don't want facts disturbing their belief system.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
Two Japanese nationals were recently arrested entering Switzerland and 150 BILLION in US Treasury bonds seized.
These bills were in huge demoninations making one of two things true.
1>No Corporation or Institutional investor could ever have so much in the way of Treasury Bill, thus these were agents of the Government trying to covertly DUMP us treasuries.
Remember Geithner was recently openly laughed at in China when he claimed US Treasuries as a safe investment Vehicle.
Is the Government of Japan trying to dump US debt instruments covertly so as not to cause a run ?
(This would be a quarter of all Japanese holdings)
2>These were forgeries.
If so who would go through the porocess of creating 150 billion of Forged treasury bonds? Where would the market be for them? If such a huge portion of treasury bonds out there are FORGED why would any group have confidence in buying them?
The story is little reported out but this bodes Ill for the US economy. Something big is up.
People speak of "trust". The entire US economy is built on DEBT, most of it borrowed from foreigners and if they lose TRUST in that debt the consequences will be devastating.
It more then a little likely such trust has been long since lost and they are starting to bail.
That's very interesting, GwNorth. Fits in with Sioux Rose's prediction of serious turmoil around September this year. I think she's right. Dire times are coming. Add in the foreclosure crisis that hasn't been addressed and is worsening and the increasing numbers of unemployed. The Propaganda Machine been celebrating that we are "only" losing over 500,000 jobs a month now.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
"celebrating that we are "only" losing over 500,000 jobs a month now" - I also find this amazing. My assumption is that people with money are looking for the first signs of a SLIGHT turnaround in hopes of getting more than a 2% return on their cash. People are definitely crazy about making money in America. Also, no one wants to worry about losing their job. If the 'Propnganda Machine' works, then things will be better, at least for a while.
Sioux Rose
Hi Kathy, I could sure use some Reiki now!
Please remember that the FIRST perturbation shows in September, but that one could involve something of a genuine climatic nature, like a major storm/hurricane that shuts down business or costs a few billion. Strong indicators mid-month (September 14-20).
The big one starts around Halloween as Saturn enters Libra, the sign of its exaltation. Libra arguably fights for justice, fairness, balance, the rule of law, and a reckoning through the the great karmic scales. Saturn is exalted in Libra, meaning this Old Testament planet of consequences sees justice fulfilled in the sign that represents its idealized mandate. The problem is that Pluto is 90-degrees away in Capricorn, and all those "big brother" fear-based terrorism-rousing programs that ultimately invert against civil liberties have sprung up around this insidious "transit." The bad news, it lasts till 2025 since Pluto has a long orbit (248 years). Every time Saturn and Pluto negatively relate, either by opposition or square, there are major global problems around supply, energy topping the list (but not the only commodity that seems to factor into this difficult configuration and its ultimate play-out). Saturn squares Pluto in November and in my view this configuration holds for about 18 months with varying phases of intensity.
The next perturbation comes in May when Jupiter-Uranus both come to the final degree of Pisces (for Uranus that means it leaves that sign not to return for 84 years) and for Jupiter, 12. They both "retrograde" back into Pisces in autumn 2010 (for a brief flicker) to re-activate the template set in May, 2010. And both oppose Saturn before changing sign to practically simultaneously enter Aries, the sign of war and potential escalation of campaigns of aggression. (I related this in other threads, there is something unusual, unique, surprising, or unprecedented about how this "warrior" fury will manifest.)
The recent stock market collapse of Autumn 2008 occured when Saturn, which rules Capricorn and represents the old, elite, established bodies of power (including wealthy bankers) was opposed by Uranus, the "free radical" planet that favors inventors, innovators, and radical new thinkers. It is also the designated planet of revolution and very good at toppling the proverbial apple cart. Thus the energetic dance between the planet that seeks to consolidate wealth into the old niches continues to be challenged by the planet that demands truth, accountability, and a consideration for the "little guy." Uranus rules Aquarius, the sign "of the people," and of periodic revolutions. The tension between Saturn and Uranus reflects what's happening to world markets as the elites have sought to take possession of far too much wealth and have left millions as a result in agony. It is a completely God-less paradigm and the higher forces, which I believe work through planetary cycles (among other agencies) are seeking to create a more comprehensive equilibrium.
The rocking and rolling from these sets of configurations (and they are by no means the ONLY ones that will be operating over the course of the next 5 years, years I consider to be VERY hard for America) is proving itself in affairs on earth. "As above, so below" represents an inviolate equation. Belief is not required, a premise that works the same way with gravity. (And since I hope to continue posting in this forum, if this set of predictions does not pan out, I will own that. However, since there is a lot of deception going on, there will be energy used to try to hide the truth about the actual state of our economy. Given the fact that astrological influences impact all nations, I don't think the U.S. can hide the truth as other lands will be rocking and rolling, too.)
Excellent post Sioux...
I know nancy Reagan had a personal astrologer...
And rulers throughout history have relied on the advice of astrologers...
even when they ban them from their own societies as heretics...
Has anyone done a historical analysis from a astrologogical perspective...
To show when major upheavals or periods of stability coincide with celestial events?
Sioux Rose
G.M. I haven't seen much done on this topic, and have gathered the charts of events of volcanic eruptions, major hurricanes, earthquakes, etc to see if I can find any common denominators. Apart from a lot of Pluto (death/destruction) activity, I have NOT yet found a set of dynamics that's uniform, perhaps because these events all involve different "element." I am doing some research, however.
GwNorth, I wondered about that story too.The penalty for not declaring those bonds is 40% of thier value.Thats going to be a pretty big windfall for the Italian government if these men are found guilty.An ominous sign for the bond market! peace
"Who can we trust? Who Can We Bank on? You tell me."
Our local communities, and ourselves. And people worldwide who are practicing a balance between good/bad that is somewhere in the range of 100% to 80% good. Think Hippocratic Oath in Public Policy. Then think again Hippocratic Oath in Public Policy. And again and again. Until you are salivating like Pavlov's dog. Try embracing an organic idea that wasn't cooked up or approved by the dept. of facist psych-ops.
As a standard of comparison, support for the Eva Braun Party in the USA is effectively 20% good. But obviously, 20% ain't good enough. If the food you eat is 20% good, and 80% toxins, your body can't function to effectively purge the toxins. So those supporters of the Eva Braun Party should shift the percentage. They should walk on over to the far-left side. Until then, they share responsibilty for the destruction. Simple fact.
"Who can we trust? Who Can We Bank on?"
Try a credit union, or, failing that, a local savings bank. I do all my banking with my credit union: checking, savings, mortgage, line of credit, credit card. No charges whatsoever, and I have not had a single problem with them in 20 years.
Amen.
Wow - DS is really getting frustrated, isn't he?
Apparently, he's still struggling to except that "Frankly, they (the banksters) own the place (our government.)"
Seriously, once accepted, the rest makes complete sense. You can't trust "the place," because it's "owned," and you can't trust the "owners," because they are only looking out for themselves, like all owners. Sadly, our "owners" just happen to be the top dogs of the greediest of all professions pursuing a warped goal of hoarding/controlling as much wealth as possible.
Expecting those who work in "the place" to force their "owners" to reform is like, well - let's say you have a problem with the way the guy you work for runs his company. You gonna demand he change? Think he'll suddenly see the light and switch gears? Think you'll be unemployed within 30 seconds? If he handed you $50 grand to shut up and do what you're told, wouldn't you?
don't fret, pet. we're making some new arrangements.
Trust in the government? Pleeese...I don't trust them any farther than I can throw them...same with the Corporations, the Banks, Wall Street. They are all the same right now. The middle class is being squeezed out of existence and its being done under the Democrat's who are in power. We need a revolution to take back what is ours by our own Constitution, but I would hope it would be done with peaceful means if at all possible.
Thank you, Danny Schechter!
Well said, just wish more people would write about what is going on, just wish msm would just ONCE try an investigative story on the topic.
NYTimes wrote a piece earlier this week & put up a big diagram trying to explain how much of the present problem is attributable to GW Bush, but it was interesting how they presented it, in a bar diagram (not the usual kind of bar diagram, either) that made it far too easy for people to get the impression the current administration isn't to blame.
If you looked closely at their diagram, however, you'd soon figure out how massive the spending has already been under Obama in just 4 short months! Shocking. I like the NY Times, but they didn't fool me with that, one little bit. Always whitewashing everything, that's our MSM these days.
BeforKids, I couldn't agree more.
Obedient Servant, I love your name.
Danny Schechter, keep up the good work.
I trust owebama...!
He promised in his campaign to do the right thing! (project your own version of what defines "right")...
Too bad all those color-blind liberals couldn't see past his goldman sachs suntan...
I feel sorry for the career employees who lost their pension in this manufactured scam...
I feel no sympathy for anyone else who " lost" their money while trying to profit on the exploitation of others... The minutest research would bring anyone with the desire for truth to realize how exploitative the entire wall street casino is, and the connection between CD's & most mutual funds with the environmental destruction, sweatshops, and slave labor of people around the world... If anyone invested " their" money in institutions without doing the proper research... Well, that is why the house always wins... Too bad you didn't invest it into your own community and education while you had the chance...
I did trust Obama.
I would say shoot me, but I already did.
To
Radically
Underestimate
Someone's
Treachery.
But only once.
I can't believe Golden Mean failed to capitalize Goldman Sachs. Shockingly disrespectful.
Good one, Joe...!
Danny Schechter,
good analysis - although, i was hoping that you could provide an answer to the rhetorical question; who can we bank on as the crisis deepens ?
...peace...
Recently I read that humans have been using fire going on a million years. I have my doubts about that but that is what was "reported." Meanwhile, homo sapiens sapiens (supposedly that is you and I) may be around 100,000 years old, supposedly intermixed (or not) with the neanderthal in Europe, while it seems likely that neanderthal also used fire but we do not have the slightest idea how they did LANGUAGE while we are just beginning to sense how we do it.
For innumerable generations of humans (as we think of ourselves...) what we today call language was verbal and physical (gestures). Then, I'll say, probably around 6 to 10 thousand years ago, humans began to start writing, around the time of the abstract expressionists of the cave painters of what is now France: See "The Well Scene."
Later came math. Thence barter. Thence Wall Street. Just for the fun of it, let us place the date of this disaster as around 1697, in Great Britain. Do not ask me why, I am not yet sure why; look it up yourself.
The capacity to create Complexity, creates Complexity.
The is what Wall Street did.
It took us how long to screw ourselves because of our innate EMPATHY?
I do not apologize. History will show that the Banksters, including A Greenspan, knew exactly what they were doing. They moved wealth to the already wealthy and they stole the Capacity for Work. Call me a Luddite, but machines get more tax breaks than working people do.
***
Meanwhile, I am with Teddy in following the writings of Henry CK Liu at atimes.com. However, I have a gripe with Henry CK Liu, namely that his articles are badly proofed and poorly edited. Despite this, he is far more right than wrong, and puts Economics in an Historical perspective.
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Bob Chapman for president!!! “Our financial industry has descended into darkness and corruption and the people who caused it are getting away scott free."
It is actually a triumvirate of FINANCE, POLITICS and MEDIA who run the biggest crime ring the world has ever seen.
You want more info?
Read “Collateral Damage” by E. P Heidner, part I and II.
>>> www.scribd.com/people/documents/2169400-ep-heidner <<<
The two documents have just recently been published and are very well researched and referenced (over 400 footnotes).
The implications will challenge how we look at politics, economy, history, finance, war and terrorism. Many persons in the documents are well known; many are right now in pivotal positions of politics and finance. These people do shape OUR life and that of our children right now. The details are stunning. The consequences are BEYOND BELIEF.
The articles are lengthy, in some parts not easy to follow and to digest and they need to be read with an open mind. But they are well worth the effort. They provide the most interesting information (some reads like a thriller).
BE WARNED: it is a most ABOMINABLE STATE of affairs.