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Obama Calls the Question on Geithner
By pocket-vetoing the bill that sailed through Congress to expedite mortgage foreclosures, President Obama may have begun a chain reaction that will blow up Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's confidence game with the banks. Let me explain.
In early 2009, Obama and his top economic aides faced a fateful choice: either do an honest accounting of the nation's big insolvent banks, like Citigroup; or keep propping them up and collude with the banks in camouflaging just how bad things were -- and still are.
They opted for camouflage. Geithner and the Federal Reserve devised a "stress test" exercise that avoided an honest accounting of the junk on the banks' balance sheets; instead they used economic models based on very rosy assumptions about how bad the recession would be. Citi and the others were pronounced basically healthy.
This move avoided the kind of reckoning that would break up (and clean up) the big banks. Instead, the camouflage policy allowed the big banks to very slowly rebuild their balance sheets with speculative profit centers, relying first on TARP money and then on zero interest rate advances from the Federal Reserve.
But there was a huge downside for the economy. The banks reverted to the same kind of speculative plays that crashed the system; they also continued gouging consumers. And thanks to the Federal Reserve, the banks could make very easy money borrowing from the Fed at almost zero interest rates and investing the money in government guaranteed Treasury securities.
By 2010, the banks were again making large profits and paying huge bonuses -- as if the financial collapse had never occurred. What they did not, however, do was make very many loans to small and medium sized businesses or hard pressed consumers.
Meanwhile, regional and community banks, which do make loans to business, have been hard hit by the collapse in commercial real estate prices, and have tightened terms for ordinary business borrowers. So all but the largest businesses, which can access the bond market directly, are starved for credit.
Thanks to Geithner's permissive accounting standards, the big banks have also been allowed to carry on their books at full value securities based on underwater mortgage loans -- securities that are really worth between 30 and 70 cents on the dollar. If the banks had to honestly account for their depressed market value, the banks' balance sheets would look even worse.
This is an exact repetition of what befell Japan in the 1990s -- a lost decade of economic growth caused by a financial collapse and the collusion of the government with the banks to pretend that all was rosy. Indeed, the US economy today is in far worse shape than Japan was, because all during that period Japan continued to be a major export power while the US today runs a huge trade deficit.
But Obama's veto of the foreclosure-streamlining bill calls the question on Geithner. We are now learning that a lot of the securities were not properly documented, which makes them worth even less.
If the foreclosure machinery is suddenly gummed up because the President has ruled out a quick fix that favors bankers, the banks may be forced to recognize what the junk on their balance sheets is really worth (not much). And the whole game of pretending that all is fine with the banks is in jeopardy.
The fact is that a vast number of mortgages that we turned into mortgage backed securities are legally flawed. This calls into further question the value of massive portfolios held by banks -- and forces some kind of reckoning.
For aficionados who want more detail, Mike Konczal has provided a very useful idiots' guide to the next great unraveling.
Obama's veto also pulls the rug out from under the pretense that the Administration's mortgage relief program is working. For nearly two years, the Treasury and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have sponsored a mortgage modification program known as HAMP (Home Affordable Modification Program).
This program is voluntary to the banks, who get a few thousand dollars in incentive payments from the government in exchange for reducing monthly payments. But the relief is usually shallow and something like half of borrowers who do get modifications go back into default. Fewer than 500,000 have gotten modifications out of several million at risk of foreclosure.
Most of the underwater homeowners, now almost one in three, are not speculators or people who took out sub-prime loans. They are simply ordinary Americans whose houses are suddenly worth less than the mortgages on them, because of the general collapse in housing prices.
The lame HAMP program, the joint creation of Treasury and HUD, is another part of Geithner's grand design to disguise just how bad things are at the big banks and prevent an honest accounting or a serious reckoning.
Meanwhile, housing prices are declining again, despite record low mortgage interest rates (available only to blue chip borrowers), which creates another serious drag on the economy. And the housing market won't return to normal until the mortgage mess is resolved.
But the belated recognition that millions of mortgages are inadequately documented could be a blessing in disguise. It could force the administration to come up with stronger medicine both to clean up the banks and to help distressed homeowners.
The Dodd-Frank Act (PDF) gives the Treasury the tools to do an honest accounting of the big banks, and shut down or break up zombie banks that are insolvent -- so that successor banks can get on with the business of lending. With a serious strategy for both the banks and the mortgage mess, we could remove two of the main drags on the economy.
White House political chief David Axelrod, speaking on CBS's Face the Nation Sunday, tried to back-pedal from the significance of Obama's action. (Heaven forbid that three weeks before a crucial election Obama should sound like he is siding with consumers against bankers.) Meanwhile, the indispensable Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida called for a national moratorium on foreclosures.
Of the three prime architects of Obama's inadequate economic program, two have now moved on -- economic policy czar Larry Summers and budget chief Peter Orszag. It's time to for Geithner to join them, so that Obama can get real about the banking and mortgage crisis.
The president's veto of the foreclosure bill shows that his Obama's own instincts are better than his advisors'. It's a start. But if Obama temporizes now, he faces a slow unraveling of the flimsy financial house that Geithner built, and an even weaker economy.
47 Comments so far
Show AllObama will never fuck with the banks or with Geithner. Even if Geithner is replaced, it will still be Geithner. Something else is going on. Whatever it is, you can be sure it's not good for average people.
"Even if Geithner is replaced, it will still be Geithner." Exactly. There is NO chance that Obama would chose an economist with an original, (left of center) radical idea, especially one that challenges the status quo. No chance. Even if he did the real world economist would be surrounded by market fundamentalist, Utopian economic reactionaries and let them eat cake villagers. He or she would be a curious attraction, there for amusement.
What is to stop the government from lending directly to people, without the banks and financial institutions as middlemen/women? Nothing, but self serving ideology. The government could lend directly, with far lower overhead costs, without the help of banks, but chooses not to. Instead, they allow the financial interests to keep the "wealth" they created on their computer screens and beg them to do what the government could do itself without their damn help.
What is to stop the government from demanding a debt write down to home owners (realizing that higher home prices are not good "investments" but nothing more than higher debt, savings should come from higher wages)? What is to stop the un-fair tax structure that goes towards the rental interests in this country (those than own and rent property)? What is to stop the government from doing things like capturing energy rents and using them to fund social services? The (energy, monopoly, etc) rents are going largely to financial interests and the economic elites, which then turn around and help to expand the fictitious "wealth creation" that is nothing more than debt pile up. It isn't being productively invested, is weighing the economy down with debt and is being used to attack governments who do what is in the interests of their people but not in the interests of financial capital. We really are at a crossroads within the capitalist system, many of the capitalists seem to not be that enlightened. They really are digging their own graves. The smartest parasites don't kill their hosts, at least not too quickly. They need time to at least find another host. If they kill all the hosts they run into a dead end, which is where we are at.
What's to stop the government providing a simple, free bank account for anyone who want one? No interest, no fees, no overdraft - just an electronic bucket for your paycheck, and a free, plain debit card.
Didn't the post office do something like that?
Quite right.
And this article fails to mention that the bill in question was airlifted out of the senate judiciary committee by none other than that parragon of democracy and liberal hero, Senator Leahy from Vermont. This craven corporate hack claimed his 'constituents' called him requesting urgent passage of the bill (which had been sitting around since April). Constituents? Vermont, my state, is where the LEAST foreclosures have occurred in the nation! Leahy's 'constituents' are probably located more on Wall Street than in Vermont. Vermonters aren't happy with this development. Leahy's republican counterpart (Sessions) on the judiciary committe did his part as well.
But here's the kicker. The bill passed the senate with a UNANIMOUS voice vote. Bernie Sanders - ET TU BRUTE? Feingold - Are you there? Franken - Say What?
It's just more proof that the bankers own the place. We need to make a few geldings out of the senate stallions.
Replacing Orszag with Jack Lew confirms what Axlerod has already said about the new team, business as usual. This administration knows who its masters are and that it is anointed to do their bidding. Still Kuttner tells us that as soon as Obama gets some good advisors instead of the "bad" ones that he has been mysteriously plagued with all will straighten out. Gee Robert, Obama must sure appreciate your loyalty, why doesn't he appoint you.
When I saw this reported on MSM last week, the way it was reported made me ask myself how would this reporting be any worse than if we had a state run media. The story was reported that the bill passed both houses of congress, (no longer worthy of a capital "C"), with no public hearing because no one realized it could allow the bankers to more easily foreclose on innocent people. It was framed as "honest" accidental mistake, made by both houses. (Seriously WTF?!?!)
That same night they had an interview with several people that were long term unemployed. One had a master degree, but could not land a job in two years. One had gone back to school to become a nurse, but did not have a job yet, and two others that were in similar situations. The stories were all pretty grim, but at the end Katie Cur-Puke-it, asked it they were still "optimistic" about the future. Everyone said yes they were. Nicely framed as, well things are bad but don't question the overall system because things will workout. The American dream still lives...
Probably one of the real reasons that MSM national anchors/reporters are paid so well is so they become invested in the status quo of the system. It would take some truly special and brave people, (which we obviously do not have), to truly question a societal system that pays them so well as it ruins so many average peoples lives.
If this is, in fact, now a corporate state, then you do have a state run media.
We're like the Soviet Union of Cash, but without guaranteed housing, food, jobs, and medical care.
I agree about the lack of bravery and integrity on the part of elites, but the cold reality is that we're not doing so hot on those scores down here either. If we don't grow a collective sack and start taking some real risks out there, we're going to quickly end up as a permanent servant class for the forseeable future.
The problem is there won't be a "collective sack". The elite have divided the little folk against each other. As you fight against the ruling class you will also have to fight against many in our own class, the tea baggers and fox news watchers to mention a few. These people are true believers and for the most part will NOT be reasoned with.
"...we're going to quickly end up as a permanent servant class for the forseeable future." As I look around I'm pretty sure we are already there. This has been a battle that has been waged by the right for probably better than 30 years. Packing courts with activist judges to do their bidding so they can create rulings like Citizens United.
It has taken decades to get us into this mess, and IF we ever get out of it, that will also take decades. I'm in my early 50's and I doubt I'll live long enough to see the comeback of the middle class, if that ever does occur.
Well said.
It is so sad for me to see someone less than a block from me in my poor neighborhood in Vermont with a "vote for Brian Dubie" (candidate for governor) sign on their lawn. Dubie is a pro-war corporate hack that wants to lower Vermont state taxes on the rich, as if they weren't already hogging most of the land and capital in Vermont. This turd also wants to cut state services which will directly impact this neighbor with the sign (she is partly disabled).
People can be incredibly stupid.
Yes, they have, Tom. And you might also be right to suggest that there's no way around that (I'm inclined to believe that the US disintegration is going to be a complete goatfuck for years as groups slug it out along virtually tribal IDs to carve out their respective paradises).
I'm not far behind you in age, Tom, so I'm probably in the same boat. That doesn't relieve us of the moral duty to act on our knowledge even as we continue to wrestle with the parameters of what actions we can or should take (or those we should not).
Our servitude is still largely in its infancy, with the exception of the perpetual underclass who is always in this condition. We're waiting on about three things right now. First, the uncertain slide to a more critical boiling point where people can no longer delude themselves that their lot will improve. Hard to watch and harder to live through, but that's probably the reality. The second thing we're waiting for is for people with better intentions to hurry up and make a decision as to whether or not they can rescue this system via its own rules (especially true of Democrats, and I don't say that with rancor). That's a quickly emerging debate as you can tell from so many threads on this site. The third thing we're waiting for is the slow transition for many folks from virtual reality (through the heavy use of mediating technologies like television and, yes, the computer, that atomizes them from others and is relatively expensive to maintain) to physical reality, which is almost a certainty for millions of Americans as they increasingly won't be able to afford their conditioned forms of entertainment and diversion. It's from that condition that organizing will take place eventually.
I agree, it's a long slog, but I figure we should do what we can to advance it, since many of us assisted this process in a variety of ways and now that we've unlaundered our heads, have some obligation to start repairing the damage as best we're able.
We have state run media. The corporations control the media and the government.
I would like to know what happened to the Accounting Standard Board? Back in 70's and early 80's they set the standards for business' to follow and adhere to, and what happened in 2008 the complete failure of the banking/finance industry would not of happened if those standards were still enforced. Back then Federal Reserve Banks had to set a certain portion aside for bad debt and reserves against your outstanding receivables.
"I would like to know what happened to the Accounting Standard Board"
That is easy. The board caved in under pressure from congress, which of course, is owned by the banking industry. The board decided to reject the "mark to market" rule, which would have forced the banks to assign the true values (next to nothing) to the toxic waste securities they had on their books (because no investors would touch them).
And a fellow by the surname of Black was livid about it and many other shenanigans and the government won't let him take a two by four to the corruption. Thanks to Black, a bunch of people went to prison for the Savings and Loan scams of the 80s.
If Mr. Black was Secretary of the Treasury, heads would roll.
The Swiss gnomes have historically maintained a 22% balance of reserve. This rate had proven to be necessary based on experience, being in the business a long time.
Nevertheless, these new guys thought they were smarter than that (and probably didn't much care cause they were too big to fail) and started lending at 30-40X (2-3% reserves). Even then, that was not enough, they started putting together financial instruments out of thin air, based on abstraction not hard assets. $700 trillion for the taxpayer to cover. Legal? Does not matter, it was standard operating procedure.
The banks borrow from the Federal Reserve for next to nothing and buy Treasury bonds that pay interest, taking advantage of the spread, in an unproductive transaction for those who are paying, the taxpayer.
The borrowed money is Social Security surplus (except for TARP). However, there is more, much more. They want the whole thing -privatization.
If the Republicans get control again, it will show how stupid most people in the USA are. Contrast with what is happening in South America.
Elect all but the worst Democrats, then make it clear to them why. If they don't get it, they are next. Obama is not on the ballot! One step at a time (divide and conquer, we can do it too and must in the face of such intransigence), just make sure it is in the direction one desires.
What happened to financial standards? Clinton, Rubin, Greenspan, but it started with Reagan who ran on balancing the budget but doubled the national debt, just like GW Bush. Anything for their nefarious warmongering.
how we wish summers, oszark, and geithner are the exis of evil.
they are only a few of visible executioners of the tightly knit global fascist class.
so are oh-bummer and axelrod and rahm and the whole congress and senate.
It's far too early to say Obama has ruled out a quick fix for banksters. This is most likely a politically convenient stall just like HAMP program which made matters worse: it enabled continued looting by banks and servicers who collected fees and penalties from both taxpayers and homeowners, and in MOST cases left borrowers worse off. But the intent was always to serve the banks by delay, never the homeowner.
Multiply the following torture by millions, and you get "The Coming Middle-Class Anarchy". When a critical mass finally realize the game is rigged, a tipping point occurs, followed by rapid, massive, and upredictable change. It is the voluntary defaulters, not voters, who will finally force change.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/gonzalo-lira-coming-middle-class-anarchy
I agree.
For more on financial shenanigans see Michael Hudson's article today at counterpunch, "Why the US Has Launched a New Financial World War~And How the Rest Of The World Will Fight Back"
I like the link to the cool flowcharts. I don't like being called an idiot for using them.
My guess is they'd be helpful to Elizabeth Warren, who is no idiot (except she took that stupid job).
Geithner should be put in charge of Little America. Next month.
Here we go again! Fake left Go right! Go right after the elections.........
You'd think someone with an iota of intelligence in the White House (c'mon, Michelle!) would whisper in O-bomb-er's ear: "They already are calling you a socialist, so call their bluff. Go socialist. Be like FDR. What do you have to lose? Nothing. But look what you - and the country - stand to gain. And what is Gingrich, et. al., gonna say? 'We were only kidding and name-calling earlier; now we really mean it! He's a socialist!" They'd be laughed off the air. Let's go, already."
Ahhh, if only....
"no gods, no masters" --m. sanger
This is a lame and shallow analysis of what is really going on. Obama is not really turning the tables on Geithner one bit. For a long term analysis of what is really going on, please read Chris Hedges's latest article:
http://www.truthdig.com/report
/item/how_democracy_dies_lessons_from_a_master_20101011
and see why is pulling another "good cop bad cop" circus stunt yet again !
As depressing as reading Hedges is, I can find very little to nothing to disagree with, particularly in his last few articles, including this one. I saw this as politically expedient, a bone to the people, so that he doesn't look like a complete fool as he goes on the road exhorting the masses to help him continue his agenda for change.
Thanks for the link to Hedges latest, Jennifer.
Of course, he and you are right. The forces that are arrayed against us are using Obama and you and me as puppets. The forces go beyond the Christian Right and the demagogues - they are all puppets to the real forces.
Not long ago, there was a piece on Dwight Eisenhower and his famous farewell speech in which he warned of the Military Industrial Complex. That was the real power then and it is even more powerful now. At this very moment, the militarization of space is occurring. Soon, there will be nowhere to run.
I read an interesting piece by a local activist, Bruce Gagnon. Bruce wrote about a man, Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, who was driven out of the Indian armed services (at the behest of the United States) for daring to speak the truth. Bruce is in India right now, and here is some of what he heard Bhagwat say:
“It is the policies of this [global corporate] oligarchy which determine priorities of national budgetary allocations on weapons systems and their expansion into space to target the planet earth, and for use in the oceans, and the seabed.
“As we see the world order today, the material conditions of the people from one continent to the other, the direct consequences of colonialism, breeding predatory wars for resources and markets, and conflicts within nations ….to further consolidate an extremely exploitative, parasitical and colonial regime to crush the ‘untermenshens’ or sub-humans which is the expression for the ordinary people of this planet, as never before at any time in world history. In our own country, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru had described these conditions as the ‘terror of hunger and unemployment’, thinking they were inherent characteristics of those times in colonial India and would be eradicated when freedom was won!
“We are seeing a greater disdain for the basic principles of international law. We are witnessing an almost uncontained hyper use of force in international relations, force that is plunging the world into an abyss of permanent conflicts. I am convinced that we have reached the decisive moment when we must seriously think about the architecture of global security.
“A ‘Permanent War’ system nurtured by a permanent ‘War Economy’, fed by the predatory practices of Big banks and the multi-national corporations has led to the establishment of the National Security State which in turn advances the private interest of the financial oligarchy. The three golden rules, therefore, are US/NATO global military presence, global projection of military power and the use of that force in one conflict or the other to threaten the ‘lesser people’ of the world with ‘Full Spectrum Dominance’ – including in space. The ruling classes are actually an alliance of the ‘Transnational Capitalist Class’, which delivers to itself profit, power and privilege through policy control and weaponisation.
“Either the Transnational Capitalist Class alliance self-destructs, compelled by the conscious mobilization of the working people in solidarity across the continents, those who oppose war and stand solidly together in a counterforce on the side of humanity, or we go further downhill the slope of lower depths, into an abyss. For every person there are always two choices in life: to accept things as they are or to accept the responsibility to bring about change – from a war economy to a political economy of peace to share, to preserve our environment and to belong to the commons in which every being has an equal stake for our minimum needs.”
And then, I listened to Amy Goodman's interview with John LeCarré (who just came out with a new book about corporate hegemony). He touched on similar themes as Hedges and Bhagwat. LeCarré added one thing: The People must break some serious glass! The people of Athens didn't, and they lost it all. As Hedges wrote: "And unless we adopt the radicalism held by Aristophanes, unless we begin to hinder the functioning of the corporate state through acts of civil disobedience, we are finished."
Obama is a cog in the wheel. We know what he is, do we really need to point out the obvious? As Hedges wrote: "All ideological, theological and political debates with the representatives of the corporate state, including the feckless and weak Barack Obama, are useless. They cannot be reached. They do not want a dialogue. They care nothing for real reform or participatory democracy...
"Let us not stand at the open gates of the city meekly waiting for the barbarians. They are coming. They are slouching towards Bethlehem. Let us, if nothing else, like Aristophanes, begin to call our tyranny by its name."
And once again, I ask: What are WE going to do? How are we going to break some serious glass and hinder the functioning of the corporate state? (and pointing at the puppets doesn't count, nor does blogging about it)
Ted, I got back late and I won't be able to make it until midday tomorrow so I might be late in my response but I think that it might be worth sharing. I have a lot to say but right now, I am tired and upset so I had better wait until tomorrow when my mind should be ok. Thanks.
That's a wise thing to do, Jennifer.
I won't read your response until tonight, at which time this thread will have filtered down to the "dead file" where all old and irrelevant (after 2 days, here on Common Dreams) articles go.
I look forward to your response.
Ted, thanks again. I found what you had written interesting and I wanted to look up more on the references for I think that they are seriously important. As to you question at the end, very good one as usual. Other than this blog, I find most blogs, even the so-called progressive ones, to be very useless. You should see the childish nature of the party apologists even on Alternet whenever anyone tries to discuss beyond the politics of any issue. Some of it has gotten so toxic that I don't feel like entering a discussion there lest I be made to look small while someone else gets to look big. Besides, except for this blog, people brag and boast too much about getting replies from their corrupt pols, enjoying another football game even when the topic is about Wall Street, bragging about meeting the pols and having stupid pictures taken, and just making it look like they have everything to show. It makes me look like my small efforts deserve to be crushed. I guess nobody ever wants to really hear the truth. I used to be one of those protesting on Alternet against Obama and his party but as much as I would gladly do so, I feel that there is more. Sometimes I feel that the blogosphere itself has become so out of touch with reality and yet I feel that it helps me with it. I don't know what to say but I am torn. I like this site because nobody gets put down for being honest about themselves and willing to think on principle even in the middle of an election year. Contrast that to the other sites where the party apologists are sounding like lame brain zombies screaming like hell about "vote Democrat or else the Republicans will KenStarr Obama" despite the fact that none of it really matters. Sometimes, their posts are sooo funny that I will almost lose control of myself while laughing but other times, it would anger me that despite times gone worse they still act as if the year is 2008 or even 2006. At least my mother and uncle aren't overly partisan when they beg me to vote for Carnahan even though I would disagree and stick to my choice of doing a write-in for the Green Party candidate, Midge Potts, who should have made it to the ballot but couldn't collect enough signatures to get on. Her stands on the issues is outstandingly progressive. That is what keeps me going out on a limb to do a write-in but I will forgive my mother and uncle for deciding to go "practical" on their votes. I don't know how far depressing this election will end up being but already it is beginning to look as bad as the last.
P.S.: You can always track your posts in your account. I know I can track recent additions in mine.
Also, another longer than expected day today.
Well...I don't know. Jennifer. I guess we are on different planes. Perhaps we are talking about the same thing, but from different perspectives. See, I don't care about the parties, be they blue, red, or green. If I vote now, it is from purely a defensive standpoint. Even on that ground, I am losing interest. I view all Washington politics and politicians as toxic. How can they not be with all their perks and power that further insulate them from the people?
So, that is why I keep trying and working and asking about "us" and what we plan to do. In my heart of hearts, I believe our answers lie with ourselves and each other, not with politicians.
As far as blogs, it seems to me they are becoming rather irrelevant. Those for one side post their views, those for another side post their views, and the majority post how they are against everything. It's good to air things out and read other opinions, but as for actual work...it ain't,
Anyways...it's late. Tired. Just got through a long potluck/session re Your Money or Your LIfe and our difficulties in matching our values with our expenditures and lives. Damn, this integrity stuff is hard work! Maybe I shoulda swallowed the blue pill...
"Be like FDR. What do you have to lose?"
This unrealistic idea needs to stop. During FDR's time unions were MUCH, MUCH stronger and more radical than now. Other leftist parties had electoral support far more than left of center third parties today, like the Greens and Socialist Party, leftist groups had support far beyond their numbers, there were mass social movements that were much stronger (and unified behind common ideals like socialism and industrial democracy) and leftists had much more power within the Democratic Party. FDR was elected first time around on a very middle of the road platform, he was pushed to the left by these people, he wasn't an enlightened radical Superman. Obama cannot do what FDR did, because FDR didn't do it, he was pushed to do so by groups that aren't around today or are far weaker than they were then. Listen to Howard Zinn, ditch the "great men" view of history. WE make history just as much, if not more, than the "great men" and women. If we sit on our ass and do nothing, if we don't push from bellow, provide clear alternatives and scare the hell out of these people, Obama will be pushed by others in the opposite direction. By Wall Street, by industry, by lobbyists and think tank reactionaries. He can't and won't solve all of our problems and he is ideologically opposed to fundamentally changing how the economy functions. He is not getting, and will not get, policy advice that will solve the fundamental problems of the economy (which necessitate radical change) from those around him, they will have to come from the outside. He will either get pushed by working people to do things he is uncomfortable doing and is ideologically opposed to or working people will continue to get rolled over.
Who really cares at this point? Really? Who?
This can of worms made by criminals and abetted with government collusion has spilt down and all over every street in America.
Let the house of cards continue to collapse.
I care.
If I die, I don't want to go on my knees.
"a lost decade of economic growth"
Growth is the economic mantra. Grow to what? It doesn't matter, just grow! And as others have mentioned in this thread, it doesn't matter who is at the helm as long as the growth mantra remains the guiding light. And when grow stalls or collapses, beware.
http://theformofmoney.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2006/1/9/1633663.html
I know this is all very depressing but there is something hilarious about this article.
When I read the term "Dodd-Frank Act", I couldn't help but laugh. Yeah, they sure do put on a good ACT!
Politicans are great actors.
Did you know the root of the word hypocrite comes from what used to be called actors in ancient Greek plays? The Greeks could have taught Orwell a thing or two about how to fake one way and go the other.
Agelbert, you are correct to blame it on the influence of the damn Greeks:
Greek Chorus Leader: "Don't go any further. I know what you're thinking, Lenny, and forget it!"
Lenny Weinrib: "I can't forget it; the thought's been put in my head."
Chorus: "Oh, cursed fate; certain thoughts are better left unthunk."
--Mighty Aphrodite (1995)
;-)
If it wasn't so tragic, at least for the middle and lower classes in the U.S., allowing this continuing pillaging of Americans by the banks and wall street is completely pathetic and casts the average american in a very dubious light, to say the least! How you folks manage to constantly bow down to your oppressors and keep voting them into power is completely beyond any reckoning for me and my friends here in Canada!
"Beware of Greeks bearing gifts."
Obama has a trajectory. An arrow shot flies true to its mark. The arrow does not make a left turn down the road. Let us remember that Obama used a "pocket veto" on this bill. Obama said, "fix this" and sent the bill back to congress. There is an election in less than a month. Don't be surprised if after the election the House and Senate "fix" the bill and it is signed by Obama and the banks get what they want after all. "We" on the 'professional left' will be forced to do some really serious blogging then! This scenario would be true to Obama's established trajectory.
Kuttner sez: "By 2010, the banks were again making large profits and paying huge bonuses -- as if the financial collapse had never occurred. What they did not, however, do was make very many loans to small and medium sized businesses or hard pressed consumers.
***
Such is the state of the U.S. economy ... that casino-style gambling with toxic derivatives is deemed a "safe" use of money, while loaning it to people is considered "too risky".
They're stealing as much as they can and taking gold deliveries before fiat paper becomes totally worthless. Watch the price of gold and stay tuned to the articles on http://www.gata.org/. Like some others, they make an effort to put the criminal puzzle together.
The three models of civilisation collapse are facing us today.
Taking us to our doom is the runaway train of industrial consumption by our still exploding population, demolishing and transforming the once self-sustaining environment.
Maintaining the status quo are the Dinosaurs that try to rule here. Fossil fuel companies, banks, speculators, and the enormous military, are amoungst the dinosaurs.
The end result model is the house of cards, ready to collapse as the pillars of environment that sustain our economic growth weaken. The rich are preparing to head to their private lifeboats ready to abandon ship.
The interesting thing is that many may become better off once we stop investing in the dinosaurs of this too complex empire. Maybe I will try and read some of Joseph Tainter.
obama already sees his program isn't working but doesn't understand why isn't, and there is nobody around him to explain
people who know what's wrong (a) are not understood by obama (b) there is a blockade already in place in case someone tries to interfere with the market
edweg