“they do not understand that this “social distancing” from everyone is simply a state ploy to stop dissent, and has nothing to do with fighting any virus. A few have little power against an oppressive government, so as long as people can be separated, then resistance to tyranny is virtually impossible to obtain.”
Among all the panic and misinformation being spewed by politicians at all levels and the complicit mainstream media, what is going on under the radar that will greatly harm Americans much more than this virus ever could? First, all the legislation, executive orders, and mass control measures happening now will never go away, and will cause undue tragedy for years to come. Secondly, the biggest wealth transfer in history is going on right before our eyes, and of course is mostly ignored due to this government manufactured false pandemic. The economic fallout that has already caused mass devastation will only worsen the longer these quarantine measures are in place, and will cause havoc for an unknown amount of time.
Surveillance of the entire population will continue, and in fact expand. As more restrictive measures are forthcoming from the state governors whose egos are now consumed by the massive power gained by simply claiming emergency status, more compliance will be demanded. Partial or full martial law and medical martial law continues to be implemented, and the very adverse consequences of such actions will cause extreme stress, depression, dire financial harm, psychological trauma, additional sickness and death, and most likely an increase in suicide that has never before been seen. None of these factors have been addressed by those responsible for all these totalitarian measures. This reminds me of the statement by Madeline Albright concerning the 500,000 deaths of little children under the age of 5 in Iraq, when she said in front of the entire world that their deaths were worth it. When this minor virus that has been completely blown out of proportion is over, will the political response be that all the “collateral” damage and death due to the shutdown of the entire country was worth it; this after many more deaths occurred due to government forced mandates and economic destruction than any virus could ever have caused?Digital Infrared Foreh…Check Amazon for Pricing.
Besides the psychological and physical carnage that will soon be evident due to government’s totalitarian response to this so-called pandemic, the ruling elite have now learned just how easy it has been to capture and control the entire population, with most of that compliance being voluntary due to fear and unquestioned acceptance of mandated orders. Now that the general public has been completely locked down due to a virus, and with ease, all future control will be ever easier to achieve just by claiming and declaring any emergency. Society has become so pathetic that they knowingly and willingly give up any individual liberty in favor of group protection, and when all are told not to band together, they do not understand that this “social distancing” from everyone is simply a state ploy to stop dissent, and has nothing to do with fighting any virus. A few have little power against an oppressive government, so as long as people can be separated, then resistance to tyranny is virtually impossible to obtain.
Legal declaration by a government allowing assumption of extraordinary powers
A state of emergency (also known as a state of calamity in the Philippines) is a situation in which a government is empowered to perform actions that it would normally not be permitted. A government can declare such state during a disaster, civil unrest, or armed conflict. Such declaration alerts citizens to change their normal behavior and orders government agencies to implement emergency plans. Justitium is its equivalent in Roman law—a concept in which the senate could put forward a final decree (senatus consultum ultimum) that was not subject to dispute.
States of emergency can also be used as a rationale or pretext for suspending rights and freedoms guaranteed under a country’s constitution or basic law. Wikipedia
At the edge of the proverbial cliff
Here we are facing the final stage of the destruction of our country as a sovereign nation. We, as a supposedly free people, are about to face a national Armaghedon. Under an emergency declaration, our constitution, or what is left of our rights and protections, are cast aside to make way for the reorganizing of the worlds economies and the subjugation of all populations. All of this achieved by the hyping up of a virus that does not meet any standard for being declared an epidemic or pandemic.
Just to make sure you reach the proper level of fear, university’s, college’s and public schools are closed in numerous locations across the country. The common connection in each of these instances is their tie to federal funding. Want to keep your funding? CLOSE YOUR DOORS! That will scare them!
The impeachment farce in Congress is the same modus operandi that has been used by Wall Street to create civil dissension and establish puppet governments with tyrannical control worldwide for decades. Can we prevent such an occurrence in the United States ?
Wall Street created the CIA in 1946 using their crony Allen Dulles to hide their nefarious war-mongering, such as getting the US involved in WW I and WW II, under a guise of “national security.” Then the CIA used that cover to thwart President Eisenhower’s attempt for Peace talks with Khrushchev by sabotaging their own U-2 flight. Then they sabotaged their own invasion of Cuba in a failed attempt to commit the U.S to all-out war with Cuba [Dulles countermanded JFK’s order]. Then they labeled JFK a traitor when they discovered his secret back-channel peace talks with Moscow (along with JFK’s attack on the Federal Reserve). Mark Lane, John Groden, and Mark North claim the CIA killed JFK. Then they successfully impeached (with bogus CIA corrupted evidence and MSM hype) RMN after he closed the CIA school to teach Tibetans to invade China, and then RMN destroyed the CIA’s straw enemy by opening trade with China in addition to his Midnight Massacre of 1700 CIA agents. Then they schemed to prevent the reelection of JEC [OCTOBER SURPRISE] after he torpedoed a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and his Halloween Massacre of 700 CIA agents. “Conspiracy theorists” conclude 1000 architects and engineers, and Rebekah Roth, present a scenario that appears impossible without the CIA and US military involvement on 9/11. Then the CIA lied to create war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, among many other coups by Wall Street, behind cutouts, as indicated by John Perkins.
Wall Street bankers have initiated and utilized the military to engage in perpetual warfare by lies and deception for their economic profit since 1915. This continuity of influence and control over government policy is now evidenced in the Ukraine and is leading the impeachment fraud against the President after his attempts to avoid nuclear hostility with a super Power. Wall Street cannot tolerate peace.
What action can be taken to discontinue the madness of these psychopathic homicidal megalomaniacs? Well, may I respectfully suggest WHENSE THE DEEP STATE may be one consideration. Ref https://ncc-1776.org/tle2019/tle1050-20191208-10.html
Today, the House of Representatives voted to declare a genocide occurred about 100 years ago.
“The Democratic-controlled House voted 405-11 in favor of a resolution asserting that it is U.S. policy to commemorate as genocide the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923. The Ottoman Empire was centered in present-day Turkey.
The vote marked the first time in 35 years that such legislation was considered in the full House, underscoring widespread frustration in Congress with the Turkish government, from both Democrats and President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans.”
Yes! By all means! Let’s poke another country with a big stick because they won’t do our bidding. What is it they have that some big corporation wants? Oil? Gold? What? Apparently the stage is being set for another war of aggression and this is the first prodding to incite that war. I am sure there will be a profuse amount of propaganda to follow this vote. Let me see. It goes something like this:
Their leader is a brutal dictator and we have to go and bring democracy to them.
He gassed his own people! Not that one? Ok….how about …
They have weapons of mass destruction!
Yeah! That one should do it.
Of course no one in DC will be going to war, nor their children nor any of their friends. No. Wars are to be fought by us commoners. And if our soldiers make it back home we will treat them like crap and act like nothing happened. And a whole bunch of people in a foreign country who have done nothing to us will be burying their dead and putting out fires.
Of all the pointless, useless, wasting of time this has to be near the top of the list. Maybe next we could commemorate the genocide of the Iraqi people in our war of aggression after 9/11. A country that had no part in those attacks. Last count I heard was 1.5 million dead and the birth deformities from our use of depleted uranium and other deadly crap has ratcheted that number up. Yes! Let’s do!
Oh! Oh! I know! Let’s commemorate the genocide of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation!! We don’t even have a head count on that one, but of course they’re still busy trying to wipe them out. We’ll just save that one for one of those days when there isn’t much to do in congress. You know, its not like things are going to hell here or anything.
While these elected fools waste precious time, the homelessness in this country is growing by the day.
The jobs promised to return as a result of those massive tax breaks for corporations have not materialized.
60% of college graduates cannot find work in the field they trained for because those jobs are being filled by foreign workers brought into the country under special work visa’s.
The opioid crisis is killing about 17,000 a month.
California is being intentionally set ablaze under the guise of training just before 80 mph winds are expected. (Gosh…wonder how that will turn out?)
Thats 690 billion per WEEK of money borrowed in the name of taxpayers because although banks are “too big to fail”, we, the people, are expendable.
Our police departments have been militarized and many have become a threat to their communities, executing people at will and walking away free.
These and many more issues,too many to recount here, and all congress could think to do , all they felt was of national importance, was to declare that a genocide had occurred in a foreign country about 100 years ago just to piss off the government that is there now 100 years later.
Thank you congress! While we wonder if we will have a job next week, or how we are going to pay our rent, buy groceries or pay these extortion rates for crappy health insurance, thank you for wasting all of your time making this commemoration. Is it nap time now?
And while all this goes on the president spent his time tweeting out his usual brand of nonsense.
Yesterday, following the announcement of another 1/4 point interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell held a press conference at 2:30 p.m. It proved to be an embarrassing and shameful example of New York City-centric business journalism.
Seven business journalists from leading business news outlets that cover Wall Street asked questions in the first 23 minutes of the press conference. Not one of these reporters asked about the liquidity crisis on Wall Street that has resulted in the Fed offering $690 billion a week to 23 Wall Street securities firms and one foreign bank as well as a newly launched “don’t call it QE4” operation by the Fed to buy up $60 billion a month in Treasury bills from Wall Street dealers.
The Fed began its repo loan interventions on September 17 of this year for the first time since the financial crisis. That crisis grew into the worst economic collapse in the U.S. since the Great Depression. What the Fed is now doing has all the same earmarks as the actions it took in the early days of the last crisis. (See our ongoing series of articles on the Fed’s actions and the liquidity stresses on Wall Street.) And yet, despite these frightening similarities, not one of the following reporters (in this order of asking questions within the first 23 minutes of the press conference) could summon the nerve to broach the subject: Michael McKee, Bloomberg TV; Heather Long, Washington Post; Jeanna Smialek, New York Times; Steve Liesman, CNBC; Nick Timiraos, Wall Street Journal; Edward Lawrence, Fox Business; and Brendan Greeley, Financial Times.
It was not until the eighth reporter was handed the microphone that we heard a question on the most critical financial topic of the day. More
According to the filings that JPMorgan Chase makes annually with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), since 2013 JPMorgan Chase has spent $77 billion buying back its own stock. That includes the whopping $17.01 billion it has spent in just the first nine months of this year buying back its stock.
But here’s the shocking news. According to its SEC filings, JPMorgan Chase is partly using Federally insured deposits made by moms and pops across the country in its more than 5,000 branches to prop up its share price with buybacks. The wording in the filing is as follows:
“In 2019, cash provided resulted from higher deposits and securities loaned or sold under repurchase agreements, partially offset by net payments on long-term borrowing…cash was used for repurchases of common stock and cash dividends on common and preferred stock.”
Had JPMorgan Chase not spent $77 billion propping up its share price with stock buybacks, it would have $77 billion more in cash to loan to businesses and consumers – the actual job of its commercial bank. Add in the tens of billions of dollars that other mega banks on Wall Street have used to buy back their own stock and it’s clear why there is a liquidity crisis on Wall Street that is forcing the Federal Reserve to hurl hundreds of billions of dollars a week at the problem.
On September 17, the overnight lending rate on repurchase agreements (repos) spiked from the typical 2 percent range to 10 percent, meaning some very big lenders such as JPMorgan Chase were backing away from lending. That forced the Federal Reserve to jump in as lender of last resort, the first time it has done that in any material way since the financial crisis…
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: September 27, 2019 ~
New York Fed Headquarters Building in Lower Manhattan
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York first initiated its emergency overnight loans to Wall Street this year on Tuesday, September 17, starting off at the rate of $75 billion daily. It then increased its loans by adding, in addition to the $75 billion daily, 14-day term loans in the amount of $30 billion to be offered three times this past week. But after the demand for the first 14-day loan was more than double the $30 billion offered, the New York Fed boosted the next term loans to $60 billion and increased its overnight loans to $100 billion.
What will next week bring? When Wall Street can get super cheap loans from the Fed in the tens of billions of dollars with no questions asked by Congress, it will continue upping its demands until the Fed is once again secretly shelling out trillions of dollars while Congress willfully remains in the dark – in other words, a replay of the 2007-2010 financial crisis.
The New York Fed is only allowed to engage in these repo transactions with its 24 primary dealers. That list of 24 primary dealers includes the securities units of big U.S. banks like JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, but it also includes the U.S. based securities units of troubled foreign banks like Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, and Societe Generale (SocGen).
Because the New York Fed is not announcing which banks are drawing down the bulk of its loans, neither Congress nor the American people know if the money is flowing to U.S. banks or foreign bank subsidiaries in the U.S. Propping up troubled foreign banks is not what most Americans want their central bank to be doing. More
Footnotes are available at https://www.scribd.com/document/355085824/Embezzlement-by-Federal-Reserve if they are deleted by software.
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“What difference does an increase in the National Debt make? We owe it to ourselves.” our typical congress-critter has declared. Such a paraphrased statement, reflecting on the exoskeleton structure of the Federal Reserve, ignores the inner historic mechanisms of Rothschild banking, the intense subterfuge and arm-twisting of the Fed’s creation, and the proven destructive forces inherent but hidden therein. 1
The medieval Rothschild Banks established a line of credit for the King provided the King issued a written promise to pay gold, with interest, to the bank at a time in the future. The book-entry Rothschild credit was used to pay for obligations incurred by the king and the credit continued to be circulated in the kingdom between merchants. The bankers sold the king’s interest bearing promise of gold to investors. The promise was renewed on its maturing date and was perpetually rolled-over. 2
VOILA !!! The king made the suppliers of services happy with Rothschild credit; the bankers had the gold; the public had a promise that the king would eventually pay them in gold—which would never happen. 3 Everything went smoothly as long as the bank could sell the promise and the people did not demand the gold. 4 As Benjamin Ginsburg has lamented in FATAL EMBRACE; (bankers) AND THE STATE 5, eventually the schemes, which stole the wealth from the people, would come to a catastrophic climax. 6 More
Occasionally, amid the mountains of mindless legislation produced by those fools in congress, one or two really stellar examples of “what the hell were you thinking?” surfaces and leaves us wanting to bang our heads against the wall repeatedly out of frustration at the sheer stupidity of what is offered as necessary legislation. Never has this been quite as extraordinary as it is in the Covered Bond Act of 2011, a bill that is intended to avoid the hassle and exposure of public debate over bailing out the criminals while leaving the country twisting in the wind. Of course this will be supported by the full faith and credit (me & you) of the United States.
“So long as the Federal Reserve exists and/or other financial regulatory agencies continue to be run by a revolving door staff that moves in and out of industry and government, crony capitalism will be alive and well in America. No amount of Dodd-Frank or Volcker rule legislation will ever protect savers, taxpayers or the American people. Profits will continue to be privatized and losses socialized.”
This bill will just confirm the practice of privatizing profits while nationalizing the losses, as a legal response to criminal activity.
“The United States Covered Bond Act of 2011 is designed to allow bundling of any kind of debt including derivatives, into marketable securities guaranteed at full face value by the FDIC.”
Derivatives? Weren’t those instruments the same ones that caused the near collapse of the system? So what are they, exactly? More
Uncle Merv ought to know. He and his ilk at the Bank of International Settlements (BIS—that owns and funds the world’s central banks; the only banks that can print money for a country) in Basel, Switzerland, and the ten square mile area known as The Mall in Washington, D.C., worked to set it up.
Wall Street and England’s parliament, and their confederates, are the designated lightening rods to draw the rocks during this economic “collapse.” More
When considering ‘government’ it could be pointed out that the Federal Reserve and Dept. of Homeland Security are not our government.
They are like two diseases that have entered our body and made us sick.
Some doctors might diagnose these as NGOs – non-governmental organizations – but these are foreign diseases.
Like a vaccination that has given us a brain tumor and degenerative heart disease.
“Here, take this, it will keep you from getting sick” and then giving us the disease we were told it would prevent.
I’ve been listening to the opening of the Alex Jones Show in the evening lately. Most nights he’s bouncing off the walls and I won’t listen for long, but he was reflective yesterday and mentioned something that I’ve been on my mind the last week or so.
After going over several examples of how blatant the lies and criminality has become, he said… “I’ll read you some headlines when we get back, but at a certain point… what is the point – like trying to convince people… “Hey man, the government’s out of control, it really is, don’t you want to be free? It’s so creepy to have these killers over us – and it’s so obvious what they’re doing that it should be easy to bring them down.” More
Marti Oakley (c)copyright 2011 All Rights Reserved
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“The solution? A bond made up of life settlements would ideally have policies from people with a range of diseases — leukemia, lung cancer, heart disease, breast cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s. That is because if too many people with leukemia are in the securitization portfolio, and a cure is developed, the value of the bond would plummet.”
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Those medical records that are now available to anyone and everyone who might have a financial interest in your “health” (the same records about you that you yourself can no longer gain access to in most cases), are for sale to stakeholders, investors and interested party’s. Insurance companies are particularly interested.
As we stated in an earlier article, when Obamacare is implemented it will establish a health score to be applied to your records and updated with each doctor visit. This score will be available to insurance companies with the accompanying medical data that will allow them to determine how much of a risk you pose to the profits they anticipate by insuring you under a hedge fund.
You will be rated as to how much of a risk you represent to the system. This score is being used to determine what and how much healthcare you are eligible to receive. As the bill clearly states, panels will determine what risk you pose to the system and weigh that against the odds you can recover, and if you do, what would be the value of your future contributions to society? Odds not good? Off to the dead pool you go!
Food is a market that will always exist. Many people are turning away from industrial farmed food, seeking healthier choices and getting back to the basics.
Victory gardens in America produced up to 40% of all vegetables consumed during World War II. Over 20 million home gardens, apartment rooftop plants and community plots produced 9-10 million tons of produce; equal to the amount of commercial production at that time. The population during the war years increased from approximately 132 million people in 1940 to 140 million in 1945. Current US population is approaching 311 million people.
A family in Pasadena, California is making a living from selling produce grown in their yard to neighbors and restaurants. They grow 6,000 pounds of produce on 1/10th of an acre of cultivated land per year.
While organic food accounts for only 1%- 2% of all food sales worldwide, the organic market expands up to 20% per year. We believe that the organic market is small right now because of lack of education about health dangers of GE (genetically engineered) food and the lack of labeling of GE food. Most Americans don’t realize that about 75% of their diet is GE. As Americans awaken, the demand for pure non-GE foods is increasing. Organic farming is not only healthier but yields can increase, pollution decreases and water use can be decreased (click here for an example).
Some Americans barter or sell produce grown in their yards to neighbors, farmer’s markets, church communities, etc. You can earn extra money selling produce grown in your yard. Because there is a wealth of information on the Internet about how to grow produce in your yard, we will explore some other innovative ideas and suggestions for creating markets. There will always be a market for food.
Some Americans barter or sell produce grown in their yards to neighbors, farmer’s markets, church communities, etc. You can earn extra money selling produce grown in your yard. Because there is a wealth of information on the internet about how to grow produce in your yard, we will explore some other innovative ideas and suggestions for creating markets. There will always be a market for food. More
BRASSCHECK TV
Did you hear the one about the Orlando
Sheriffs Office that sent armed SWAT teams into barbershops searching for people …barbering without a license?
No it’s not a joke and there’s no punch line.
No warrants either.
We can’t bring Wall Street to justice, but no problem terrorizing small business owners.
“Well, I’m here to tell you some time in the next couple of months we’re going to be creating between 250,000 jobs a month and 500,000 jobs a month.” Vice President Joe Biden, April 23, 2010 More
“With 9 years of history behind us, there are so many more possibilities. 9/11 made alot of things possible, looting the American economy, two wars, building a narcotics empire in South Asia and over 2 trillion dollars in missing Pentagon funds over 9 years. More money has been stolen because of 9/11 than from all the wars in history combined. Does this tell us who did it”
“Also, expect, not only terror scares but maybe a very suspicious terror attack not long before the election. Would the GOP actually do that? Think about it. Remember Iraq? WMD’s? What do you think, especially with Israel behind them”
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PROPOSED SITE IN LOWER MANHATTAN
ISRAEL’S PRE-ELECTION ATTEMPT TO DEFLECT A NEW 9/11 INVESTIGATION
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor
There never were plans for a mosque at “ground zero.” The entire story is made up by a public relations agency working with the Israeli government and the GOP. There are plans for an Islamic center in an old Burlington Coat Factory store blocks away. That far down the island of Manhattan, a couple blocks away is “across town.” The idea that Israel is financing the “Ground Zero Mosque” controversy when Mossad agents were arrested, dancing in the streets on 9/11, is an obscenity.
Let’s get some facts straight. Since 2001 alot has happened, none of it reported widely in the press. It has been categorically proven that the supposed hijackers could never have flown any of the planes on 9/11. Start with a reality check. This is why “9/11″ as people are still being misinformed simply never happened: More
Controlling currency is key to the financial “elite’s” end game. They’ve done this through their central banks, fiat money, usury, etc. as a means to control nations through their currencies.
The British, seeing a U.S. colony plum, couldn’t defeat America militarily during the revolution, so they tried again in the War of 1812. They succeeded in burning the White House and Capitol before being defeated again a couple years later; agreeing to a treaty in 1814.
Everyone went home.
But the London bankers, undeterred it seems, set out on a course to do financially what they could not do militarily. Not content to think small, they began to plan and establish banks around the world; their intent being to control these countries’ through their currencies. More
(Note: How the mighty have fallen! Pennsylvania, the womb of secession, now cozies up to the DC criminals wantonly. The author makes some great points, and is at least thinking thoughts of true liberty. Some of his solutions for secession need a tune-up but one must start where one finds one’s self. Good work, Joseph.)
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A majority of We the People appear to have finally reached the limits of our tolerance of the arrogance emanating from Washington and its elected servants of the People. Perpetual war, profligate spending, bailouts for irresponsible banks and Wall Street fat cats, the takeover of significant parts of our economy such as the auto and banking industries to name but two, and now the near certainty of a federal takeover of our health care system have pushed many of the People to the edge. How can the People fight back and reclaim their government? Let’s list possible options and then assess the prospects for success of each.
We can replace all elected officials; we can proclaim all unconstitutional statutes and mandates null and void in our particular state. We can amend the federal constitution, or we can secede from the union of united States and reclaim our sovereignty as an independent republic.
The first and theoretically easiest solution is to throw the bums out and replace them with new people who will then obey the constraints of the Constitution. The problem is that under our current electoral system which gives artificial entities that do not have the right to vote, like corporations, unlimited power to supply money to both major political parties; those entities exert inordinate power to influence elections. Those same political parties then lavish their money on candidates who will support the agenda of those corporate donors so as to guarantee the continued flow of money to the two major political parties. More
by: Marti Oakley (c)copyright 2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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The recent bailouts of financial institutions to the tune of several trillions of dollars should have been a wake up call for all of us; the duality of the justice system never more apparent as when it became clear that a grand theft on an unimaginable scale had taken place and these same institutions were now holding the country hostage, threatening total economic collapse if we did not capitulate and infuse them with cash so they could continue raping and pillaging the country.
We have a prison system that now holds 2.5 million people and this does not include the hundreds of thousands of people being held in city and county jails for petty crimes. While a percentage of these prisoners do need to be incarcerated because of violent crimes, more than half of those serving time or being held have harmed no one and in fact are there because of some statutory code or regulation infraction. But, they will serve time, pay fines, and Wall Street will sell prisoner bonds all over the world, for profit.
Doesn’t any one find it strange that not one of those Wall Street parasites; not one of those corporate high rollers who took millions upon millions in pay and bonuses and who continue to do so even after taxpayer money was stolen to bail them out, even after billions and billions was borrowed in the name of the citizens, not one of them spent a day in jail? Did you hear one of those senators or representatives or any one from the justice department calling for prosecuting these people? Has anyone other than the sacrificial lamb, Bernie Madoff, ever seen the inside of a jail as a result of their corrupt financial practices and the harm it caused others? No, you didn’t. And, the only reason Madoff got nailed was because the people he harmed most were wealthy! It would seem obvious that graft, theft and corruption are ok just as long as it only affects the little people.
Even as the corrupt practices were exposed, the contrived schemes to defraud investors and the public became public knowledge, not one of those CEO’s, their staff, their managers or accountants….no one…..was ever charged with a crime or prosecuted. The IRS didn’t swoop in to seize their assets; no freezes were put on their bank accounts or investments. Not one palatial home was seized and sold to repay the debt. Not one yacht was auctioned off nor one private jet. These corporate raiders not only stole America’s wealth….the government and the justice system made sure they got to keep it.
Now compare this to a petty thief who breaks into a home and steals a few hundred dollars worth of someone else’s stuff. A crime has been committed, and the offender will spend a mandatory sentence of five years, minimally. Everyone from the department making the arrest, to the bail-bondsman, to the attorney and judges, the prisons and Wall Street makes money off that prisoner.
If any small business had through its own bad management practices or through created schemes to defraud its customers, come to the brink of collapse for no other reason than its own devious dealings had rendered it insolvent; would we advocate taking our tax money to bail them out so they could continue their crime? Why did we do this with these corrupt financial institutions?
The corruption that occurred in the financial industry was not a result of too many regulations as most regulations had been struck down under Bush2. It was a result of a lack of regulation which allowed corporations of all kinds to run without any kind of control. It would be great to think or believe those running these institutions would be guided by some kind of moral or ethical compass, but history has shown us that nothing could be further from the truth. More
If you thought taxpayers were done funding payouts for Wall Street, think again.
Sunday’s New York Times ran an article blowing the lid off a Wall Street scheme called “interest rate swaps” that are sucking money from cities and states across the country. The swap deals were originally sold to communities as a way to shield against unpredictable interest rates. But, when the banks crashed the economy, the rules of the game changed.
Now, all these swap deals are doing is generating pure profit for the big banks – and it’s being paid for with our tax dollars.
These swaps deals amount to the biggest Wall Street bailout you’ve never heard of – around $28 billion nationwide. The city of Oakland, CA alone is paying $5.2 million annually for a swap deal with Goldman Sachs. That’s enough to completely resolve the city’s outstanding budget gap – and avoid cuts to critical services. Instead, it’s being used to fill Goldman’s profit pool, while city services go on the chopping block.
Taxpayers have already given enough to bailout Wall Street. But that hasn’t stopped them from taking more. With communities feeling the squeeze in a tough economy, the last thing we can afford to do is send billions of our local tax dollars to Wall Street.
“What will the reformed Social Security look like? Again, the Conservative think tanks have an idea waiting in the wings: personal savings accounts. In the same way that 401(k)s killed the pension, Social Security is set to be privatized for the mighty benefit of Wall Street.”
Global Research, February 23, 2010
In Washington each new day brings a fresh call to reform entitlement programs Social Security, Medicare, etc., (in Congress, the word reform now means to eliminate, or drastically reduce). Tackling Social Security has been on the to-do list of the corporate elite for years, and they’re not waiting any longer. After years of promoting this cause, conservative think tanks have now garnered solid support from the political establishment as a whole, which includes the Republican and Democratic parties.
The newest liberal recruit to the destruction of Social Security is Thomas Friedman, the influential columnist for The New York Times, who wrote recently:
The president needs to persuade the country to invest in the future and pay for the past… We have to pay for more new schools and infrastructure than ever, while accepting more entitlement cuts than ever [Social Security, Medicare, etc.] when public trust in government is lower than ever. (February 20, 2010). More
Each bill presented in our House and Senate is reflected in the Canadian Parliament at exactly the same time. Canadians are fighting the same battles for sovereignty and preservation of individual rights, just as we are. It appears government corruption knows no boundaries.
EMAIL TO BILL MOYERS
Dear Bill Moyers, Simon Johnson and Marcy Kaptur
I’ve forwarded the link to your PBS interview from October 9th into some email networks in Canada. The information is sent and re-sent.
You discussed the takeover by Wall Street. In general it is a takeover of Canada as well as the U.S. and other parts of the world. There are many quislings in Canada.
I increasingly use the word “corporatocracy” to explain our system of governance. And the need for citizens to become involved, to drive the change from corporatocracy to a form of governance that reflects our values.
I am concerned about the potential for Canadians to increasingly blame “the Americans” for worsening conditions. It is easier than getting up off our butts to set things right. But it is the road to hatred between nations, not a smart path to trod! More
By Michael Webster Syndicated Investigative Reporter: April 18, 2009 at 12:00 PM PST-Revised Oct 12, 2009 at 12:00 Pm PDT
Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to reauthorize three expiring provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act. While the bill they passed allegedly strengthened civil liberties in reality, the Committee failed to make any meaningful improvements to the Patriot provisions that violate citizen’s basic rights. Strangely, the Obama Administration played a significant behind the scene role in opposing stronger civil liberties protections, directly contradicting Obama’s positions as a Senator. More
One hard lesson we should have learned after Wall Street’s collapse and the government’s handling of the bailout is that there is no reason, whatsoever, for us to sacrifice our good faith and trust in former bankers who now run the Treasury and Federal Reserve. And now as the flu season gets ready to kick off amidst much fanfare and predictions of doom due to a new H1N1 influenza virus, there is emerging sufficient information to raise very serious doubts whether our nation’s health authorities are truly serving the public health instead of commercial interests.
If the flu season goes according to schedule, the vaccine industrial complex will be poised to join Wall Street for record year rip-off profits. We will also likely witness huge Pharma executive bonuses and perhaps gold-plated toilets. Even if the CDC statisticians’ crystal ball used to forecast rampant swine flu infections turns into a complete bust—which would only be one more added to many other failed flu predictions back to 1976—it will nevertheless be a very profitable failure as was the economic collapse for the banking cartel. The vaccine industry has now received orders in the range of 3 billion doses during the course of the coming flu season. The World Health Organization would like to vaccinate two thirds (4 billion) of the global community, and the US alone is spending $2 billion to stockpile the nation with upwards to 250 million doses.
In the US, such profits could never be accomplished without a dynamic, marketing initiative to convince Americans that vaccines will keep them protected and alive. And what better public relations machine for the vaccine complex, and all its supporters in health insurance and professional medical institutions, than our very own Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Health and Human Services.
With any governmental agency, the words used in any law, regulation, rule or other declaration by the government or its agencies must be carefully scrutinized. What may seem to be nothing more than a simple word-swap may actually be a new legal definition and one that may come back to haunt you. Under NAIS the term [property] is swapped for Premises.
Property is the term used to indicate private ownership of a thing such as land or animals and is protected by rights in the Constitution. It does signify legal ownership, and who is the legal owner and allows you access to a Civil Court and protection under the Constitution.
Premises is a term derived from the International Law of Contracts which are the international rules, for conducting business, usually corporate, whereby [non-human entities] are declared to be [persons]. Agreeing to the redefining of [property] and to the conversion to premises, eliminates civil protections and redefines you as an [legal entity] who may or may not own the thing in question. This also subjects you to Administrative Courts using statute and codes which are derived from the International Law of Contracts (ILC) and prohibits any use of rights enumerated or otherwise within the constitution.
NAIS is a contract!
Any time you sign your name to any government program you have effectively entered into a contract. NAIS is a contractual agreement between you, the individual land owner/livestock owner, and the USDA acting as agent for the federal government, or your state agriculture department acting as agent. Using the ILC’s own rules, no contract is valid unless all parties are fully apprised of ALL provisions and terms of the contract.
NAIS has intentionally not revealed ALL aspects of the contract, or the real intent of the program. This renders any attempts to mandate compliance as null and void.
Neither the government nor its agencies or agents have listed any limits with regard to any authority any or all of them may now assume or implement as a result of rule making or changes to policies, mandates and regulations. This means you do NOT know all the terms of the contract.
Neither is NAIS an [adhesion contract] wherein the terms and conditions of the contract never, ever change because USDA or even Congress can change the rules and regulations at any time.
Since the USDA is a self regulating and rule making agency, in effect making its own laws and enforcing them at will, rules could be changed at a later date drastically affecting everyone who has entered into this contract.
When those of you who [voluntarily] signed up for Premises ID and animal registration signed your name to what is a contract between you and the Federal government, did you not notice the contract provided no limitations or restrictions regarding the authority you just conveyed to the Federal government?
Did you notice not one word was said about limiting the actions of agencies such as the USDA and no protections against unwarranted search and seizure or other legal actions were afforded to you?
So what did you actually sign up for?
Voluntarily or even by forced mandate, you have given up your rights to your own property and, in exchange, you got what? Were you compensated? Is there any intent to compensate you? The answers are no. In fact the cost of NAIS is being passed on to the people being victimized by yet another Federal program, the intent of which is to seize all farm and ranch lands and all livestock, putting all of it under Federal control.
In the end, we need to understand that property has a far different meaning under the laws than the word [premises]. Had there not been an intention to render a change in the status of property ownership and control there would have been no need to use the word Premises. Rep Colin Peterson (D) MN and Sen. Tom Harkin (D) IA, didn’t slip this word in there accidentally.
In fact, there are a few things neither of them ever mentioned. Most specifically neither mentions the fact that all the lands being consigned to the control of the USDA will be added to the US Lands Preservation Act, now before congress. Supposedly more than 150 various bills from nearly every state just showed up at once and were rolled into one omnibus land package. Go figure. What a coincidence.
Why is this important?
All heritage lands including national parks and reserves, wetlands preserves, forests, waterways and wildlife preserves and other non-specific land holdings are owned by the federal government, although the government is prohibited from owning any land other than what is needed to operate, within the Constitution. Now they intend to seize control of your farm or ranch land.
All of the land being claimed by the federal government including the lands being seized under the National Animal Identification System are being used to collateralize the funds borrowed to bail out Wall Street.
The US Lands Preservation Act is nothing more than the official collecting and cataloguing of all federally held lands which will now be used to swap debt for assets. Your land, once registered for NAIS will also be listed as an asset in this debt.
And you thought this was about national security, export development, disease and food safety.
If I hear one more crack pot whining about Social Security being a [Ponzi scheme] I think my head will implode.SS is a retirement fund and one totally funded by taxpaying workers.Even to some extent by those [have mores] who only pay on a portion of their earnings as opposed to us [have nots or have less] that pay on all of our earnings.Come retirement day even the rich guys will be lining up for the monthly Social Security check. They’ll think it’s a really good deal then and won’t say the word [Ponzi].
All the chronic whiners who throw old Ponzi out there as though he was some creature from hell seem not to be aware that those insurance companies that charge exorbitant rates for policies they have no intention of honoring, are modeled on the same premise as Social Security is.Only SS actually pays as promised whereas your insurer most likely won’t unless you sue them..and then you’re not likely to win.Now there is a refined Ponzi scheme for you: even Ponzi attempted to pay at least some of his investors back……your insurance company has no such intentions unless forced to.
As employees, we INVEST in SS with each and every paycheck we earn.The federal government DOES NOT fund SS in any way.Currently, and for the past thirty years, SS has produced a massive surplus and is currently producing about 150 billion a year beyond what it needs to pay all claims.
When the government announces the yearly budget, it is immediately offset by the amount that will be stolen from SS and used for other purposes.So, add 150 billion to the announced budget total: this will give you a more realistic total for what the government is going to spend using your money.
Lets look at those insurance companies.
You are forced to buy insurance whether you want it or not, if you own a vehicle.You are forced to pay extortion rates for health insurance…..or go without.This leaves you either very sick or on welfare or just treading water until the health issues pass.
But what happens to those millions of premiums paid by people who have never accessed their policies or tried to, or who were informed by their insurer that for some reason their ridiculously priced policy doesn’t cover that problem they have?What happens to those billions and billions of dollars paid in premiums year after year to companies that have no intention of paying anything but the smallest portion of claims?
We don’t know what happens to these accumulated premiums because they are used for anything and everything other than honoring the policies the insurance company sold.For every $1 that is paid out on claims, $2 is spent trying to avoid legitimate claims and even with this, they still honor less than 20% of the claims made on policies.
In fact, we just bailed out a few biggy insurance companies that have continued to sell policies and to conduct the business of selling [insurance] after destroying the financial sector of the country with risky business ventures that we can only speculate about.We have to speculate because they were not required to divulge just exactly where the money had gone and what exactly they had done with it.All we know is that it wasn’t used for honoring the contracted insurance policies they sold and continue to sell.I call this breach of contract and you should be able to sue on that premise, but try finding a judge for that one…..in fact, lots of luck even finding an attorney.
In fact, a fair portion of the investments we all made in Social Security just this year will go directly to bail out the biggest PONZI schemes ever devised by people who had no intention of ever making good on their promises.
And this is how we come to the [unfunded liabilities] section of the federal budget.
First we tax workers on their wages for their retirement.
Then, we make the SS trust fund available to the general fund because it has and continues to produce a massive surplus each year.
We use the money stolen from workers accounts to finance wars, to cover up the massive loss of revenues from preferential treatment of the upper 3%, and to fund the day to day operations of the government that is the thief of these funds.
Later, we use these stolen retirement funds to bail out Wall Street, corrupt insurance companies and all of our crooked cronies who enriched themselves at the expense of the entire country
Then we start crying about SS being an [unfunded liability] because we stole so damn much money from this program, which we never had any intention of paying back, we have potentially run it into a hole. Fearing that the worst could happen, we present this as a false scenario hoping to convince the very people we victimized when we stole their retirement investments that somewhere in the future, at a time far, far away, this retirement investment account might only be able to pay a portion of its claims.
Only even that last statement isn’t true. The part about them never intending to pay it back is, but the part about it being in the red in the future isn’t. The fact is, left alone and untampered with, SS will still produce far more than it pays out.
The next time someone tells you that SS is a Ponzi scheme……direct them to their insurance company and ask them to explain that one. Then ask them what happens when and if they try to make a claim. Ask them when the last time was that insurance premiums were seized to finance the repayment to Social Security.
November 17, 2008 “Information Clearinghouse” — As expected, the G-20 Economic Summit in Washington turned out to be a total bust. None of the problems which have pushed the global economy to the brink of disaster were resolved and none of the main players who gamed the system with their toxic securities were held accountable. Instead, the visiting dignitaries gorged themselves on stuffed quail and roast rack of lamb before settling on a toothless “Statement on Financial Markets” which accomplished absolutely nothing. The one noteworthy clause in the entire document is a two paragraph indictment of the United States as the perpetrator of the financial crisis. At least they got that right.
From the text:
“Root Causes of the Current Crisis: During a period of strong global growth, growing capital flows, and prolonged stability earlier this decade, market participants sought higher yields without an adequate appreciation of the risks and failed to exercise proper due diligence. At the same time, weak underwriting standards, unsound risk management practices, increasingly complex and opaque financial products, and consequent excessive leverage combined to create vulnerabilities in the system. Policy-makers, regulators and supervisors, in some advanced countries, did not adequately appreciate and address the risks building up in financial markets, keep pace with financial innovation, or take into account the systemic ramifications of domestic regulatory actions.
Major underlying factors to the current situation were, among others, inconsistent and insufficiently coordinated macroeconomic policies, inadequate structural reforms, which led to unsustainable global macroeconomic outcomes. These developments, together, contributed to excesses and ultimately resulted in severe market disruption.”
Bingo. The contagion started on Wall Street and that’s where the responsibility lies. It was the result of the Fed’s reckless low interest rates and lack of government oversight. This allowed market participants to create massive amounts of leverage via speculative bets on under-capitalized debt-instruments. The resulting collapse in value of all asset-classes across the spectrum has created a gigantic multi-trillion dollar capital hole in the global financial system which has precipitated violent swings in the stock markets, tightening credit, currency dislocations, soaring unemployment and deflation. Almost all of todays economic woes can be traced back to legislation that was promoted by key members of the Clinton and Bush administrations. (Many of who will now serve in the Obama White House) The G 20s statement puts the blame squarely where it belongs; on the Federal Reserve and Wall Street. More
“Which, of course, is exactly what we’re talking about. Only regressives don’t know it. They think their policies and attitudes are popular in America. They think George W. Bush’s problem was that he wasn’t regressive enough.
If only he had invaded Iran as well as Iraq!
If only he had deregulated Wall Street even more.
If only he had encouraged more oil consumption and more carbon emissions.
If only he had eliminated abortion rights.
If only he had cut wealthy Americans’ tax liabilities down to zero, shifting those burdens to the middle class.
If only he had done to all of us what he did to Terri Schiavo’s family.
If only he had eliminated all government spending on popular programs.
If only he had privatized Social Security and let Wall Street handle it. If only he had wasted even more Iraqis and more American GIs.
If only he had let Osama bin Laden roam even freer, even longer.
If only he had quadrupled the national debt, instead of merely doubling it.
If only Exxon/Mobil had made even more than their all-time corporate record-breaking earnings, while the rest of us were unable to buy enough gas to get to work.
If only Bush could have appointed more regressive justices to the federal bench, where they could find that we have no constitutional right to privacy, and who would make sure that corporate and presidential power trump the people’s and the people’s representatives’ at every turn.
If only there could have been more jobs lost on his watch.
If only we could have seen wages fall lower.
If only the country could have had its wealth more polarized so we could better emulate rotten banana republics.
If only we could have been more divided politically.
If only we could have made the world hate us more.
If only more of our cities could have drowned.
If only we could have hurtled toward planetary destruction even faster.
Hah-hah, right? Guess, what? It’s only partly a joke. Most regressives earnestly believe in most of the items on the above wish list, and earnestly believe that they represent majority opinion in America. Seriously. I’m. Not. Kidding.” (end excerpt)
President George Bush met with President Fernando Lugo of Paraguay at the White House today, October 27, 2008. The meeting was televised on CSPAN and was nothing short of boring and unimportant right up until Bush made a comment that almost made me choke.In the middle of stuttering and stammering, in the middle of trying to sound as if he was remotely aware of anything coming out of his mouth, Mr. Bush actually said….
quote:
“There is nothing more discouraging than for a government of the people to steal their money”. George W. Bush 10-27-08 (end quote)
Say what???He didn’t really say that, did he?Yes he did!
How could this comment come out of the mouth of this man after the biggest theft of taxpayer’s funds ever to have occurred in the history of the United States in the form of the bailout of Wall Street crooks and thieves?
Discouraging?I don’t think that term quite describes what the everyday American is feeling right at this moment.Anger, immense frustration, thoroughly betrayed, disenfranchised, incredulous and for many of us…..dead broke might be better descriptions.
And stealing is exactly what Bush & Co. did.Our congress voted against the massive public opposition to the bailout, then proceeded to hand Wall Street criminals what does amount to a blank check.It wasn’t the blank check Bush had demanded, but close enough.
While corrupt CEO’s continue to walk away with more than 70 billion in stolen taxpayer funds, and AIG rips through 75 billion of the original 85 billion they were given before the big crisis, the middle class loses its retirement investments, have their homes foreclosed, lose their health insurance, lose their jobs, can’t get extended unemployment benefits, and are discounted totally by their elected representatives and senators.
Discouraged?How about monumentally pissed off?How about; I can’t wait for you and your crooked administration to get out of town?How about this….I hope every incumbent is voted out of office and that the new congress has enough sense and conscience to cut any retirement benefits payments, and health care payments, and benefits whatsoever you decided you were somehow entitled to while in office.
An important descriptor of the action on Wall Street is the Volume of Shares Traded.Today that number was 335,678,907.
For traders with household balances less than $1,000,000, Charles Schwab charges $12.95 for the first 1,000 shares of each executed online equity trade.
If Charles Schwab had handled every trade today (In your dreams, Chuck), the total transaction fees would have totaled somewhere in the neighborhood of $4,347,042.
Obviously, not everyone involved in the Wall Street meltdown is on the road to the poorhouse.
Voters are rightly furious at the proposal to spend $700,000,000,000 that the government doesn’t have to bail out Wall Street bankers who created the current economic crisis in the first place. But why then aren’t we concerned about the trillions of dollars the Federal Reserve is pumping into the system? Or the trillions missing from the Pentagon? Or the quadrillion dollar derivatives bubble.
Not sure if this one is making the rounds.So far, I’ve received it from only one source.
A different perspective!
Subject: Investment Advice
If you had purchased $1,000.00 of Delta Air Lines stock one year ago, you would have $49.00 left.
With Washington Mutual, you would have $16.50 left of the original $1,000.00.
With Countrywide, you would have less than $5.00 left.
But, if you had purchased $1,000.00 worth of beer one year ago, drank all of the beer, then recycled the aluminum cans, you would have $120.00 cash.(Presumes 2,000 cans, 1.75 oz. per can, $.55 per lb.)
Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink a lot of beer and recycle.It’s called the 401-Keg
A recent study found the average American walks about 900 miles a year.Another study found Americans drink, on the average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year.That means, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon.
Hundreds of billions more in the last 2 years for a senseless military occupation, the FISA outrage, paralysis on impeachment or even enforcing subpoenas, and now a total surrender of the future of our treasury in an 850 billion dollar bailout of Wall Street fat cats. Congress has done worse than do nothing, they have done categorically the WRONG thing, and the whole rest of the world knows it, and THAT is why the stock market has been dropping like a rock ever since the Senate stampeded through this bailout monstrosity.
And as if all this weren’t galling enough. How do you like how Bush came out in the Rose Garden after signing the “Fox In Charge Of The Hen House Bill” to basically say, “Thanks, chumps.”?
How dare they call themselves “Representatives”? How dare they! With their phones flooded a hundred to one shouting down this massive theft from the American taxpayer, with such an avalanche of emails coming the House email servers almost crashed, how dare they?! And guess what, the people were right. The hundreds of top economists pleading for sanity and a hearing were right.
Pelosi, the queen of the cave-ins must be defeated. There can be no honor in allowing her to remain in office. Shame on us if we don’t do everything we could have done to remove her. Then and only then can all the other things that need to be done to fix this disaster be implemented.
There is reason to believe that Wall Street and those they represent are holding loans without collateral, multiple loans secured by the same properties, and other fraudulent instruments among the “troubled assets.” Based on the secret “Treasury Conference Call” with 800 Wall Street insiders, we know the deal proposed to be passed by Congress isn’t the real deal promised to Wall Street.
(2) This smells like obstruction of justice.
Bail-out without due diligence of so called “troubled assets” is a perfect way to hide documentation of financial crimes. It is also a perfect means to launder both the past ill-gotten gains and new federal money spent recklessly and without necessary safeguards and oversight mechanisms. Be very suspicious when they tell you “we just can’t tell what’s in these troubled assets.” We can assure you that the federal government has field offices all across the country that deal with significant amounts of real estate and mortgage assets on a dailyl basis. If Treasury refuses for more than a decade to comply with the laws, with approximately $4 trillion missing (and counting), it is not competent to manage $700 billion of taxpayer money while its arm is twisted by Wall Street.
(3) Wall Street owes the federal government money.
We need to get stolen money back from the banks that served as depositories for the US government (including trillions for which the Pentagon and HUD could not account) and punish them, not create another opportunity for them to game the system and engage in criminal enterprises to rob consumers. To the extent there has been regulatory wrong-doing, let’s not let the miscreants leave town with the evidence.
(4) Good guys are shut out.
A bail-out provides no way for honest leaders to come to the fore and use their creativity and expertise to restore balance and integrity to the system or for unproductive and poorly-managed banks that contribute to current over-capacity in the banking system to die a dignified death.
(5) This results in more investment in the “bubble economy.”
Spending massive amounts on non-productive uses (“buying” worthless credit default swaps, mortgages with no collateral and derivatives, which could even include the derivatives used to manipulate the precious metals markets) as opposed to productive uses (repairing infrastructure, creating alternative energy systems, supporting inventing and production of “green” products) is inflationary.
This bail-out will drive prices of food, water and energy up for the people who can least afford it.
(6) Bail-out does not result in capital circulating in healthy ways.
The bail-out of Wall Street and too-big-to-fail banks and insurance companies that are getting bigger by the minute by swallowing up other failing financial institutions (and creating more institutions that are “too big to fail”) does not result in trickle-down to those whose money was stolen in recent swindles (S&L, dot.com, current housing crisis), i.e., the taxpayers/middle class and working poor.
(7) These arrangements will result in more corruption.
Centralized “fixes” are sure to result in black holes, no-bid contracts and other scandals.
(8) The bail-out drains the real economy, rather than invests in the real economy.
The US economy can’t be productive or grow if consumers don’t have jobs and can’t afford to purchase goods and services. Real stimulation of Main Street is accomplished through productive investment, not bail-outs that shift money to unproductive sectors. We should use all of our precious resources to reinvest in our people in the real economy.
(9) It props up sectors that need to downsize and consolidate.
There is significant overcapacity in the financial and banking sectors. Brainpower and talent needs to stop blowing financial bubbles and shift to economic activities that create real value.
(10) It is a temporary “fix” to keep Wall Street afloat until after the election.
Our resources are better invested in permanent, long-term solutions. This bail-out will not fix anything. Rather, it will help the perpetrators get away and ensure that the ultimate day of reckoning is worse.
The Administration wants to drain the real economy to bail out Wall Street. It seems to us that the more appropriate plan would be to require Wall Street to return the $4 trillion plus that is missing and use that to rebuild the real economy.
We think the time has come to reverse the flow. Go to any business school in the country. That is what they teach. Money should move out of unproductive sectors into productive sectors. The bail-out does just the opposite.
It looks like the U.S. Senate did it the old-fashioned way:
“Besides the tax breaks, senators also made a change that had drawn widespread support in recent days – a temporary increase in the amount of bank deposits covered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, to $250,000 from $100,000. And the entire package was attached to legislation requiring insurers to treat mental health conditions more like general health problems, a long-sought goal of many lawmakers who demanded such parity.” (Italics added for emphasis.)
I’ve puzzled over what the impetus is behind all of the scaremongering and running amok that has been going on in our Capitol.
The reason might be simply this:
“There are powerful foreign interests threatening to pull their money out of the market if we don’t pay them back for the bad mortgage securities they were fool enough to buy into.”
Perhaps, if the President and/or Congress had shared this with us, we could have gotten down to the business of reassuring foreign markets and shitcanning the people who drove our economy into this sad state of affairs.
As usual, Coleman sides right in with the Bush administration and the neo-cons.Here in Minnesota we are so hoping that someone offers him a job that he can’t refuse in one of these corporations he is so worried about.Maybe they will…he could be their pet weasel.Marti
STATEMENT FROM SENATOR NORM COLEMAN ON HOUSE VOTE OF FINANCIAL STABILIZATION PLAN
September 29th, 2008– Washington, D.C. – “Failure to address the financial crisis is not an option. Capital is the lifeblood of our financial system, and today that system is in danger of a complete meltdown. This crisis touches each and every Minnesotan. Jobs, retirement savings, and access to credit are all at stake. We must try again – these are times that call for statesmanship, not partisanship. I remain hopeful that we can act on a bipartisan compromise that addresses the crisis while at the same time protecting taxpayers and holding Wall Street accountable. We are facing an unprecedented financial crisis, and all of us, Democrats and Republicans, Congress and the Administration, must find a way forward for Minnesota families and our economy. Now is the time for action and I am hopeful that we can come together and pass a package that will have real reform – no golden parachutes, no blank check, and above all, protect the American taxpayer. We must have real results that will stabilize our financial markets and return liquidity to the system.”
STATEMENT FROM SENATOR NORM COLEMAN ON THE PRESIDENT’S SPEECH ON THE ECONOMY
September 24th, 2008– Washington, D.C. – “The challenges we face today are as serious as any I’ve faced in my 32 years of public service. Today, with our nation’s economic security on the line, we must put aside partisan politics and stick to the statesmanship and bipartisanship that we will need to weather this financial ‘perfect storm.’ Outright greed and mismanagement, coupled with an outdated financial regulatory system, have brought us to this point. Our obligation now, as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans, is to come together and do the right thing, and to do it now. There will be no blank checks, no golden parachutes and no excessive executive compensation packages for Wall Street executives. The President has made it clear that this is a time of immense risk to our nation’s economic future, and we must rise to the challenge and meet it head on.”
I hope you find this information useful. Please let me know if you have additional comments or questions.
Jim Cramer, a popular financial program TV host in the US, had a bit of a breakdown on camera last year (August 2007)Because he made his reputation by histrionics and grandstanding, it didn’t hurt him among his audience.
Cramer claimed to be concerned for the fate of millions of Americans who were saddled with predatory real estate loans in recent years.
Maybe he actually cares about the thousands of home owners who will be hurt by this insanity. Maybe.
But clearly, the folks that Cramer demonstrated real concern for in this tirade were his friends who work for hedge funds and investment banks: “People are losing their jobs!” he cried.
Pardon me if I don’t shed a tear for the crooks who’ve collected seven figure bonuses each year for turning our financial system into a casino.
Here’s what I have to say to the bankers who are crying now:
“You put it all on red and it came up black. Tough shit. Stop sniveling from the back of your limousines and houses in the hedge funds, KramerHamptons and get a life.
Why should the people who actually work for a living and add real value to the economy reduce their already-reduced standard of living further to bail you out?”
It’s enlightening to go back and see what various analysts had to
say when the sub prime mess first started unraveling.
Here’s a clip from more than a full year ago.
It features a popular TV stock picker flipping out on live TV as he describes the mayhem going on behind the scenes on Wall Street.
His solution – because he’s from the investment banking world – was a bailout for his friends at the big banks.
And that’s what this is all about.
As Jim Rogers pointed out in yesterday’s video, the US financial system has already been trashed. That horse is out of the barn.
There’s no “fixing” it. Either nature will be allowed to take its course (painful as that may be)
Or
The US Treasury will dump trillions of dollars into the economy to ease the transition for Wall Street billionaires at taxpayer expense – and at the expense of the long term prospects of the US economy.
Anyway, here’s a former investment banker and current stock market cheerleader wailing and gnashing his teeth on behalf of his Wall Street buddies a year ago when it became clear that the jig was up:
One hard lesson we should have learned after Wall Street’s collapse and the government’s handling of the bailout is that there is no reason, whatsoever, for us to sacrifice our good faith and trust in former bankers who now run the Treasury and Federal Reserve. And now as the flu season gets ready to kick off amidst much fanfare and predictions of doom due to a new H1N1 influenza virus, there is emerging sufficient information to raise very serious doubts whether our nation’s health authorities are truly serving the public health instead of commercial interests.
The PPJ Gazette 
