I titled it as I did, because if you remember I wrote earlier that those who masterminded this, have many buffers built in to protect themselves. In the quest to establish this, they have focused considerable effort on having laws changed so that their agents cannot be prosecuted. Then there is the really interesting part on bypassing the US Congress and funneling Trillions directly into the banking/investment hole. In addition to these whistle wetters, I'll post an excerpt that stirs the troops.
"The bonuses are a nice comic touch highlighting one of the more outrageous tangents of the bailout age, namely the fact that, even with the planet in flames, some members of the Wall Street class can't even get used to the tragedy of having to fly coach. "These people need their trips to Baja, their spa treatments, their hand jobs," says an official involved in the AIG bailout, a serious look on his face, apparently not even half-kidding. "They don't function well without them."
"But wait a minute," you say to them. "No one ever asked you to stay up all night eight days a week trying to get filthy rich shorting what's left of the American auto industry or selling $600 billion in toxic, irredeemable mortgages to ex-strippers on work release and Taco Bell clerks. Actually, come to think of it, why are we even giving taxpayer money to you people? Why are we not throwing your ass in jail instead?"
But before you even finish saying that, they're rolling their eyes, because You Don't Get It. These people were never about anything except turning money into money, in order to get more money; valueswise they're on par with crack addicts, or obsessive sexual deviants who burgle homes to steal panties. Yet these are the people in whose hands our entire political future now rests."
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover/1
Please read carefully.
No one knew this particular medical situation existed but here, for the first time, is proof positive it DOES. Please study carefully, then check your own derriere and see whether it applies to you.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqosS6DBwhA&feature=related
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I know you're all waiting to read and gossip about this, so here it is! -- http://tinyurl.com/cmbum5
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Wally, one of Dilbert's co-workers has an excellent idea for cutting corporate spending in today's http://www.dilbert.com/
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'Tis a beautiful day here in Kelowna. An abundance of smog, screeching cars, violent fisticuffs between dandelions. Nothing is normal now!
Richard Gwyn's column today -- http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/article/605228 / "Blame corporate greed for the mess we're in" - captures perfectly C.One's current and prior posts.
Two short parts of paras., one about 1/3 in from the top, the other almost at the end:
"But greed is the motor that powers capitalism. . . . in a global economy, no one knows who's responsible for what or, in the instance of all the new financial instruments, what anything actually is.
"Greed is still good. . . ."
From the above, three words bear further investigation -- ". . . no one knows . . .". Those are the ones, whom no one knows anything about who are responsible for all this.
A year or more ago on Garth's old blog, I mentioned a few times there WAS going to be a pre-planned economic takedown. I guess we're at that point now.
Coincidentally C.One, part of the last comment you wrote in the post, ". . . the concern of the investment house/bankers/money changers for their own personal bonuses/incomes/fortunes. It's all about their pay, translates to "it's all about me". Everything else stems from there."
The following link and first para. (reprinted below) shows what nearly all politicians are interested in --- themselves. -- http://tinyurl.com/c5qjnh
(Square brackets are mine). "Last September Henry Paulson put a gun to this nation's leaders and told them that they must pass a secret piece of legislation, without reading it, in order [to avoid the certain collapse of the United States and possibly the entire global economy]. When the House of Representatives voted "NO" Bush broke the law and had the US Senate originate legislation that would do what the House would not do. That illegally crafted piece of unconstitutional junk was then rerouted back through the House and when everybody finished selling out the public: The Coup against the American Public had overwhelmingly been passed.That was the first time they put a gun to our heads."
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A couple of other notes: A commentator on a TV show pointed out that if the stock markets head down on Friday, the following week may continue that trend. Friday just passed; Dow / TSX / and most other markets ended lower.
Second is that, if a majority of companies across the globe are downsizing / laying staff off due to decreased workloads then there won't be much in the way of summer jobs for students. Same applies to young full-time workers, who are losing their jobs very quickly.
Summer / Fall / Ongoing -- things are warming up real good and gonna be different, that's fer sure!
There is a reason it used to be a crime in the Confederate states to teach a slave to read: Literacy is power.
ReplyDeleteAmericans are heavily armed. They were pissed about 136M. What will they do when they realize how much the final bill is estimated to be and who's responsible?
Last week, an undersea volcano erupted in the Pacific Ocean on the Ring of Fire (I posted the clip). Now, one of Alaska's volcanoes is starting to shake, rattle and roll.
ReplyDeleteSunday, CBC previewed a documentary of a tsunami drenching Vancouver. It will happen sooner or later, but I wonder if it's interconnected to the super-volcano under Yellowstone, and therefore, all the earthquake fault lines in between?
If it is, then when it all blows, we're goners!-- http://tinyurl.com/cthqms
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Obama's budget may create a US$9.3 trillion deficit. This will be added to the US$55 trillion debt, but does not include CDS's and Derivatives.
It is easy to fool some people some of the time, but none of the people all the time. First, the US may go broke. Second, a strong economic rebound in '09. Third, neutral point of view. Choose wisely!
http://tinyurl.com/dmws25 and http://tinyurl.com/dkzu8d and http://tinyurl.com/dfjp7n
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The derivatives bubble is gonna burst sometime soon, and now the true figures come forth! -- http://tinyurl.com/de7ch7
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One reason that the US govt. will not allow AIG to fall completely is quite simple -- if it sinks, then the rest of the economy -- thus the world's economies -- come crashing down.
That is why it will be forever bailed out. Second link names personnel involved. -- http://tinyurl.com/c8y2kr and http://tinyurl.com/dzg4lu
"A huge part of the company's credit default swap business was designed, quite simply, to allow banks to make their balance sheets look safer than they actually were. . . The less risky the assets, obviously, the lower the regulatory capital requirement. How did banks get their risk measures low? Why, they bought AIG's credit default swaps, of course! The swaps meant that the risk of loss was transferred to AIG. . . which meant minimal capital requirements, which the banks all wanted so they could increase their leverage and buy yet more "risk-free" assets."
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Think there may be light at the end of the tunnel? Not for a while yet! Garth has written about some of this stuff, but the timelines differ. -- http://tinyurl.com/d5rctk
"Things are worse overseas: some countries simply can't bail out their banks -- liabilities are 3 to 5 times GDP / May take 2 years before housing bottoms / Ditto for equity markets / Expects 1970s-like inflation when we come out of recession / Could have decade of Japanese in-and-out-of-recession if we don't seriously deal with banking system."
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Curious to discover why so many foreigners are pulling their assets out of the US. Who are those foreigners and where are they placing their funds? -- http://tinyurl.com/dxycrh
The Rolling Stone article does put what everyone should have been able to figure out for themselves into language anyone can understand, and adds previously-unknown details for additional spice and credibility.
ReplyDeleteSadly, it reminds me of the start of Iraq II. There was the official line - excruciatingly obvious, self-serving propaganda lies - and there was clear exposure of the nonsense in the non-MSM Counterpunch, Yellow Press, ZNet, Truth will Out, etc., etc. Did making the truth public make any difference? Not a bit - six years later, the States are still at it, except that, as in Vietnam, they will turn the war over to the Iraqis, declare victory and go home. It will be Obama's job to declare "Mission Accomplished" for the last time.
Until we manage to get effective democracy into politics, truth is just an academic excercise. And the "money powers", or monied powers, will make sure that things don't get bad enough - or at least reported enough - for such a revolution.
Sorry, Comrades, I see no light at the end of the political tunnel.
Here's what Paul Krugman thinks: in one word, "despair" -
ReplyDeletehttp://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/21/despair-over-financial-policy/
This link from Charles gives a good round up of what many of us have been working toward as a conclusion, complete with concerns of social unrest in some areas. The thoughts are those of Ken Rogoff, ex chief economist of the IMF. He seems to have a handle on a lot of this, but is very soft on responsibility. Birds of a feather and all that.
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/d5rctk
As far as political change, Comrade Herb, I wouldn't underestimate the angst of average U.S. citizens and their desire to share the pain. Moving about the internet and reading comments to many different articles and publications, I am seeing clear evidence of a much more informed public as a whole, and that will create pressure. How that pressure is resisted will be interesting to say the least.
Here in Canuckville however, The New Messiahs don't give a shit what people think, except in cases involving the propaganda wars. And I don't agree that they are particularly smart. They are just mouthing chapter and verse from the new Book of daily interchangeable catch phrases that appeal to the greatest number of troglodytes. They are languishing in the popularity numbers and each are facing a range of rumblings and out right revolt from within their own ranks. Yet they busy themselves kissing butt for bucks, much to the chagrin of many.
As for Krugman's piece, I repeat what I said recently. They are coming for what you have left. So watch out. For sure they have a confidence problem, in more ways than one. First, the Confidence game the Bernanke's and Paulson's et al have perpetrated, and secondly the confidence of just about anyone who has a lick of caution in their bones. That is great battle they are now fighting, as they don't want the masses to fall into the same mattress stuffing mindset that beset those who suffered through the Great Depression. I say, good luck to them with that.
"I repeat what I said recently. They are coming for what you have left."
ReplyDeleteTax the population into submission always seems to be the last desperate act of a government no longer in control, cake anyone?
To big to fail isn't on the average bloggers mind. The average person could give a rats ass about some insurance giant failing. On the other hand I see few comments on the Obama deficit predicted to be 4 times higher than the so called Bush spending spree. The voiced concern about the Bush deficits have been left speechless faced with the prospect by the average tax payer, that know they will be paying the bill, as usual.
"On the other hand I see few comments on the Obama deficit predicted to be 4 times higher than the so called Bush spending spree."
ReplyDeleteWell BenD, I guess the operative question there is exactly when was the basis for this debt created? It appears as if the extraordinarily high numbers now being seen are merely the reconciliation of the massive amounts of losses produced by years of building houses of cards on top of other houses of cards. The article above delves into that.
Now it seems we have a situation that could be likened to the Children's nursery rhyme, Humpty Dumpty. Only these folks don't believe that Humpty can't be put back together again. Hope they got lot's of duct tape.
Additionally, Bush's efforts to prop up the Industrial Military Complex in such grand fashion, certainly was a contributing factor to the sea of debts.
"a contributing factor to the sea of debts"
ReplyDelete25% to be exact however, I don't think the spending will be the powder in the ball. The disenchantment comes in the form of change we can believe in as the same old times 4 piled onto the backs of consumers that are having trouble just keeping up with their credit card debt.
Here's a couple of thoughts for you BenD; if you were in a position of control in that rat's nest, and coming to realize that too many people were finding out about the scams and knew the lid was going to come off soon, who would you rather faced an angry US population? An old white guy with his aw shucks side kick, or an articulate black person who the large percentage of the downtrodden could associate with?
ReplyDeleteWho do you suppose they would likely to extend the most patience toward?
Something else I have come realize is that the bad news and the bitter medicine is being handed out in measured amounts. Like a time release capsule. Remember the uproar at the first 700 billion? Imagine if they had told everyone exactly how much they were going to bleed out of the taxpayers right up front.
I know I'm learning a whole new math. I used to think in terms of millions, and that was a lot of money to me. Recently I became adjusted to hundreds of billions, and now I find myself thinking in terms of trillions.
I'm ready for my Starship ride anytime now.
"Who do you suppose they would likely to extend the most patience toward?'
ReplyDeleteI think the election answered that question.
My question is more about how much patience an overextended public is left with when the office of the VP announces the main thrust of the new admin is to further their socialist agenda. This can`t be done without spawning massive future tax increases so without any further mention of that 3 letter word, jobs, it looks like patience is wearing thin.
"I'm ready for my Starship ride anytime now."
ReplyDeleteComrade, the new trillion dollar hyperinflation drive has just been installed on the space fleet and should liftoff momentarily.
Ticket price is still free, barf bags cost your first born.