During my absence from Truthdig, it appears that the dialogue has degraded significantly.

If anyone caught Senator Mary Landieu’s comments in the Senate the day, it would be news to the news media.

She said drilling for oil is too risky.  Jumping to her conclusion, she then segued into nuclear power.  In other words, oil is too risky.  Nuclear power, which is more risky is the way to go.  Stop playing with fire.  Play with loaded guns.
The Nuke guys wanted $ 50 billion from the American taxpayer.  Mainly, because the Wall Street investors shunned such a “risky investment.”  They wouldn’t go near it with a light-year length pole.

The anti-nuke people, the sane among us, fought it off, until the President of Wall Street, Obama,  gave them $ 55 billion.

The progenitors of irradiated children just needed a carastrophe to get it off the ground as Naomi Klein exposed in her book, “The Shock Doctrine.”  Create a major crisis and the clogs and the what-nots will gladly give in.
If I were a suspicious person, I’d be wondering:  What is all this technology talk 6000 feet below the surface of the Gulf really trying to do?  And why was it reported that the President of BP (Beyond Petroleum) told a closed door meeting of Congressman that the oil deluge is worse than expected.
Does he mean worser?  I use my grand-niece’s conjugation for American consumption.
Thirty years ago I was substituting in Medford MA public schools.  I ran into a student I once had in class who had been in the Distributive Education program. (That’s where they sent the kids out to work and got them out of their hair.) It was a winter night and the lad had few friends with him and a case of beer.  He told me that he was working as a welder at the Seabrook Nuclear Power plant.
I thought to myself, “Uh oh!”
A few years later I read that all the welding seals had to be torn out and redone.  Examination showed they were dangerously faulty.

I agree with N-G and Minutemenmedia (Oh, if there were such a thing.) but I must add the warning of Simon Johnson and Richard Wolf of UMASSS; in my words, Regulation, Schmegulation.  We need a godammned LAW.
They’ll eat away at the regulations just as they did before with Glass-Steagal et cetera.

Prostitution by election shows no signs of slowing down.  They don’t get it and never will.

Yes concentrate on separating the cops from the robbers of the financial world is a good start. Another is regulation that is enforced and actually does something. Transparency of the FEDRES and how it works and an audit are long over do. If they are against it then you are on the right track. Make sure the banks are away from the speculators too.

I really like reading these comments.
I think most of you guys are just brilliant—I love reading Garth’s posts, I find MarthaA’s posts to be very detailed, intelligent.
Let me be the first to channel a little Rodney King here, with my own twist:  “Can’t we all stop the infighting here and focus on a collective effort?”

You guys are all so smart, so aware, it’s time to start spreading this word, mobilizing and re-awakening the minds of our fellow citizens.

We are allowing ourselves to become easily diverted from greater pursuits ... It’s time.

Martha, Martha, Martha,

What am I to say to you?  Bill Moyers is an icon, no question.  But you and your ilk have strategized the use democratic proselytizers to sort of nullify them. 

What they are doing is positioning characters like Thom Hartmann and Bernie Sanders with all his frufarah for leftist goals on the opposite side to ensure that all the bases are covered. 

We don’t need no action, we got these two clowns to speak for us.

So go on, listen to the radio, watch tv news, send emails to the Congressmen.

You are a czarist.  The Russian people had a great cure for czarism.

Note:  The Supreme Court closed its front door in light of the Terrorist scare.  Read Red Scare.

Gen. McChrystal is touring the U.S with Karzai, the leader of Afghanistan.

The message is that we the US people are at home and at the mall and at peace.

The underlying message to us, though, is that we could bring the troops home and have Afghanistan-style rule right here, right now.  And don’t misinterpret the message.

A caller on C-SPAN said, “We’ve gotten so good as exporting Democracy, that we’ve exported all of it.”

Imagine some joker in camo from Idaho with an armed platoon in-waiting on the sidewalk, knocking on your front door.

I suppose you’d give him some molasses-like argument about your theories of Whatever-it-is-you-might-believe-in-at-the-time.

Selah,

garth, May 3 at 5:27 pm,

Bill Moyers is wonderful and an asset to the Left, but the rest of your babble sounds like a Republican Right-Wing EXTREMIST babbling?  Facts are difficult for Republican Right-Wing EXTREMISTS to deal with.

MarthaA, and the rest of the milk fed Veal:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I’ve heard it all before, twice.

Moneterism, tax policy.

Jim Hightower said it clearly on Bill Moyers Journal’s last show.  We should unite, join, form a coalition, make sure we pack a punch.

They did it in Iowa, in Texas, and in many other states.  If you want Democracy, keep ahold of it.  They will surely take it away.

When MarthaA takes issue with my sarcasm and misreads it for something else, it should surely tip you off that she, MarthA, might not be a she at all.

Then when she follows up with an injection of gobbledy-gook as in the last post, it’s time to say, “Fuck you!”  Who can I contact in my local community and how do I get active?

Fuck the emails, as Thom Hartmann and the rest of lily-livered talk-show dogs proclaim.  Get active.  Talk to people, not congressman.

Getting back to MarthaA

All this gahbahg about CDS’s, CDOs and MBSs.  We are way beyond that now.

There are many ways to short circuit this takeover of our Democracy. 

As Barry Lopez said on the last Bill Moyers show, “Depair is a temptation.”

So garba, garba, garba all you want.  Take issue in a non-sensical way about issues, add palaver to the left side of the argument to cloud up the front, for chrisskes! You might even overtake Democracy in the next election, but you, MarthA and your likes shall never, never win.

It’s all over for you and your sleazy ilk.

Garbage In. Garbarge Out!

The standard for the “money supply” is the GNP, Gross National Product.  The United States is no longer on the Gold Standard, since Nixon the United States is on the GNP Standard, and the “money supply” is based upon equivalence with the GNP, and when the GNP is inflated with Financial Transactions and the U.S.Treasury is buying its own securities and using the money for deficit spending, the combination of Borrow and Spend Governance and Financial Transactions inflates the GNP and allows the U.S.Government to print money and add money to the “money supply”, so that the “money supply” is equivalent to the GNP that has been inflated by Borrow and Spend Governance and Financial Transactions.

It is ludicrous fiction to pretend that this type of behavior was/is not intentional manipulation of both the GNP and the “money supply” in pursuit of the illusion of false prosperity for the benefit of those performing the manipulation——Wall Street and the Political Elite.

Money Supply Side Economics was the genesis of the Financialization Scam.  The “Supply” in Supply Side Economics is “money supply”.

The theory of Money Supply Side Economics of the Reagan Administration was that by keeping the TAX RATE below 50% and increasing the “money supply”, as the Gross National Product, GNP, increased, that the economy would keep expanding forever; to further this claim, the Ownership Society was imagined and pushed by the Right, as a means of expanding the economy by selling Real Estate to enable that Ownership Society, and securitizing the mortgages, so that a never ending cycle of Real Estate could be sold, and both the cost of the houses, Real Estate, and the traffic in securities and credit default swaps, that insured the securities, would create a Financialized Economy, based upon the sale of home mortgage securities and borrowed money for mortgages, that would expand until those holding the mortgages with the inflated housing industry value, collapsed. 

When the collapse happened it was no problem for the Banksters, because their toxic securities were insured by credit default swaps, and the U.S. Government forced the populace to bail out both the Insurance Industry and the Banksters with toxic securities. 

The only ones left holding the bag in the Financialization Scam was the American Populace, who had to provide the money to bail out the Insurance Industry, recapitalize the toxic securities of the Banksters and then continue for the next 30 - 40 years to make payments on the toxic loans with inflated prices above and beyond the value of the Real Estate property, and if they could not afford to do so, be evicted from their property and left homeless on the street.

The problem of Financialization Scams and Financial Bubbles is a cyclical problem that afflicted Spain in the 1500’s, and after Spain, Holland, then Britain, and has repeated cyclically over and over again in the United States.

In the United States the present financialization problem is more than the financialization of the present.  The problem is the cyclical collapse of Capitalism and Capitalism having to be brought back to life like a Zombie with the Social Resources of the Populace; Socialism for the Rich and Capitalism for the Populace; this is the problem that has to be addressed in the current financial crisis.

Money “Supply Side Economics” based upon Arthur Laffer’s Bell Curve Theory was the genesis of operating the American Economy on borrowed and printed money that was apart from the Real Economy; this led to Borrow and Spend Governance by the Reagan Administration and all of the succeeding Right-Wing governments and an intentionally engineered housing boom, the “Ownership Society”, that inflated the U.S. Economy with borrowed money which inflated the GNP, which is all the transaction of the economy of the nation both real and financial, intentionally, and allowed Reagan and succeeding Right-Wingers to inflate the “money supply”, so that the cycle could be repeated until it was unsustainable and the bubble broke.

I lived through this and I knew it was unsustainable from the beginning, so I know that others also knew; this was engineered and intentional manipulation, this financialization of the U.S. Economy for the benefit of Wall Street and the Political Elite; and to pretend otherwise is a fiction that must not be allowed to stand, so that it can be cyclically repeated, as has been historically the case since the advent of Capitalism.

To Whom It May Concern:

It goes like this: Testifying before Congress under oath means that if you lie you can be held liable for perjury.  And everyone knows perjury is a crime. 

If you tell the damning truth, you shoot yourself in the foot, if you lie, and get found out, you might go to jail.  So, the only lie they can tell is, “I don’t know.”

Right M? (There’s a word for you, “perjury.”)

To get so hot under the collar about my saying that, “Blankfein acted like he didn’t know nothin’ from nothin’” urges me to use two more terms:  “tongue-in-cheek” and “sarcasm.”  You might do well to look those terms up as well. 

However, I don’t think that your approach of screamin’ and a hollerin’, thrusting your fist in the air, looking to your left-side and then your right-side with your teeth clenched and your jaw jutting out in the hopes of forming a lynch mob will strike fear in the hearts of those people.  They spread that on their breakfast toast. 

Is there a high school level Truthdig?

Note to self:  Correction:  Scandal, not scandle.

garth, May 2 at 2:40 pm,

“Blankfein of Goldman Sachs appearing before the banking committee doesn’t seem to know nothin’ from nothin’.”

Only a real fool tells all that they know.  These are highly educated guys who aren’t fools, they know what they did was wrong, and did it anyway; and know their only defense is ignorance; and everyone who thinks they were ignorant as to what they were doing to the country, needs to seriously consider buying the Golden Gate Bridge that is now on a farm with a big red barn in Nebraska.

Ignorance is no excuse and I hope these culprits are not allowed to get away with fleecing the country.

William Black, the man who handled the Bush Savings & Loan scandle said something revealing last week.  He said the the financial wheeler-dealers are always looking for a sucker, as in the “Bigger fool theory.”

He might have given expression to the whole problem with American business.  Everyone is looking for the perfect fool.

Lee Iacocca in his book of about 20 or 25 years ago said that his mentor in the automobile business used to say that Americans don’t know shit from chocolate ice cream.  And look what heights that sentiment brought the American Auto manufactures to.

Blankfein of Goldman Sachs appearing before the banking committee doesn’t seem to know nothin’ from nothin’.  He’s like the tenant who lives in an apartment building who stays out of any controversy by saying, “I don’t anything.  I live in the back.”

He didn’t think it was his responsibility to inform a buyer of his inventory (mortgaged securities) that the stuff he was selling was a pig in a poke and he, Goldman, was betting against it.

They didn’t inform the rating agencies, Moody’s etc. that a Hedge fund was betting against the mortgaged securities.  A triple A rating meant that Pension Funds and the less risk taking funds could buy them.
A triple A meant that that part of their problem (selling shit as chocolate ice cream) had gone away. 
Unsuspecting Pension fund managers, probably young and inexperienced were probably told that this is America, home ownership is on the rise and it will continue.  Your fund can make 20 % profit.  You’ll be a star in the financial world.

Last night C-SPAN aired and interview with a Monica Someone of the Wall Street Journal about her 2002 book on Sandy Weill the Wall Street investor, king maker.  The behind the scenes, inside story reveals these men to be adolescents, children with no adult monitoring.  They got money, and money seems to coat all sins.

Well put Garth I was unaware of this, thank you. As long as there is a well funded contingent who want to privatize the essentials but leave the gov’t open to tax us then redistribute the wealth to them we are in trouble. The Republic is in trouble from institutionalized thievery. Bribery passes for free speech and petitioning of grievances in this topsy-turvy world we are in. As if a mixture of an evil George Orwell(Eric Blair) & Franz Kafka schooled by Machiavelli was in charge of things.

We are still cruising for a train wreck for our economy unless they can disembowel the big banks and put it in the ground to stay there. We must separate both religion and state and corporation too. Until then and remove the money from the operations of the gov’t we will have a hard time winning it back.

The Swarm is gathering.  This time it’s around the privatization of public education.  Obama went out to answer questions from the press yesterday with the main player in this takeover to his left-hand side, Arne Duncan.
Meanwhile, on Cambridge CCTV yesterday, a buffoonish looking character with mussed up hair proclaimed the formation of a group called Renaissance.  This group is supposed to rally support from the community and contact all the Secretaries of State in the western hemisphere (I’m not kidding.) starting with Hillary Clinton. 
Her Bobo, Bill, by the way appeared before the Peterson Institute with his vision for tomorrow and third on his list of items was the reduction of the national debt.
What he means is that they are going to find a way to keep this swindle of globaloney Capitalism afloat by going after Social Security and Medicare.

Obama’s thrust will be in wiping out the local control of how your property taxes are spent on education. 

Take a look at what they are paying some of the Charter School Adminstration, some are taking upwards of $ 500,000 in yearly salary, while a public school superintendent averages around $ 120,000.
The media’s personna pushing this austerity for us thus far, have been mainly trust fund babies, news media yes men, and the institutionally incapable of earning an honest living.
“When the end comes I know, they’ll be just a gigolo.  Life goes on without them.”

I got a glimpse of the end when Obama walked out of the WH with Arne Duncan by his side.  The problem is that they want all the money.  That’s the nature of their Capitalism.

With the Republicans playing one hand for the financiers and the Democrats playing another, working people are paying taxes without being represented.  And don’t let it slip your notice that the American tax bill far outweighs what these pilferers slip to our elected officials in little envelopes.

It takes a really naive dummy to think that these college professionals in the use of money did not know what they were doing.  I hope the Congress doesn’t go along with these criminal bankers only being stupid, because they should be hung from the highest tree to discourage the wealthy taking advantage of the country.  According to Alan Greenspan, the best Republican ever, Bill Clinton, says he was used, but he knew exactly what he was doing, he has made out like a bandit.  The only claim for getting caught with your hand in the cookie jar when your hand wasn’t allowed in the cookie jar is stupidity, ignorance or Alzheimer’s and it is time the populace stop believing these Right-Wing lies.  Even if stupid, ignorant or with Alzheimers,  crimes have been committed by these supposed “too big to fail” bankers and anyone else involved in this charade in the past 40 years, and all the money and capital needs to be returned to the country’s treasury from which it was robbed.

Mitt Romney, a Mormon, is making his way to the White House.  Meanwhile to give him more support than he deserves, the Mormons in Idaho, as reported by a retired News paper editor, are convincing recent converts to the Church of Latter Day Saints to also enroll their dead relatives. 
That’s right, dead relatives. 
Those who passed before are now being converted posthumously to the Mormon Church and their names are being added to the rolls. 
I guess it’s an attempt to take away the stain that they are just a cult.
Who would do something like that?

Where does their religion separate what’s right and what’s wrong.  It would seem that the death of loved ones is just another strategy to gain power.

If you think the economy is bad for the middle class and below now, wait till Mitt Romney gets into office.  For example, fresh out of Harvard Business School, he bought Staples with borrowed money.  Shifted the debt over to Staples and began downsizing to increase the profits so that it could pay off his debt. 
He now claims to be worth more than $200 million.  He has a big home in Belmont, MA and “cozy little” escape on the shore of Lake Winnepesaukee in NH.

His picture appeared on the front page of the Boston Herald the other day.  With his deep set, dark eyes, he reminded me of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen.

Watch out!

Hello, Minutemenmedia.  I am refreshed. The failure to investigate 9/11 has been the pivotal point in all this.  I resigned myself to ask for just a re-investigation without comment about the so-called “Conspiracy theories.”

(Strange, the picture of the Al quaeda, al Masri, who was killed in Iraq last week was the same picture of one of the hijackers of 9/11.  Al Masri by name was the innocent Canadian kidnapped and tortured by the Americans.  He was later released on a dark road in Turkmenistan or some such place and he made it back home on his own.  He brought suit against the CIA and it was thrown out of court.)

Today:
The Senate is roiling the investigation into the Wall Street financial debacle.

Here’s what happened with Goldman Sachs, and this is what was reported today by Roben Azraf(?) of the Baloonberg News (No mispelling intended.  I don’t think he intended to give up this much information.)

Goldman loaded up a group of securities with Liar loans around 2007.  They shorted (bet against) these loans to the tune of multibillions.  They went long to the tune of about about 1.7 billion to cover their asses (CYA) purposes.

Then they persuaded the ratings agencies to give the securities AAA ratings.  They then went short, betting against the loans they made, with AIG.  And that that is what gave them the huge profits.

For example, to show this deal for what it was:  I will bet you 1 million dollars, I’m not greedy, that the KC Royals will not win the World Series.  Provided that I pick the lineup.

I got one of these Liar loans entries to their database.

111151 Montclair in Sebring NV, occupation: beam dinker, yearlay salary: 33,000, am of load: 1,412,000

I must ask myself, how could anything go wrong here?

Now the Junior Executive, Beerack Obama, that toothy-grinned lawn jockey, is putting forth a Commission to decide on the economic well-being of millions of retirees.

Note the Commission report is due in December, one month after the election.  Even some of the Senators who testified before the formation of this “Commission” noted how cowardly this act would be.

The moral is:  Don’t look to them.  You no longer have a say.  They take you and us for a bunch of idiots who can be swayed by drive-time radio personalities, C-SPAN callers and junk news media.

Grab! is the verb that comes to mind.

I have to agree with Garth, “we ain’t seen nothing yet,” but for a good majority of Americans, it’s more of a definitional truth, since many of us have been methodically conditioned “not to see” much of anything beyond TV, much less the truth.
I mean, it’s become high art, think about it.
We’ve got thousands of architects, engineers, pilots and politicians asking for a new investigation into 9/11, and yet somehow, being a “9/11 Truther” is a BAD thing.  An orwellian high-five, and still, the stories never seen the light of day, despite a mountain of hard evidence.
Plus, today we have a President that campaigned on “Change,” yet somehow retains the previous Secretary of Defense, provides a more expensive continuation of the previous wars, and he brings Volker and Summers out of the mothballs to help set economic policy.
Has anyone, besides me, ever really looked into exactly “what it is” that guys like Volker and Summers do behind the scenes?  Go read Naomi Klien’s book, The Shock Doctrine, look into the IMF and trust me, these guys are killers, and the bailouts and “reforms” we are looking at today are just the tip of the iceberg.

It’s powerful stuff, an entire nation that will not, and in fact cannot ask important questions.  A nation mostly sold on the mythological “balance” of a two party system, even as Wall Street passes the bailout tray from Bush to Obama, even as a nation slowly wakes up to recognize that we may—in fact—be witnessing the greatest, and most arrogant financial coup in the history of the world.
Maybe it’s true, “we ain’t seen nothing yet,” but I can tell you one thing, I have certainly seen enough.

It’s all over the Sunday Face Fest: Introducing the New Church of Wall Street, Reformed.

William Black on Bill Moyers’s show said that Goldman Sachs built these MBSs on Liar Loans.  He explained that that means they knew they were going to fail as soon as the housing bubble broke.  As long as housing prices were going up these loans would stay alive, but as soon as the housing prices started to stagnate, the Liar Loans would fail.  It might be a year; it might be three, but they were going to explode.  There’s no doubt about it.
(It’s sort of like the Evangelical’s push for abstinence.  They don’t say that it works until it doesn’t.)

Fareed Zakaria on his program said that John Paulson was a nobody in Goldman and he didn’t know if these loans would go bad or not.  However, an economist from Yale who worked for the Fed gave a talk about a year and a half ago that all the information for these mortgages was kept in something that seemed like an Excel spreadsheet.  One could easily look up a mortgage and review the pertinent data and check it out.  In short, they knew damn well what was in these securities.

Bernie Sanders is right.  An investigation should have started a year ago and the Wall Street joy riders should be trying out their new Orange wear.

The drum beat with Medicare and Social Security is also continuing.  However, Sen Feingold of Wisconsin laid it out after Sen Jeff Sessions’ testimony before the Budget committee.  Feingold said that this Administration was handed the worst financial mess in history, two wars, lost jobs, and a banking disaster.

I wonder sometimes: How can the Republicanarchists talk about Medicare and Social Security in that vein with a straight face?  Are they all on drugs?  Have they taken a stupid pill and they think the American public is just a bunch of lummoxes?

Too bad Dave Thomas ate too much of the kind of food that isn’t healthy for you.

I would say don’t go strictly vegetarian but do it a little meat so as to get that fats and proteins needed not found in plants. But on the whole we eat way too much salt, fat, fast carbs and sugar. We also consume far more meat than is healthy, just look at our digestive tract in comparison to a hebivore and carnivore. We are far closer to the hebivore! We are omnivorious but we need very little meat.

It would be easier to survive a financial meltdown if we did.

Thanks, Dave Thomas,

Dave Thomas, as you might recall is the recently deceased founder of Wendys, the burger, fast food chain.

Here’s a guy who did pull himself up from the bootstraps only to die in his 60s.  He was a classic example of how you can work yourself to death while screwing your employees by paying the minimum wage and then selling your dream to a big business and having them stage a marketing campaign that pits your dream against Burger King and McDonalds.

Try going vegan.  It’ll do you and the world as a whole a lot more good.

Invest in local.

Two errors in the last post that I’d like to correct are that Erwin “Pish” Canham was the Editor-in-chief of the Christian Science Monitor not the Publisher.  That is the domain of the Christian Science Publishing Society.

Second, that the Bushes staked a mountaintop in Paraguay, not Peru.

Of course, the second is from hearsay of the alternative media, but it makes so much sense.

These people who I shall call the Pharoahs and their layers of dominion beneath them: the Bushes, the Clintons, the Blankfeins, the Dimons, et al, are, or were, in collusion to bring this world economy down.
Simon Johnson and some other Asian distender of the truth were on the Bill Moyers Show, and it was interesting to see how they verbally finagled the bagel around calling these persons out for collusion and treachery.

First, they were incompetent.  Then they were the most savvy people on Wall Street, indeed in the world.  Which is it.

Johnson, by the way, is from MIT and the Peterson Institute.  What the Peterson Institute is mainly interested in is the destruction of FDR’s Social Security and to a lesser degree Johnson’s Medicare.  Medicare, as you remember, was a compromise because the insurance companies did not want to cover the aging and, therefore, the ailing Americans, so Congress pass it.
Now, Congress will pick up the tab for insurance company bloated bills, so how can they lose?

Here’s the key.  Everyone says they, the Pharoahs, don’t care about us.  They do!  They need someone to screw.  When they are getting Gstinko in Gstaadt, they like to share a laugh about how they outsmarted the colonials.

One local note that struck an historic bell was that Salem, MA started using cameras to identify youngster who were “trespassing” on the public parks.  The automatic audio informs the “trespasser” that a picture has been taken.

Shortly after, the police arrive at the “guilty trespassers’ home and he or she is put through some questioning.  Questions like, “What were you doing in a public park?”

The news media says it’s all right because it’s being done in Boston and New York.

It all harkens back to the days when China was a colony of the British Empire.  (You know chap, when the Sun didn’t set on the British Empire.)  The Chinese also weren’t allowed in their own parks.

We are like the British in style and in just complete gall.  They set up the conflicts in the Middle East with Israel and in India and Pakistan.  I think the IRA assassination of Lord Montbatten was the greatest act of the 20th century.

Amy Goodman reminds us again that we need a new tv show.  It should be entitled, “Are you as smart as a Bolivian?”

Thanks for the space.

Caveat Empor strikes again.

I didn’t own any Goldman stock. I didn’t do any investments with Goldman. Those who own Goldman stock will lose money, caveat empor. Those who invested with Goldman are responsible for their own choices, caveat empor.

Maybe the key lesson from Goldman will be that individuals should think twice, three times, or potentially thinks for days about what kind of investments they make and who they make them with because ultimately you have only yourself to blame.

As for massive pension plans that invested with Goldman, what is a pension plan doing running my retirement investments instead of me. That’s a whole other thread.

I think we should live on cat food and pee on kitty litter.  We should not look back on bailing out the banks.  We should be glad for the nothing we get.
It has been pointed out by the educated elite that the richest live in gated communities around the world completely separate from the rest of us.  For example, the Bush clan bought a mountain top in Peru.  Gates just visited there to ensure the military bond between them and us is still strong.  Colombia seems to be another favorite hiding place of the rich and filthy.  Irwin Canaham, the publisher of the Christian Scinence Monitor, had a home in Medillen. 
Christian Scinece is, by the way, the birth religions of the Nixon crew, Haldemann and Erlichmann, Henry Paulson from Bush-Bailout fame and that good-for-only-but-his-class congressman from Connecticut, Shay.

If you still have money:  Health Insurance companies, Cigna etc, PHRMA, for example, Pfizer (always a Supreme Court Fave), and Big Oil are going up, up, up. 
Big oil will be pivotal in the new thrust to pass a cap ‘n trade.  Cap ‘n trade will be the next bubble.  A reporter on DemocracyNow! warned about this a year ago. 

In the meantime, can you spare a dime? A dime?

My older relatives are standing in the way of the new recovery.  That’s the latest war cry. 

They are like the Christian Scientist who died from cancer and his friend also a Christian Scientist said, “He only thinks he’s dead.”

How long would would a soup line of 8 billion stretch?

I think we should live on cat food and pee on kitty litter.  We should not look back on bailing out the banks.  We should be glad for the nothing we get.
It has been pointed out by the educated elite that the richest live in gated communities around the world completely separate from the rest of us.  For example, the Bush clan bought a mountain top in Peru.  Gates just visited there to ensure the military bond between them and us is still strong.  Colombia seems to be another favorite hiding place of the rich and filthy.  Irwin Canaham, the publisher of the Christian Scinence Monitor, had a home in Medillen. 
Christian Scinece is, by the way, the birth religions of the Nixon crew, Haldemann and Erlichmann, Henry Paulson from Bush-Bailout fame and that good-for-only-but-his-class congressman from Connecticut, Shay.

If you still have money:  Health Insurance companies, Cigna etc, PHRMA, for example, Pfizer (always a Supreme Court Fave), and Big Oil are going up, up, up. 
Big oil will be pivotal in the new thrust to pass a cap ‘n trade.  Cap ‘n trade will be the next bubble.  A reporter on DemocracyNow! warned about this a year ago. 

In the meantime, can you spare a dime? A dime?

My older relatives are standing in the way of the new recovery.  That’s the latest war cry. 

They are like the Christian Scientist who died from cancer and his friend also a Christian Scientist said, “He only thinks he’s dead.”

How long would would a soup line of 8 billion stretch?

Night Gaunt, The price is rising globally - not only for Oil, but for every essential Commodity that can be traded in New York, or Chicago Financial Markets. Profits for investors with the riches are huge - meanwhile American’s continue to sit and watch their lives pass before their eyes, and their futures fade into obscurity.
If YOU PEOPLE OVER THERE don’t get some swift and severe regulation happening on ESPECIALLY Commodity speculation, Energy Companies, and the Too Big to Fail’s you WILL kill us all! Please don’t kill us!!!
Example - I live in New Zealand, drive a diesel and am paying $6.00 a gallon right now - plus I pay an additional .4 cents per kilometer in road user charges because Diesel is subsidized. The current price for Regular 91 octane is $1.82 per Litre - that’s $8.55 a gallon! Adjusted for the exchange rate difference with the US dollar - $6.07 !!
So welcome to the reality that the rest of us face everyday - while you folks sit and moan and do nothing to stop the rape!
Please take this in the way it is meant - not a personal dig at you. It’s the inaction of your Government that are meant to be regulating especially essentials, and the Finance Industry. The grass roots needs to get busy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are already being threatened with $3 gasoline with $4 by the summer. It will lower use but also realize the cost of anything shipped.

Without the restraints we have previous to 1996 but back in place we will have another melt down and they may not stop it this time.

We have become the Ficawi Indians.  They are the tribe that broke off of from the six nations of the northern tier and set out for themselves.  They wandered for years in the wilderness.

Every once in a while a scout would return to camp and the chief would ask, “Where the fuck are we?”  Hence the name, Ficawi tribe. They were lost.
Maybe, that is the reckoning.

Listen to C-SPAN callers and read the so-called news media and you’ll come away with a sort of insanity or you’ll recognize it for what it is—An attempt by the chieftains to keep us wandering.

Without a moral compass and without a set of Standrads of Behavior, our leaders have left us rudderless with no recourse.  They want us to think it’s every man for himself.

Anne Applesomething on Fareed Zakaria’s CNN infotainmenet said the reason for the slow recovery is the Safety Security net.  She said it is slowing down European recovery.

Strike one:  Gorerge W. Bush’s Privatization.

Strike two:  We’re robbing from our grandchildren.

Strike three: It’s slowing down “our” economic growth.

How many whiffs do these people get at it?

I admire William Black, and I appreciate haroldm’s post. 

I take back my childish remarks toward Grant, Angel and Night-Gaunt.  I broke my own rule: Don’t attack compatriots.

The latest talk of a brouhaha about replacing John Paul Stevens comes at a great time.  It stops the people from recognizing that we’ve been sold down the river.  Oh! the symmetry. An African American is President when a law is passed that guarantees we’ll be paying insurance executive through the nose for years to come.

The right wing of the Clods versus The Left wing of the Clods will decide who wears the Saville Row suit and who wears the clown suit.

In the meantime, I see no Third Party Candidates.

The boys at Wall Street are giving the media some great quotes, but the media is only using ther=ir edited versions.

Be Bernanke said in Dallas the other day that “we” (I don’t know who the we is he’s referrreing to.) will have to cut back on Social Security and Medicare to rein in the deficit.  Isn’t he the same Ben Bernanke who gave $ Trillions away from the Federal Reserve yet refuses to divulge who he gave it to.

Honest Alan Greenspan said to Brooksley Born that the credit default only amounted to 2% of the GNP so that was why he did not investigate and regulate them.  Wrong thing to say to Ms. Born.

She came back and informed him that the credit default swaps at the time amounted to $60 Trillion dollars.

“Not using my screen name properly is fun for you but just childish nonsense to me. Maybe you haven’t yet graduated from the sandbox of your mind. Try Wikipedia sometime and maybe enlarge your intellectual world instead of damning it. Less kindergarten emotion and more mature thinking in depth will help our communication, I think.”

When I react to people trying to pretend to be precocious children I tend to respond in kind.

Garth you are being petty and vindictive again. The question I ask is valid because not everybody uses the term “common sense” in the same way. Or do you agree with Glenn Beck in his usage of it? Does it have the same meaning as how Thomas Paine used it?

Not using my screen name properly is fun for you but just childish nonsense to me. Maybe you haven’t yet graduated from the sandbox of your mind. Try Wikipedia sometime and maybe enlarge your intellectual world instead of damning it. Less kindergarten emotion and more mature thinking in depth will help our communication, I think.

As for the financial meltdown it is still waiting in the rafters like the 16 tons weight in Monty Python to squash most of us flat. The ultra-rich will be forewarned and ready for it.

Grant,

“..all the rhetoric is more like autoeroticism than a solution.”

There’s a lot to be said about autoeroticism.  It wouldn’t've produced the likes of you.

I have to agree with you Martha. There is no room in this country for capitalism! If I had known what would happen and thought it through I certainly would have voted differently, now we are stuck with a F***ed up government that is thriving on ignoring what the people want or need.

Gladly, you intellectual muff pie,

Common sense is when you engage your mind to make make whatever sense you deem to be believable from the gifts that birth the human exeprience have entitled you to.  Whatever they may be, you mackerel.

“Just use your common sense.” should be clear enough for even you.

Night-Shawl:  Isn’t there another Wikipedia you can read?

First define “common sense” because just about everybody uses is as much as the much belabored “political correctness” in discussions without a clear meaning. So please do so.

If only they could mandate that common sense be used in all discussions great or small.  Angel, you’d find that if you believe something, it might not necessarily be true.  Stop and THINK, as IBM used to urge and encourage.

Do you believe the BS that that guy, McGraw, is spewing?

I used to think that most people thought as I do.  Then I ran into proponents of the right-wing who purported to beilive in ideas 180 degrees opposed to mine.  But then, I found out that these people were Trust fund babies, Foundation children from wealthy families, who were not the kind of person who would suffer for any long period of our societal outlook of a successful person.

Grasp what you can.  Hold on to it.  Stop wasting your time on this BS.

I hope you come to realize that Life is too short.

Selah

GRANT,

I think you made my point, though I blundered in its explanation.  When the insurance companies want to cry poor-mouth, they use a certain type of calculation.  When they want to look good to investors, I’m sure they’d use another.  If they want to claim small profits they use a large number.  When they want to claim large profits they use a smaller divisor, say your IQ.

But my blunder and brodsides to you and Angel seem to have paid dividends.

Grant’s pompous, self-righteous, didactic tone bears a strange resemblance to that of Thommy Hartmann, Thommy Hartmann, the shill for the Obama Administration who passes himself off as a progressive radio talk show host.

He whistled by Obama war ongering about the war in Afghanistan saying that Obama was juking to the right to appease the Democratic Hawks.  When Obama jettisone Single Payer and tepidly pursued Public Option, He said Obama was playing chess. When Obama gives big oil the drilling rights off our coasts, he says, Obama is using Aikido.

Man, I tell ya, it’s the manipulative lies and bull crap that gets most people.  And sooner or later, they stop listening. 

“Such perverse and cunning people are often referred to in history and literature, such as Shylock and Herrod. I foresee a day of reckoning that will rid of these damnable miscreants and wicked idolators. “

Thommy Hartmann, Thommy Hartmann was asked recently on air if he knew who Paul Benzaquin is, and he didn’t know.  Then the caller filled him in that Benzaquin was a talk show host that revealed the truth behind George H.W.’ WWII shenanigans and his ploy egging on Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait in 1990.  To which Thommy Hartmann, Thommy Hartman replied, “I’ll bet he didn’t last long.”
Paul Benzaquin was on the radio for 25 years and he is now in the Radio Hall of Fame.  He was doing real radio when Thommy Hartmann, Thommy Hartman, the pencil-necked bragadoccio from Michigan first learned the difference between a rifle and a gun in the Michigan woods. 
Grant says, “ROI, EPS and any other ratio can become almost anything you desire. If you hope to become a partner, you have no choice. Just the wink and the nod is all their is to it. As one executive put it, you must know the rules before you can successful break the rules. It is all about smoke and mirrors. It about solemn men in Brooks Brothers suits and Johnson & Murphey broughs whom the kings of industry trust to do whatever is necessary, even fall on the swords. Get it?”

Thommy Hartmann, Thommy Hartmann it seems is also worrying about keeping his job as an Obama cover man.  His sponsors are miracle cures and buying gold.  I think the organic wine lady dropped him.  So, his money to stay on the air must be coming from somewhere else, perhaps a foundation.

Gerald Ford’s ex-press secretary just died.  He’s the one who resigned when Ford pardoned Nixon.  Daniel Ellsberg is in the news lately and he’s an example of someone who valued more his own character and the lives of millions of Americans and Vietnamese than he valued his career at Rand Corporation.  When Noam Chomsky decided to continue speaking out agains the war machine, his wife had to return to school to gain employability in case her husband went to jail and she was left with the responsibility of rearing her children.
That’s what need now, Grant and Angel, not gunfire against a a massive military force.  Don’t forget Posse Comitatus is no longer the law of the land.
We need current day Nathan Hale’s allright, not ones that say, “Give me Liberty or give cheap Chinese goods and lies.”
It’s the lies that get me, and everyone seems to be obliged to believe either one set or another.
Angel, there must be a million of those cockamamie articles all over the internet.  The tell tale sign is when they go after Social Security and Medicare.  I guess now that we are locked into paying the insurance companies, they’re willing to give Medicare a real try this time

Who’s that favorite so-called comedian of the Money Baggers, Dennis What’s-his-face, you know the Bill O’Reilly sidekick?

Well, Angel Gabriel has been unmasked and it’s none other than Dennis What’s-His-face.

I read the link (I hope I didn’t contract any viruses.) and the first sign of trouble was the reference to Cheney and Paulson and a secret meeting in the WTC,

“Then, of course, 9/11 happened, and all of this significant history was buried in the rubble of the World Trade Center.”

I don’t think, and I might be wrong, but I don’t think that 9/11 “just happened.” 

But there are serious tell-tale signs of disinformation further down when he brings up Social Security and how it’s going broke.

Christian Weller said on C-Span this morning (Sat. 4/3) that this year’s shortfall, the one McGraw in the article brings up, was indeed expected.  The agent from AEI (the dark side) also tried to bring up the same scare in the C-SPAN show.

It’s abundantly clear to anyone who can see that one of the gems that this class of thieves was after was the Social Security fund.

When George W. (their supersalesman couldn’t sell the idea) and they had to let it go, they went ahead with their grand scheme anyway.  Namely, pull the plug on the economy and see what happens. 
One of the sighs of relief was that the Democrats, led by Paul Krugman and other sensible economists, held strong and resisted George W. Bush and the Money-Bagger’s crazy talk, or else the Social Security fund would be the pockets of those bastards now.
Yet, gall be gall, they are at it once again, The scream, give up Social Security for the sake of your grandchildren.  Sounds like the screams of a rat drowning in a well.

Now their scream is that the Health Insurance companies only made a 3% profit last year.  This figure is cited in a Forbes Magazine article. 

What they don’t tell you is that the 3% was derived by using the ratio of Return on Investment (ROI) to Sales.  In every business school it is taught that the Profit is calculated by using the ratio of the Return on Investment to Equity.

They’re fuckin’ with us now.

Amy Goodman gives us another clue.  In Detroit, schools are being converted to charter schools based on the urging of about 15 or so foundations, Skilman, Kresge, et all.

I would guess that they are holders of the winning bets on the credit default swaps.  They’ll accept payment over time, a long time.

Arne Duncan said Katrina was the best thing that happened to the New Orleans school system.  They fired all the teachers and reopened four public schools.  Such compassion can only be likened to George W. Bush.

Consider the amount of money that ‘ll paid out to holders of Municipal Bonds in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Phildelphia, Boston, Miami, and the rest of the major cities in this country.  It amounts to a shitload of payoffs.

The Money-Baggers are no longer luring us into large gains in the stock market.  To hell with the common investor.  They’re taking care of their own in smaller yet substantial, predictable gains in Municipal Bonds.

We’re really headed for big trouble.

Monsieur Clinton said his trade policies contributed to the downfall of all these agrarian societies by cutting out their dependence on home grown food in the hopes that they’d pass Go and start collecting the benefits of a manufacturing economy.  He said it didn’t work.

My question is when did he start to realize this fact?  When it was too late?

School superintendents, a person usually selected by the school committee, used to handle the school budget. Now the Mayor, an elected official, will be in charge. We should all be able to read the writing on the wall at this point.  Ask who controls the elections?  Who puts the candidates up for the election?
In the last election in Cambridge, MA, it was amazing to witness the number of Foundation Babies who stuck their heads above the surface to promise cutting city expenditures, which means cutting city services.  Thankfully, many went down to defeat.

But as far as the voters in our major cities are concerned, they have to ask themselves, after they’ve seen it many times before, where a neighbor, some woman or some guy you knew, got elected to office and then screwed them and then took the money and ran, is this the Obama transformation of government?

You will no longer have a voice in how your city is run outside of parking ticket and traffic infractions, as Noam Chomsky warned.

The latest scam involves Obama and his Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, and it is going to be used to handle at least part of the $ 300 Trillion in credit default swaps that are still out there.  The CDSs are owned by Obama’s buddies on Wall Street, AIG, Goldman Sachs, Morgan, etc.

The plan goes like this:

Public schools are the largest item on the budget for any community.  Property taxes in a lot of cities and towns are eaten up by the cost of education, teachers and administrative salaries, etc. 

Obama and Duncan are pushing a $ 5 billion, what I’ll call a, bribe to states provided that they convert more of their public schools to charter schools.

This should lower property taxes, but it won’t. And the reason it won’t lower property taxes is:

In the next step they take as much of the CDSs as they can and convert them to Municipal Bonds in the towns that fall victim to this scam.  This will ensure that the property taxes in these communities will not go down, in fact, in all likelihood, it will go up.  Only now, the taxes will be paying of the Municipal Bonds and not education.
The property owners will be left with Charter Schools that so far have not performed any better than Public Schools, and they will still have to fork over money to pay for them.  Obama and Arne might be able to spring for a voucher or two but that still means the payoff for the CDSs will be coming out of the Federal and Municipal Taxes.

It must be great being President, provided your ethics are in the sewer and you have NO conscience.

A neat plan.  A similar one was used before in NYC in the 70s when NYC went bankrupt. NYC had to go through an Austerity Program created by some Wall Street Financier for Lazard Frere, his name slips me at the moment.

aditech, March 22 at 3:42 am,

Of course, one doesn’t rip off the treasury of a country then own up to knowing what they were doing, if they want to get away with it.  These bankers put on a great show, but they knew exactly down to the finest detail exactly what they were doing, because it happens cyclically as a “moral hazard” of capitalism.  Regulation needs to be made permanent so that regulation can’t be removed anymore by Republicans when they get into power and begin propagandizing the populace.

MarthA,

I take back whatever I said about you that was mean spirited.  I took offense to your remark that I was a Republican. The last Republican I was for was Eisenhower,and that, I feel, can be forgiven because I was in elementary school and I liked the slogan, “I Like Ike.”

At home:
The 14 CEOs in Massachusetts ran into trouble recently because they did not register as lobbyists.  They’re asking for a 165 B dollar tax cut for Corporations, and all the while they are scheming for the take over of prime real estate in some of the state’s most financially strapped communities, Fall River, New Bedford, Brockton, and so forth.  They want to use the state transportation system but they don’t want to pay for it.  We’ll pick up the tab.

They failed to register as lobbyist as the Boston herald reports it. the story soon gets lost in the legalistic weeds in about the second paragraph. 
The reporter, Jay Fitzgerald, is the son of the Herald’ Joe Fitzgerald who is also known for his writing of sop pieces about his friends in state government who died from alcoholism.

There are many problems here.  The first of which is the “The Jornalist as a Bull Shit Artist”, and the second is that these people don’t know the law, nor as it seems, do they care.

The point is:

Money doesn’t just open doors; it knocks down walls.

Remember, these bozos of a generation ago who wanted “Ronnie” Reagan and What’s-his-face (the other elderly, suited white American male) to serve as co-Presidents.  Where did they find that in the Constitution?

My question:

Where is it written in the Constitution that we could have co-Presidents. 

These fuckin’ morons don’t know what they are doing, and we are the fuckees.

Except in the United States, the populace gets to clean up the private capitalists mess.  It is time to change to socialized capitalism, so that capitalism will not continue to be a cyclical mess that has to be cleaned up by the populace.

Are you ready for Austerity?  The Greeks aren’t.  They hit the streets and said, “The bankers made this mess; why don’t they clean it up?

The EU has forced Angela Merkl to pay for Greece’s bondage.  This will be done through, guess what, Austerity for the German people.

Like the the sign in the coffee rooms in a lot of companies says,  “Your mother doesn’t work here.  Clean up your own mess.”

Socialism is the basis of community, community is the basis of cities, counties and states within the United States as a nation, and socialism in the United States has been very successful in the United States, successful enough to cyclically rescue Capitalism as a zombie every time Capitalism goes into a death spiral.

There were many death spirals of Capitalism where Capitalism has been reanimated as a zombie prior to 1929 and Capitalism has been reanimated since 1929 as a zombie prior to 2008, but the 2008 reanimation of Capitalism by socialism was the most socially costly reanimation of Capitalism in the history of the world.

However, socialism in the United States has never needed to be rescued.  Socialism in the United States has existed in the United States since the very origin of the United States as a nation, and socialism in the United States has always been healthy and vibrant.

Capitalism in the United States, on the other hand, goes into a cyclical death spiral every 40 to 50 years and requires socialism in the United States to reanimate it as a zombie and Zombie Capitalism reanimated and brought back to life then lives until Capitalism’s next death spiral as a dependant upon socialism to reanimate its privatized interests as Zombie Capitalism.

Privatized Capitalism is a “moral hazard” for socialism.  Capitalism serves privatized interests and interests of greater greed.

Socialism is accused, condemned, denounced and demonized by Zombie Capitalism and without socialism Zombie Capitalism could not and would not exist and have the opportunity to be cyclically reanimated as a zombie by socialism.

Socialism in the United States has existed prior to and since 1776 to the present and always has to resurrect Privatized Capitalism as an ungrateful zombie that without gratitude tries to kill the very thing that gives it life, and cyclically brings Capitalism back to life as a zombie.

It is time for socialized capitalism that serves the greater good as an economic system within a social system.  Socialized capitalism, that does not need to be cyclically reanimated as a zombie.

With socialized capitalism health care for the greater good of the populace will be significant to the economy and the populace will no longer be asked to give up benefit for the populace to rescue private capitalist bankers.

And the beat goes on. 
Jack Kemp’s idea of Economic Free Zones, where a company can do whatever the hell it wants within a certain geographical area, has been re-branded as “Growth Districts” and 14 CEOs in Massachusetts are bandying them about to the Boston Globe and to the solons on Beacon Hill.
The CEOS are: DesPrez of John Hancock, Fish of Suffolk Construction, Gifford of Bank of America, Gottleib of Partners Healthcare, Kelly of Liberty Mutual, Kraft of the Kraft Group (and owner of the NE Patriots footbal team), Logue of State Street Bank, May of NSTAR, Reynolds of Putnam Investments, Sargent of Staples, Laura Sen of BJ’s Wholesale Club, Swanson of Raytheon, and Tucci of EMC.
The Growth Districts, or Economic Free Zones are the Global Capitalists’ dream come true.  No taxes, no regulations, and the manager is the Czar.  And you know that he’ll do what’s best for workers, for the company and for the country because they all wear nice suits and they part their hair on the left, except for Laura Sen and May.  May has a four-inch part running over the top of his head.  Laura wears a Dorothy Hamil mop.
These economic pirates together with Obama’s highwaymen are not going solve this problem we are going through with the economy, they’re going to wear it down.
They’re stuffing everything back into the pot along with a few globaloney spices, and then they’ll put the lid back on and reapply the heat. 
In this instance it would’ve been better if Kemp had lived and his idea had died.

Welfare for the Wealthy, like the United States.  Welfare for widowed, divorced or unwed mothers can’t be allowed, but Welfare for the Wealthy, that’s different, they need bonuses;  to Hell with single mothers with children, surely the church somewhere will take care of them.  Oh!  Churches don’t do that?  Oh well, the Wealthy come first, ordained by God you know.

The UK BANKING SYSTEM WAS INDIPENDENT UNTILL THE MELTDOWN OF 2009. Now that has changed and Lloyds is 40% owned by the people of the UK. It has just posted huge losses for last year and huge bonuses for its workers.

Here is some information from 4 interviews with Professor Jeff Cohen that helps in assessing the causes of our economic situation and the stonewalling in Congress:

Progressives and the Democratic Party - Part 1:
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=4775

Progressives and the Democratic Party - Part 2:
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=4783

Progressives and the Democratic Party - Part 3:
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=4786

Progressives and the Democratic Party - Part 4:
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=4787

With all these congressmen and Senators retiring to spend more time with their families(ahem), and Tom Harkin pushing for the end of the filibuster rule, sumpin’s up.

Why don’t they just enforce the filibuster rule.  You want to stop a bill, get up off your ass and start talking.  See how long that lasts. 

That’s another indicator, sumpin’s up.

Douglas Wilder, ex-Democratic Gov of Virginia, was asked three questions on C-SPAN this morning.  The second question was why no Social Security COLA for two years?  For the first question, Wilder was almost laughing aloud when the woman suggested that the congress should take more public input, especially with the health bill where single payer was not even on the table. 

He skipped the question on Social Security but his demeanor changed abruptly from derision to a politicians’ serious look. As if to say to himself, “Oh, no.  Social Security is on their minds.  What to do? What to do?”

Right now, I bet the DemReps are meeting to work out a strategy for privatizing Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

That’s where breaking the filibuster rule comes in.  Ryan the noodnik Republican Congressman from Wisconsin has already entered just such a bill.  The bill would privatize Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Now, they have to figure out a way politically to get it through. 
The Republican half of the cabal will most likely take the heat and force it through.  The Democrats can maintain their facade of working for the best of their constituents and bemoan the loss. 
Thom Hartmann gave a brief explanation of Social Security as it stands today with the Social Security Trust Fund in place to keep the program healthy till 2040 while the economy digests the swell of baby-boomers.
Social Security hasn’t missed a check since it began, but all the pols and pundits are yelling like Chicken Little.  “It’s going broke.  We’re going broke.  Turn it over to the guys on Wall Street who gave us the meltdown.”
If that goddamn Bush were half the salesman they trumped him up to be, the pols would not be in this conundrum.
Along comes, Mr. Obama.  They think he’ll catch everyone off guard.  After all, he’s smart, Harvard educated and all.  The loud-mouthed dummies who constitute the tea baggers will certainly fall for this one.  Why they were saying, “No government health care and don’t touch my Medicare.”
But the outlier is the 900 trillion in Credit Default Swaps that is still lurking out there.  Someone’s gotta pay it off and it ain’t gonna be the ones who made the bets in the first place. 
The present day children of the Ruling Class that hated FDR will finally get their payback.  And the millions who are left in utter poverty will have to do more to get by than use their tea bags twice.
All the retired pols will be Jamaica, Dominican Republic, or somewhere in South America and we’ll be left holding the bag.
It’s getting nasty in the street now.  Two classes of people: the young selfish narcissists and the older farts who lost most of their life’s savings after the fall of Baer Stearns and Lehmann Bros.
You won’t hear the truth about Social Security either from now until the deed is done.

Thomas Frank/Bill Moyers Interview:  http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01152010/transcript1.html

(Page 1 of 2)

THOMAS FRANK: What conservatism in this country is about is government failure. Conservatives talk about government failure all the time, constantly. And conservatives, when they’re in power deliver government failure.

THOMAS FRANK: Once Bush was out, there was a study done of the SEC, as well. These people didn’t even have like their own functioning photocopiers, okay? So, we’re talking about the lawyers that are supposed to be protecting us from Wall Street. And they have to go stand in line at Kinko’s to do their own photocopying. And they’re going up against the best paid, you know, best educated lawyers on planet Earth, who represent the investment banks. And they’re supposed to be defending us.

BILL MOYERS: So what’s the consequence of this pay gap you described? Or, do we get inferior government because of it?

THOMAS FRANK: Absolutely. It keeps the best and the brightest out of government service, unless you’re really dedicated to a cause.

But let me go one step further with this, Bill. When I say this is done by design, I’m not exaggerating. And this is one of the more surprising things that I found when I was doing the research for “The Wrecking Crew,” is that there’s a whole conservative literature on why you want second-rate people in government, or third-rate.

I found an interview with the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce from 1928, where he said—this quote, it’s mind-boggling to me. But he really said this. “The best public servant is the worst one.” Okay? You want bad people in government. You want to deliberately staff government with second-rate people. Because if you have good people in government, government will work. And then the public will learn to trust government. And then they’ll hand over more power to it.

And you don’t want that, of course. Your Chamber of Commerce. And I thought, when I first read this, “That’s a crazy idea. I can’t believe that sentiment.” And then I found it repeated again and again and again. Throughout the long history of the conservative movement. This is something they believe very deeply.

THOMAS FRANK: That the market is the, you know, is the universal principle of human civilization. And that government is a kind of interloper, if not a, you know, criminal gang. And getting in the way.

BILL MOYERS: And yet there’s no sense of contrition. What’s amazing to me, and you wrote this, that the very people who brought us this decade of conservative failures, the party of Palin, Beck, Hannity, Abramoff, Rove, DeLay, Kristol, O’Reilly, just might stage a comeback.

BILL MOYERS: Do you really think they believe that unfettered capitalism, unregulated markets, will deliver an ideal democracy and prosperity for everybody?

THOMAS FRANK: No, I don’t. I think that they believe that, and to some degree, they’re sincere in that belief. But the conservative movement in Washington, I’m not talking about grassroots voters in Kansas here. I’m talking about the conservative movement in Washington. And the whole constellation of think tanks and lobby shops and not-for-profits. And, you know, newspapers and fundraisers and all of this stuff.

They believe this is an industry, okay? And one of the things that, I mean, it’s

Thomas Frank/Bill Moyers Interview

(Page 2 if 2)

one of the things that they’re doing now is they excommunicate George W. Bush, deeply unpopular, so therefore, not a true conservative,right? So, that way they get to start over fresh. The problem with George W. Bush, the reason we’re in such a deep hole is that we never went far enough.

As Tom DeLay has said, in his newspaper column, and I’m paraphrasing here. The problem with conservatism isn’t that it was tried and failed. It’s that it never really got—we never really tried it in the first place. So, what we have to do—and I’ve heard, conservatives have said this. “What we have to do is go back and deregulate all the way. We have to, you know, slash government. We have to tear that thing down. That’s what it’s all about.”

And the amazing thing about this. This allows them to represent themselves as dissidents against the sort of established order in Washington. Even though they ran the established order for years and years and years and years.

BILL MOYERS: Here’s something else that’s bizarre to me. And I wonder what you think about it, as a historian. I mean, right after the failed terrorist threat of Christmas, Obama’s critics went to work scrubbing what happened when the Bush White House was out to lunch in the weeks and days leading up to 9/11.

I mean, you know, there were terrorists sneaking into the country. There were warnings from the intelligence community about something—an attack on an American city coming. And that’s all been flushed down the memory hole. Giuliani goes on the air and says, “We didn’t have any terrorist attacks when Bush was President.”

THOMAS FRANK: Yeah, and that’s another—we also forget the anthrax episode which happened right after 9/11. Look, this is not an argument that I have made. That other people have—that all of these things need to be added to the list of government failures. And if you want to talk why does government fail? You know, there’s two answers out there.

One is the conservative answer. Government fails because that’s the nature of government to fail. And if you want to look a little bit deeper, you know, why does government fail? Because government has been systematically destroyed. When we, whether you’re talking about the, you know, the pay gap and making—deliberately making government an unattractive career option. Or you’re talking about outsourcing.

This is another conservative strategy for dealing with the state. If you hate and despise government employees. And you understand them as, you know, unbelievable human wickedness, right? What do you do about them? Well, the answer’s obvious. And at the same time, you believe in the market. You believe that private industry does everything better. You outsource the Federal workforce.

THOMAS FRANK:  And the conservative movement tends to be deeply, deeply, deeply cynical about government. Now, it’s also, I mean, deeply idealistic about the market. I mean, the market can do no wrong, almost by definition. But government they regard as a criminal gang. I mean, many, many conservatives have compared—oh, they always do, compare government to criminals. All the time.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01152010/profile.html

****************************

We, the American Populace/Back Street America, must remember that our economic situation was originated through leadership of Right-Wing Conservative Republican EXTREMISTS.  Along with those who are retiring, the Primaries will clean a bunch of the Republicans-Lite out of the Democratic Party and move our country closer to Political Balance.  Any Right-Wing Republican right now would be disastrous for the American Populace/Back Street America.  We, the American Populace/Back Street America must somehow keep the Democratic Party in control until we can get the Democratic Party totally cleaned up of the corporate toady infestation.

Krugman asks: “Do the bankers really not understand what happened, or are
they just talking their self-interest”—as if were an open question.  That he
doesn’t seem to know himself, or avoids saying so, is part of the problem.
Mainstream commentators like Krugman have provided a paucity of accurate
reportage or analysis of where we are, how we got there, and where we are
headed. They mostly hide behind “who knew” and “who knows,” just like the
bankers who, bottom line, own the debt of their media outlets.

The fact is, our government’s long toleration of ongoing fraud at the very core
of the system enabled Wall Street banks, broker-dealers and hedge funds
running all kinds of hot, dirty and foreign money along with their own, to reap
huge, often tax free profits, by selling and never delivering unlimited quantities
of phantom stock, options, bonds, and even US Treasuries, with total impunity. 
Over the years, the practice has destroyed countless companies and crushed
the hopes and dreams of millions of investors worldwide.  Yet the SEC, self-
proclaimed as “the investors first line of defense against securities fraud” and
“the pre-eminent gold standard of enforcement of securities laws,” has not
brought a single enforcement action to stop it or punish the perpetrators.  Is it
any wonder the bad guys have come to feel invulnerable?

Why were all the safeguards so intentionally set in place in 1933 and 1934
abandoned? Because those empowered to make and enforce our laws— sworn
to be good stewards of the public interest— allowed themselves to be seduced
and inducted to serve private interests, not the least of which their own,
courtesy of campaign contributions, lobbyist largess, lucrative job prospects,
and other co-optive emoluments known anywhere else in the world as bribes.
When will we learn that it’s not about politics, ideology or principle?  It’s about
the money!  But drop me a line the next time you hear any corporate or
mainstream media pro daring to talk or write about it in those terms. 
Somehow, as obvious and pernicious a role as it plays in our political process,
discussing venal motive is off limits, part of the pretense that our elected
officials actually represent the best interests of the people who voted for them
(as distinguished from those who bankroll them).

full comment at:http://calltoaccount.wordpress.com/army-of-avarice-plunders-america-into-calamity-that-did-not-have-to-happen/

Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission

(Page 1 of 2)

Bankers Without a Clue
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: January 14, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/opinion/15krugman.html

The official Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission — the group that aims to hold a modern version of the Pecora hearings of the 1930s, whose investigations set the stage for New Deal bank regulation — began taking testimony on Wednesday. In its first panel, the commission grilled four major financial-industry honchos. What did we learn?

Well, if you were hoping for a Perry Mason moment — a scene in which the witness blurts out: “Yes! I admit it! I did it! And I’m glad!” — the hearing was disappointing. What you got, instead, was witnesses blurting out: “Yes! I admit it! I’m clueless!”

O.K., not in so many words. But the bankers’ testimony showed a stunning failure, even now, to grasp the nature and extent of the current crisis. And that’s important: It tells us that as Congress and the administration try to reform the financial system, they should ignore advice coming from the supposed wise men of Wall Street, who have no wisdom to offer.

Consider what has happened so far: The U.S. economy is still grappling with the consequences of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression; trillions of dollars of potential income have been lost; the lives of millions have been damaged, in some cases irreparably, by mass unemployment; millions more have seen their savings wiped out; hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, will lose essential health care because of the combination of job losses and draconian cutbacks by cash-strapped state governments.

And this disaster was entirely self-inflicted. This isn’t like the stagflation of the 1970s, which had a lot to do with soaring oil prices, which were, in turn, the result of political instability in the Middle East. This time we’re in trouble entirely thanks to the dysfunctional nature of our own financial system. Everyone understands this — everyone, it seems, except the financiers themselves.

There were two moments in Wednesday’s hearing that stood out. One was when Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase declared that a financial crisis is something that “happens every five to seven years. We shouldn’t be surprised.” In short, stuff happens, and that’s just part of life.

Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission

(Page 2 of 2)

Bankers Without a Clue
By PAUL KRUGMAN (cont.)

But the truth is that the United States managed to avoid major financial crises for half a century after the Pecora hearings were held and Congress enacted major banking reforms. It was only after we forgot those lessons, and dismantled effective regulation, that our financial system went back to being dangerously unstable.

As an aside, it was also startling to hear Mr. Dimon admit that his bank never even considered the possibility of a large decline in home prices, despite widespread warnings that we were in the midst of a monstrous housing bubble.

Still, Mr. Dimon’s cluelessness paled beside that of Goldman Sachs’s Lloyd Blankfein, who compared the financial crisis to a hurricane nobody could have predicted. Phil Angelides, the commission’s chairman, was not amused: The financial crisis, he declared, wasn’t an act of God; it resulted from “acts of men and women.”

Was Mr. Blankfein just inarticulate? No. He used the same metaphor in his prepared testimony in which he urged Congress not to push too hard for financial reform: “We should resist a response ... that is solely designed around protecting us from the 100-year storm.” So this giant financial crisis was just a rare accident, a freak of nature, and we shouldn’t overreact.

But there was nothing accidental about the crisis. From the late 1970s on, the American financial system, freed by deregulation and a political climate in which greed was presumed to be good, spun ever further out of control. There were ever-greater rewards — bonuses beyond the dreams of avarice — for bankers who could generate big short-term profits. And the way to raise those profits was to pile up ever more debt, both by pushing loans on the public and by taking on ever-higher leverage within the financial industry.

Sooner or later, this runaway system was bound to crash. And if we don’t make fundamental changes, it will happen all over again.

Do the bankers really not understand what happened, or are they just talking their self-interest? No matter. As I said, the important thing looking forward is to stop listening to financiers about financial reform.

Wall Street executives will tell you that the financial-reform bill the House passed last month would cripple the economy with overregulation (it’s actually quite mild). They’ll insist that the tax on bank debt just proposed by the Obama administration is a crude concession to foolish populism. They’ll warn that action to tax or otherwise rein in financial-industry compensation is destructive and unjustified.

But what do they know? The answer, as far as I can tell, is: not much.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/opinion/15krugman.html
(End of Paul Krugman’s Commentary)

***********************

Things will change when Back Street America/the American Populace that pay with their communal resources to clean up the messes that Wall Street, the American Aristocracy, and Main Street, the Professional Middle Class, made in pursuit of Short-Term Profit by way of Financialization that they knew from the very beginning was a “moral hazard” that the American Populace/Back Street America would have to clean up when the Financial Bubble broke.

To say that Wall Street and Main Street did not know the results of Financialization is to deny the history of 14th Century Spain, and after Spain, Holland, and Britain, and that all of these countries economies were destroyed by Financialization; Wall Street and Main Street Bankers are educated people and know the cause and effect of Financialization of the U.S. Economy, and financialized the U.S. Economy as part of a scheme to acquire Short-Term Profit at the expense of the U.S. Economy and the American Populace/Back Street America.

Alan, January 15 at 3:03 am,

Hope would be better served that would allow the American Populace/Back Street America, to understand the Pyramid Scheme that is a Capitalist Economy, and how financializing a Capitalist Economy undermines the “real economy” for financial benefit for those at the Top of the Pyramid.

Here are a few threads from other sites that update this thread:

Second Wave of Mortgage Defaults:
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/705.html

Wall Street’s Plot to Wreck America Must Be Revealed - This week’s Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission hearings must shed light on what happened in the meltdown:
alternet.org

IMF Economist Says 2nd Economic Collapse 2/3:
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/761.html

Night-Gaunt,

Thanks for the Greider reference.  I want to read that and the articles in Mother Jones this month.

Bill Moyers did a show last night on it.

From what David Corn said, it seems that no one knows exactly what to do, or what will happen, but I have an ominous sense that whatever happens it won’t be good.

Moyers mentioned a few websites that have been created to try to gather some momentum.  I didn’t take them down, though.

If the Supreme Court strikes down the McCain Feingold campaign law, the corporations’ll get free rein, and as William Black said, “It’ll be Katie bar the door.”
It strikes me as a little ironic that the justices who rail about strict constructionism and that the Constitution meant only what it explicity said, that it was in fact, not a “living document” can turn around and use it to “breathe” life into an inanimate entity, a Corporation.
 
We should call that a reenactment of the second chapter of Genesis.

You are correct Garth and now what can be done? Can we out bid them to wrest control from them? So few in the gov’t who are not corrupted and corruptible.

I remember the argument that the Republican Party made about year ago that if the Government bailed out the banks and took them over then it would be another step down the path to communism.
As it has turned out, the banks took over the Government lock, stock and barrel.  We, our elected officials, are now owned and controlled by the Wall Street, the insurance companies, the drug companies, etc.

Next will come Agri-business and Water companies like Nestles.

We’ll be left with control over parking tickets and traffic violations.

American Populace/Back Street America:

Pyramid Schemes in America

Why is it that those who engage in commerce, Republican Right-Wing Conservative EXTREMISTS, understand that multiplying sales and purchases without multiplying things is a good thing as the basis of the Pyramid Scheme of Privatized Capitalism? ——— but, understand that multiplying repetition of definition, knowledge, concept, meaning, and understanding without multiplying things is a bad thing; the former supports and enriches the wealth of those at the Top of the Economic Pyramid, and the latter supports and enriches the knowledge and understanding of those that are the Base of the Pyramid below those at the Top of the Pyramid Scheme of Privatized Capitalism—— could this be the reason why that multiplying sales and purchases without multiplying things, commerce, increases wealth at the Top of the Pyramid, but that commerce applied to definition, concept, meaning, knowledge, and understanding would dilute wealth at the Top of the Economic Pyramid and lead to a more homogenous distribution of wealth throughout the entire Pyramid.

If commerce in commodities is a good thing, commerce in knowledge and understanding is also a good thing; the only difference is that the former is good for the few, those at the Top of the Pyramid of Privatized Capitalism, and the latter is good for the many, those beneath the Top of the Pyramid of Privatized Capitalism —— both are an application of a Pyramid Scheme; and if commerce is good for Capitalism, commerce is also good for multiplying and spreading understanding throughout the Populace of a Societal and Economic Pyramid.

William Grieder covers the possibles in “The Nation” have a look at what he says on this.

And couple that with a system that allows them to take incredible risk but foist the losses on us but reap the rewards too must end.

Riots and insurrections are predictable, ala the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution, when the people find their situations economically hopeless. Mass unemployment will foster mass civil unrest, crime, anger, riots, revolution, starvation, etc. Future federal nationalization (stealing) of foreign owned US property and other foreign owned US business assets, ala Mexico, Venezuela, etc., is another topic for discussion on another day.

If any future US revolution to overthrow the US government is successful and occurs for some valid reason (maybe to protest the economic situation), where will all of the food, fuel, water, sanitation, medicine, and other necessities to support the population come from after the revolution? After a revolution will US citizens all starve if we are in a city? The US population cannot live off of the land anymore. Will the US citizen city dwellers foray into the country, kill the farmers, and steal the farmer’s food to feed the city dweller’s family? Will foreigners hire the unemployed US military (and maybe various city policemen) to keep the US population under control, or to regain control, and/or to re-establish law & order after an economic collapse and resultant civil unrest?

Chaos and total lawlessness will prevail during and long after any US revolution. Only the very meanest and the most evil will survive in this climate. We will have then totally destroyed our civilization. We will live like people in Africa, and we will be made to comply with the will of any and every armed person that we meet. Will all of the city residents starve after a revolution? Most of the US urban population is not intelligent enough to live off of the land anymore. The city dwellers might foray into the country, kill the farmers, and steal the farmer’s food to feed their own families? Food might become more valuable than paper money.

We are approaching that point of no return, which I will define as the point where we have sold all of our privately owned assets to foreign owners to pay for our imported products that we consumed and our silly government expenses. After foreigners own all of our wealth and US locates assets, we will no longer have any economic or intellectual resources available for re-industrialization.

US citizens no longer believe that we are our brother’s keeper. We have become a mobile society that has no permanent neighborhood roots or sense of community relation to one another.

After the US economy is totally and completely destroyed and when the vast majority are unemployed with no prospects for future employment, and when the citizens have no confidence in the government, the US citizens might listen to a charismatic politician who will promise the nation into a new government that will correct all of the real and imagined injustices that are hurting the citizens in return for absolute political power and suspension of the US Constitution.

I believe that Martin Luther King stated something to the effect that “Everything that Adolph Hitler did was legal.”

Fixing the economy RIGHT NOW might prevent a future second American Revolution.

I think Jargle has it right.  It is only beginning.  ThomasG tries to expalin the news by repeating the news.  We know all that.  What is going on now is a fight at the the top.  Investigations into Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs say one thing:  Some of the big investors got burned and they want their money back.  Those behind the investigations have influence over part of the Justice Department and the banks have influence over the WH and Congress.
Who is going to win?
But besides the mechanics of the deal being explained and explained, as Truedigger3 points out, the cause can be revealed simply by a little thought.  Ask, Who wins and who loses?
BTW:  Jamie Dimond of Chase Morgan loves Geithner.  Geithner paid 4 billion dollars, full value, on a rip-off orchestrated by Dimond.  What’s not to like about this man-child, Geithner.
Don’t settle for explanations. At some point, some head gotta roll.
Or are we like the infant in a stroller:  Like stealing candy from a baby.

Happy Nuevo Ano!

He is so effective they keep him on the air even thought he lost over 60 sponsors an is paid millions of dollars—-why? Because he is getting his (and his backers) points across and they believe it! A lousy state of affairs when the people who are really giving news and analysis i.e. Schultz, Olberman, Ratiger & Maddow aren’t drawing in nearly the same amount or more. Why is that? The stupidity and credulity of the general American viewing public I would say. A bad time as the Republic crumbles. Jefferson and many others warned against this.

Maria Sanchez, December 26 at 7:04 pm,

Glenn Beck is a demagogic, fulminating and equivocating Hitleresque sophist propagandist, an expedient opportunist working as a PAID toiler for the Republican Right-Wing Conservative EXTREMIST Movement as a minion.

Glenn Beck is lower than slime on scum, and has only one redeeming quality, and that is as a bad example to be avoided, rather than emulated.

Back Street is All the Streets OFF Main Street Where the Populace Live

When politicians and the Media talk about the “American People”, they need to talk about what part of the American people they are speaking for by putting words in their mouths—the American Aristocracy, the Professional Middle Class or Back Street America, that is all streets off Main Street —— the American Populace, the Masses of the American Population, the 70% MAJORITY Common Population of the United States——that are the working population of citizens of the United States that are the consumers that provide the communal resources that enable the U.S. Economy—Wall Street and Main Street— and cyclically rescue the U.S. Economy—Wall Street and Main Street—from its “greed is good” behavior when the American Aristocracy and Professional Middle Class make a mess of the U.S. Economy and out of greedy self interest destroy the U.S. Economy for short term benefit, and then rely on Back Street America to clean up the mess.

The Majority Population of the United States is NOT Main Street

(Page 1 of 2)

Back Street is the MAJORITY Population of the United States; NOT Wall Street or Main Street and Back Street is left out of dialogue and consideration.  Main Street is represented by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Wall Street is represented by both Houses of the Congress and the Government of the United States.  Back Street is completely left out of dialogue and consideration and is not represented by the Chamber of Commerce, the Congress of the United States and the Government of the United States.

Why is it that everyone in government and the media are always harping on a propagandistic dichotomy that is inclusive of Wall Street and Main Street and, without exception, always leave out Back Street?

The Populace of the United States, the 70% Majority Common Population of the United States as a class and culture of workers and consumers that constitute the majority of the citizens of the United States, are always left out of political dialogue and consideration by both the Government of the United States and the Media. Wall Street is a minority population, Main Street is a minority population and Back Street is a MAJORITY population.

Democracy does not flow from Wall Street and Main Street.  Democracy flows from Back Street, and Back Street demands to be included in dialogue, consideration and equitable solutions along with Wall Street and Main Street, and so far the Obama Administration, Obama’s Government and the government of the U.S. are not including Back Street in their consideration and equitable solutions in dealing with the effects of the economic collapse of the U.S. Economy caused by Wall Street and the complicit cooperation of Main Street.

The Majority Population of the United States is NOT Main Street

(Page 2 of 2)

The organized protest movements and demonstrations have started and will grow until Back Street becomes a part of the dialogue and the government of the United States and the Congress; and the Media makes Back Street an equitable part of the solution to the economic collapse of the U.S. Economy that was inflicted upon Back Street by Wall Street and Main Street.

There is more to the U.S. Economy than farmers, manufacturers, and bankers, these people constitute Wall Street and Main Street, and exclude Back Street. Back Street is the long suffering citizens of the U.S. that are the workers and consumers from the bottom of the top of the Pyramid of the U.S. Economy to the base of the Pyramid of the U.S. Economy that make the U.S. Economy function and furnish the communal resources to save the U.S. Economy on a cyclical basis when Wall Street and Main Street get greedy, create a financial bubble, collapse that same bubble, and destroy the U.S. Economy.

Back Street is being left out, and is always left out, of consideration and equitable benefit from solutions while being forced by law to provide the money to save the U.S. Economy that excludes Back Street from equity relative to Wall Street and Main Street; this must change.

Back Street is now aware that Back Street is not a part of an equitable solution by the Government of the United States and the U.S. Congress. Agitation and demonstrations have already started with mass demonstrations on the streets. Demonstrations and agitation will increase because Back Street does not have any faith in the government and Congress to do anything other than force them to furnish their communal resources in service to the U.S. Economy that provides benefit only to Wall Street and Main Street and excludes Back Street from benefit from the U.S. Economy;——This must change if revolution against economic oppression and tyranny in the United States is going to be avoided by the government, Congress, and interests of business and industry that receive exclusive benefit from the U.S. Economy at the expense of Back Street, who receive NOTHING,  except the bill to clean up Wall Street and Main Street’s mess. 

Wall Street and Main Street are two singular streets that serve the top of the pyramid that is the U.S. Economy. Back Street is all of those other streets where the American populace of the United States live and are suffering from the self serving greed of Wall Street and Main Street. Wall Street got bailed out with the resources of Back Street for the benefit of Wall Street and Main Street, but Back Street has received no benefit from the bailout, only the bill that they and ten generations of their progeny will have to pay for, so that Wall Street and Main Street can continue to live like Louis XVI, secure in the attitude that if Back Street does not have bread, “Let them eat cake”.  This attitude did not go over well with the Back Street Populace of France and this attitude is not going over well with the Populace of the United States.

If America’s Bastille of Wall Street and Main Street is not to be stormed as occurred in France; Back Street must get equitable benefit from the Pyramid of the U.S. Economy, rather than just the bill and the arrogant attitude that if the American Populace are homeless, hungry, and don’t have bread, “Let them eat cake”.

A Dig compiled by the editors of Truthdig says:

“Getting a grip on the economic catastrophe that rocked the country during the fall of 2008 is no easy feat, what with so many players, back-room deals, bills, upswings and meltdowns to consider.”

ThomasG’s answer:

Privatized Capitalism is a Ponzi Pyramid Scheme

(Page 1 of 2)

Why is Privatized Capitalism a Ponzi Pyramid Scheme?

Privatized Capitalism is a “Ponzi Pyramid Scheme” because those at the TOP of the pyramid get exclusive private benefit, the Revenue Stream of Capital, generated by production and distribution of commodities at the top of the pyramid through the use of labor and consumption of those at the BOTTOM of the pyramid that generate that same capital.

SUPPLY flows from the top of the pyramid, down.

DEMAND flows from the bottom of the pyramid, up.

Supply from the top of the pyramid is limited in number of commodities with regard to demand in number of population from the bottom of the pyramid.

WEALTH is generated for those at the top of the pyramid by means of commerce, supply and demand, which multiplies sales and purchases, WITHOUT multiplying things from the top of the pyramid down to the base of the pyramid; this is called CIRCULATION.

The allocation of Capital and Capital Assets for production and distribution of commodities and expanding demand for those commodities by a downward trajectory of circulation from the top of the pyramid to the bottom of the pyramid diminishes the supply and increases the price of the remaining commodities as the number of individual transactions increase on a downward trajectory from the top to the bottom of the pyramid.

From the top of the pyramid downward, Capital and Capital Assets, the class and cultural means of production and distribution, are class and culturally socialized into private ownership by those at the TOP of the pyramid and used to produce a limited supply of commodities for distribution to the many between the top and the base of the pyramid; as the commodities produced and distributed by those at the top of the pyramid are distributed downward from the top of the pyramid to the base of the pyramid, the supply decreases and the demand increases, as the expanding competition to purchase a limited supply of resources increases on a downward trajectory to the base of the pyramid.