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Unfinished Business: Tasks Ignored During the Bush Reign of Horror

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Admit that the planet is in peril.  Acknowledge our role in causing the problem.   Accept leadership in solving it and get to work.

Revive the economy based on real products and services and make sure everyone does well.  End the looting by banks and other dubious enterprises and punish those responsible.

Rebuild the United States of America wherever needed.

Provide health care services to citizens and disregard the nonsense about not being able to afford it.  It's only fair to ask  those who say it can't be done to sacrifice their own health care until they find a solution.

A Solid Dose of Reality to Start:  The Political "Numbers Racket"


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We've seen the rapacious looting of the U. S. Treasury by banks and other corporations that have failed miserably.  In a state of panic, their Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson, took the money we paid in taxes and gave it to these corporate failures.  There are few strings attached and little to no accountability for Paulson's actions, a former Wall Street executive who has rewarded his old company, Goldman Sachs, with billions.

Since the bailout bill passed, he's already given away $350 billion without any oversight and the bag man, the Federal Reserve, refuses to tell Congress any details about where the money went.

This is nothing new.  They've just "kicked it up" to a much higher level of theft.  It's the latest in a series of betrayals by the "masters of the universe" who clam to produce the wonders of our economic system.

It's been largely smoke and mirrors.  Citizens are right when they complain about exported jobs, free trade that punishes U.S. workers and businesses, and the difficulties of simply getting by in a rough economy.  At the same time, we are confounded and confused by the propagandists and their Matrix version of the economy which claims "it's all good."  It isn't.  In fact, the economy is much worse than we've been told for decades.

Political adjustments to measures of unemployment began in the 1960's followed by distortions of inflation shortly thereafter.  When a downturn occurred, the numbers were adjusted and distorted further as an obvious "opiate for the masses."  It worked to keep interest rates low, spur housing booms, and even wilder schemes, while denying Social Security beneficiaries' real adjustments in their payments.

This "numbers racket" also clouded common sense judgments by the public.  How bad can it be?  Look at those unemployment figures!  Maybe it's just me?

If the numbers don't fit, just adjust the assumptions, change the rules of the game, and create a parallel reality.  The first targets in the unreal representation of the economy were unemployment and inflation rates. The blue line represents the rate of inflation by the pre 1980's standards.  No wonder times are tough.

The blue line represents a realistic rate of inflation.  
Shadow Government Statistics
(Full size)


When Alan Greenspan, an architect of this change, said that we had conquered inflation, he was about as accurate and truthful as he was when he said that home equity lines and adjustable rate mortgages were a great way to take equity out of your home so you could put it in the stock market.

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www.themoneyparty.org

Michael Collins is a writer in the DC area who researches and comments on the corruptions of the new millennium. His articles focus on the financial manipulations of The Money Party, the abuse of power by government, and features on elections and (more...)
 

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You said it, Brother by Rady Ananda on Monday, Nov 17, 2008 at 6:38:10 PM
Thanks. We have to watch for the "empire" talk and by Michael Collins on Monday, Nov 17, 2008 at 11:24:26 PM