It is just possible that Bush’s successor—Obama or Clinton—will see through this charade, although Hillary has already proposed a Blue Ribbon type commission with former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and others whose policies led to the crisis. (Her campaign manager Maggie Williams has now been linked to a defunct mortgage company making subprime loans.)
John McCain has not only admitted he knows nothing about economics, but has advisors whose free market theology seems to be to the right of Paulson and the Fed’s Ben Bernanke who some conservatives fear are already meddling too much in the economy. His key advisor, former Texas Senator Phil Gramm, a Democrat Turned Republican shilled for predatory lenders for years, even denouncing a housing activist as a “terrorist.”
Obama also has a sub-prime link through his Finance Chairman Penny Pritzger who ran a Chicago bank that imploded and owes the government and depositors hundreds of millions. Nevertheless, economics writer Robert Kuttner feels Obama’s ideas, spelled out in a speech last week, are evolving in a progressive direction:
“The speech also showed real understanding and subtlety in grasping how financial ‘innovation’ had outrun regulation, as well as a historical sense of the abuses of the 1920s repeating themselves. Obama is one of the few mainstream leaders — Barney Frank is another — calling for capital requirements to be extended to every category of financial institution that creates credit. This is exactly what’s needed to prevent the next meltdown, but if it were put to a vote now, it would be rejected by legislators from both parties because they are still in thrall to market fundamentalism and Wall Street. That’s where presidential leadership comes in.”
The only candidate challenging the Fed directly has been Congressman Ron Paul, who has been more of a maverick than McCain who loves that title.
We know that those who fail to remember history are doomed to repeat it. The Times article reports:
During the Great Depression, Congress forced the separation of the investment banking and commercial banking industries and set up different regulatory systems for each, which seemed appropriate since the government guaranteed deposits in commercial banks but provided no similar benefit for investment banks.
The wall between the two businesses eroded and was eventually taken down by Congress in the 1990s, and the Bear Stearns case indicates that, at least for some investment banks, the risk of a default is too great to allow.
But the Paulson proposal would not give regulators new powers over other investment banks. The proposed prudential regulator would not have authority, since there is no explicit guarantee of its liabilities, and the Fed would be expected to step in to limit risk taking only if the stability of the financial system were threatened.
The proposal also calls for an early merger of the S.E.C. and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, reflecting the reality that the markets and products they regulate often overlap or compete with one another. The Treasury wants to assure a combined agency would adopt the gentler regulatory approach of the C.F.T.C., which has exempted from regulation many derivatives products that are traded over the counter. The plan also would eliminate the Office of Thrift Supervision, which now oversees savings institutions.
I don't trust this merger. I am certain that the result will lead to LESS regulation, less accountability.
Barney Frank should be VERY careful about this business. He runs a powerful committee and he better keep a very close eye on this. Trillions are riding on his ability to remain independent and tough. This is so big that I sure hope there are independent watchdog organizations looking over Franks shoulders. The temptation to give these huge financial operations with their many tentacles of lobbyist and other influence will be great. Frank could be a hero here or the next Duke Cunningham. I have not reason to suggest that he has currently done anything wrong, but I worry that he's already gone on the record with some positive feedback to Paulson, saying, “It’s a recognition, maybe a reluctant one, that you have to enhance regulation." Sorry congressman Frank, but it is merely the appearance of regulation.
Finally, it will be interesting to see if any of the mainstream media do anything more than stenographically report Paulson's plan. There should be plenty of questions.
Rob Kall is executive editor and publisher of OpEdNews.com, President of Futurehealth, Inc, inventor . He is also published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com. He is a frequent Speaker on Politics, Impeachment, The art, science and power of story, heroes and the hero's journey, Positive Psychology, Stress, Biofeedback and a wide range of subjects. He is a campaign consultant specializing in tapping the power of stories for issue positioning, stump speeches and debates. He recently retired as organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology. See more of his articles here and, older ones, here.
To learn more about me and OpEdNews.com, check out this article.
and there are Rob's quotes, here.
To Watch me on youtube, having a lively conversation with John Conyers, Chair of the House Judiciary committee, click here Now, wouldn't you like to see me on the political news shows, representing progressives. If so, tell your favorite shows to bring me on and refer them to this youtube video
My radio show, The Rob Kall Show, runs 9-10 PM EST Wednesday evenings, on AM 1360, WNJC and is archived on www.whiterosesociety.org Or listen to it streaming, live at either www.wnjc1360.com or here.
A few declarations.
-While I'm registered as a Democrat, I consider myself to be a dynamic critic of the Democratic party, just as, well, not quite as much, but almost as much as I am a critic of republicans.
-My articles express my personal opinion, not the opinion of this website.
If it is NOT KILLED then WE are the Dumbest Nation EVER
What we've seen is:
1) Our current U.S. administration does NOT serve The People's interests
2) Banks are corporations, and make money for their shareholders. They do NOT serve The People's interests.
3) The Federal Reserve is an illegal NON-Federal private banking entity, originally rammed through during a congressional recess, and does NOT serve the People's interests. By it's very existence, creating fiat money out of thin air and loaning it to our government "at interest", it Creates National Debt (thus owned by ALL Americans) and creates Inflation by the printing of unbacked U.S. currency. The U.S. Constitution PROHIBITS the coinage of unbacked "money" by any entity other than the U.S. Treasury.
So the Federal Reserve in reality COUNTERFEITS money. Yet -- here they are. Ask WHY?! Follow the money...
4) WTF would make a rational person "Think" these BANKERS are LOOKING OUT FOR YOU?! Greenspan gets the credit for RESPONISBILITY of the real estate bubble. Bernanke is now carrying the water. Paulson was shot to death I heard -- so who's THIS Paulson. WE CAN'T TRUST ANY OF THIS BUNCH. They are all OWNED by Corporations, Banking Interests and this Current Administration. Americans are in the current situation precisely because we have let the coyotes into the hen house up to this point.
JUST LET THE ROBBERS IN THE FRONT DOOR WOULD YOU ALL!!!
Better let your voice be heard -- Believe me -- YOU CANNOT AFFORD NOT TO WITH THIS CREW!
by
boomerang (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 230 comments)
on Monday, March 31, 2008 at 11:40:32 AM
The vast majority of Americans don't know that the Federal Reserve Bank IS NOT a government agency, it is private bankers - formerly American bankers - their interests now largely owned by multi-national entities.
So we are supposed to allow the World Bank to take control of the American government's banking and economic powers?
This is the end of the world as we know it...
... and I feel sick.
by
Mikael Rudolph (49 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 76 comments)
on Monday, March 31, 2008 at 11:57:56 AM
Rob, it is sad to be reading all this. There is rarely anyone who says, "I did not do my job. I failed you. (Richard Clarke said it, then ran away) I was elected (or appointed) and trusted to represent the people. I failed to uphold my oath to defend the constitution. I seeked the public trust, was given it, and discarded it".
No one. Not one. In Congress. Not one. In the White House. Not one. On the Supreme Court. Not one. In our military. Not one.
Oh, we see a resignation, or a job relocation here and there. But we never see the ownership of accountability. Honor is absent. Honesty is 'off the table'.
It smells of fascism. It tastes utterly foul.
Where are the great men and women who shall lead? I believe they are here, on this site and others. I am trying to figure how I can best serve.
I apologize for the helpless felling I have at this moment. I will come around.
Keep up your efforts Rob. I am so grateful for you and your family that you are no worse for wear after your close call. I had one years ago. Snap your fingers. That fast. Woosh.
My purpose is clearer these days. Not sure how to do it. Working towards it. You are part of my understanding as are a few wonderful folks I've met here.
We the people Rob. It's in the Constitution. Repeatedly. They told us.
I stand as a foe to the disconnect.
peace
by
mikel paul (8 articles, 1 quicklinks, 7 diaries, 348 comments)
on Monday, March 31, 2008 at 1:09:54 PM
Now, hedge funds and investment banks can remain largely unregulated, but their supply chain will be streamlined. Now, they will be able to get U.S. cash for free, straight from the printing presses at the mint every time they threaten an economic hiccup, and we the people get to pay back the Fed.
What a deal!
by
John Sanchez Jr. (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 7 diaries, 1020 comments)
on Monday, March 31, 2008 at 1:16:03 PM
The fox has owned the hen house for a very, very long time. . . along with the farmers house, the outhouse, the dog house . . . the garage, barn, shed, stand, tent and everything else in this country that has a mortgage on it.
Mortgage means the land is not owned free and clear. Allodial title is an estate held in fee simple absolute, free and clear of feudal services and incidents (i.e. not subject to mortgage, taxes, levies, attachments, etc.)
The Crown is the law but the roads all lead to Rome. Washington, D.C. is in Virgin(ia) & Mary(land). The federal government is the 10 square miles known as District of Columbia. The government is a municipal corporation, and it has been bankrupt since before the Great Depression of the 1930's.
The Federal Reserve was created in 1913 and signed into law December 23, 1913, pushed through by Senator Nelson Aldrich and signed by President Wilson, a stooge for the PTB if there ever was one.
What is happening now has been planned since the founding of the country. I've been talking about it for over two (2) years now, and no one wanted to listen. Everyone said I was crazy. Who is crazy now?
"Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men's views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the Field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something.
They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it."
~ President Woodrow Wilson,The New Freedom (1913)
"The real menace of our republic is this invisible government which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy length over city, state and nation. Like the octopus of real life, it operates under cover of a self created screen....At the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller Standard Oil interests and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as international bankers.
The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes.
They practically control both political parties."
~ New York City Mayor John F. Hylan, 1922
"For a long time I felt that FDR had developed many thoughts and ideas that were his own to benefit this country, the United States. But, he didn't. Most of his thoughts, his political ammunition, as it were, were carefully manufactured for him in advanced by the Council on Foreign Relations-One World Money group. Brilliantly, with great gusto, like a fine piece of artillery, he exploded that prepared "ammunition" in the middle of an unsuspecting target, the American people, and thus paid off and returned his internationalist political support.
"The depression was the calculated 'shearing' of the public by the World Money powers, triggered by the planned sudden shortage of supply of call money in the New York money market....
The One World Government leaders and their ever close bankers have now acquired full control of the money and credit machinery of the U.S. via the creation of the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank."
~ Curtis Dall, FDR's son-in-law as quoted in his book, My Exploited Father-in-La
"The real rulers in Washington are invisible, and exercise power from behind the scenes."
~ Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, 1952
"Fifty men have run America, and that's a high figure."
~ Joseph Kennedy, father of JFK, in the July 26th, l936 issue of The New York Times.
"Today the path of total dictatorship in the United States can be laid by strictly legal means, unseen and unheard by the Congress, the President, or the people.
"Outwardly we have a Constitutional government. We have operating within our government and political system, another body representing another form of government - a bureaucratic elite."
Senator William Jenner, 1954
by
Drew Terry (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 23 diaries, 106 comments)
on Monday, March 31, 2008 at 1:28:56 PM
Please contact your two US Senators and your Congressman TODAY and tell them that you oppose the EXPANSION of Federal Reserve’s power. This is one of the most important phone calls and letters you can FAX to your Senator and Congressman.
I have included a sample letter and talking points as well as your Senator and Congressman’s contact information below:
Dear (Senator or Congressman)
I am extremely concerned about President Bush’s plan to give the Federal Reserve more power. Why do I oppose it?
Here is why I oppose it:
BECAUSE, the Federal Reserve is no more federal than Federal Express. And Like Federal Express, you will not find it in the Government pages, you will find it in the business section.
Because, the Federal Reserve is a PRIVATELY OWNED Central Bank.
Because, one of the PRIVATE SHAREHOLDERS of the FED is J.P. MORGAN BANK! And I invite you to recall that JP Morgan recently scooped up BEAR STEARNS for pennies on the dollar,consolidating billions of dollars, while the shareholders got SCREWED, and We The People, the tax payers, get to pay for it!
Because it had a big hand in creating the boom and bust cycles since 1913.
Because itholds much of the blame for our problems that we are experiencing in our economy.
Because to give extreme power to a corporation to fun a people is the very definition of FASCISM!
Instead of giving it MORE power, we should give it LESS power.
( I can Guarantee you that both TX Senators and Rep Culberson have copies of “The Money Masters” and “Money as Debt” because I gave mailed a set to their Washington offices, and hand delivered them to their Houston office. )
Ask them if they watched the “The Money Masters” and “Money as Debt” If they indicate they have not, ask them “WHY NOT?” and encourage them to pay attention to it.
We Need Monetary and Regulatory Policy Reform
Televise Federal Open Market Committee Meetings.An institution as powerful as the Federal Reserve deserves full public scrutiny.
Expand Transparency and Accountability at the Federal Reserve
Pass H.R. 2754 to require the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to continue to make available to the public on a weekly basis information on the measure of the M3 monetary aggregate and its components.
Return Value to Our Money. Legalize gold and silver as a competing currency.
Level the long-term boom and bust business cycle by passing H.R. 4683, which would repeal provisions of the federal criminal code relating to issuing coins of gold, silver, or other metal for use as current money and making or possessing likenesses of such coins.
Regulatory Reform
Repeal Sarbanes/Oxley. It has seriously wounded our capital markets and helped make the UK a financial center at our expense.
Ending these misguided regulations would bring jobs flooding back to the United States
Pass H.R. 1049 to reform Sarbanes-Oxley and reduce the burden it places on small businesses.
Repeal or Remove Costly and Unnecessary Federal Regulations. Neighbors know best how to help their neighbors.
We need to make it easier for community banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions to better serve their communities and to help people in these communities get access to credit and capital.
Pass H.R. 1869 to enhance the ability of community banks to foster economic growth and serve their communities, boost small businesses, increase individual savings, and for other purposes.
1)Today, the federal government burdens us with one of the most dangerous taxes it can impose — the inflation tax. When the federal government finds that it cannot afford its out-of-control spending, and is unwilling to directly tax the public, it resorts simply to creating the money out of thin air.
Inflating the money supply is the easiest form of financing the government. The Federal Reserve, an unelected and unaccountable private organization, pumps more dollars into the economy whenever it chooses. Because the public is forced to accept these bills, the Fed essentially gets away with legally counterfeiting. We cannot possibly expect the government to control spending when it has a blank checkbook.
This greatly benefits the politicians and special interests — they are able to finance the massive welfare-warfare state. But how does this inflation affect you?
Basic economics tells us that the more there is of a good, the less valuable it becomes. This is also true of money. The dollar is worth four cents of what it was when the Federal Reserve was created in 1913.
Day by day, every dollar you have is being devalued. You pay an inflation tax without even realizing it because you are forced by a falling dollar to pay more for goods and services.
The disastrous fiscal policies of our own government, marked by shameless deficit spending and Federal Reserve currency devaluation, are some of the greatest threats facing our nation today. It is this one-two punch — Congress spending more than it can tax or borrow, and the Treasury printing money to make up the difference — that threatens to impoverish us by further destroying the value of our dollars.
By legalizing competing currencies, we can end the Federal Reserve’s stranglehold on our money supply and begin to restore value to the dollar. But Congress will continue to spend extravagantly until we the people make our views known at the ballot box.
by
SwampFox (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 3 comments)
on Monday, March 31, 2008 at 2:33:15 PM
Abolish the Fed, audit it, prosecute the Board and the Fed bank's owners for treason (the ones that are US nationals)
“Unless you become more watchful in your States and check this spirit of monopoly and thirst for exclusive privileges, you will in the end find that the most important powers of Government have been given or bartered away, and the control of your dearest interests have been passed into the hands of these corporations.”
“If congress has the right under the Constitution to issue paper money, it was given them to use themselves, not to be delegated to individuals or corporations.” -Andrew Jackson
“The Government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency and credit needed to satisfy the spending power of the Government and the buying power of consumers. The privilege of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of Government, but it is the Government’s greatest creative opportunity. By the adoption of these principles… the taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest. Money will cease to be master and become the servant of humanity.” -Abraham Lincoln
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs -Thomas Jefferson
“History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance.”
“If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy”
-James Madison
by
Better World Order (4 articles, 404 quicklinks, 25 diaries, 874 comments)
on Monday, March 31, 2008 at 2:43:27 PM
You are right on the money! The Fed is not a branch of the federal government but a cabal of private banks making money and then charging the American people interest on it, through their income taxes. Read my article on OpEd and elsewhere (Jobs, the Dollar, the Fed, and the Next Great Depression). Their final intent is to institute the North American Union, the Amero, and the New World Order.
by
Jeanne Roberts (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 21 comments)
on Monday, March 31, 2008 at 3:10:02 PM
Who is going to stop them? And to those who are in denial, this is the real deal! If we do make it through all of this i.e. an attack on Iran, then prepare for the Amero which will be soon to follow. Because the dollar won't be worth the paper it is printed on.
America had better wake the F' up! We should be in the streets demanding our country back before it's too late! It probably already is. Do the American people truly understand that criminals are running our government? I don't believe they do!
by
Munich (0 articles, 52 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 726 comments)
on Monday, March 31, 2008 at 6:58:57 PM
‘Hank’ Paulson’s stage performance this morning did not have the dramatic effect ofFED Chair Charles Mitchell rushing onto the floor of the NYSE in 1929 and shouting that “there is organized support from the banks’ as he placed ‘buys’ for $10M in stocks.
Fortunately, neither will Paulson’s staged performance be as effective as FDR’s in “saving capitalism from itself.”
After all, one must keep in mind that Paulson’s pledge of financial reform “focused on the public good”, as he said, comes from the key financial member of the Bush administration, which Al Gore, in his fabulous new book, “The Assault on Reason” accurately characterized as a “radical right-wing corporatist ‘faction’ which holds in utter contempt the very concept that such a thing as ‘a public interest’ even exists.”
No, Paulson’s cheap melodrama will not save crony capitalism from itself again --- and it is probably only intended to try to save the ‘capital markets’ of the US in any case.
The Bush administration’s ‘Vichy’ façade hiding this corporatist Empire, and arguably the corporatist Democrats also, don’t give a damn about ‘the public interest’ of average Americans, and would be delighted if they could only save the few tens of thousands of elitist investors in New York City, Greenwich, and the Hamptons, who control their precious ‘capital markets’, while watching the vast working-class neighborhoods and factories of the US disappear.
As the ruling-elite class of Britain says more honestly than their guileful American peers, “Bloody good show, Hank”.“Capital idea, Paulson.Capital idea!”
Yes, the only idea that Paulson revealed is just that, the ‘capital idea’ of maintaining American’s ‘capital markets’ while the rest of our country, our economy, and our population of average citizens decays to third world standards.
But fortunately, this ‘corporatist faction’ (as Gore tags it) and this ‘corporatist Empire’ (as I call it) hiding behind the two-party ‘Vichy’ faux government that has almost totally captured our country is not going to make a successful Willie Sutton get-away from the bank this time.
No, the good people of the US recognize crooks, even those wearing three-piece suits and talking the kind of phony economic jive that’s only based on zero-sum, negative externality ‘gaming’ of the system.No, economic benefits don’t ‘trickle down’ hill, and we now recognize that the warm feeling on our leg is just elitist crooks’ trickle.
If Paulson, Bush and the like are fondly envisioning acquiescent, patient, and well-behaved soup-lines queuing up for GD II as they did in Great Depression I they are due for a rude awakening.Paraguay is not far enough away, George.Think more in terms of ‘thumbs’ and ‘rope’.
by
Alan MacDonald (10 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 50 comments)
on Monday, March 31, 2008 at 3:25:46 PM
Goldman Sachs, back in the days when I traded daily, made some of the sleaziest plays I have ever seen. When do we ever come to the realization that we must take the corporations out of the election equation. We need to make Lobbying, PAC's and political contributions of any sort, punishable by the death penalty. All political campaigns should be financed by the government at the same rate, each candidate gets the same amount of money, each gets a website and two hours a week of prime-time TV and Radio to plead their candidacy and that is it. We cannot continue to allow people running for office to accept money from The Military, (Medical) Industrial complex. Nor can we continue to allow anyone holding political office to accept lobby favors or money, in fact lobbying must be eliminated. We know that why do not the congress? Well now we have another slime-ball running the show!
Or type in your browser: "the biggest scam in history". it should take you to the Federal Reserve beginnings and thru to day. John F Kennedy tried to stop the Federal reserve, he took a bullet. Abe Lincoln tried to stop the Fed reserve, he likewise took a bullet.
Rothchilds go way back and here is Meyer Rothchild's words "Let me issue and control a nations's money, and I care not who writes the Laws.".Mayer Amchel Rothchild (1743- 1812) had this all planned. Their last goal was to destroy Democracy. They have about succeeded if you ask me.
I tried to copy the link but it wouldn't work. Hope the words get you connected. it's a good read.
by
shirley reese (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 257 comments)
on Monday, March 31, 2008 at 5:34:31 PM
This is a bunch of bullshit, look at the way it led ever corporate and pocket media site this morning. This is just another derivitative of the "SURGE" product line of propananda chopped up and packaged as easily digestible lemming food.
All that this does is consolidate more power in the Fed, that unelected quasi governmental tool of the globalist high rollers and allow all of the treasonous looters of Wall Street to slime off the hook in order to avoid the unlikely prospect that one of the Democratic party whores may or may not try to regulate this giant scam that has the world economy on the brink of collapse.
FDR called these bastards for what they are "Economic Royalists" and this cheesy little charade that is designed solely to protect their fat and pampered asses needs to be denounced as the preposterous piece of folderol that it truly is.
Just my two cents
EE
by
Ed Encho (6 articles, 10 quicklinks, 54 diaries, 371 comments)
on Monday, March 31, 2008 at 6:10:25 PM
The Machiavellan Principle is "Alive and Prospering"
In the same spirit that the 911 fiasco "opened a can of worms" for this most recent gaggle of souless "powermongers", the misbehavings of "Bear Stench...errr Stearns" is furthering their "dirty little deeds". Nothing is by accident, merely an end to the means of a certain class of subhumans who could give a rat's ass regarding the betterment of humankind. In our brief history our legal system has given death sentences to people who have committed far lessor crimes against humanity than the current bunch "occupying" the whitehouse....go figure. Personally, I'm beyond "ad nauseum" and am daily thankful that our life spans are only 70+ years....we are definitely heading for a place that I have no interest in being a part of.
by
Galen (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 33 comments)
on Monday, March 31, 2008 at 6:46:41 PM
Common lies of Iraq troop 'surge' and FED funding 'surge'
Ed you make a cogent point. regarding the identical strategies of 'shock doctrine' capitalism in Iraq and on Wall Street.
Watching 'Hank' Paulson on several Sunday shows last week he was asked about the radical decision of bailing out the 'investment bank' Bear Stearns and whether this represented a 'moral hazard'.
Paulson hemmed and hawed something to the extent that, "what's most important now is to stabilize our financial markets currently and for the future, not to assess blame for what's already occurred."
With this answer, it occurred to me that Paulson was taking the exact same position on the economy, which has been gamed and destroyed by the ruling elite corporatist Empire, as Bush is taking on Iraq --- which has also been attacked and destroyed by the same ruling elite corporatist Empire in an insane attempt to 'game' its oil wealth
In both cases; the economy in shatters, and Iraq in shatters, the answer (or excuse) of the very same radical right, neocon, corporatist Empire that violated rules, regulations, laws and lied about plunging both Iraq and the US economy into an 'entirely predicable' abyss for its own greed says only ----
"Well, the damage has already been done, and instead of arguing about what happened in the past when the initial mistakes were make in Iraq or with deregulating banking laws, we've got the reality to face right now, from this point on, and the best we can do is to take the actions that are now required to stabilize the situation --- because arguing about walking away from Iraq or causing 'moral hazard' among investors will just make things worse.Let's just surge the troops, and surge the money, to stabilize the problem we're facing right now."
Paulson accidentally, but more accurately than he can imagine, put his finger precisely on the common theme of the corporatist Empire at the heart of both our disaster in Iraq and our disastrous economy ---- both have been caused by exactly the same criminal ruling elite corporatist Empire, hiding behind the façade of this phony, two-party 'Vichy' government which has totally taken over the US and is abusing both our national military power and our financial resources to engorge itself with oil and money wealth ----- and then throwing up its hands and saying, "Well, we simply have to suck it up and use taxpayer money (and lives) to fix these predictable mistakes --- that we say were never predictable", but which all facts and history show were indeed entirely predictable!
If the entirely predictable disasters of Iraq and the criminally deregulated US financial industry are not perfect examples of Naomi Kline's "Shock Doctrine" of imperial capitalism, then I don't know what would be.
Thanks Hank for the examples of empire.Heck of a job, Hankie.Hank should get the Empire Medal of faux-Freedom!
by
Alan MacDonald (10 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 50 comments)
on Monday, March 31, 2008 at 8:11:15 PM
