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September 18, 2008 at 13:07:47
Promoted to Headline (H2) on 9/18/08: by Kevin Gosztola Page 1 of 5 page(s) |
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Why not take a step back from it all and look at the idiosyncrasies of the situation? In a segment on The Daily Show w/ Jon Stewart, Stewart said, “Don’t worry. Lehman’s commercial real estate is insured by the massive American International Group better known as “Notorious A.I.G.”, which today nearly collapsed. Why? Because A.I.G. sought to solve their financial problems by lending money to themselves. Try that sometime.” He went on to show a clip of Bush responding to the event and uttering with peaceful serenity, “Americans are concerned about the adjustments that are taking place in our financial markets.” And then he juxtaposed that insensitive remark with clips of the media wigging out in reaction to what happened on Wall Street. The media described what happened as, “blood on the floor”, “a financial tsunami”, “nightmare on Wall Street”, “the atomic bomb”, “a financial hurricane”, and “almost Armageddon.” 
This led Stewart to characterize the situation by saying: “The state of the American economy [lies] somewhere between the four horsemen riding steeds and wielding blades of fury over a charred hulls cape and something you get at your chiropractor. That’s your range, America! Go confidently and plan your financial future.”
Stewart demanded to hear an expert speak to the situation, and the Herman Munster-like Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson came forward. But first, Dana Perino had this introduction to give:
“Secretary Paulson has graciously given us some of his time today. He doesn’t have an endless supply of it so please keep that in mind.”
In other words, thank you for coming, press, but Mr. Paulson really is not in the mood for your attempts to collect information that might help the public better understand the crisis our economy is experiencing.
After Perino warned the press, Paulson stepped up to speak and the first thing he said was, “Good afternoon everyone and I hope you all had an enjoyable weekend.”
Stewart commented on this saying, “[laughter] you’re bad at what you do. I hope [that] little joke distracted you from the fact that you’ve lost everything. Hey, here’s an economic indicator. The economy is so bad that the first thing the Treasury Secretary does is protect his own job.”
A clip came on with Paulson saying “the president has been a great boss” and “he’s been focused on the right thing” and “I strongly support his economic policies.”
As McCain would say, “The fundamentals are strong.” But, anybody who is reading this probably thinks otherwise. You might actually find yourself identifying with and praising a man who many Americans love to ridicule, shoo away, and ignore.
For those struggling to comprehend and understand fully (like myself) what took place on Wall Street this week, it only makes sense to me to use Ralph Nader's writing and rhetoric because it is a result of a mind that looks through a lens which rejects the two-party system. Since Democrats and Republicans bear a huge responsibility for what has happened, obviously, anything written or said by Nader because of this rejection will not leave out important details. Details that would be left out if you simply asked a Democrat or Republican to describe the situation will be mentioned. And with Nader, you can always count on him to go straight to the core of the situation, address it, provide a solution, and explain why Democrats and Republicans will fail at implementing or working towards such a solution.
Ralph Nader, as Politico reports, “predicted this” and had been “writing about this “five, 10 years ago.”
Nader said, “Pure greed, coupled with concentrated power on Wall Street and elsewhere” brought about this mess.
Ralph Nader wrote a letter on July 23, 2008, to Senator Chris Dodd, the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and Congressman Barney Frank, the Chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services. The letter suggested that the House and Senate “jointly hold hearings on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s ability to deal with potential bank failures in the next several years.”
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Welcome to the Fascist States of America
An excellent article, but more of a discussion of the symptoms than the disease. The first major thing that fostered the current climate was the so-called "Santa Clara decision," which gave corporations "personhood" under the law. This allowed them to use rights originally written to protect freed slaves to free themselves of local (state) government regulations. Coupled with advantages granted to corporate charters, and being, in effect, immortal, corporations have been able to trample the rights of regular citizens. (See the excellent book, "Unequal Protection" by Thom Hartmann.) As far as I know, Nader is the only candidate who has uttered the words "Santa Clara" when discussing the current situaion. The feds kept a reasonable choke-chain on corporations anyway until recently, when power was abdicated to the WTO through the NAFTA, CAFTA and GATT treaties. This allowed corporations to overturn U.S. court decisions by owning and operating their own court which, by treaty, is the higher authority. (Only a supply-sider could have agreed with such a situation!) In short, the states cannot revoke a corporation's charter; U.S. courts have no more authority than granted to them by the "higher" WTO; corporations can write their own rules. As we can see, the free-market supply-siders are now getting a first-hand lesson as to why at least SOME oversight and regulation is necessary. Too bad the lesson came too late. If you think things are bad now, you ain't seen nothin' yet! by Stuart Chisholm (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 22 comments [11 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Sep 18, 2008 at 7:06:50 PM  (0+)
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Reply: I'm only aware of the symptoms
Now, as what transpires becomes what we all too often refer to as "the past", I will read up on the disease that caused the symptoms. Thank you. by Kevin Gosztola (302 articles, 146 quicklinks, 81 diaries, 1082 comments [77 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Sep 18, 2008 at 9:21:28 PM (0+)
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THE DIAGNOSIS
I agree that what we are seeing here is the birth pains of a modern day fascist state. Many elements are required to fulfill the definition of fascist, but chief among them is a merger of private corporations and government, with profit remaining primarily in private hands, but with loses being socialized throughout the masses. From this wellspring, all other elements will flow. by W.M.L. (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 537 comments [52 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Friday, Sep 19, 2008 at 12:42:55 AM (0+)
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Under China's Thumb
The Communists have won the war and will soon own all of America. China just bought Morgan Stanley. by Gallaher (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 990 comments [34 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Friday, Sep 19, 2008 at 8:46:54 AM (0+)
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politics again
*De-regulation of banking industry began in 1999 under Clinton *continued 3.5 years ago with Democratic Congress de-regulating corporate banking, real estate industry, Hedge Funds, etc. *Obama's financial advisors - heads of Fannie Mae & Freddi Mac's fiasco. *For the record, McCain tried to pass legislation to stop this in 2005 predicting what was to happen and named Fannie M & Freddi M - shot down by our own, yes the Democrats. *Chris Dodd, Obama, Kerry - in that order- made the most off Fannie Mae. In fact, Obama got a sweetheart mortgage deal from Fannie Mae. *raising taxes is the worse thing you can do in today's economy - Obama voted 94/94 times to raise taxes, and not only for $250k and above, but also for $42 - its a fact and you can look it up. *McCain is correct, the US bones are just fine, look the market bounced back a bit today. Yes, the financial industry needs a big ol' sweep. McCain/Palin can do that. He is NOT George Bush and its not going to be more of the same. that's the liberal scare tactic. He has a record of working with both sides and neither he or Palin are affraid of facing off against corrupt republicans. Obama has NO RECORD of working with others. Get the facts and stop negative, scare tactic lies from the crazy left. A Democrat for McCain by CW Blanchett on Friday by CW Blanchett (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 34 comments) on Friday, Sep 19, 2008 at 8:55:31 AM (0+)
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