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POPSThe Dysfunctional Duo The Bush Administration sure left its global imprint. But most of our real problem started when America lost its manufacturing base. The economy today is another domino sacrificed in the long-range plan of one world economy. The US dollar has been systematically devalued for the last decade and since 1934 when the gold standard was phased out we've been living on promissory notes. American real estate (commercial and residential) used to be a sure thing until 2004 and now China is buying our junk bonds like we by toilet paper. Last October, Asian and European leaders met to draw up rules for a stronger regulated global monetary and financial system. See: http://answersforthefaith.com/2008/10/26/one-world-economy/ What has happened during the past year only reinforces their resolve to make it happen.
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POPSIs There No Shame on Wall Street? Wall Street fat cats gave themselves billions of dollars in bonuses from tax payers money given to help stimulate the economy. Their idea of a stimulation plan is to keep a large chunk of that money for themselves. A bonus is typically given to employees to show gratification for a job well done. This is unless you work on Wall Street. Evidently they think that if the money is given to them without any oversight to ensure it is used for its intended purpose then the money should go into their own pockets. There once was a time when someone caught red-handed in abusing the public trust and/or misusing funds would feel shame. These days, it seems, are no more. There are people out there who think shame is an indication of naiveté that should be dismissed at all costs. That it belies a certain level of ‘sophistication’. Well, this thinking only serves to make this bad behavior more acceptable and our society is paying a very high price for it.
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POPSBailout is a Windfall to Bankers, not Borrows TARP does not dictate what banks do with the bailout money, but many of us outside the loop were hoping banks would actually participate in the recovery of our troubled economy. Do the banks care whether defaulting homeowners receive assistance? No, because the banks will get their collateral back to be re-sold, they get to keep their tidy windfall package, and the remaining defaulting homeowners will eventually be bailed out by the federal government so the banks get their payments on these loans as well. They are playing us, big time. I can’t help thinking that someone in the federal government is benefiting from this freely flowing money.
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POPSDid the economy meltdown because of statements made?
The 30-page report does not accuse Paulson and Bernanke of lying about the “credit crisis.” But it does say that “It is startling that many of Chairman Bernanke’s and Secretary Paulson’s remarks are not supported or are flatly contradicted by the data provided by the very organizations they lead.” The Celent study says that statements from Paulson and Bernanke about a “credit crisis” affecting businesses, real estate, banks, and state and local governments were just not true. The report says the money supply “has recently increased at a pace never seen before in US history” and could signal a pending bout of hyperinflation. It says the increase is “a staggering 74% in only 84 days” and explains, “Previously, this kind of jump would be seen over the course of a decade or more.” It then concludes by suggesting that the real danger to the U.S. is not a great depression like that of 1929 but a hyperinflationary period comparable to the Weimar Republic in 1922.
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POPSWhy is the U.S. Military Preparing for Civil Disorder? They are anticipating riots in the streets over the economy. But it could be because or freedoms are beginning to be restricted. Now there is news that Homeland Security plans to start monitoring blogs and message boards all over the United States for any signs of suspicious activity. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-12-23-terrorblogs_N.htm?csp=34 Does that include criticizing the government? We have a long history of voicing our opinion against our government officials, and we are not going to give that up that right without a fight. The prospect of military roaming our streets as they do in our airports is distasteful and it will trigger even more protest. Civil disobedience may have been instrumental in formally creating America but it is the people who use civil disobedience as a cover to loot stores and homes that worry me just as much as my fellow Americans pointing their military issue weapons at me for protesting what they are doing.
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POPSPirate Ethics Sam Zell is one of the nastiest predators of the financial market and is an example of why the U.S. economy is going down the toilet. The former CEO was given more than $40 million when Zell took charge. Citigroup and Merrill Lynch were paid $36 million each for being “advisors” on the deal. Morgan Stanley, got $7.5 million just for writing a “fairness opinion,” stating that Zell’s use of the pension fund was Kosher. And Zell? He put up less than 4% of the purchase price to get control of the company, and while he might lose some of that, he cut the deal in a way that makes him a secured creditor. This means that if the Tribune’s assets have to be distributed to creditors as a result of the bankruptcy, Zell will be first in line to get his – standing in front of the employees whose company and pensions he wrecked. If there was more regulation over 'pirate practices' like this our ecoonomy would be in much better shape.
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POPSIMF warns of economic riots Hopefully, this is nothing more than necessary contingency planning, but a separate recent article stated that the Department of Defense plans to deploy 20,000 troops nationwide to help state and local officials respond to ‘nuclear attacks’ and ‘emergencies’. I can’t help but think the emergencies referred to could be riots over our deflating economy. There have already been food riots in Haiti, Bangladesh, and Egypt (http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/04/14/world.food.crisis/) and the way our government uses our money to bailout the banking system without any oversight, and the numbers of jobless and homeless keep increasing, civil unrest is not farfetched. I only have my faith that Americans will not go to this extreme but my faith in Americans have been shattered before.
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POPSBush presidency 'battered', 'incompetent', 'unlucky' Who are these people kidding? They are being far too kind with him. The word I would use to describe him is “criminal”. He set a precedent for spying on American citizens, lied to start a war in order to line his corporate buddies pockets with cash, stomped on the Constitution to give his office more power, run roughshod over habeas corpus, approved the use of torture, appointed incompetent cronies to leadership positions, abused executive privilege to protect criminal activities, is responsible for creating more terrorist than al Qaeda, smothered Americans with a security bureaucracy that has only fostered fear and anger, and run our economy into the ground. The word “Incompetent” doesn’t begin to cover what this administration will be known for.
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POPSRussians with pumpkins protest many U.S. plots Conspiracy theorist run amok. Claiming the U.S. is responsible for WW1 and WW2 so that the American economy could overtake Europe's economy. Farfetched? Likely. Carried out Sept 11 attacks to broaden government powers and planned to brand every person on the planet with the "mark of the beast," as referenced in the Bible. Farfetched? Probably, but not out of the realm of possibility. I agree the U.S. is over-zealous in pushing its idea of democracy onto everyone else. And the cowboy-like demeanor of the Bush/Cheney neocons point to visions of world dominance, but they don't speak for all of us. What we need to take away from this report is that American arrogance needs to be curtailed. We don't want to live an "us vs them" existence. Hopefully the new incoming administration can repair the damage that foreign relations have suffered these past several years.
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POPSWhat makes these millionaires worthy of a bailout? More from the article: "I've been hearing from Republicans all my life about the virtue of capitalism and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps -- but it turns out the bootstraps have to come from the government and the government also does the pulling up? How is that capitalism?" I want to know why the government turned its back while the American auto industry was loosing its shirt to foreign automakers? And why didn't the government step in to stop our industries from moving overseas and leaving nothing but minimum wage jobs behind? These corporate welfare recipients who took advantage of a federal government that allowed an unregulated wholesale ripoff of their fellow Americans deserve to loose everything they own. American ingenuity will get us through this, but it will be a lot easier to do so without Bush and his gang digging the hole deeper while we are digging our way out.
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POPSSocialism Coming to America? Senator Jim DeMint said: “This plan does nothing to address the misguided government policies that created this mess and it could make matters much worse by socializing an entire sector of the U.S. economy. This plan fails to oversee or regulate the government failures that led to this crisis. Instead it greatly increases the role for Secretary Paulson whose market predictions have been consistently wrong in the last year…” So far, there has been no discussion about what got us into this mess and the only solution being talked about is more of the same failed monetary policies. If passed by Congress, Paulson would assume the dictatorial power and authority to designate financial institutions “as financial agents of the Government” and order them to perform “all such reasonable duties related to this Act as financial agents of the Government as may be required of them…” Having so much control over a so called 'free market' negates the very idea of "free".
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POPSEx-Finance Ministers Offer U.S. Economic Advice Will the U.S. be open to advice from anyone else? We Americans have always prided ourselves on being at the 'giving' end of advice. To now realize that other countries think we are in need of it might be a little difficult to swallow. Judging by the way Bush and company have allowed this country to be run to a near stand still due to the wholesale plundering by corporate America, I think the time is right for a little friendly budgetary advice. Whether we are still too proud to take it is another matter.
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POPSWhite to be another minority Why does this matter? Diversity is a necessary component for a healthy and successfully functioning society. The fact that this information is released now is suspect. Right-wingers will somehow use this as evidence of the need for toughter immigration policies. The superficiality of these numbers become more so as more minority members are voted into public office and begin to hold a larger presence in America's economy. Although the government is using race as the measure, it seems what is being alluded to is really a change in culture, with the inaccurate conjecture being that an increase in minorities will not only change how America looks but what it stands for and the values it upholds.
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