Filed under: bailout, bank bailout, Barack Obama, Big Banks, chris dodd, Dictatorship, dodd bill, Economic Collapse, economic crisis, Economy, Empire, Goldman Sachs, government regulation, Great Depression, job market, obama, obama deception, SEC, small business, Taxpayers, unemployment, US Economy, Wall Street | Tags: bailout authority, brad sherman, David Vitter, small business, startups, venture capital investing
Dodd Bill KILLS Jobs, Creates Permanent Bailout
NoWorldSystem.com
April 21, 2010
Today, Obama promoted another government takeover bill, this time the financial sector is the target. The bill is basically a sweetheart deal for the banking industry, much like how ObamaCare was a bailout for the insurance companies. The 1,408 page bill includes many provisions like the creation of a permanent and unlimited bailout authority for Wall Street and has the potential for making it difficult for small businesses to succeed.
Obama claims the bill will “put a stop to tax-payer-funded bailouts” when in reality the bill will create a permanent and unlimited bailout mechanism for the big banks and companies that are ‘too big to fail’. “If you liked the bailouts in 2008, you’ll love the Dodd bill,” said Republican Senator David Vitter. “Congressional Democrats and the Obama Administration want to create a permanent bailout mechanism all while spouting their rhetoric of getting tough on Wall Street, but if you look at who is already lining up to support their ‘reform’ measure it’s a who’s who of the big banks that have already received the taxpayer bailout the first time.”
Democrat Congressman Brad Sherman agrees: “There are serious problems with the Dodd bill. The Dodd bill has unlimited executive bailout authority. That’s something Wall Street desperately wants but doesn’t dare ask for.”
The rhetoric by Obama today is just another example of how he slaps the hands of Wall Street to only make sure they prosper on tax-payer-funded bailouts by giving them complete authority. Not only that, but this bill will break the back of small business by placing restrictions on venture capital investing making it harder for small startup businesses to succeed.
Here are a few quotes from a Venture Beat article:
- “First, Dodd’s bill would require startups raising funding to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and then wait 120 days for the SEC to review their filing. A second provision raises the wealth requirements for an “accredited investor” who can invest in startups – if the bill passes, investors would need assets of more than $2.3 million (up from $1 million) or income of more than $450,000 (up from $250,000). The third restriction removes the federal pre-emption allowing angel and venture financing in the United States to follow federal regulations, rather than face different rules between states.”
“Obviously, I’m deeply concerned about Senator Dodd’s proposal to place these restrictions on angel investing. I think angel investing is undeniably one of the largest engines for job creation as well as innovation and competitiveness on the global scale for the United States. There’s no doubt about it that the restrictions that he’s proposing would absolutely chill investing.
“Specifically, one of the things we need to take into account is while 10 years ago it may have taken years to build a company, companies are now built in a matter of weeks. So this 120-day waiting period is frankly ridiculous. I have companies with tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of users that are built in a matter of weeks. They’re generating actual dollars of revenue, creating jobs, investing in real estate office space, capital equipment, etc. If they had to wait 120 days to actually apply for the ability to obtain financing it would absolutely just crush that market.”
Obama is one of the biggest puppets for Wall Street, despite all the rhetoric he uses against them. Obama’s greatest allies are the big banks and most of his important constituents are wall street financiers. In 2008, Obama’s campaign was mostly funded by Wall Street, banks like AIG, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs all played a major financial role for his presidency taking in $15 million from securities and investment firms, $3 million from commercial banks, and $6 million from other financial institutions.
Obama and the Democrats in Congress will try to rush this bill in before the American people have the chance to find out what’s in it. Just like ObamaCare, they will use non-transparent and secretive tactics to make sure it becomes law. The bill is likely to hit the floor of the Senate as early as next week.
Why The Dodd Finance Bill Is Bad For America
Is Goldman Obama’s Enron? No, it’s worse
Will Obama Return $994,795 In Goldman Sachs Campaign Contributions?
Obama Now Pushing Sneaky Wall Street Bailout
Obama-Dodd financial bill would further enrich Goldman Sachs
Filed under: aristocrats, bailout, bank bailout, Bank of England, bankruptcy, bernanke, Big Banks, Carbon Tax, Co2, co2 tax, Credit Crisis, DEBT, depopulation, depression, despotism, devaluation, Dictatorship, Dollar, dollar drop, dollar dump, Economic Collapse, economic crisis, economic depression, Economy, Empire, environmental taxation, Eugenics, Fascism, Federal Reserve, GDP, global currency, global economy, global elite, global government, Global Warming, Great Depression, Greenback, hyperinflation, imf, Inflation, internationalist, main street, malthusian, malthusian catastrophe, middle class, New World Order, NWO, obama deception, oligarchy, One World Government, Population Control, Propaganda, ruling class, SDRs, single currency, slavery, Stock Market, Taxpayers, third world, US Economy, Wall Street, webster tarpley, World Bank, world currency, world government
America’s Impending Master Class Dictatorship
cryptogon.com
January 23, 2010
Holy shit, this one will scorch your eyeballs!
Forget my excerpts. Click through and read the whole thing. Highly recommended.
Via: Kitco:
Thanks to the endless barrage of feel-good propaganda that daily assaults the American mind, best epitomized a few months ago by the “green shoots,” everything’s-coming-up-roses propaganda touted by Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, the citizens have no idea how disastrous the country’s fiscal, monetary and economic problems truly are. Nor do they perceive the rapidly increasing risk of a totalitarian nightmare descending upon the American Republic.
One stark and sobering way to frame the crisis is this: if the United States government were to nationalize (in other words, steal) every penny of private wealth accumulated by America’s citizens since the nation’s founding 235 years ago, the government would remain totally bankrupt.
According to the Federal Reserve’s most recent report on wealth, America’s private net worth was $53.4 trillion as of September, 2009. But at the same time, America’s debt and unfunded liabilities totaled at least $120,000,000,000,000.00 ($120 trillion), or 225% of the citizens’ net worth. Even if the government expropriated every dollar of private wealth in the nation, it would still have a deficit of $66,600,000,000,000.00 ($66.6 trillion), equal to $214,286.00 for every man, woman and child in America and roughly 500% of GDP. If the government does not directly seize the nation’s private wealth, then it will require $389,610 from each and every citizen to balance the country’s books. State, county and municipal debts and deficits are additional, already elephantine in many states (e.g., California, Illinois, New Jersey and New York) and growing at an alarming rate nationwide. In addition to the federal government, dozens of states are already bankrupt and sinking deeper into the morass every day.
…
It is estimated that the top 1% of Americans control roughly 40% of the nation’s wealth. In other words, 3 million people own $21,400,000,000,000.00 ($21.4 trillion) in net private assets, while the other 305 million own the remaining $32,000,000,000,000.00 ($32 trillion). 77,000,000 (77 million) Americans (the lowest 25%) have mean net assets of minus $2,300 ($-2,300.00) per person; they live from paycheck to paycheck, or on public assistance. The lower 50% of Americans own mean net assets of $27,800 each, about enough to purchase a modest car. Obviously, it would be impossible to retire on such an amount without significant government or other assistance. Meanwhile, the richest 10% of Americans possess mean net assets of $3,976,000.00 each, or 143 times those of the bottom 50%; the top 2% control assets worth more than 1,500 times those in the bottom 50%. When you combine these facts with Wall Street’s typical multi-million dollar annual bonuses, you get an idea of wealth inequality in America. Historically, such extreme inequality has been a well-documented breeding ground for totalitarianism.
If the government decides to expropriate (steal) or commandeer (e.g., force into Treasuries) America’s private wealth in order to buy survival time, such a measure will be designed to destroy the common citizens, not the elite. Insiders will be given advance warning about any such plan, and will be able to transfer their money offshore or into financial vehicles immune from harm. Assuming that the elite moves its money to safety, there would then be $120,000,000,000,000.00 ($120 trillion) in American debt and liabilities supported by only $32,000,000,000,000.00 ($32 trillion) in private net worth, for a deficit of $88,000,000,000,000.00 ($88 trillion). In that case, each American would owe $285,714.29 to balance the country’s books. (Remember to multiply this amount by every person in your household, including any infant children.)
If the common people suspect that something diabolical was in the works, a portion of the $32 trillion in non-elite wealth could be evacuated as well prior to a government expropriation and/or currency devaluation, resulting in less money for the government to steal. What these statistics mean is that it is absolutely impossible for the government to fund its debt and deficits, even if it steals all of the nation’s private wealth. Therefore, the government’s only solutions are either formal bankruptcy (outright debt repudiation and the dismantling of bankrupt government programs) or unprecedented American monetary inflation and debt monetization. If the government chooses to inflate its way out of this fiscal catastrophe, the United States dollar will essentially become worthless. You can be absolutely certain that a PhD. in economics, such as Dr. Bernanke, is well aware of these realities, despite what he might say in speeches. For that matter, so are Chinese schoolchildren, who, when patronized by Treasury Secretary Geithner about America’s “strong dollar,” laughed in his face. One day, perhaps America’s school children will receive a real education so that they, too, will know when to laugh at absurd propaganda.
…
These deficits and debts are now so gargantuan that they have become surreal abstractions impossible even for sophisticated financiers to begin to comprehend. The common citizen has absolutely no idea what these numbers mean, or imply for his or her future. The people have been deluded into thinking that America’s arrogant, egomaniacal, always-wrong-but-never-in-doubt fiscal witch doctors and charlatans, including Greenspan, Rubin, Summers, Geithner and Ponce de Bernanke, have discovered a Monetary Fountain of Youth that endlessly spits up free money from the center of earth, in a geyser of good will toward the United States. Unfortunately, this delusion is false: there is no Monetary Fountain of Youth, and contrary to the apparent beliefs of the self-deified man-gods in Washington, D.C., the debt and deficits are real, completely out of control, and 100% guaranteed to create catastrophic consequences for the nation and its people.
When government “representatives” deliberately sell into slavery the citizens of a so-called free Republic, they have committed treason against those people. This is exactly what has happened in the United States: the citizens have been sold into debt slavery that they and their descendants can never escape, because the debts piled onto their backs can never, ever be paid. Despite expensive and sophisticated brainwashing campaigns emanating from Washington, claiming that America can “grow” out of its deficits and debt, it is arithmetically impossible for the country to do so. The government’s statements that it can dig the nation out of its fiscal hole by digging an even deeper chasm have become parodies and perversions of even totally discredited and morally disgusting Keynesianism.
The people no longer have elected representatives; they have elected traitors.
The enslavement of the American people has been orchestrated by a pernicious Master Class that has taken the United States by the throat. This Master Class is now choking the nation to death as it accelerates its master plan to plunder the people’s dwindling remaining assets. The Master Class comprises politicians, the Wall Street money elite, the Federal Reserve, high-end government (including military) officials, government lobbyists and their paymasters, military suppliers and media oligarchs. The interests and mindset of the Master Class are so totally divorced from those of the average American citizen that it is utterly tone deaf and blind to the justifiable rage sweeping the nation. Its guiding ethics of greed, plunder, power, control and violence are so alien to mainstream American culture and thought that the Master Class might as well be an enemy invader from Mars. But the Master Class here, it is real and it is laying waste to America. To the members of the Master Class, the people are not fellow-citizens; they are instruments of labor, servitude and profit. At first, the Master Class viewed the citizens as serfs; now that they have raped and destroyed the national economy, while in the process amassing unprecedented wealth and power for themselves, they see the people as nothing more than slaves.
Know Your Enemy-The Oligarchs
Filed under: AIG, bailout, bank bailout, bankergate, Big Banks, central bank, corruption, Credit Crisis, DEBT, deception, despotism, Deutsche Bank, devaluation, Dictatorship, Dollar, dollar collapse, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Empire, end the fed, Federal Reserve, geithner, Goldman Sachs, Great Depression, Greenback, hyperinflation, Inflation, main street, Merrill Lynch, middle class, obama bailout, obama deception, scandal, SEC, Société Générale, Taxpayers, Tim Geithner, Wall Street
SEC Orders AIG Info Sealed Until November… 2018!
Business Insider
January 12, 2010
Good news. It looks as though we’ll be getting access to secret data on the bailout of AIG and its counterparties.
The bad news: We’re going to have to wait until November of 2018, according to Matthew Goldstein at Reuters.
- In May, the SEC approved a request by AIG to keep secret an exhibit to a year-old regulatory filing that includes some of the details on the most controversial aspect of the AIG bailout: the funneling of tens of billions of dollars to big banks like Societe Generale, Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) and Merrill Lynch.
The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance, in granting AIG’s request for confidential treatment, said the “excluded information” will not be made public until Nov. 25, 2018, according to a copy of the agency’s May 22 order.
The SEC said the insurer had demonstrated the information in the exhibit, called Schedule A, “qualifies as confidential commercial or financial information.” More
By then, Wall Street will have significantly recycled many people (and probably some more firms) and perhaps the American public just won’t care about how Tim Geithner helped bail out a gigantic black hole of a firm, upon which so many ostensibly rock solid firms had their foundation.
Filed under: bailout, bank bailout, Barney Frank, Big Banks, Congress, corruption, DEBT, deception, Dollar, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Great Depression, Greenback, H.R. 4173, House, hypocrisy, main street, middle class, Senate, Taxpayers, Too Big to Fail, US Economy, Wall Street | Tags: Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
Bankers Get $4 Trillion Gift From Barney Frank
Cryptogon
December 30, 2009
Via: Bloomberg:
I quickly discovered why members of Congress rarely read legislation like this. At 1,279 pages, the “Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act” is a real slog. And yes, I plowed through all those pages. (Memo to Chairman Frank: “ystem” at line 14, page 258 is missing the first “s”.)
The reading was especially painful since this reform sausage is stuffed with more gristle than meat. At least, that is, if you are a taxpayer hoping the bailout train is coming to a halt.
If you’re a banker, the bill is tastier. While banks opposed the legislation, they should cheer for its passage by the full Congress in the New Year: There are huge giveaways insuring the government will again rescue banks and Wall Street if the need arises.
Nuggets Gleaned
Here are some of the nuggets I gleaned from days spent reading Frank’s handiwork:
– For all its heft, the bill doesn’t once mention the words “too-big-to-fail,” the main issue confronting the financial system. Admitting you have a problem, as any 12- stepper knows, is the crucial first step toward recovery.
– Instead, it supports the biggest banks. It authorizes Federal Reserve banks to provide as much as $4 trillion in emergency funding the next time Wall Street crashes. So much for “no-more-bailouts” talk. That is more than twice what the Fed pumped into markets this time around. The size of the fund makes the bribes in the Senate’s health-care bill look minuscule.
Filed under: bailout, Barack Obama, Ben Nelson, big pharma, Communism, Congress, depopulation, Dictatorship, Dissent, elderly, Empire, Eugenics, Fascism, fines, forced health care, forced health insurance, Genocide, government bureaucracy, government control, government regulation, H.R. 3962, Harry Reid, health care insurance, health care reform, health insurance mandate, Healthcare, healthcare rationing, howard dean, insurance bailout, main street, mandatory health care, mandatory health insurance, marxism, medicaid, medical industrial complex, medicare, medicare cuts, Michael Moore, middle class, Nancy Pelosi, nanny state, Nazi, Neolibs, obama, obama care, obama fines, obama tax, obamacare, oligarchy, Oppression, pelosi, Population Control, ralph nader, rationing, Senate, socialism, Taxpayers, Uncategorized, universal health care
Senate to Pass Obama Care by Christmas Eve
NoWorldSystem
December 21, 2009
Guess what’s under Big Government and Insurance Companies’ Christmas tree this year. . . that’s right, mandatory health insurance for Americans!
Senate Democrats secured their 60th vote after Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) declared his support for the draconian health insurance plan; “Change is never easy, but change is what’s necessary in America”.
The Senate voted to ‘kill the debate’ this morning at 1:15 a.m. while you were sleeping. 58 Democrats and 2 Independents favored the cloture while 40 Republicans voted against it. Unfortunately this is a Democrat-dominated Congress so obama-care is likely to pass the Senate by Christmas eve when the final vote will take place.
Obama and Senate Democrats are confident that this menacing legislation will pass, forcing millions of Americans to buy health insurance plans and will significantly cut medicare bringing pain to the elderly; “Let’s bring this long and vigorous debate to an end. Let’s deliver on the promise of health insurance reforms that will make our people healthier, our economy stronger and our future more secure” said Obama. “After a nearly century-long struggle, we are on the cusp of making health-care reform a reality”.
The lame-stream media constantly tries to propose that the Republicans are the only ones dissenting against health care ‘reform’, many on the left including Ralph Nader, Howard Dean and Michael Moore see through the this disastrous piece of legislation for what it truly is; nothing more than government takeover, shutting down the freedom of choice to have health care or not, increasing insurance prices and cutting medicaid and medicare coverage for the elderly.
Ralph Nader “This is what I meant a year ago when I said the next year will determine whether Barack Obama will be an Uncle Tom groveling before the demands of the corporations.”
Howard Dean “You know what this is, is a giant bailout. This is a bailout that makes AIG look cheap. 60 billion dollars a year goes to the insurance companies under this bill now if we can get a public option I think that’s ok but if you don’t have a public option why would you want to stick the taxpayers with yet another bailout. They bailed out the banks they bailed out AIG, this is a trillion dollar bailout.”
Michael Moore “The health insurance companies are going to make an extra $70 billion dollars as a result of Americans being forced to buy their health insurance,” “What company wouldn’t love this bill?”
Government Health Care: The Next Step On the Road to Tyranny and Slavery
Coburn: The Elderly Need to Fear Health Care Reform
ObamaCare: Buy Health Insurance Or Go To Jail
ObamaCare: Just Another Tax On The Middle-Class
Buy ObamaCare or Face Jail or $25,000 Fine
Health Insurance Mandate Includes ‘Tax’ Despite Obama Denial
Government Places Gag-Order On Medicare Companies Concerning Cuts
45% Of Doctors Might Quit If ObamaCare Passes Senate
ObamaCare Gives Dictatorial Powers to ‘Health Choices Commissioner’
Filed under: 2-party system, bailout, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, bush, Credit Crisis, DEBT, debt clock, deficit, devaluation, Dictatorship, Dollar, dollar collapse, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Empire, GDP, George Bush, Great Depression, Greenback, health care reform, hyperinflation, Inflation, John McCain, left right paradigm, main street, middle class, national debt, obama, obama spending, obama stimulus, obamacare, stimulus, Stock Market, Taxpayers, US Economy, US Treasury, Wall Street, White House
U.S. Debt Hits $12 Trillion, Will Double By 2019
Outside the Beltway
November 18, 2009
Barack Obama has been president for just under 10 months but he’s added two trillion to the national debt and will double it by the end of the decade. CBS’ Mark Knoller:
- This latest milestone in the ever-rising journey of the National Debt comes less than eight months after it hit $11 trillion for the first time. The latest high-point is not unexpected, considering the federal deficit for the just-ended 2009 fiscal year hit an all-time high at $1.42-trillion – more than triple the previous year’s record high.
Much of the increase in the deficit and debt is attributed to government spending outpacing revenue – both exacerbated by the recession and the government response to it – including hundreds of billions in bailouts and stimulus spending and tax cuts along with decreased tax revenues due to rising unemployment.
[…]
The National Debt has increased about $1.6 trillion on Mr. Obama’s watch, though less than $4.9 trillion run up during the presidency of George W. Bush.
But the White House budget review issued in August projects that by the end of the current fiscal year on Sept 30th, the National Debt could top $14 trillion. It gets worse. The same document projects that by the end of the decade, the National Debt will hit $24.5 trillion — exceeding the Gross Domestic Product projected for 2019 of $22.8 trillion.
According to the Treasury Department, the debt stood at $5.727 trillion on January 19, 2001, Bill Clinton’s last day in office, and $10.627 trillion when Bush left office eight years later. That’s $612.5 billion (or $0.6125 trillion) a year, during which we fought two major wars, had the 9/11 attacks, and at least two major bailouts to deal with a global financial crisis.
We’re thus far averaging $1.92 trillion a year under Obama, or a factor of 3.146 more. And the government is projecting that we’ll continue spending at this crisis rate for the next decade, more than doubling the current record level?
That ain’t good.
Presumably, we’d have had another major bailout had Bush stayed in office for a third term (were that Constitutionally or politically possible) or had John McCain been elected. So spending and thus the debt would have escalated substantially regardless. But we likely wouldn’t be talking about adding a massive health care payment on top of the pile.
Obama: We must spend our way out of recession (and into deeper debt)
No End in Sight to Govt. Spending Spree: $12.1T Debt Ceiling Set to Be Raised
Filed under: bailout, Barack Obama, Congress, dean, Dictatorship, Empire, Fascism, fines, forced health care, forced health insurance, government bureaucrat, government control, government regulation, H.R. 3962, Health Care Bill, health care reform, health insurance mandate, Healthcare, House, howard dean, insurance bailout, mandatory health insurance, medicaid, medical care, medical industrial complex, medicare, nanny state, Neolibs, obama, obama care, obama deception, obamacare, public option, ralph nader, Senate, universal health care
Ralph Nader: I told you Obama was an Uncle Tom for corporate interests
The left’s anger over the public option and the anti-Obama revolt is long overdue, says Ralph Nader. Benjamin Sarlin talks to the self-professed “pioneer” of the current progressive rage.
Democrats are steaming over the White House’s capitulation to liberal nemesis Joe Lieberman’s demands to remove a public option and Medicare buy-in from the Senate’s heath-care bill. Progressive figures including Howard Dean and Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas have gone so far as to suggest scrapping the bill entirely and starting over, sparking rebukes from White House officials like David Axelrod, who called such a move “insane” in a Morning Joe interview on MSNBC on Thursday. With polls already showing many Democrats planning on sitting out 2010 midterms, the conflict has drawn comparisons to Ralph Nader’s third-party run in 2000, which many Democrats blame for tipping the election to George W. Bush—and for leaving Lieberman to wreak havoc in the Senate.
This is all good news to Nader, a vocal critic of the bill who considers the health-care debate a turning point in the left’s relationship to Obama.
“This is what I meant a year ago when I said the next year will determine whether Barack Obama will be an Uncle Tom groveling before the demands of the corporations.”
The four-time presidential candidate said he was particularly encouraged Thursday morning, when he read Dean’s op-ed in The Washington Post.
“Good for Howard Dean,” Nader said, adding that his only criticism was the former Democratic National Committee chairman didn’t go after the bill hard enough.
• Dana Goldstein: Howard Dean Splits the Left Nader favors a single-payer health-care system, but said he objected in particular to the Senate bill for many of the same reasons expressed by Dean. He reserved his harshest criticism for the individual mandate, which commentators like Ezra Klein say is necessary in some form to keep premiums at acceptable rates but which Nader says forces Americans to buy substandard insurance.
“It doesn’t have a drug-reimportation provision, it doesn’t have a public option, it doesn’t have a Medicare buy-in, and in the House they lost a number of provisions,” he said. “Basically it’s a massive new subsidy to the health-insurance industry to deliver millions of customers, including those who will be forced to buy junk insurance policies.”
Dean: Obama Care is a Bailout That Makes AIG Look Cheap
Filed under: 60 minutes, austan goolsbee, bailout, bank bailout, Barack Obama, bernanke, Big Banks, bob rubin, CBS, citigroup, Congress, Credit Crisis, DEBT, deregulation, devaluation, Dictatorship, Dollar, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Empire, Fascism, Federal Reserve, free market, gangsters, geithner, Goldman Sachs, Great Depression, Greenback, House, hyperinflation, hypocrisy, Inflation, Jamie Rubin, larry summers, mafia, main street, middle class, obama, obama bailout, obama deception, oligarchy, Paul Volcker, Propaganda, Robert Rubin, Senate, socialism, Stock Market, Taxpayers, Timothy Geithner, Too Big to Fail, unemployment, US Economy, Wall Street, White House | Tags: Matt Taibbi
Obama’s Bullshit-Meter Off The Charts:
“I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street”
Zero Hedge
December 13, 2009
Obama goes back to his Wall Street-bashing rhetoric in today’s 60 Minutes on CBS, after he has already doomed this country to tens of trillions in excess debt to make sure that Wall Street not only thrives, but prospers, courtesy of Bernanke’s vertical bond curve and the daily destruction of the dollar. With statements such as “I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street” which the WSJ disclosed will be uttered by Obama shortly, only the most clueless viewers will find empathy with Obama’s latest message of banker “anti-hope.”
White House economic adviser Larry Summers also voiced aggravation with Wall Street on Sunday. “Here is what I think they don’t get…It was their irresponsible risk-taking in many cases that brought the economy to collapse,” Mr. Summers, who chairs the National Economic Council, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“And they don’t get in some cases that they wouldn’t be where they are today, and they certainly would not be paying the bonuses they are paying today, if their government hadn’t taken extraordinary actions.”
“For them to be complaining about serious regulation directed at making sure this never happens again is wrong. For $300 million to be spent on lobbyists trying to gut serious efforts at financial reform is not how this country should be operating,” Mr. Summers said. “For firms that have benefited from taxpayer support to be complaining about the government burdening them is, frankly, a bit rich.”
And it is not only Obama, but Wall Street protege Larry Summer himself who continues the banker bashing:
- White House economic adviser Larry Summers also voiced aggravation with Wall Street on Sunday. “Here is what I think they don’t get…It was their irresponsible risk-taking in many cases that brought the economy to collapse,” Mr. Summers, who chairs the National Economic Council, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“And they don’t get in some cases that they wouldn’t be where they are today, and they certainly would not be paying the bonuses they are paying today, if their government hadn’t taken extraordinary actions.”
“For them to be complaining about serious regulation directed at making sure this never happens again is wrong. For $300 million to be spent on lobbyists trying to gut serious efforts at financial reform is not how this country should be operating,” Mr. Summers said. “For firms that have benefited from taxpayer support to be complaining about the government burdening them is, frankly, a bit rich.”
First you bail them out, and now you bash them? It is one thing to dash criticism upon rhetoric but at least be consistent. If people can not read between the lines of this administration’s endless hypocrisy, they deserve all they get. And if Matt Taibbi’s latest controversial piece in Rolling Stone “Obama’s Big Sellout” needed any final validation, you just provided it Mr. President. Because while your Wall Street-centric policies can be explained by your lack of financial comprehension and private-sector experience (thereby justifying your desire to be “advised” by those who are an integral part of the banker syndicate), your complete disdain for the average American’s intellectual level exemplified by your most recent, upcoming 7 pm TV appearance is what is truly insulting. Maybe you can put Mr. Geithner up there next to you on the TV screen, and he can justify his reasoning for why incremental “fat cat” bonuses are such a bad idea. Come to think of it, why not make it into a round table, and include Larry Summer and Robert Rubin: we are confident they will have no problem distancing themselves from the very bankers they talk to 10 hours a day, telling them (and thus you) how to run national policy.
You say “Some people on Wall Street still don’t get it”… The problem, Mr. President, is that more and more people on Main Street, do get it. They now realize just whose agenda you have at heart. And said Main Street expects nothing but merely more theatrics during your upcoming meeting with Wall Street “fat cats” tomorrow.
Obama’s sellout to Wall Street creates ‘permanent bailout’
Obama turns to Big Bankers for campaign cash
WSWS
October 21, 2009
Under conditions of growing unemployment and deepening social misery for working people throughout the US, President Barack Obama flew into New York City Tuesday to raise millions of dollars in campaign donations from America’s financial elite.
He was expected to clear at least $3 million, largely from a Manhattan bash with an entry fee of $30,400 per couple—the maximum contribution allowed by law.
According to the Los Angeles Times, four of the seven co-chairs of the event and about a third of the guests come from the big banks and Wall Street.
Behind all the rhetoric about “change,” this is Obama’s most important constituency. In his run for the presidency in 2008, he captured the lion’s share of donations from Wall Street, taking in $15 million from securities and investment firms, $3 million from commercial banks, and $6 million from other financial institutions.
Under conditions of growing unemployment and deepening social misery for working people throughout the US, President Barack Obama flew into New York City Tuesday to raise millions of dollars in campaign donations from America’s financial elite.
He was expected to clear at least $3 million, largely from a Manhattan bash with an entry fee of $30,400 per couple—the maximum contribution allowed by law.
According to the Los Angeles Times, four of the seven co-chairs of the event and about a third of the guests come from the big banks and Wall Street.
Behind all the rhetoric about “change,” this is Obama’s most important constituency. In his run for the presidency in 2008, he captured the lion’s share of donations from Wall Street, taking in $15 million from securities and investment firms, $3 million from commercial banks, and $6 million from other financial institutions.
Top contributors to Obama and McCain are big banks
Filed under: 2008 Election, auto bailout, bailout, bank bailout, Barack Obama, Bear Stearns, bernanke, brad sherman, bush, campaign for liberty, cash for clunkers, Congress, Credit Crisis, DEBT, devaluation, Dictatorship, Dollar, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Empire, Fascism, fearmongering, George Bush, Goldman Sachs, Great Depression, Greenback, House, housing market, hyperinflation, Inflation, jim kramer, main street, Martial Law, Media Manipulation, middle class, Military Industrial Complex, obama, obama stimulus, Paulson, real estate, Ron Paul, Senate, spending bill, stimulus, Stock Market, subprime, subprime lending, subprime mortgage bubble, Taxpayers, US Economy, US Treasury, Wall Street, wall street bailout, War On Terror
Houses Passes $1.1 Trillion Spending Bill
Antiwar.com
December 10, 2009
There was a time when the federal government’s annual budget was submitted by the president and decided by the Congress in a relatively straightforward fashion. A time when it wasn’t so difficult to figure out what the government spent taxpayers’ money on.
But this is, or soon will be, 2010, and President Obama’s promises of transparency aside, the new way of doing things in the perpetual wartime economy is to pass bulky spending bills filled with anything and everything Congressmen want on an accelerated schedule, every few months.
In today’s example, a 1088 page $1.1 trillion “compromise” spending bill passed through the House of Representatives in a 221-202 vote along partisan lines. The bill covers everything from veteran’s benefits to arbitration for car dealers and, of course, a hefty raise in the foreign aid budget.
The latest massive spending bill comes less than two months after the White House signed a $680 billion “Defense Spending Bill,” which included hate crimes legislation provisions and restarted military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay.
That bill itself came just a few months after a $106 billion “emergency” war spending bill, which included a number of “pet projects,” including the so-called Cash for Clunkers program that subsidized new car purchases in return for a promise to destroy what were in many cases serviceable used cars.
Which of course came not long after the $787 billion “stimulus bill” aimed at hurling enough money at assorted government programs that the economy would improve.
When President Obama took office, he promised a more transparent budget, particularly with promises to stop requesting “emergency” war spending bills to pay for what are now several year old wars.
This promise, like so many others, will likely be ignored, as the defense budgets have projected a more rapid pullout from Iraq and did not include last week’s massive escalation of the Afghan War, itself a $30 billion addition to the annual cost. Instead, America seems poised to continue the new way of doing things, piecemeal spending bills which provide ample opportunity to include the trendy projects that Congress craves and the unclear picture of the overall cost of war that keeps the voter largely in the dark about how much the nation’s assorted adventures really cost.
Look Who got the economy wrong and why are they still in charge
Filed under: bailout, bank bailout, banksters, Barack Obama, Big Banks, celente, Credit Crisis, DEBT, deception, Dollar, dollar collapse, dollar dump, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Fascism, Federal Reserve, free market, gangsters, geithner, gerald celente, Goldman Sachs, Great Depression, Greenback, henry paulson, hyperinflation, Inflation, madoff, mafia, main street, manipulated market, manipulation, middle class, oligarchy, Paulson, socialism, Stock Market, Taxpayers, Timothy Geithner, Too Big to Fail, u.s. economy, US Treasury, Wall Street
Goldman Sachs Mafia Arming Themselves Against Public
Goldman Sachs gang; the modern day mafia
Alice Schroeder
Bloomberg
November 30, 2009
“I just wrote my first reference for a gun permit,” said a friend, who told me of swearing to the good character of a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who applied to the local police for a permit to buy a pistol. The banker had told this friend of mine that senior Goldman people have loaded up on firearms and are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising against the bank.
I called Goldman Sachs spokesman Lucas van Praag to ask whether it’s true that Goldman partners feel they need handguns to protect themselves from the angry proletariat. He didn’t call me back. The New York Police Department has told me that “as a preliminary matter” it believes some of the bankers I inquired about do have pistol permits. The NYPD also said it will be a while before it can name names.
While we wait, Goldman has wrapped itself in the flag of Warren Buffett, with whom it will jointly donate $500 million, part of an effort to burnish its image — and gain new Goldman clients. Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein also reversed himself after having previously called Goldman’s greed “God’s work” and apologized earlier this month for having participated in things that were “clearly wrong.”
Has it really come to this? Imagine what emotions must be billowing through the halls of Goldman Sachs to provoke the firm into an apology. Talk that Goldman bankers might have armed themselves in self-defense would sound ludicrous, were it not so apt a metaphor for the way that the most successful people on Wall Street have become a target for public rage.
Pistol Ready
Common sense tells you a handgun is probably not even all that useful. Suppose an intruder sneaks past the doorman or jumps the security fence at night. By the time you pull the pistol out of your wife’s jewelry safe, find the ammunition, and load your weapon, Fifi the Pomeranian has already been taken hostage and the gun won’t do you any good. As for carrying a loaded pistol when you venture outside, dream on. Concealed gun permits are almost impossible for ordinary citizens to obtain in New York or nearby states.
In other words, a little humility and contrition are probably the better route.
Until a couple of weeks ago, that was obvious to everyone but Goldman, a firm famous for both prescience and arrogance. In a display of both, Blankfein began to raise his personal- security threat level early in the financial crisis. He keeps a summer home near the Hamptons, where unrestricted public access would put him at risk if the angry mobs rose up and marched to the East End of Long Island.
To the Barricades
He tried to buy a house elsewhere without attracting attention as the financial crisis unfolded in 2007, a move that was foiled by the New York Post. Then, Blankfein got permission from the local authorities to install a security gate at his house two months before Bear Stearns Cos. collapsed.
This is the kind of foresight that Goldman Sachs is justly famous for. Blankfein somehow anticipated the persecution complex his fellow bankers would soon suffer. Surely, though, this man who can afford to surround himself with a private army of security guards isn’t sleeping with the key to a gun safe under his pillow. The thought is just too bizarre to be true.
So maybe other senior people at Goldman Sachs have gone out and bought guns, and they know something. But what?
Henry Paulson, U.S. Treasury secretary during the bailout and a former Goldman Sachs CEO, let it slip during testimony to Congress last summer when he explained why it was so critical to bail out Goldman Sachs, and — oh yes — the other banks. People “were unhappy with the big discrepancies in wealth, but they at least believed in the system and in some form of market-driven capitalism. But if we had a complete meltdown, it could lead to people questioning the basis of the system.”
Torn Curtain
There you have it. The bailout was meant to keep the curtain drawn on the way the rich make money, not from the free market, but from the lack of one. Goldman Sachs blew its cover when the firm’s revenue from trading reached a record $27 billion in the first nine months of this year, and a public that was writhing in financial agony caught on that the profits earned on taxpayer capital were going to pay employee bonuses.
This slip-up let the other bailed-out banks happily hand off public blame to Goldman, which is unpopular among its peers because it always seems to win at everyone’s expense.
Plenty of Wall Streeters worry about the big discrepancies in wealth, and think the rise of a financial industry-led plutocracy is unjust. That doesn’t mean any of them plan to move into a double-wide mobile home as a show of solidarity with the little people, though.
Cool Hand Lloyd
No, talk of Goldman and guns plays right into the way Wall- Streeters like to think of themselves. Even those who were bailed out believe they are tough, macho Clint Eastwoods of the financial frontier, protecting the fistful of dollars in one hand with the Glock in the other. The last thing they want is to be so reasonably paid that the peasants have no interest in lynching them.
And if the proles really do appear brandishing pitchforks at the doors of Park Avenue and the gates of Round Hill Road, you can be sure that the Goldman guys and their families will be holed up in their safe rooms with their firearms. If nothing else, that pistol permit might go part way toward explaining why they won’t be standing outside with the rest of the crowd, broke and humiliated, saying, “Damn, I was on the wrong side of a trade with Goldman again.”
Filed under: bailout, bailouts, campaign for liberty, Credit Crisis, DEBT, Dollar, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, financial market, global economy, Great Depression, Greenback, hyperinflation, imf, Inflation, patriot movement, revolution, Ron Paul, Stock Market, Taxpayers, tea party, truth movement, US Economy, Wall Street | Tags: CBI
IMF Warns of Revolution if Another Round of Bailouts are Handed Out
Washington’s Blog
November 24, 2009
Many officials and experts have warned of violence stemming from the economic crash.
The head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, is now warning that there might be a revolution in some countries if governments hand out another round of bailouts to the financial sector:
- The public will not bail out the financial services sector for a second time if another global crisis blows up in four or five years time, the managing-director of the International Monetary Fund warned this morning. Dominique Strauss-Kahn told the CBI annual conference of business leaders that another huge call on public finances by the financial services sector would not be tolerated by the “man in the street” and could even threaten democracy.
“Most advanced economies will not accept any more [bailouts]…The political reaction will be very strong, putting some democracies at risk,” he told delegates.
Filed under: bailout, bank bailout, Big Banks, China, Credit Crisis, DEBT, deflation, devaluation, Dollar, dollar collapse, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Federal Reserve, global currency, global economy, Great Depression, Greenback, hyperinflation, imf, Inflation, interest rate cuts, Japan, liquidity, market manipulation, private bank, rate cut, SDR, SDRs, Stock Market, US Economy, Wall Street, world currency, Yen
Even the Fed Doesn’t Want to Hold U.S. Dollars
Seeking Alpha
Friday, October 23, 2009
This is the scariest image in finance:
The above chart shows the dollar’s performance since the Fed announced its Quantitative Easing program in March. This chart tells us two things:
1. Americans just got 15% poorer on the world stage thanks to Ben Bernanke
2. A currency crisis is in the works (and perhaps already starting)
Regarding #1: When the financial crisis hit, the Fed realized it would need to keep interest rates low while it attempted to bail out the banks (80% of the $200+ trillion in derivatives sitting on commercial banks’ balance sheets are related to interest rates).
The problem with this is that it makes Treasuries very unattractive to foreign investors (China & Japan) who want a higher yield. Consequently, the Fed decided to pick up the slack by buying $300 billion worth of Treasuries through the now famous Quantitative Easing program.
As I noted last week, the Fed is now the largest buyer of US debt (it bought more debt than the next three largest buyers combined in 2Q09). China and Japan are no one’s fools. And they’re not going to fund a monetary policy that is both profligate and likely to erode the value of their dollar holdings.
Which brings us to item #2: the coming dollar crisis.
I am not a huge fan of technical analysis, but it is a useful tool for navigating a trader-heavy, liquidity driven, manipulated market such as today’s. On that note, I want to point out that the dollar began forming a falling bullish wedge pattern starting in June (see above chart). This pattern entails an ever-tightening range of lower highs and lower lows and typically precedes major breakouts to the upside.
Except it didn’t.
As you can see, the dollar broke down out of this pattern in late September. It then rallied back up into the trading range before breaking down again. This is bad news. The next line of support (place where the dollar could bounce) is 76. We’ve already broken that one too.
Now the next line of support is 72. Now, the dollar has only fallen to this level once in the last 30 years (Summer 2008, see the chart below). If we fall below that, then we’re in uncharted territory and a major dollar devaluation is in the works.
Perhaps it’s already happening.
To review a point made earlier, the dollar has lost 15% of its value since March 2009. On an annualized basis, we’re talking about the dollar losing almost a third of its value in one year (30%). That is an absurd level of devaluation. And China, Japan, etc. have had enough. It is now clear that a flight from the dollar has begun; the Fed buys more US debt than the next three biggest buyers combined.
However, what most people don’t realize is that even the Fed itself is shifting away from the dollar. Everyone knows that China and Japan hold massive foreign reserves (the dollar). But the US Federal Reserve does this too (we own euros, yen, etc.). And for some reason the amount of foreign reserve assets (non-dollar assets) on the Fed’s balance sheet skyrocketed by 50% to $133 billion at the end of August.
Now, $133 billion in foreign reserves is nothing compared to China and Japan’s ~$3 trillion. But a 50% increase in one week is an astounding rate of change.
The culprit?
A 500% increase in SDRs: the “global” currency issued by the IMF. The blog ZeroHedge caught this story first and pointed out that SDRs are the IMF’s means of maintaining a “super reserve” currency for the world. SDRs are defined as: a basket of currencies, today consisting of the euro, Japanese yen, pound sterling, and U.S. dollar.
Now, one has to wonder why the US Federal Reserve decided to suddenly buy $40 billion worth of SDRs overnight. The answer is that the IMF decided to massively increase the amount of SDRs outstanding from SDR 21 billion to SDR 204 billion in late August.
This came as part of a G20 decision made in April 2009 to stabilize the global financial system. Interestingly, of the countries involved in buying SDRs, the US bought the most at SDR 30 billion, compared to Japan (SDR 11 billion), and China (SDR 6 billion).
I realize this is getting a bit technical. But in simple terms this means that the US Fed intentionally participated in a world reserve currency scheme that devalued the dollar.
Folks, even the Fed doesn’t want to own dollars. It’s time to look for a currency that can’t be devalued.
Filed under: 2-party system, 2008 Election, bailout, Barack Obama, big bankers, Big Banks, campaign contribution, Credit Crisis, DEBT, deflation, Dictatorship, Dollar, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Empire, Fascism, global economy, Great Depression, Greenback, House, hyperinflation, Inflation, John McCain, left right paradigm, middle class, Neolibs, New York, obama, socialism, Stock Market, Taxpayers, unemployment, US Economy, Wall Street
Obama turns to Big Bankers for campaign cash
WSWS
October 21, 2009
Under conditions of growing unemployment and deepening social misery for working people throughout the US, President Barack Obama flew into New York City Tuesday to raise millions of dollars in campaign donations from America’s financial elite.
He was expected to clear at least $3 million, largely from a Manhattan bash with an entry fee of $30,400 per couple—the maximum contribution allowed by law.
According to the Los Angeles Times, four of the seven co-chairs of the event and about a third of the guests come from the big banks and Wall Street.
Behind all the rhetoric about “change,” this is Obama’s most important constituency. In his run for the presidency in 2008, he captured the lion’s share of donations from Wall Street, taking in $15 million from securities and investment firms, $3 million from commercial banks, and $6 million from other financial institutions.
Filed under: auto bailout, bailout, bankruptcy, Barack Obama, Bloggers, corporatism, Dictatorship, Empire, Fascism, free press, general motors, government control, government takeover, internet, Mainstream Media, Media, media bailout, mediaopoly, Neolibs, obama, socialism, tax, Taxpayers | Tags: los angeles times, The Newspaper Revitalization Act
Obama Supports Newspaper Bailout Bill
Steve Watson
Infowars.net
September 21, 2009
President Obama has stated that he is happy to consider bailing out the corporate media, expressing concerns that alternative internet based news outlets will grow in popularity as a result of the downfall of newspapers.
Obama told editors of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Toledo Blade that preserving the print media is “critical to the health of our democracy”.
“I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding,” Obama said.
He also indicated that readers should be made to pay for online news content in the near future:
“What I hope is that people start understanding if you’re getting your newspaper over the Internet, that’s not free and there’s got to be a way to find a business model that supports that.” he said.
Over the past year, scores of newspapers have gone out of business or shifted to online only output, due to the rise of the alternative media and the resulting loss of ad revenue. Several large newspaper corporations have filed for bankruptcy, including the Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.
Obama said he “would be happy to look at” legislation aimed at providing newspapers tax-breaks if they were to restructure as 50 (c) (3) educational corporations. Democratic Senator Ben Cardin has introduced the bill S.673 in this vain titled “The Newspaper Revitalization Act.”
Critics may point out that, far from being “critical” to democracy, a bailed out government subsidized media is the very antithesis of a “free press”.
Government Banking and Government Motors would effectively be joined by the Government Press if bailouts were to be granted.
Bailing out the corporate media would once again constitute rewarding outdated and failing monopolies with more taxpayer dollars, thus punishing innovative forward thinking competition.
Furthermore, there is absolutely no basis for bailing out the newspapers, given that they employ less than one percent of the labor force in the United States.
The dinosaur corporate media is dying because it has proven itself to be almost wholly untrustworthy, acting as an unquestioning mouthpiece for the establishment.
Denouncing all blog based media as unreliable or without context is laughable in the face of the mainstream media’s recent track record.
Filed under: auto bailout, auto industry, automakers, bailout, bailouts, Barack Obama, Chrysler, Congress, Credit Crisis, DEBT, deflation, Dictatorship, Dollar, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Empire, Fascism, general motors, global economy, GM, GM bailout, Great Depression, Greenback, hyperinflation, income taxes, Inflation, Nazi, obama, socialism, Stock Market, tax, Taxpayers, US Economy, Wall Street
Taxpayers will lose on auto bailouts
CNN Money
September 9, 2009
Much of the money given to General Motors and Chrysler to prevent them from collapsing will never be recovered, according to a report released Wednesday by the Congressional Oversight Panel.
“Although taxpayers may recover some portion of their investment in Chrysler and GM, it is unlikely they will recover the entire amount,” the report says, citing estimates from the Treasury Department and Congressional Budget Office.
The oversight panel, headed by Harvard University professor Elizabeth Warren, was created by Congress last year to oversee the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.
GM and Chrysler were each teetering on collapse this spring when the Obama administration effectively forced both automakers into bankruptcy, lending them enough to survive. Both have shed billions of dollars in debt and are now rebuilding.
All told, since late last year, the government has provided or pledged the two companies, icons of American manufacturing, more than $60 billion in aid.
Treasury estimates that about $23 billion of initial loans to the two companies “will be subject to ‘much lower recoveries,’ ” the panel’s report says. In particular, $5.4 billion of loans to Chrysler are “highly unlikely to be recovered,” it continued.
“The initial loans made last fall as the industry was imploding and when no restructuring plan was in place are not likely to be repaid in full,” Warren said during a conference call with reporters.
How much of the remaining funds will be recovered is impossible to predict, Warren said, because the loans have been converted to stock.
“The American taxpayer is now an equity investor in Chrysler and GM,” Warren said. “And the return on its investment depends on what those companies are worth in a year or two.”
The government owns 10% of Chrysler and 61% of GM.
noworldsystem.com 