Sunday, September 21, 2008

No fear, No Deal, and No Comment

FOREIGN POLICY EXPERIENCE. Gov. Sarah Palin will meet with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia during the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, according to the New York Times.

THE $700 BILLION BAILOUT. The Bush administration is trying to hold out for a clean bill that deals only with the financial rescue, and will not include any add-ons.But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that Congress would not simply hand over a $700 billion blank check to Wall Street. Democrats would insist on independent oversight, protections for homeowners and constraints on excessive executive compensation

Paul Krugman said -- "Looking at the plan as leaked, I have to say no deal. Not unless Treasury explains, very clearly, why this is supposed to work, other than through having taxpayers pay premium prices for lousy assets."

Frog Hospital says -- Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson used to be the CEO of Goldman Sachs and he knows everybody on Wall Street. Critics of his bailout plan say that Paulson will help out his fellow "malefactors of great wealth," and not take care of the rest of us. But personally, I'm inclined to go along with his plan.

However, many Senators, including Joe Biden, regret the blank check they gave to George Bush when he wanted to invade Iraq. They succumbed to his argument of "national emergency" and were duped into supporting an unnecessary war.

Now those same Senators are being asked to give another blank check to Bush's people because of a new "national emergency. I don't think they will be that dumb a second time.

ANGER MANAGEMENT, PART TWO. The Obamas are not allowed to express anger because they are black, and the first black President cannot be angry. That's a handicap, but it's also a reality.

Sarah can be snarky as hell, and McCain can hop up and down and get red in the face, but the Obamas have to stay cool.

Although I wish we could let Michelle be Michelle. I mean, there's Alaska tough, which isn't bad, and then there's Chicago tough, which is getting there, and then there's South Side of Chicago tough, which is the baddest thing in America.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fred,

Since you’re “inclined to go along with [Paulson’s] plan”, I recommend you have a look at the following, published in 1998, and more relevant than ever today:
http://www.amazon.com/Creature-Jekyll-Island-Federal-Reserve/dp/0912986212

181 of 190 people found the following review helpful:
Scary, July 29, 2001
By Jeffrey Leach (Omaha, NE USA) - See all my reviews

G. Edward Griffin is to be commended for this splendid work. At first glance The Creature from Jekyll Island is a huge book. While this may be daunting to some, once the book is actually started, it flows smoothly and reads quickly. There are so many fascinating tidbits of information here that the reader won't even be concerned about the size of the book. The title refers to the formation of the Federal Reserve System, which occurred at a secret meeting at Jekyll Island, Georgia in 1910. It was at this meeting, as Griffin relates, that the "Money Trust", composed of the richest and most powerful bankers in the world, along with a U.S. Senator, wrote the proposal to launch the Federal Reserve System (which Griffin calls a banking cartel) to control the financial system so that the bankers will always come out on top.

While Griffin starts with this event, he quickly moves into the present day to detail several financial crises that resulted in a quick government intervention at the behest of the bankers from the Fed, who told all who would listen that if the government (read: taxpayers) didn't bail out the banks that had made bad loans, it could cause the entire system to collapse. Massive loan defaults; bank runs, and a major economic depression would manifest this collapse. Griffin shows how time and time again the taxpayer is bilked so that bankers can make billions in profits off of these financial scares. Griffin also shows how the supposed safeguards against these woes, such as the FSLIC, are scams to reassure the average person that their banks are safe. In actuality, these insurances against bank closures are so inadequate that there isn't enough money to even come close to paying off investors in case of a collapse.

The biggest problem in modern banking, according to Griffin, is and has always been the creation of fiat money. Fiat money is money that is "declared" money by the government. It is not backed by anything but promises and deceit. All societies were sound financially when they used gold or silver to back their currency. When the bankers finally get their way and install fiat money, the result is inflation and boom and bust cycles. Griffin gives numerous examples of this, such as repeated failures by American colonies and European states in using fiat money. The purpose of fiat money is so that the government can spend more then they take in through taxes.

Without writing reams on this book, it is sufficient to say that this is a must read for anyone who is interested in learning how the money system operates. Griffin gives comprehensive accounts of how the Fed creates money, and how this affects everyday life. I would have to say these sections are better than Murray Rothbard's book, The Case Against the Fed, because Griffin gives himself more room for explanation.

Griffin does believe in the conspiratorial view of history, and he believes that the bankers are working in concert with such groups as the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission to bring about a socialist-world system in which an elite composed of intellectuals and bankers will rule over the entire planet. Griffin even spends a chapter outlining how this system could come about, and the consequent results of this socialist system. These chapters are a bit unsettling, but even if you aren't interested in this worldview, you can still learn much about the economy from this book. Recommended

Anonymous said...

...please where can I buy a unicorn?

Anonymous said...

Ich habe vergessen, an Sie zu erinnern. viagra bestellen viagra preise schweiz [url=http//t7-isis.org]viagra kaufen[/url]

Anonymous said...

pet insurance
It's like putting an innocent person in prison to be executed.) Demand should not be placed on breeders until there are no shelter pets left. Pet owners were found to be more interacting and understanding than those who were highly educated and with higher annual turnovers.