“We all have very strong differences of opinion on many issues. However, like our founding fathers before us, we must put aside our differences and unite to fight a common enemy. It has now become evident to a critical mass that the Republican and Democratic parties, along with all three branches of our government, have been bought off by a well-organized Economic Elite who are tactically destroying our way of life. The U.S. economy, government and tax system is now blatantly rigged against us”, wrote David DeGraw. (“The Economic Elite Have Engineered an Extraordinary Coup…”, 2-15-10, Alternet.org).
There is a stage set up for all the world to see. On that stage is President Barack Obama, yet behind that stage is a curtain. Hidden, but not so blindly any longer, are President Obama’s directors. One can describe them in many ways, either as the puppet masters, the producers, or the money-masters. But it really does not matter. President Obama is performing an act before the American people, while the rest of world watches.
Behind that curtain lies another curtain, and not so hidden any longer, either are another group of directors. These are those power brokers inside the Pentagon. These are the generals, senior intelligence commanders, Homeland Security controllers, and the contractor war profiteers.
Mr. McGraw continued to illustrate this point. “Current statistical policies prove that conditions for 99 percent of Americans will continue to deteriorate. The Economic Elite have engineered a financial coup that have brought war to our doorstep…and make no mistake, they have launched a war to eliminate the U.S. middle class.”
Pam Martens wrote, “I think it’s time to take Wall Street literally: they’ve made it abundantly clear they have an insatiable appetite for killing things: the housing market, the financial system, the economy, reform legislation, the next generation’s future. Wall Street is so steeped in destruction that the symbols of death are everywhere.” “As currently structured, Wall Street investment banks have no incentive to bring viable companies to market. Wall Street makes the same huge fees for putting lipstick on a pig and dumping it on the public as they do for launching solid companies with real job growth potential.” (“This Trend is Not Your Friend: Wall Street’s Killer Instinct Spells Death Knell for Jobs”, 2-8-10, Counterpunch.org).
So, behind curtain number one were men once paraded on the cover of Time magazine, in their February 15, 1999 issue, just 11 years ago, as the greatest. Ms. Marten stated that these men were considered by Time to be “The Committee to Save the World.”
It has come to pass that these three men: Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, and then Deputy Treasury Secretary, and now, President Obama’s National Economic Council director, Larry Summers were all deeply and irresponsibly responsible for destroying this economy, and should have been labeled as The Committee to Destroy the World’s Economies.
Ms. Marten wrote that these three neo-liberal destroyers of the economy had a total of 7 degrees from some of the finest universities in the country, yet lacked a single ounce of common sense among them. These men were responsible for repealing the depression era investor protection legislation known as the Glass-Steagall Act that prevented the combination of commercial banks with investment banks and brokerage firms from killing jobs, the financial system, and the economy.
So why is President Obama using Larry Summers and Robert Rubin as his advisors instead of people who have a better understanding of what is needed to restore this broken economy?
Ms. Marten went on to unveil others who lack any real common economic sense that stand behind curtain number one. There is Neal Wolin, who was general counsel to Larry Summers, in the Clinton administration, but was now confirmed as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury under Timmy Geithner. Both Wolin and Rubin were driving forces in drafting the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, under Clinton, which ended the barrier between investment and commercial banks and insurance companies, thus permitting the new financial behemoths to become too big to fail.
We must not forget that current Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke stands arm-in-arm with these economic ‘dysfunctionates’ behind the curtain. In addition, are the likes of Lordie Lordie Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs’ CEO, who appears not only to have been involved in Treasury theft through fraudulent relations (“I had no fraudulent relations with that company!”) with AIG, and now, possibly with the purchase of credit default swaps/shorting Greek debt. John Carney of Businessinsider.com described it this way.
“Goldman Sachs arranged swaps that effectively allowed Greece to borrow 1 billion Euros without adding to its official public debt. While it arranged the swaps, Goldman also sought to buy insurance on Greek debt and engage in other trades to protect itself against the risk of a default on those swaps. Eventually, Goldman sold the swaps to the national bank of Greece.”
It appears that Goldman Sachs and their fellow predatory vampires love and live to kill anything economic by sucking all the financial life out of their prey.
The future looks very sad. President Obama pretends to be presenting plans to put Americans back to work. But the facts really don’t show it to be true. President Obama has decided to guarantee $8 billion in loans so a new nuclear plant can be built. What this says is that the Atlanta, Georgia Southern Company cannot get loan guarantees without a socialized, taxpayer supported financing program. Nuclear plants cannot get insurance unless the government guarantees the insurance, as well! I guess, Obama does not believe in spreading out this $8 billion for a more diversified manufacturing job stimulus development program.
This job climate is the worst since 1948, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics began accumulating the data. Currently, for every open-until-filled job posting in the U.S., six people are actively looking for work.
“If [this economic slump] persists much longer, this era of high joblessness will likely change the life course and character of a generation of young adults-and quite possibly those of the children behind them as well. It will leave an indelible imprint on many blue-collar white men-and on white culture. It could change the nature of modern marriage, and also cripple marriage as an institution in many communities. It may already be plunging many inner cities into a kind of despair and dysfunction not seen for decades. Ultimately, it is likely to warp our politics, our culture, and the character of our society for years”, wrote Dan Peck in his fantastic, eye-opening March 2010, Atlantic Monthly article called “How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America”.
David DeGraw lists the current statistics. In 2009, one out of five U.S. households didn’t have enough money to buy food. 50 million citizens are living in poverty. 50 million people are without health care. In total, Americans have lost $5 trillion from their pensions and savings since the economic crisis began and $13 trillion in value of their homes. Personal debt has risen from 65 percent of income in 1980 to 125 percent today. 1.4 million Americans filed for bankruptcy in 2009, a 32 percent increase from 2008. As bankruptcies continue to skyrocket, medical bankruptcies are responsible for over 60 percent of them, and over 75 percent of the medical bankruptcies filed are from people who have health insurance. There are 3 million homeless Americans. The percentage of “underwater” homes is close to 50 percent, or 25 million homes. Our prisons are filled with 2.3 million people. We have more people incarcerated than any other country in the world! In January, 1.1 million workers were eliminated from the unemployment totals because they were “officially” labeled discouraged workers, and discouraged workers are not counted in the unemployment figures. “Discouraged workers” don’t count, either. Nor do they count “involuntary part-time workers”. In total, we have 30 million U.S. citizens who are unemployed or underemployed. We are consistently shedding jobs. Just on the day of January 27th, several companies announced new cuts of more than 60,000 jobs. Workers are finding their hours increased, but with wages and benefit cuts. Median household income has fallen 5 percent as the unemployment rate increases, and is expected to fall even further. There are 15 million workers who now fall into the category of the working poor with a median income of $32,390, but the other half of the country is making less than that! Over 60 percent of Americans now live paycheck to paycheck.
There is a liquidation sale occurring in this country and it is mainly being offered by the men’s warehouse, and I don’t mean where you can buy a good looking foreign made suit! It is really at the men and women’s warehouse---America!
“Financial markets demonstrated their lack of competence in making economic judgments with their reckless behavior over the past decade or more. The public has repeatedly had to bail them out from bad lending decisions. The rating agencies, too, repeatedly demonstrated their incompetence in evaluating risks. The real risk for America right now is a prolonged weak economy-something that a mindless focus on deficits can help ensure”, wrote Professor Joseph Stiglitz (“Obama Must Resist ‘Deficit Fetish’”, 2-2-10, Politico).
“The deficit hawks from the banking system went on vacation from the fall of 2008 through the spring of 2009, while they demanded money be doled out freely-to themselves.” “[T]he deficit hawks are back at work, more vocal than ever about the need to cut government spending. They say it was for the health of the economy to dole out money to the banks; but not necessary to the health of our society…” “[For example] it was not acceptable to alter the contracts of the AIG personnel, even those “key” and irreplaceable personnel who made the mistakes that led to a $180 billion bailout, but acceptable to break the contract between America’s elderly, and the rest of society, by cutting back on Social Security.” “The bankers were short sighted when getting the country into the mess. But deficit fetishism is equally short sighted. It was a mistake to give in to bankers’ pleas for deregulation before the crisis; a mistake to give into their demand for a bailout without constraints and without appropriate compensation for the government during the crisis, and even more wrong now to give into demands for unfettered deficit reductions, including an end to the stimulus.” (Joseph Stiglitz)
Here we have behind the curtain a cabal of incompetent, predatory financial mobsters unable to even know when they themselves are being scammed by one another.
It is so much like mob bosses sitting down at a red and white checked clothed table in the back room of Rico Obama’s Italian Kitchen, smiling, toasting each other’s fake willingness to ‘all get-along’ and soaking up a gourmet spaghetti and meatball dinner, all the while, only a mile away in a dark, and dank warehouse one mobster’s assassins are suiting up for an execution-style attack upon another mobster’s gang-of-boys, or possibly upon the cook and host.
President Obama remains on the stage trying to convince the audience, who are jeering and hissing, that he can juggle a great many objects all at once with success and skill, yet, unfortunately, what the audience sees is a stage floor littered with his fallen objects. When will he learn that this is not a rehearsal but the final act?
Thanks for reading, jerry
http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com
