President Obama Should Take A Lesson From Mr. Toyota

This week and last we have had apologies from what should have been our government officials, our president, the nation’s first Supreme Court appointed president, our Federal Reserve chairman, and the CEO bankstas, but that was not the case. Instead it was from Mr. Toyota. He is not a brand name like Mr. Goodwrench, a GM brand that ended up becoming Mr. Brokenwrench. No, Mr. Toyota has been spitting up apologies like never before. First, it was over his combustion engine vehicles, and now it is over his hybrid operating system vehicles, including a Lexus model.

Mr. Toyota apologized for failing to correct the brake and gas pedal problems. He actually apologized twice. Many say it is too late for apologizes.

Mr. Toyota basically said that he was very sorry for disappointing not only the buyers of his vehicles, but for letting down the employees and the dealers. He was so, so sorry. He understands that the customers don’t trust the company as they once did, but he will do whatever it takes to regain their trust, once more.

Wow!!! We must all agree that an apology was required. Not only required because of defects in the products that resulted in hundreds of thousands of vehicles to be fixed, but in order to stand tall he had to say, ‘I will fix it! I will make it right again! I will work to regain my customer’s trust! I will commit economic resources to make sure that quality control is on the top of the priority list!’

Unfortunately, we Americans have yet to hear such an apology from anyone who was a major pyromaniac in the economic forest fire that swept through this entire nation, then jumped the “Pond” and spread all through Europe. There has been no one!

Former President BushBoy has been mum on this one. Hank-da Paulie-Paulson, now a big time book author, one time CEO of Goldman Sachs, BushBoy’s Treasury Secretary, and, most of all, a major financial crime syndicate hit man has been praising what he believes to be his own successes, when in actuality, they were major failures. We have heard no sincere apologies from Alan Greenspan, or from former President Bill Clinton who signed into law the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, and the death knell legislation killing the decade’s long Glass-Steagall Act, which was the firewall between deposit holding banks (FDIC insured), and the risk potential financial investment houses (not FDIC insured).

Nor have we heard an apology from former Senator Phil Gramm another sleazy-bagster who nearly single-handedly ushered in these laws, under Clinton, which allowed Little Boy Bush to cut some real brush and pile it up miles high for a really big fire to be lit by the likes of Goldman Sachs, BoA, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, Wells Fargo, Countrywide, and others to rip off the American homebuyer, the retirement fund investor, and the general saver trying to make a decent living for himself and his family.

Most of all, we have not heard an apology from President Obama after over one year of banksta rescue maneuvers. $12T handed out to banksta CEOs to make sure that the very thieves who robbed the American taxpayer, were once again back in business, passing out bonuses, replenishing their corporate stock shares so the thieving CEOs and the other monopoly corporate capitalist monster predators could prosper from their continued capital gains, which they can enjoy while all the other Americans who were saving for their own retirement or child college funds would eventually lose half of it. A pure and simple transfer of wealth from the lower 90% to the upper 10% of the income ladder. That was how it worked. We lost it, and they captured it.

Americans are so soft and good hearted that they cannot let the richest of the rich suffer any hardship. How unpatriotic that would look.

It is very likely that President Obama is too late to offer an apology. During his first year as president, he spent a great deal of time shaking hands with all kinds of highfalutin heads of state, and ultra-rich people, as well as getting his picture taken on the beach, dancing, playing with his kids and dog. He had no time, whatsoever, to write up an apology. He was too busy doing more important things. And anyway, an apology would be hollow if it was not followed up by real action—Mr. Toyota style. And Barack is just not allowed to do it.

President Obama did not fix the economic braking problem that drove the economy into the abyss; and, did not fix the sticking accelerator problem, which careened the government tour bus over the cliff. He had a dual problem: brakes and gas. Both failures caused the crashing and careening of the government’s magic bus into a huge cravace.

The economic gas pedal began sticking during Reagan’s presidency, and went full throttle under Little Boy Bush. Obama was elected by a majority to fix the sticking gas pedal, and make sure the economic braking system would not fail. He was voted into office to put the brakes on the Federal Reserve and Treasury to stop Goldman Sachs, and the rest of the syndicate gangsta get-away vehicles from making off with the loot.

But, there were no apologies, and instead, just the opposite occurred! Excuses by the likes of Hank Paulson, who said that the rescue of the banks was essential, otherwise we would see 20% unemployment. Hey, Hankie Spankie, we already have that figure now if you include those who have stopped looking for work, underemployed, and the currently unemployed. Hank Paulson is the same kind of fool that we see vying for attention in order to sell junkie books. You betcha!

The truth has been shown to be that President Obama has no intention of pulling a Mr. Toyota. President Obama has allowed crime syndicate field general Ben Bernanke to re-enlist as Federal Reserve chairman, as well as most of those Democrats in Congress. 47 of the 70 votes to reconfirm Bernanke for a second term as Fed chairman were Democrats. 30 were no votes, and they were mostly Republicans. Now the Republicans are reigniting the populist torch and will probably carry it all the way to the 2012 presidential election, as well as into the midterm election cycle.

President Obama was the master-of-ceremonies at the ‘Republican-As-Populist’ bumper sticker slogan party. Why would the Democrats, who have been pathetically looking like the party of spinelessness, so willing to throw away their reelection bids, and an opportunity to discard an economic war criminal holdover from the Bush administration? What were they thinking? Do they actually believe that we will be entering an economic recovery with massive joblessness numbers, while Greece is on the verge of a sovereign wealth default, as well as working Americans spending nearly everything they make on a home that is more than likely underwater; and  their credit card interest rates are rising toward 70%; and  mom and pop’s daily and weekly purchased items have become more expensive because the dollar is worth-less forcing them to use more dollars on what appears to be more expensive items; and then there is the rising college costs, as we watch our savings shrink, and as we hope that the principal can remain even. Can someone tell me what is in the water that flows through the tap at the White House and Congressional water fountains?

What we are witnessing today is a flat out war against working Americans in this Congress. The Republicans are pulling every political maneuver to obstruct President Obama’s agenda. Professor Elizabeth Warren’s desired Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which would protect consumers from fraudulent financial instruments sold by banks, is being killed by banks and Senate Republicans. The House of Representatives passed the formulation of such an agency, but the Senate is being paid by banksta lobbyists to push it back. The banks do not want to agree to sensible reforms that would protect consumers. They like fraud!

Jamie Dimon, the CEO of Citigroup, cavalierly stated that there would be no reason for reforms and consumer protections because “financial crises are expected every 5-7 years, so we should just get over it.”

Instead of President Obama and Congress working diligently to prevent financial crises ever again, especially since this one was the worst since the Great Depression, they are playing party games to do little to protect working Americans from further economic collapses and destruction of their savings and asset wealth.

Oh, did we forget that the most important view is to protect the richest people in the country from ever suffering any inconveniences, and to make sure that the lower 90% meet the needs of the upper 10% of the people?

Citigroup is working fast and furious to subvert the Obama administration’s stage performance from appearing to even look like he is a man of the people. Jamie Dimon is dope-slapping Obama in public to let me and you know exactly who this president is working for. Jamie Dimon is masterminding a plan to subvert any Credit CARD Act requirements from doing anything but screw users even after the law was passed and to be enforced.

Here it is explained by Mr. James Kwak, of Baseline Scenario, “Credit Card Cleverness”: “Section 171 of the CARD Act (detailed guide here) prohibits “hair-trigger” increases in credit card interest rates on outstanding balances, whereby an issuer could increase a rate for any reason at any time. 171(b) specifies how interest rates can be changed; for example, the rate can change as the index it is based on changes, or the rate can change at the end of a clearly defined introductory period. 171(b)(4) says that if a borrower misses a minimum payment, the issuer has to wait sixty days before raising the interest rate. 171(b)(4)(B) says that after raising the rate, if the borrower makes the minimum payments for the next six months, the issuer has to restore the previous rate.

The person who got the letter above used to have an 8.1% APR. This letter raises the APR to 29.99%. But, if he pays his balance on time, he will get a “credit” amounting to (at least) 70% of the interest amount, bringing the APR down to 8.99%. If he misses a minimum payment, he may not be eligible to continue in the program. In other words, he has an 8.99% APR that jumps to 29.99% immediately (retroactively, actually, since it can apply to the previous month’s balance) if he misses a payment. Furthermore, the 8.99% rate does not have to be restored after six months of making payments, because the official rate was always 29.99%, and the 70% credit is just a “program.”

This attempt to get around Congress’s clear legislative intent is so transparent that it should be an easy case for the appropriate regulator to strike down. I believe the appropriate regulator for this kind of thing is the Federal Reserve. Maybe Ben Bernanke can show that he’s serious about consumer protection.” (End)

Here is more evidence of the Republican’s War Against Working Americans! ‘Republikon’ economic war strategist Frank Luntz wrote a memo describing in detail how his fellow jihadis could kill financial regulatory reform so working Americans continue to remain victims.

This same consulting political terrorist outlined how to kill health care reform for his comrades. After that, he went after financial regulatory reform.

In Sam Stein’s piece on Huffington Post, called “Frank Luntz Pens Memo To Kill Financial Reform”, “In a 17-page memo titled, "The Language of Financial Reform," Luntz urged opponents of reform to frame the final product as filled with bank bailouts, lobbyist loopholes, and additional layers of complicated government bureaucracy.

"If there is one thing we can all agree on, it's that the bad decisions and harmful policies by Washington bureaucrats that in many ways led to the economic crash must never be repeated," Luntz wrote. "This is your critical advantage. Washington's incompetence is the common ground on which you can build support."

Luntz continued: "Ordinarily, calling for a new government program 'to protect consumers' would be extraordinary popular. But these are not ordinary times. The American people are not just saying 'no.' They are saying 'hell no' to more government agencies, more bureaucrats, and more legislation crafted by special interests."

In Republican circles Luntz's words, which have helped the party score win the message wars over health care and other legislative battles, are often treated as gospel. Already, some of the advice he's offered on regulatory reform has found its way into the political discourse -- with a proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency seemingly on life support under Republican objections.

In addition to tying regulatory reform to a massive government takeover, Luntz's memo includes several other data points and messaging suggestions as a blue print for the legislation's defeat. Opponents, he writes, would be well served to link the package to the financial industry bailout (which, it should be noted, is fundamentally not part of the legislation). According to accompanying polling data, 52 percent of voters said they would be "much less likely" to vote for their member of Congress if they voted for a financial reform bill that contained a fund to bail out banks and Wall Street.

"Public outrage about the bailout of banks and Wall Street is a simmering time bomb set to go off on Election Day," Luntz wrote. "Frankly, the single best way to kill any legislation is to link it to the Big Bank Bailout." (End)

What Luntz was doing was to frame his resistance to what would actually help working Americans, and their savings and investments as a negative. He actually stated that ordinarily people would be in favor of financial regulatory reform, and consumer protections but not now. HUH? Not now? These are the worst times since the Great Depression. If not now, then when would Americans want to be protected and demand regulation by their government?

This is a battle plan to brainwash Teabagger-types that don’t want bigger government, yet it is these same Republicans who voted in Bush’s massive budget deficits, war funding, domestic spying agenda, expansion of Medicare prescription drug benefit plan, bailouts, and the exporting of what has ended up to be 80% of all manufacturing jobs. Luntz’s Economic War Plan is also framed in lies. None of the regulatory reforms are tied to bailouts, but Teabagger-types, which is the Kool-Aid drinking group they are hoping to rally, will eat the pabulum.

James Kwak, responded to Luntz’s attack plan, wrote in his piece called “Elizabeth Warren Calls Out Wall Street”:

“The goal is simple: to make Americans think that the CFPA is their enemy, because it’s part of the government, and that the banks are nice cuddly ewoks by comparison.

This is absurd.

We like to make fun of government in this country, but really, what are you and a few of your buddies going to do to fight JPMorgan Chase on your own? For all of our beloved rugged individualism (and our individual right to handguns), it doesn’t do much good when you’re up against your credit card issuer. There is no Chicago-school free market solution to an oligopoly that, on top of all its other advantages, has an implicit government guarantee that gives it a major funding cost advantage over its competitors. One of the purposes of government is to protect ordinary people from forces (hurricanes, terrorists, monopolies) against which free market forces do not provide adequate protection. This is why we need a Consumer Financial Protection Agency. And this is what Frank Luntz wants to trick people into forgetting.” (End)

The ‘Republikon’ Party is working hard to push back protections for hardworking Americans.  Ranking Senate Banking ReCon Richard Shelby is not supporting any formation of a consumer financial protection agency with teeth and bite. This is their strategy. Shelby said that Democrat Chris Dodd, who supports the agency being independent, is the only one on the Senate Banking Committee supporting it.

Americans must wake up to the fact that President Obama is just dancing on the government stage pretending to be looking out for working Americans, when in actuality there is a curtain behind his with all his stage managers telling him how to perform the act. Those managers are the corporate elite, the monopoly capitalists, and the financial banking investment crime syndicate; yet, behind them is another curtain, very sheer, and impossible to see through. Behind that curtain is the military industrial-intelligence-domestic spying puppet masters controlling the entire stage performance.

President Obama’s damage control has not been with the American people, the real consumer in the country, but with those indulging in maintaining control of asset wealth inflation.

Thank for reading, jerry

http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com

The Toyota Metaphor

After 50 years of growing a corporation, a brand, a reputation, Toyota went down. It went down rather quickly, but began to trip over its feet several months ago, and some might rightfully say years ago. Toyota became the most respected name in automotive manufacturing. Quality and reliability were its first names.

It went down due to continued outsourcing of its parts, lack of quality control, and possibly, over expansion. It began to over-plant its fields stripping the soil of its vital nutrients. Instead of manufacturing its own parts, it outsourced them to places where they were far from the corporation’s laboratories. They fell from grace because of a sticky gas pedal. Several months ago, its flagship brand, Lexus, rolled a car off its line, and into the hands of an unsuspecting owner who, along with two others, met their death because the gas pedal got stuck against the floor.

At first, the cause was said to be from the floor mat, so floor mats were recalled and modified. But the problem persisted. It got to the point where around 8 of Toyota’s brands were suspended from sales. Dealers were freaked out that they would be risking defaults on their loans they made to obtain cars. Mortgages on dealership buildings were at risk of defaults, too.

Consumers were trading in their Toyotas for models not at risk of a sticky pedal. Consumers were over-reacting and began to panic over what the company had not figured out. This is America. The land of the panicked, and home of the over-reacted. Be afraid!!! Be afraid of the sticky gas pedal. We must have our solutions right this damn minute. There is no time to waste. We want it now. Keep government out of my Medicare!

Toyota worked day and night with the gas pedal manufacturer once they realized the US consumer was ready to storm the dealerships and surround them with their Camrys, Corollas, Tacomas, and more. It was starting to get primitive, and looking like the cavalry surrounding the enemy. “Keep government out of my Medicare”, I heard confused, flustered and angry Teabaggers yelling out at the local Toyota service department representatives.

There were signs with “Obama” crossed out reading “Toyotacare: Seniors will be shovel ready!” I guess that meant they were ready to bury their Toyota. Here is another sign reading “Seems like Toyota (liberals crossed out) can sell (dish crossed out) it out, but can’t take it back. (Democrat and Republican crossed out) Toyota, Chevy, Chrysler: same sh*t different heap (pile crossed out).”

I guess I would have to say to anyone who is still driving their Toyota and worried, drive carefully!!! Drive more defensively. And drive with caution and with due diligence that at any moment you might have to shove it into neutral, pull it over, and cut the engine. Machines do screw up. There is no getting around it.

I find it a bit funny that Ray LaHood, President Obama’s transportation secretary, saying Toyota was a “little safety deaf” because it dragged its feet over its gas pedal problem. In this AP interview story titled “LaHood says Toyota slow to respond”:

"They should have taken it seriously from the very beginning when we first started discussing it with them," LaHood told AP. "Maybe they were a little safety deaf."

 AP wrote, LaHood also said the government was considering civil penalties for Toyota over its handling of the recalls but declined to elaborate. Sales fell 16 percent in January, hurt by Toyota's decision to halt sales while it sorted out a fix for problems with faulty gas pedals. Most other automakers reported sales gains for the month as the broader industry continued to show signs of improvement.

That problem prompted the company to recall 2.3 million vehicles two weeks ago in the United States. In October, Toyota recalled more than 4 million vehicles to replace floor mats that were suspected of causing accelerators to get stuck, leading to crashes. The recall has since grown to more than 5 million vehicles. Toyota has announced a separate fix for that problem, and parts for that repair are expected to arrive at dealerships beginning later this week. Beginning in 2003, the government conducted several investigations into reports of unwanted acceleration involving Toyota vehicles but failed to find any evidence that the vehicles were defective. When the government probed reports of floor mats in Lexus vehicles jamming gas pedals, Toyota said there was "no possibility of pedal interference" with the floor mats if they were placed properly and secured.

But a government survey of Lexus owners found dozens of reports of sudden acceleration and evidence that in some crashes owners had pressed hard on the brakes but failed to stop the vehicles. The investigation led Toyota to recall an accessory all-weather floor mat for 55,000 Lexus vehicles in September 2007.

The problems grew last August when a California Highway Patrol officer and three family members were killed in a high-speed crash aboard a 2009 Lexus ES350. The Lexus hit speeds exceeding 120 mph, struck a sport utility vehicle, launched off an embankment, rolled several times and burst into flames as a family member called 911.

Toyota hopes a small steel insert the size of a postage stamp will solve problems with friction that are blamed for the potential glitch. Dealers said they expected to receive parts for the fix starting Wednesday. LaHood said the Toyota recalls "may be the most serious safety issue that we have faced here at DOT" during his tenure. "This is a big deal, this is a big safety issue," LaHood said. (End)

Toyota was legally required by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to stop selling the cars that were at risk of gas pedal failure.

Wow! If only Goldman Sachs were told by the Treasury to stop selling securities and derivatives until they reduced their leveraging, and held more capital reserves before selling a single at-risk investment, and required all transactions be made in the open market then our president might have some sharper teeth when he bites back today!

Now, if only George W. Bush and President Obama had handled this Toyota incident in the same way as our economy, maybe the economy would be running safer and smoother.

Ray LaHood claimed this mechanical failure was a big deal and a big safety issue. Well, I would say that so was the economic and financial hijacking of our economy by the banking mobsters, such as Goldman Sachs, and AIG, Bank of America, and Wachovia, and the rest of the ‘too-big-to-failure’ bankstas.

But our rescue of the economic “big deal” was handled not for the consumer and the middle class investor saving for retirement, but for the richest 1% of the corporate elite, or the ‘corporate totalitelites’. Did the government tell the Bankstas to go out and find their own fix; to find their own financing? No. The fix was in for them. Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke, Bush, and Tim Geithner, and now Obama handed them the crazy glue in the form of TARP, and other Treasury and Federal Reserve bailouts totaling a support structure of $23 trillion, and Senators Chris Dodd and Barney Frank’s Senate Banking Committee have now agreed to offer another $4T if they need another bailout.

Now, Paul Volcker has made a strong recommendation to President Obama how to fix his “broken gas pedal problem” by, once again, separating out banks from investment houses and creating regulation that works. But, Geithner seems to be saying that is a bad idea and will cause a storm in the financial markets, even though that is what caused it in the first place, and the markets have been rallying because there are no regulations to speak of.

LaHood says the Toyota sticking gas pedal incident is the most serious safety issue seen at DOT. How about we rephrase that and say that the mega-banks feeding from the public trough, not abiding by government regulations, buying Congressional legislators and Bush43 to make laws that assisted their looting process, being over-leveraged, and under-capitalized during the time when they were selling fake securities to unknowing “Johns” who were caught with their pants down, while making huge piles of billions of dollars as they engaged in the destruction of the Real Economy by sending investment capital overseas to build Chinese manufacturing plants so as to make cheap stuff they could then export back to the unemployed American worker. 

Wow, Ray LaHood, wouldn’t you say that what I just described out-does ya? How about that what I just described has ended up being the biggest national security issue to face the US government?

Maybe the fix would have been a bit more complex that a postage stamp piece of metal, but just as you had gone over to Japan to express your concern on behalf of the American consumer, had our government leaders went into the offices of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and the other banksta CEO mobsters and told them that they were responsible for their own fixing so that the consumer would be safe and protected, otherwise they would have to go into bankruptcy court, and the FDIC would then step in break up the bloated behemoths into smaller pieces as the government protected the consumer’s investments. Then an investigation into possible crimes would then proceed.

This did not happen. Instead, Geithner, Bernanke, and Paulson made fabulous deals with these bankstas protecting their wealth and balance sheets, as well as the opportunities to pay huge bonuses during a time of economic hardship. Oh well. Just Keep Government Out Of My Medicare. That is all I want!!!

Just as millions of consumers were at risk of death and/or injury from the gas pedal defects, more Americans were taken down by the financial banking mobsters, to the tune of tens of trillions of dollars, than by this single car company, and the reverberations worldwide were much more powerful than aftershocks, yet our government reacted with more force and hyper-diligence to protect the consumer from risk of harm caused by a sticky gas pedal than we have seen over what many have coined the Second Depression.

Thanks Ray LaHood for making it clear that Toyota has been more important to consumers than this economic recession. I appreciate it, and feel better already.

So, is my Medicare looking freedom-like yet?

Thanks for reading, jerry

http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com

The U.S. Supreme Court Majority Are Enemy Combatants!

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There clearly is a war in America and it has officially been declared by the United States Supreme Court with their decision to grant corporations unlimited spending for election campaigns.

“This ruling strikes at our democracy itself,” Mr. Obama said, adding: “I can’t think of anything more devastating to the public interest. The last thing we need to do is hand more influence to the lobbyists in Washington, or more power to the special interests to tip the outcome of elections.”

The ruling, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, No. 08-205, overruled two precedents: Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, a 1990 decision that upheld restrictions on corporate spending to support or oppose political candidates, and McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, a 2003 decision that upheld the part of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 that restricted campaign spending by corporations and unions. (New York Times, 1-22-10, Adam Liptak)

Mr. Greg Palast, investigative journalist, wrote on his website, “Hidden money funding, whether foreign or domestic, is the new venom that the Court has injected into the system by its expansive decision in Citizens United.” “I'm losing sleep over the millions — or billions — of dollars that could flood into our elections from ARAMCO, the Saudi Oil corporation's U.S. unit; or from the maker of "New Order" fashions, the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Or, from Bin Laden Construction corporation. Or, Bin Laden Destruction Corporation.

Right now, corporations can give loads of loot through PACs. While this money stinks (Barack Obama took none of it), anyone can go through a PAC's federal disclosure filing and see the name of every individual who put money into it. And every contributor must be a citizen of the USA.

But under today's Supreme Court ruling that corporations can support candidates without limit, there is nothing that stops, say, a Delaware-incorporated handmaiden of the Burmese junta from picking a Congressman or two with a cache of loot masked by a corporate alias.”

Mr. Palast continued, “The danger of foreign loot loading into U.S. campaigns, not much noted in the media chat about the Citizens case, was the first concern raised by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who asked about opening the door to "mega-corporations" owned by foreign governments. … Congress might be able to prohibit foreign corporations from making donations…Tara Malloy, attorney with the Campaign Legal Center of Washington D.C. says corporations will now have more rights than people. Only United States citizens may donate or influence campaigns, but a foreign government can, veiled behind a corporate treasury, dump money into ballot battles.

Malloy also noted that under the law today, human-people, as opposed to corporate-people, may only give $2,300 to a presidential campaign. But hedge fund billionaires, for example, who typically operate through dozens of corporate vessels, may now give unlimited sums through each of these "unnatural" creatures.

And once the Taliban incorporates in Delaware, they could ante up for the best democracy money can buy.”

Mr. Palast describes how corporations poison the campaigns of politicians and deceptively influence the decisions of voters who vote NOT in their own best interests. “Congressional investigators found that in crucial swing races, Democrats had fallen victim to a flood of last-minute attack ads funded by a group called, "Coalition for Our Children's Future." The $25 million that paid for those ads came, not from concerned parents, but from a corporation called "Triad Inc."

Evidence suggests Triad Inc. was the front for the ultra-right-wing billionaire Koch Brothers and their private petroleum company, Koch Industries. Had the corporate connection been proven, the Kochs and their corporation could have faced indictment under federal election law. As of today, such money-poisoned politicking has become legit.” (Gregpalast.com, Manchurian Candidates:
 Supreme Court allows China and others
 unlimited spending in US,1-21-10 elections)

The Supreme Court majority members who appear to create new law cloth from their own looms, appear to be part of the neo-fascist ‘corpora-politico’ uprising in this country. We saw it with Newt Gingrich’s Contract With America, which brought in tanker loads of cash to buy neo-con politicians to fill the seats of Congress on behalf of the international corporate royalists. They were instrumental in crafting an agenda that brought President Clinton to the table with an 18 carat gold nibbed Schaeffer fountain pen embossed with the words “Bill Clinton” along with the White House seal, in hand to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act, and create the Commodity Futures Modernization Act-1999, opening the flood gates allowing the laissez-faire, faux-free market capitalists to begin feeding at the Treasury-Federal Reserve’s public cash trough, as they fabricated fake mortgage-backed securities and formulated fictitious and fraudulent derivative contracts. Along with that tall order, they shipped US jobs over to countries with minimal-to-no worker rules, regulations, or minimum wage scales.

Dr. Dean Baker, Co-Director of the Center for Economic Policy Research, suggested in his 1-25-10 Huffington Post piece titled Leveling the Economic and Political Playing Field, “…to get the privilege of limited liability, corporations would have to give up their political rights in the same way that insurance companies often require people to give up their right to sue and instead submit to binding arbitration. Everyone still has the right to sue, but not in the cases where they have explicitly surrendered this right to the insurance company. Similarly, corporations still have the full right to take part in political activity, but not if they have surrendered this right in order to gain the privilege of limited liability. There is actually precedent for exactly this sort of restriction in the law. Tax-exempt organizations are severely restricted in their ability to support candidates, lobby legislatures, or in other ways take part in the political process. This is not viewed as a restriction on freedom of speech; it is simply a condition of getting tax-exempt status. These organizations are free to engage in as much political activity as they like, but not when they are benefiting from tax-exempt status. There is no reason that the government can't apply the same rules to the political conduct of corporations as it does to tax-exempt organizations. They can do whatever they like, but not when they benefit from the privilege of limited liability.”

Dr. Baker concludes his piece with the following truth, “nless we can do something to reverse the direction of politics in the United States, the burden that the wealthy and corporate America impose on the rest of society will grow ever larger. And we should be very clear: this has absolutely zero to do with free markets and free speech. This is entirely about writing the rules so that the rich can rip off the rest of us.”

And in addition, we have Timmy Geithner threatening Americans by inferring that if Ben Bernanke is not re-nominated by Congress, there will be trouble. "The markets would view this as very troubling thing for the economy as the whole.”

Timmy Geithner appears to be working to help the mega-investment banks avoid President Obama’s financial regulatory reform plan. President Obama is broaching the idea of limiting a bank’s ability, if they consider themselves a banking holding company, to have the government federally insure their deposits, if they trade in risk-based securities for their own accounts, and if they pedal in hedge or private equity funds.

But Geithner would work around such rules by offering banks that are skittish about such government regulation the opportunity to shed their holding company mystery cloak, which allowed them to tap into government TARP funds and feed at the Federal Reserve’s discount cash fund window feeding trough. But now that Obama wants to change the rules, they will remake themselves once again.  The Geithner Coup Intervention Plan would allow them to keep their trading and investment crap table operations flowing without financial interruption. Goldman Sachs would be the biggest financial casino operator to benefit from such a Geithner push-back plan.

This is the war against working Americans. We have Trojan horses, such as Timmie-daG-Geithner, inside the White House, being subverted by former Clintonian Treasury Secretary, Paul Volcker, advising President Obama that he needs to move on financial market regulatory reform unless he wants to continue with the Goldman Sachs-business-as-usual plan.

With the Supreme Court siding with the mega-investment banking giants, and the Goliath-like international corporate royalists to secure legislator loyalty and an executive who would likely be bought and paid for to serve their profit oriented purposes, the American worker, and their families will be forced into serfdom. It is coming.

Unless Congress changes the definition of what it means to be a corporation to exclude the ability to engage in campaign contributions, this nation will become the type of nation that we saw Italy become under Mussolini’s rule, whereby corporations and government had a super strong symbiotic relationship. Any change is unlikely, since the process of buying elections, along with secret groups hiding behind PACs selling their be-afraid agenda, cannot be the force of change needed for America to move forward with success.

President Obama will be giving his first State Of The Union address Wednesday. If he doesn’t speak about real changes that will put heavy duty chains around the necks of our financial industry, and dynamic ways to bring jobs to the unemployed, while protecting the economic fires burning all around working Americans from hamlet, to town, to village, to city, as well as illustrating a sustainable vision for the future of the country, his presidency is over.

Thanks for reading, jerry

http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com

It Was A Banner Year For Goldman Sachs-The Nation’s Leading Predator

As the economic armada is sinking with billowing smoke in the Sea of Financial Crisis, the U.S.S. Goldman Sachs raises a banner across its deck, announcing “Mission Accomplished”, Lord Lloyd Blankfein proclaims, “There’s no crisis that can’t be won!” During the state dinner aboard ship, during Lord Blankfein gives the opening address. He begins with a humbling first sentence stunning all of the oligarchs enjoying their elegant luncheon. He says, “A scam is a terrible thing to waste!” The crowd roars in applause, and a toast is made to Charles Ponzi, the first known grand Ponzi conartists of 1919.

That is correct. There is no crisis that cannot be scammed. While the neo-cons in the Grotesquely Oligarchist Psychopathetic Repugnicon Party are all saying that mortgage holders, in spite of being underwater with their mortgages, should not walk away from them. They must adhere to their obligations. WTF! are they talking about? As far as I can tell, Lord Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, AIG, and the rest of the financial crime syndicate thieves were about to sink in the Sea of Financial Crisis if they weren’t given TARP, TALF, PPIP, Fed Fund Drive-Through Windows (‘Can I have a Happy Meal with that, please?), and more totaling $23 trillion supplied by the taxpayers; yet, the homeowners, who were ripped off of $12T in household wealth, and found their mortgages underwater because of the financial crime syndicate thieves violated their ‘honor’ as American businessmen and sold junk mortgage derivative bonds to suckers who thought these low-grade securities were AAA, when really they were worth nothing; and then, knowing that these tranched bad mortgages mixed in with a few token good mortgages would likely go up in smoke, bought AIG’s credit default swaps to secure their foreshadowed losses. Nostradamus not required. In addition, they all knew they were Too Big To Fail and the government would step in with financial winches to hoist them all back up again.

But the small fry homeowners left out to dry with underwater mortgages are supposed to stand tall and keep on paying. What garbage.

Now, President Peacock Obama, who spent a year displaying his fancy feathers for the world to see as he strutted, while globetrotting, smiling for the cameras, while giving articulate speeches, has now decided to show he is more than just pretty feathers. He has told the voters that it was his “commitment [is] to recover every single dime the American people are owed.” Funny, funny Mr. President!! Where are the teeth behind this meek appeal? How will you actually do this? And, will you cower away when the banking predators come for your throat?

Your plan appears to be one that will place a tax levy on the biggest financial institutions in order to recoup losses from the TARP bailout program, which would amount to $90B over ten years. Now, being the math wizard that I am, that comes to just $9B per year. Goldman Sachs’ 2009 profit came to a whopping $50B, with $20B passed out in bonuses. Happy New Year big shots. Now, I would say President Obama has convinced himself that he believes he is sure talking tough. Unfortunately, he is only doing his new kabuki theater routine. It is just for show. He wants to try and look like he is all about the little guy. While stumping in Massachusetts for the Democrat who eventually lost to a neo-con Republican opposed to health care reform as viewed through the Democratic keyhole, he kept talking about the little guy and gal. Those hurting. Those suffering. Those who have lost so much while the bankstas took it all home with them. What a kabuki dance if I ever saw one. Wave the magic wand, Mr. President, and chocolates will come raining down on everyone, as George W. Bush believed when he entered Iraq for the first time.

Let us review the scam artistry that Goldman Sachs and the others engaged in. Brooksley Born, a member of the Financial Crisis Commission hearing panel, and the former head of the Commodity Futures Trade Commission, under Clinton, who, in 1998, publicly warned Alan Greenspan and Jamie Dimon, chairman of JPMorgan Chase, that there was a derivatives tsunami gathering a huge amount of destructive energy as it approached our own shores. They laughed at her, told her to go away and take some cookies on her way out. During these current hearings she reminded the four leading banksta syndicate operators testifying before her (GS, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and BoA that they were chairmen of firms that they were responsible for about $230 TRILLION worth of trade in over-the-counter derivatives, much of which were still unmonitored!!! Holy heck! And the cons are worried about underwater mortgages and the working stiff getting health care at a reasonable price without cancellation?

Over time, the Federal Reserve worked its monetary magic by over-leveraging taxpayer wealth, via the treasury by increasing US debt by 4000%-from less than $3B to over $12T, with much of it going onto the balance sheets and into the pockets of the US corporate oligarchs, the financial banking thieves, and private equity funds, as well as the incredibly predatory industrial war machine.

After the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Federal Reserve and the laissez-faire, “free-market” (HA,HA) capitalists worked their black magic, their Voodoo Economics, by pressing legislators to erode the rules and regulations that were put into place following the economic collapse of the 1930s. As the government oversight was erased, the economic and financial predators began sucking from Lady Liberty’s breast to drain as much taxpayer wealth as was possible, revving up into a full force gale beginning in 2000. It appears that after one year of President Obama’s leadership, none of the erased rules and regulations had been restored, along with what we should have learned from past lessons.

We now have begun to see behind the Shadow Banking curtain thanks to the hosts on MSNBC, and others, such as Matt Taibbi’s work published in the Rolling Stone magazine, exactly how Goldman Sachs engaged in fraud against their clients, the American people, and AIG. Also, we are seeing a conspiracy to cover-up the fraud committed by the likes of Hank-the Paulie-Paulson, Monster Man of the Year—Bennie the Beard Bernanke, Lordie Lordie Blankfein, and Timmie-daG-Geithner, all of whom should be indicted using RICO. Where is the Justice Department? Where is the call for a Grand Jury investigation?

Back in 2008, when Timmie the G was President of the New York Fed and his chairman was Steve Friedman, who also had been a Goldman Sachs chairman, too, began mopping up AIG’s garbage mortgage bonds that they were insuring for Goldman Sachs to the tune of $14B at 100 cents on the dollar, since GS rejected a 40 cents on the dollar offer. Now tell me if this was not a conspiracy to protect the balance sheet of the top financial crime syndicate boss—Lord Blankfein!

Not only did GS get full value for their derivative contracts insured by AIG, but Merrill Lynch, and Wachovia did as well. They all got reimbursed by the taxpayer to the tune of $27.1B. Socialize the losses and privatize the gains!

It appears that under Bush, Hank Paulson and the others plotted to kill Goldman Sachs’ competition and leave only GS on the top of the investment banksta dog pile, since Goldman had its field marshal generals embedded in the government protecting their interests.

Lehman Brothers was brought down in 2007, and Bear Stearns and Morgan Stanley were decapitated. While this planned demolition was going on, and long before, Goldman Sachs was selling garbage mortgage backed securities to suckers believing in the financial market’s Golden Egg, when actually it was rotten inside, while the wizards inside GS were selling off their garbage to AIG and buying swap insurance to guarantee their losses. They all knew, since Hank Paulson, a veteran GS chairman, then acting as Bush’s Treasury secretary, and Robert Rubin close to his side, as well as Bernanke, and Geithner, would rescue any of their losses when, and not if, it got there. There was no such thing as risk management. What it meant was take all the risk you want, Uncle Sam is there to help! Didn’t Reagan hate that phrase? Bush didn’t listen!

In 2006 and on into 2007, GS sold somewhere around $39B of their mortgage junk, and used their ‘honorable’ status as that of “upstanding” investment bankers and sold around $17B more mortgage junk securities for their clients, yet those good, law biding American business bankers never told the suckers who ended up buying those garbage bonds that they were making bets on the side just in case those mortgage bonds went south because the never-ending boom in housing price values might actually come tumbling down.

In late 2006, McClatchy News reported that Goldman Sachs spokesman, Michael DuVally said that the firm decided, at that time, to reduce its mortgage risks by selling off subprime mortgage-related securities as well as to purchase credit-default swaps which were used to hedge against a serious downturn in the US housing market. This all came about because in December 2006, after “10 straight days of losses” in Goldman’s mortgage business, Chief Financial Officer David Viniar called a meeting of key Goldman personnel.  (1.Economiccollapseblog.com, How Goldman Sachs Made Tens of Billions From The Economic Collapse of America In Four Easy Steps)

It seemed that Goldman Sachs was not going to let their Wall Street casino gambles become losses no matter what they had to do. This is how a crime syndicate operates. And, they are it!

“The New York Times recently wrote: A handful of investors and Wall Street traders, however, anticipated the crisis. In 2006, Wall Street had introduced a new index, called the ABX, which became a way to invest in the direction of mortgage securities. The index allowed traders to bet on or against pools of mortgages with different risk characteristics just as stock indexes enable traders to change the firm’s overall stance on the mortgage market, from positive to negative, though it did not disclose that publicly. Goldman used this new index [to their advantage].

Along with all of this, Dylan Ratigan of MSNBC, has been all over Timmie Geithner to reveal the secret deals and emails that went on between the NY Fed, when he was its president, and AIG, as well as everyone else involved in keeping their secret from their clients, and the SEC, the deal that brought Goldman Sachs, via AIG, a 100 cent reimbursement for their toxic mortgage backed securities that were insured (CDS) through AIG. Geithner has decided that the documents will remain secret until 2018. So much for President Obama’s transparency pledge to America.

These bets would only make money for Goldman Sachs if the U.S. housing market declined.” (See reference 1.)

It sure was a banner year for the King of FOP (Financial Obfuscating Predator), Mr. Lordie Lordie Lloyd Blankfein, but it was the nation that took the hit instead.

Thanks for reading, jerry

 http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com

Here is the Colbert Report speaking about honor bound! It is great!

Articles and Videos of Interest

Over the last week, my internet friends and I have collected the following links of interest. I will try and do this on a regular basis for my readers to sift through.


Ratigan and Spitzer on the financial crisis hearings-video


California Bond Rating Downgraded


government control of money market funds


what is China doing to us?


what is the stimulus and some facts about it

Dean Baker on The Big Bank Theory

a book of interest

It is called:

Shadow Elite: How the World's New Power Brokers Undermine Democracy, Government, and the Free Market 

An American political prisoner held for calling a double-dipping judge!

Moodys warns of social unrest

US and our cities, such as California, may and will loose AAA ratings

Screw Job Coming

Union leader, Trumka, calls out government for lack of courage to fix jobs

the Federal Reserve's Ponzi scheme

those getting bailouts, and government/Fed assistance, as well as bonus recipients get easy tax rates!

proposed government take over 401Ks and IRAs

the lies behind the TSA and full body scanning capabilities

the disposable workers are those second on the list

video--Gerald Celente, Dire forecast for 2010

AIG allowed to keep their counterparty payoffs secret until 2018 by SEC

America will suffer permanent job losses

America's biggest economic mistakes

thanks for reading, jerry


http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com




PS.


The US is paying the Taliban hundreds of millions of dollars, which is in turn used to perpetuate their insurgency to fight our soldiers!!! When is enough enough?