President Obama Inherits Chaos Theory

This is my first article of an Obama presidency. We have entered a new time in many ways. Unfortunately, the old time is still very much dominating our lives. I was present during the inauguration, and stood along the parade route for 6 hours, and got to see President Obama, and Vice President Biden drive past and wave. The day brought hope to me and to those all around. The crowd was peaceful, respectful and happy. I felt blessed to have had the chance to experience a day where millions had hope and were so excited to have the regressive neo-fascists finally exiled from Washington.

The work Obama needs to do has just begun. He has parted ways with Bush in that HE, the new president, will take off his suit jacket when working at his desk. I guess, that could symbolize the rolling up of the shirtsleeves, as opposed to just wanting the appearance of an important job being done.

I am a skeptic by nature. And, continue to be one today, too. Chaos theory has dominated our economy for some time now, but appears to have become more dynamic over the last few years. The methods use by the previous administration, the Fed chairman and Hank Paulson have created chaotic disorder within the economic system. Their attempt at managing the collapsing financial system, most specifically, the “too big to fail” financial institutions with their bail out programs, auction facilities, which handed out Treasury cash, and the lack of transparency, accountability and trust moved our system away from order toward disorder. Chaos has prevailed, and that is clear.

Within the evolution of complex systems, from organisms to the creation of things to economies lives order and disorder. This is the yin and the yang. One cannot live without the other. Order and disorder must find a level of equilibrium so as to stay in a state of balance. It is not unlike two kids on a teeter tauter. They work together to keep their play in motion. One child does not dominate the other, otherwise the state of play no longer works and one child dismounts sending the other crashing to the ground. Within such systems one finds the Second Law of Thermodynamics. As an example of this let us look at the production of energy, which nations need in order to make things to use and to trade. The use of energy is basically the life’s blood of an economy. Without it there is no economy, nor a civilization.

Most of energy used today is a perfect example of chaos theory. A power plant uses energy in order to improve a way of life, as well as for further production of things, such as to power machines and computers. On one end, we have the useful purpose of energy, yet on the other, we have disorder, or, in other words, global warming, pollution, the depletion of natural resources, and the use of the military to protect the economic values placed on the useful “assets” involved in the creation of what has ultimately led to the state of disorder.

This continuum of energy is moving toward entropy, or the measurement of disorder within a given system. It measures the imbalance that exists within a given system’s equilibrium.

We saw the lack of orderliness, a move toward more randomness and “chaoticness” with every waking day of the Bush administration. It stretched out following 9-11, past Katrina, through Iraq and Afghanistan, and culminated at the doorstep of our economy. We watched Bernanke, Bush and Paulson act in a chaotic manner, full of disorder and out of balance when trying to explain without success, but then, following through with their solutions to reverse the economic meltdown, the crashing mortgage values, the toxic derivative explosion, and the consumer spending implosion. A total lack of faith and trust blanketed the nation. Distrust overwhelmed opinion polls. Yet, the last administration proceeded on their trajectory toward chaos in order to further those plutocrats who wanted to hold on to their stolen wealth.

Our nation went from generations of evolution toward devolution in only 8 years. The nation moved backwards from one progressing to one falling behind. A nation falling into more and more debt without anything to show for it, a rising un/underemployment rate, a collapsing worker safety net, an evaporation of personal wealth, and opportunities. This is devolution. This is Homeland Security raising the entropy color code to red. This nation has been in a national security alert for 8 years.

The principles of greed, dangerous power grabbing, and corruption in order for a small number of very, very rich people (less than 20%) to own 80% of nation’s wealth no matter the consequences or outcome, often voting Republican, was the order of the day inside the walls of Wall Street finance, and our government. When all of this was shiny and sparklingly new and exciting during the days following the end of World War II, when we were told that there would be a rising middle class able to ramble down the smoothly paved new superhighways in their glistening automobiles, our entropy was low, or, one could say, the HLS color code was only green (lowest). Over the decades, and as entropy began to show more disorder, and more imbalances, the color code rose to red. As our roads began to be overly crowded with commuters, our farmlands began to disappear and sprout mega-homes and shopping malls, as our commutes ran longer and longer, our expenses climbed, our financial sector carved out fake and fabricated risky investment vehicles to sell to any buying sucker so those at the top of the world’s biggest pyramid Ponzi scheme could get richer and richer, as our environment became more polluted and our national security became less safe and more paranoid, the nation slipped further and further into a state of decline. We grew closer to chaos and not many working class people even noticed or were warned of it, but there were those in government and in finance and at the top of the corporate pyramid who knew more than the rest of us.

It did not take very long for the destructive nature of a nation out of balance and equilibrium to share the disorder with the rest of the of the world, either through force or through their con games, such as the selling of fake derivatives to anyone in the world who would buy them to the tune of $1000 trillion, only to find their “investments” self-destructing to an amount of $400 trillion and falling. Also, as our greed-based corporate capitalists found slave laborers around the world to make the consumer stuff people wanted to buy, more of the orange (just below red) color rated entropy turned red. A blazing and fiery red colored entropy has engulfed the world.

Here is another example. Let us say that 400 people are invited to a delicious gourmet dinner party in a room that just about fits everyone moderately well. The food is prepared with care, which all humans love. That would be low entropy. We all need to eat, and it is being done together at a lower cost than if we all had to go out and find our dinners on our own all over town. But, once this pleasant meal is almost finished, one person passes a silent gas plume. This event is only noticed by those sitting next to the perpetrator. A blue (mid-level) colored entropy alert goes up to warn only those few, but the rest of the room stays green (low level alert color code). Yet, within 10 minutes all 300 begin to pass gas. The room must be evacuated because the level of methane gas becomes deadly. Not only is that a red level entropy alert, but worse.

You might say it did not take long for the room of 300 to reach a breaking point requiring a mass evacuation. The guests began to produce energy and matter to such a degree that the closed system of a party room’s ventilation system could not handle the decay of the air quality. The ventilation system was not powerful enough to handle what had not been planned for during the development process, and it, ultimately, failed those occupying the room, or system. The system was not prepared to handle the chaotic mess of a room full of gas! Now, there was a point in the 10 minute timeframe where the air could handle the expelling of gas and was not too destructive to the air quality, yet was still noticeable. That is called a threshold. The threshold was that at one moment in time the air quality crossed into a hazardous zone. The crossing of the threshold was a single moment when a crisis entered the system.

Today in our economy we are reaching a point where our financial, as well as social system is reaching a crisis level----code orangey red. President Obama has inherited this breaking point in our system. If he does not act in a way that will positively respond to the economic chaos that is occurring, and the high level of entropy that has ensued due to a massive amount of “gas that has been passed into the room, whereby those inside must evacuate”, in other words, where a large number of citizens will find their entire lives caved in resulting from foreclosure, bankruptcy, economic failure, etc., then he will, no doubt, lead us toward a red hot collapse of the dollar, Wall Street, Main and Side Streets, and much more. The stresses pressing on the crisis are strong, yet dynamic.

President Obama has begun to articulate his formula that he hopes will move us away from crisis but toward a new national development process, in spite of the overwhelming challenges that will act as friction against the economic lubricants he wants to inject into the system to get it moving toward prosperity and development. If he fails to act in a manner of “smart growth development”, to take a phrase used by communities using sustainable development principles, while using the nation’s resources wisely, efficiently and with effectiveness, the overwhelming challenges creating enormous friction eroding away at any amount of growth and development will overtake it, such as hyperinflation, which may turn into a national, or even, a worldwide depression; this could lead us toward a war we should not and would not want to fight. That would be entropy and chaos at its worst!

What makes this moment in time, this threshold, so fragile, although extremely complex, is that one wrong decision, or series of them, one act leading toward further economic instability could take the economy, and our society, into the flaming red entropy zone, and further economic chaos.

A decision or series of decisions, which leads toward growth and development, will create new challenges that would bring about a new level of chaos and entropy if not managed properly and with transparency, intelligence, and balance, would bring about a repeat of what we have today and drop into the laps of a future generation.

Currently, our greatest level of national entropy has to do with the evaporation of personal wealth and wage/income growth, the thievery allowed by the top tier fraudulent financial corporatists, the hording of cash by the top financial institutions handed over by the taxpayers in exchange for their worthless toxic debt, rising un/underemployment, the selling off of manufacturing, and the importation of massive amounts of energy to fuel the country, just to name a few. These are the losses the country has experienced, and President Obama has inherited.

This is why President Obama cannot make mistakes. This is why he must use every ounce of his intellect to invite the smartest and most capable experts into his cabinet meetings and discussions to thoroughly analyze and plan for a sustainable, efficient, and effective recovery plan, even though it might be painful in the short run. To label decisions as capitalist, or socialist, or whatever is feudal. It is irrelevant. No doubt, a collective set of ideas and proposals must be use without having to label their intent. Ideologies and dogmatic beliefs must be discarded and pragmatism must prevail. He has no choice, unless he makes the wrong choices in order to please the very people that created this mess in the first place.

Thanks for reading, Jerry

The World's Biggest Ponzi Scheme

“The Day the Earth Stood Still” may be a film-remake from the past grabbing the imagination of viewers by telling a story of an alien space craft landing on Earth, starring a human looking outer space man and his loyal robotic companion, but the fact is the Earth has begun to stand still because of the world’s biggest Ponzi Scheme, which began 30 years ago, and now, has come to an overwhelmingly loud screeching halt.

The nation has fixed their eyes on the economic vampire, Bernie Madoff, who ripped off his richest-of-the-rich investors out of $50 billion, as well as others managing funds of funds and closely similar concoctions. The media has clamped on him the ball and chain label of Number 1 Ponzi Scheme Con Artist. I have to disagree. The Number 1 Ponzi Schemer, the world’s honorary economic predator, goes to President Bush and his 2 heister-shyster racketeer side-kick vampires: Hank “The Paulie” Paulson, and “Bada Bing” Bernanke. The grandmaster Ponzi Schemer award goes to Alan Greenspan, who began the entire plan under Ronald Reagan.

This 30 year in the making, American government-endorsed, and president-presided-over Ponzi Scheme is what has severely damaged our economy, as well as other economies around the world. China has played a big role in the downfall by becoming the world’s assembly line using low paid, unprotected workers. Millions of drone assembly line recuits paid for by multi-national corporate greedsters killing jobs in our country while enriching themselves through low paid, with no-to-minimal benefits exploitable workers. By doing so, these corporate predators have increased the GDP of China, which has funded our debt oriented lifestyles, while, at the same time, kept their currency artificially as low as the dollar so their “stuff” could be readily available and real cheap to the maxed-out, over-spent American consumer.

Greenspan claiming he had no idea that our financial institutions were not capable of policing themselves is like saying that a vampire has no idea that their victims would end up completely drained of their life-sustaining blood after having drunk their dinner. In Japan, such a widespread and devastating failure would find the prominent authority figure responsible for the grand theft swindle taking hold of the honored Samurai sword for their final admission of guilt. Mr. Greenspan, we are still waiting for this very final apology!!

Bush has allowed Bernanke and Paulson to further the government’s Ponzi Scheme role by dumping more burdensome, unsustainable debt onto the shoulders of taxpayers, their children, and children’s children. Bush never took on the blame for the economic meltdown. He has always been compelled to deflect the finger-pointing away from himself and toward Congress, as well as Wall-Street, yet it was HE who put the Ponziites into the SEC, the Congress, and embedding them throughout the government, while encouraging lenders to loan to anyone who was breathing when they were walked in to sign for a home mortgage loan.

“Corporate America has a responsibility to make America a compassionate place”, said Bush. His code word for Ponzi was compassionate. He also said, “Wall-Street got drunk”, and corporate greed, along with market excesses, and the flow of foreign cash were to blame, yet he has yet to identify himself as the bartender for those drunken Wall-Streeters. Bush himself a proponent of greed and excess, and the recipient of his own personal foreign cash bailouts resulting from his failed oil businesses, has embraced the failed Ponzi framework disguised as free market economics. Such trickle-down, laissez-faire, free-market policies were actually the propellant used for this blazing bonfire of the economic “vanitees”.

President Bush and many congressional cons and hacks were recipients of generous campaign contributions from the financial banking industry indebting themselves to the richest of the financially rich allowing their Ponzi Scheme to go unregulated and unsupervised, and without question or transparency, while escorting Bernie Madoff into the arena of fraud with top hat in hand, as one bows gracefully before the Man. Bush’s con-artist advisor was his senior Ponzi promoter—Karl Rove.

Bush began his own presidential phase of the 30-year Ponzi Scheme with his effort to use his position as president to push his government into enticing and encouraging middle class Americans to use their credit worthiness to borrow and buy bigger, heavier, and even, thirstier vehicles, fancier washer and dryer machines, stainless steel stoves, vacations and much, much more pleasing the Ponzi bankers.

The Ponzi bankers wanted to squeeze more and more from the shrinking budgets of middle class Americans by convincing them to take equity out of their homes and increase their mortgage debt, while raising their debt burden, but softening their blow with lower rate re-financing packages. The economic Ponzi Parasites delighted in more available credit-driven debt formed into more non-transparent derivative obligations, which were insured against failure through credit default swaps.

Next came the “Go-Shopping” bugle call following the 9-11 tragedy. Polish up your credit cards and do your civic duty. Add to your debt, again, for the sake of the nationalized Ponzi Scheme!!!

All of this increased middle class debt giving the Ponzi Predators more debt to sell, while grabbing more fees, commissions and bonuses for themselves. This process turned into more non-productive wealth increasing the GDP, and fewer non-exportable products sold in order to help lower the trade deficit, which actually added to it.

They used the incomes of middle class consumers to fuel their Ponzi Scheme. All forms of consumer-driven debt was packaged and sold from bank to bank from hedge fund to wealth fund to broker-dealer, everywhere in the world, excessively leveraging their manufactured debt-driven derivative toxic hot potatoes turning one toxic hot potato into 100 of them; and then, taking those 100 toxic potatoes and making thousands more from them to the tune of 1000 trillion hot potatoes spreading worldwide in scope. Today, many have vaporized and all that is left is around $62 trillion.

Much of this exploding debt asset bubble inflated home and commercial real estate values increasing the opportunities to further speculate, which pushed prices artificially upward. What began as mortgage debt selling morphed into a serial re-financing Ponzi Scheme eventually collapsing for most of the investors down the Ponzi Line, except for those close to the top who profited immensely as they tried to stash their bootie into more secure locations.

Just in the last couple weeks, The Ponzi Aristocracy are considering adding more to the smoke and mirror illusion by bailing out hedge fund vampire predators, since they have gone to Bernanke, Paulson, and Bush crying for help. They want the taxpayers to permit the bundling of auto, student and credit card loans to create securitized debt obligations in hopes there would be investors awakening from a deep, deep decade’s long sleep willing to buy these non-transparent loans, many of which might actually go into default, as a way to add more debt to America’s balance sheet. This Fed Window is called TALF, which means Term Asset-backed Securities Loan Facility.

These hedge funds want to borrow $200 billion from the Fed’s TALF window at virtually a zero interest rate to sell pools of credit card receivables, auto loans, and student loans. Their drooling desire is to find suckers who might be brainwashed into buying them up. I wonder if there are any Rip Van Winkle-types, now waking up, who are looking for investments?

As America falls further into its economic abyss, the Ponzi Aristocracy want to further their riches, while the United States enters, what maybe viewed as, bankruptcy, in 2008-09. The projected cost of the bailout is $8 trillion. Fannie and Freddie Mac are guaranteed $5-6 trillion. In 2007, the public debt, what the U.S. owes foreigners for funding our economy—the two wars, etc.- amounts to $10.6 trillion. Yet, our GDP, all that the U.S. brings in to the Treasury and the nation’s net worth comes to $13.8 trillion.

Our debt is, at least, $23 trillion, but our GDP is $13 trillion. America’s private debt is considered a bit more than 100% of the GDP. Our debts exceed our revenues. So, what we are left with is our current government willing to create more Ponzi Scheme debt, but not invest a penny into the real economy—the economy that produces things, hard goods, that are created, crafted, and sold worldwide. This is what is called the industrial and manufacturing economy, and not the financial-debt-paper asset-class economy that has miserably failed us.

This Ponzi Scheme was known, supported, facilitated, promoted, and advanced by those given permission inside the government and from those contributing to it. This was all a massive predatory vampire-like scheme to suck the personal assets out of working America in order to enrich the richest of people; and now, once it has collapsed around them, they want to be bailed out!!! This has been nothing more than the biggest economic heist ever planned or schemed.

Two real burning questions to ask about the world’s biggest Ponzi Scheme are: where is the outrage, and, where are the indictments?

Happy New Year, jerry

McCain Leads the Grand Ole Plunderers (GOP)

How can John McCain tell the public that he is capable of fixing the economy by making the Bush tax shift permanent or effectively slicing and dicing the federal budget? McCain had voted with Bush on nearly every bill for the last 8 years. Just this last year, he voted with Bush 95% of the time. What is McCain's answer to his disappearing maverick act?

Bush, McCain and the Grand Ole Plunderers (GOP) have destroyed our economy and not helped it. Most of us are worse off now than we were 8 years ago; and, we can thank McCain for his role in it. As McCain gives his Plunderer-in-Chief his full embrace, his Boy Chief tells America that the economic fundamentals are good, yet 1 in 3 homeowners who purchased homes since 2003 now owe more than what their property is worth. This amounts to around 80 million homes.

(Read: "The Battered American Consumer: Even the Middle Class is Feeling Economic Pain", Kathleen Connell, Christian Science Monitor, on Alternet.org, 8-20-08).

Did Obama forget to tell McCain that when the Boy Chief took office our economy was robust? The American worker was benefiting from the growing GDP. But today, the average American worker has experienced a decline in their real wages. Did McCain forget that he supported his Boy Chief as he burned and plundered the U.S. budget surplus, while simultaneously doubling the national debt to nearly $10 trillion; and making this nation less safe and more vulnerable as he chose to use his "Political Capital" on wars and creating a new form of fascism with a sprinkle of kleptocracy? This is McCain's and his fellow G.O.Plunderer's legacy.

Did Obama forget that McCain's politics is commanded by lobbyists, who have been embedded inside no-bid government contracts and have infiltrated federal agencies and departments with their private sector partisan stooges? And then, there is the fact that he and his campaign advisor and lobbyist pal were deeply involved in the mess that occurred with the breakaway Republic of Georgia. Did Saashasvili actually believe that McCain, Boy Bush, or the GOP would morph into his Ironman saving him from the big bad Russian army? McCain's foreign policy agenda appears more like the Boy Chief's than that of a maverick who stands up to his party-line leaders.

McCain's foreign policy doctrine seems to be based on a hegemanical, Viagra-induced erection for wars and the threat of war. He has been in support of a policy that would financially drain the swamp through wars and by involvement in "client-contractor" style government relationships, i.e. Georgia and Ukraine.

Did McCain forget that bin-Laden said that he would take America down economically, which McCain has allowed, and has appeared to have embraced, as well? Nice going, Maverick! McCain embraced it because he stood with Bush on nearly all votes as a Senator. And, he followed the Phil Gramm doctrine to not regulate the financial markets, as did Bush Boy.

Now, Russia could burn down the House (and Senate) by flexing their retaliatory muscle just by dumping their dollar holdings, and their toxic assets, part of which they still hold but have not swapped for fresh Bada Bing Bernanke dollars. And then there is the $100-150 billion worth of bonds they bought off of Fannie and Freddie to keep them floating even though there was a hole in their tube.

Bada Bing Bernanke and Hank "the Paulie" Paulson swapped any greasy, slimy pieces of U.S. toxic assets, which have been basically worthless forms of "ha-ha" collateral from anyone foolish enough to buy them, even the Russians, for freshly printed dollars. Now, the Russians hold dollars they can use to threaten us just by tossing them out onto the world market creating deflationary havoc for our currency. The Russians would only sacrifice the full value of those dollars for revenge upon our Boy President and the U.S. economy. (Bada Bing.) Do we need more deflationary problems with our dollar?

This is the McCain and Bush legacy. They have destroyed our economy. So off to Minneapolis to claim victory!

(Read: "Reality Bites Again", Jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com) 

The McCain-Bush Legacy has crippled the availability of credit because the banks have less capital to risk/lend, as seen with Merrill Lynch, which basically gave away $30 billion of their mortgage-backed securities for 5 cents on the dollar after their arranged sale juggling act. The Fed holds around $400+billion of such fire sale junk assets and are closing in on the half-way buy back point. Also, FDIC has only $37 billion available to them for depositor insurance-based bailouts! Will they be asking for more? And, how soon?

McShame has performed his senatorial duties with reckless abandon as he gave the Boy Chief a wink and a nod for 8 years. Now that is what a Mav-wreck would do! Our very own McShame has allowed countries and nation states from around the world, which are our questionable friends when the dirt starts uh flyin', such as those in the Middle East, Russia, etc, to be our "bankers" as they bought our assets in order to keep us supplied, not unlike a dealer to a junkie, with cash in order to allow us to financially implode. The dollar may lose its glitter and sheen as the world's reserve currency thanks to the G.O. Plunderer's mismanagement of government.

(Read: "The Incredible Shrinking Dollar?", Mike Whitney, Counterpunch.org, 8-20-08) 

It seems that Bush Boy's Big Tent maybe falling down upon us as we ask the question, "Is there really enough gold in Fort Knox?" The value of gold and silver paper claims may not be backed by any actual gold or silver. Such precious metals are supposed to be sitting in the vaults of our biggest banks, and elsewhere, if paper claims are to be issued or "leased" to secondary dealer investors. It is believed not to be the case.

Why is the value of gold (and silver) falling, in the commodities markets, when the U.S. Mint had to suspend the production of gold bullion and ounces if commodities markets wants you to think that there is a drop in demand? Is there a game being played here? 

If a small dealer is afraid to take on a gold purchase "leasing" risk, then the larger bank 

(a holder of gold bullion) offers a subsidized lease with a negative interest rate, which means they are paid to take on the gold (or silver) lease deal. This arrangement deflates the metal's value. This ends up looking like a futures derivative scam, not unlike the mortgage-backed securities scam. Does it all sound familar? Yet, people all around the globe want to buy real gold and silver in spite of the street/COMEX price. There is a demand, and the people cannot get the real thing. Production is suspended because the U.S. Mint cannot get the stuff to mint! In addition, many central banks are trying to purchase more gold to cover themselves.

It is all about covering short selling on these metals. We are seeing a precious metal paper manipulation in order to make money shorting their covers before betting on the longs. The Fed and banks want to collapse the price, yet people, and central banks all around the world, want to own the real deal anyway.

Are the big banks trying to unwind what might be billions of dollars in mortgage related asset losses by forcing a collapse in metals and commodities, while holding billions in short sells, which would make billions for them as they leveraging out their previous losses? 

No matter what the talking heads are saying there is a demand for gold and silver in spite of a supply crunch. People are selling off their paper assets, going into cash, and trying to buy gold and silver ounces and bullions. Gold maybe a commodity, but it is still a world valued currency.

Before the U.S. Mint suspended production, it could not source enough gold product, all the while, they were minting "2.5 times as many gold coins, this year, and almost 4 times as many silver bullion coins, this year, compared to last year." This disconnect between street price and derivative price would not be happening if the banks holding gold bullion were selling claims based upon vaulting of the actual physical precious metal.

The 1987 President's Executive Order on Working Markets gave the Fed and Treasury the power to manipulate the markets secretly with full legal authority.

Will such gambling kill more banks? Will depositors pull their cash and stick it away where they know they can get at it? If this happens, will the price of gold and silver double?

(Read: "The Disconnect Between Supply and Demand in Gold and Silver", James Conrad, Seekingalpha.com, 8-20-08)   

This is the mess McCain has brought us. His former financial advisor, the New Menace, Phil Gramm, is the grand-daddy of these scams and helped McCain formulate his economic policy. Cindy McCain, Johnny Boy's sugar-momma, has set him up with so much wealth that he has no clue what he is sittin' on. So what does he care about the rest of America? He is the new leader of the Grand Ole Plunderers.

Thanks for reading, Jerry

POSTSCRIPT:

The St. Lewis Fed Borrow chart

This chart is a must read. It details borrowing over decades.

The G.O.Plunderers find new ways to offend and harm the nation.

Bush slips up on the war in Iraq.

Trillion dollar waterboarding

    Would you sit down and talk with enemies of the U.S.?   President Bush used a speech to the Israeli Parliament to liken those who would negotiate with “terrorists and radicals” to appeasers of the Nazis — a remark widely interpreted as a rebuke to Senator Barack Obama, who has advocated greater engagement with countries like Iran and Syria.

   

     The truth about Barack on forgien policy is that he takes an intelligent and pragmatic approach to foreign relations.  The same tact that most of the non knuckle dragging world takes.  Lets hope going forward that the United States learns that talk truly is cheap and a whole lot less expensive and bloody. 

     The most important lesson to be learned during these last days of darkness is this, Bush's foreign policy has failed because of corporate greed.  He has allowed forces of profit to not only make a fool of him domestically but also destroy the once semi-good name of the United States through-out the world.

    Bush has traveled hemispherically with his daisy cutters in hand to combat only certain parts of  his so called axis of evil.  He has waterboarded not for democracy but for profit in the name of capitalism.  Bush continues to spend trillions of dollars in Iraq to plunder valuable oil fields using American lives.  Lives lost not in the name of democracy, but in the name of corporate profits.  

   Interestingly, according to American media, the Bush administration has also put together one of the most incredible diplomatic accomplishments in history.   The Bush state department has brought that evil film buff and coward Kim Jong Ill down a peg,  through, get this, Obamaesque diplomacy.    Under Bush it seems some evil gets a pass through diplomacy and appeasement while others get the trillion dollar water-boarding treatment.   

    In the mainstream American media Bush's State department officials are being lauded as heros and dynamic chit chatters whom have brought that dictator with the crazy cool haircut Kim Jong Ill to his nuclear knees.   Supposedly just by using the very diplomatic concepts of engaging our enemies that candidate Barrack Obama has suggested and the republican party mocked.

   But not so fast, while acknowledging what a fantastic accomplishment has taken place with the North Koreans and Mr Kim jong ill, we must look closer at this so called success .        Lets not forget China's role in this historic Bush moment.  Knowing now what General Macarthur and Harry Truman learned the hard way, North Korea is part of China.   So, lets give credit where credit is due, China's efforts in North Korea made this diplomatic event happen.    Regardless of what the media and U.S history books may say and read, the U.S. owes The Peoples Republic of China a big thank you on this one.   Thank you's said, if China didn't offer so much economic opportunity for corporate America gangsters and present an overwhelming military presence we probably wouldn't have wasted time talking to Kim Jong iLL and would have been mixing North Koreans and Muslims together as an even more surreal cocktail known as Guantanimo.

   Bush may be a fool but with all do respect to Harry Truman, I will quote give em hell Harry in this context ,  "Goddamn it, you don't attack China."   So, don't buy the medias spew on this one.  Bush is still a failure beyond all imaginable thought both globally and domestically. 

As this election season continues to roll along, one has to wonder exactly why in the world would a voter choose a Republican, the likes we have not seen since Nixon. As a group, they are the most self-centered and corrupt political party in this new millennium. Huckabee came out with his racist remark, calling it humor, yet no one laughed, during a recent appearance, causing one to wonder if he had presided over the Church of the Racist Fools. It showed the lack of shame and the insane level of unchecked humor such Republicans are willing to display in front of a group. To make a suggestion that Barack Obama learn to duck and cover when on stage, after a chair fell over sounding like gun fire, is truly racist. 

It is amazing that the Regressive Party, oh, I mean the Republican Party, ended up with the half-wit, McCain, as their front runner. I am not sure that we can really call him a flip-flopper even though he says one thing and does another. He may actually be just a half-wit because he does not know that he says one thing, and then, at a later date, refuses to admit his previous contradictory remarks. And other times, he just slogs along his rutted path of regressive beliefs, all of which have been formulated for him by lobbyists or former Republicon Senator Phil Gramm, who worked hard to lay the ground work for the subprime debacle, back in 1999, while sitting as the Senate Banking chairman deregulating the banking and financial sectors. Now as a board member of the Swiss bank, UBS, he is seeing his bank taking a multi-billion dollar subprime hit, ie. writedown. The half-wit McCain keeps this human destroyer of our economic national security as his top economic advisor.

McCain has repeatedly said that lobbyists have been a huge problem for Congress, yet throughout this campaign, lobbyists have been running the "Straight Talkin' Express" for the "Washington Maverick". The current number of lobbyists working for McCain is 115.

McCain is no Maverick. Hey John Boy, James Garner was the real Maverick. How did you arrive at such a delusional self-assertion as to believe that you are a Maverick? 'John McCain, I knew Maverick. And you John McCain, are no Maverick!' I watched Maverick religiously, and I know for a fact, you are no Maverick. You can pretend all you want, but no one believes you! And while I am talkin' to ya, you are no straight talker, either.  If you want to attach yourself to a t.v. character, then watch Saturday Night Live. You are the character MacGruber! A nit-wit who is so self absorbed in his delusional abilities that no matter what he tries to do to save himself and others, he fails so badly that he ends up exploding into ruins. Stupidity rules in this case.

Just look at who else McCain attaches himself to. He had a key strategist, Charles Black, Jr. in his campaign that was employed by Myanmar's military junta! How much more corrupt does it get? The only reason why this Republicon political whore left the campaign was because he was found out by progressive bloggers who exposed this blood-lusting Washington influence pedaling "hooker". 

Other lobbyists McCain has been embracing are strongly associated with the telecom industry. McCain, as a member of the commerce committee, involved in telecommunications rules and regulations, did the bidding for these campaign contributors.

John McCain says he did not vote for Bush's tax cuts when they benefitted  the richest

Americans, after the Social Security "lock-box" was looted to pay for this Regressive Party-favor. He now says that the Democrats should make them permanent. HUH? I guess he could not remember speaking out against this failed policy.

Now, he says that when he becomes president, we will win in Iraq. Did he forget that he was a pilot, who was shot down and held prisoner for years during the Vietnam War, and that the United States did not realize an actual victory over that bloody conflict? Does he not know that Vietnam, now, has a thriving economy (a better GDP that the U.S. 8% in 2007)? Does he not realize that if Iraq was left alone , they too, would eventually develop a thriving economy without the U.S. needing to be their perpetual occupier? But McCain appears to lack common sense and being in possession of any reality based thinking skills; or, maybe he is just a half-wit? But half-wit Republican presidents seem to be the fashion these days.

It is not because McCain is in his early 70's that should disqualify him from running for president. It is because he stands for absolutely nothing; he believes in nothing; and he is a nothing. Half-wit equals nothing. He captures nothing within the hearts and minds of voters who truly believe in democracy and freedom, as well as a healthy and sustainable country; although he does attract the rest of the half-wits within the nation. And such people are dangerous to our freedoms, and democracy because, historically, they have hated our form of government and prefer fascism. Since many hate communism, they have chosen fascism instead. Just look at Prescott Bush, George Bush's grandfather, who became wealthy by laundering a Nazi industrialist's profits. And, there is more!

Read, "The Right's America-Hating Preacher", by Robert Parry, (Consortiumnews.com, 5-2-08)--a special report (21 pages) about Reverend Sun Myung Moon and his infiltration of the Republican Party's Congressional membership. Moon formed the Unification Church in Korea and, over time, recruited agents from the Korean CIA. As he expanded into Japan, Latin America, and the United States, he integrated his agents into these political systems through various ways. One way was to contribute millions into congressional campaign coffers.

Moon had dealings with drug lords, dictators, and arms runners. He smuggled millions of undeclared cash into the United States for payola purposes. He spent 2 years in an American jail, yet, nevertheless, built an economic and political influence pedaling network with approval from the Regressive Republican Party. Both Nixon and Reagan embraced him and invited him into the White House.

McCain is so deluded that he loves to strut around Baghdad, just like GeorgieBoy, believing he is on the side of our soldiers. John McCain seems to have forgotten that the soldiers returning from Vietnam, his Band of Brothers, had been given a full G.I. bill allowing them to go to college and get the tuition paid for in full. Yet now, McCain has decided that our soldiers, today, do not deserve the same treatment that had been allowed to him and previous veterans. Only a half-wit would strut around like a rooster on Viagra, showing off his plume of cock feathers to a bunch of battle-weary soldiers who know in their hearts that they have been handed a bad deal by McCain and his Republicon Party hacks.

As I have written before, this half-witted regressive candidate, wishing to usher in a Bush third term, does not believe that the American people deserve the same fully paid health care program that he has been given since the day he was born. Term limits are sounding better all the time.

McCain has a double standard for America. There are the haves, just like him, and the have nots, who are those who don't get the same government privileges that he has been so fortunate to receive. 

He just does not seem to be able to keep track of what he has told us he believes in based upon his past statements and actions versus what he says now as a presidential candidate. For example, the Maverick,  John McCain, has worked hard to sow his disdain for K Street lobbyists in Washington, yet he has recruited them to build his campaign. He had walked the sidewalks, like a hooker looking for a cheap trick, searching for K Street lobbyists who can raise piles of money for him, since 2006. I guess, he has forgotten that just two years ago, K Street lobbyists were  lovers of the George W. Bush regressive agenda and the very people he spoke against.

There is a list of lobbyists McCain had recruited written in the article, "Media Advance Myth of McCain as Lobbyist Foe", Mediamatters.org, 2-26-08. Times have recently changed, since some have left under negative scrutiny. 

Charles Black, Jr.-- this guy is now gone because of negative press that has recently come out regarding his lobbying relationship with the corrupt junta running the country of Burma, which has refused world aid after experiencing a devastating hurricane. He was McCain's chief political advisor.

Former Rep. Thomas Loeffler (R-TX)--he was McCain's campaign co-chairman. He is a lobbyist for multi-national corporations and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Also, "his firm had made millions inserting earmarks into spending bills."

I guess John forgot how much he hated earmarks in spending bills even as far back as 2006.

Richard Davis--campaign manager, and a big time lobbyist, make millions hitting on our elected congressional representatives. He worked hard making sure John, the Maverick, did his telecom bidding for him, while on the Commerce Committee.

And the list of cons keeps on growing: Christian Ferry, James Rill, Anthony Villamil, Joseph Wright, former Senator Phil Gramm, (R-TX), former Sen. Slade Gorton (WA), former Sen. Matt Salmon (AZ), former Sen. Don Sundquist (TN), former Rep. William "Van" Hilleary (TN), and former Rep. Richard Zimmer (NJ).

It is so surprising that John, the Maverick, could not recall that all these pals of his who are working to get him into the Oval Office have been hardcore lobbyists. Is this the equivalent to walking in the house, putting down your keys, and forgetting where you placed them when you have to leave again? Does he have a memory problem? He must not be able to recall trivial or insignificant bits of information, very much like his bosom buddy--"W". They have so much in common. Maybe, he will ask George to be his job coach, once he loses the November election. Or, maybe John will pick up a gig as a stand-in for one of Alvin's Chipmunks (see podcast photo).

In an upcoming posting, I will write about the Bush family's involvement with a small South American terrorist group that killed 73 people that were on a Cubana airliner. There is so much information out there defining the Bush crime family and their ties to murderers, cult leaders and fascists. Now we see where "W" gets his training. This apple did not fall far from the tree.

When you combine two half-wits, like Bush and McCain, do you get a whole wit, or is there still just a 'hole'-in-the-nitwit?

The Economic Expansion is Over!!!

Contrary to the belief of Republican neo-cons, the reason there are fewer middle class Americans today then there was 8 years ago is not because they have been lifted up into a higher income stratosphere, but because their wealth and income has been disappearing. The regressive-minded economic zombie Republicans brought to be by drinking a type of  Kool-Aid that induces psychotic  episodes triggered by listening to too much Rush and O'Reilly droning, has finally been found to be the cause of our nation's decline. (Read the Neo-con comment written in response to my last posting. You will find it under "comments" attached to the blog posting below this one.)

According to the Economic Policy Institute (Bivens, and Irons) Briefing Paper #214, the U.S. has had the worst expansion since World War 2. The unemployment rate rose from 4.4% in March 2007 to 5.1% in March 2008. The only aspect of this business cycle that shined was the huge growth in corporate profits; the highest since 1949!!! How does that happen? The worst expansion brings about the second biggest profit taking since 1949? Read on.

Economic output spiraled downward in the fourth quarter of 2007 to a 0.6% annual rate and has continued into 2008. Payroll enrollment growth matched the weak economic output figure of 0.6%.

The EPI report looked at macroeconomic cycles, which consisted of 27 quarter durations, with 10 business cycles, since 1949.

John Bivens, in his EPI article, "GDP Growth Anemic Again. Since When Is 0.6% Growth Good News?", wrote that to have had three straight months of negative job growth totaling 232,000 jobs lost just this year is recessionary. Any GDP growth below 25% negatively effects employment and wage growth. 

Employment must rise by 1.1% annually to absorb newly available workers. We are seeing a 0.5% difference when compared to payroll enrollment growth. This means that there has been a drop in hires.

The EPI report (#214) said that GDP growth in the latest expansion was a full 40% slower than the post-World War 2 average. 

It is clear that the so-called "expansion" claimed by BushCo is over. We have financial market turmoil, housing price declines, and higher energy costs. Plus, "there are declines in consumption, spending, investment in equipment and software, residential and non-residential construction, exports, and imports. Residential investment fell for the 9th straight quarter, and its 26.7% drop was the largest quarterly change since the decline began." (Josh Bivens-EPI).

The recessionary pressures are effected by 2 factors: "slower hourly wage growth and fewer average hours worked per week." (Jared Bernstein, "Nation's Payroll Decline Again, and Hours, Wages and Incomes Feel the Squeeze,"EPI, 5-2-08). He went on to write, "At 5.2 million, this indicator of under-employment is up 850,000 over the past year."

With these reports, anyone believing that the middle class is becoming richer is foolishly ill-informed. I guess, the Kool-Aid drinkers have become addicted to the drug and need rehab immediately. The opportunity for our economy to turn around under these conditions will be a huge struggle, and very likely to not happen until there are major progressive reforms that must be addressed by a competent president and not by a stupid one. And that includes McCain't, oh, I mean McCain.

It has gotten so bad that Bugsy Bernanke has allowed banks, and financial institutions, to cough up student, auto, and credit card loan bonds as collateral for injections of clean Treasury capital at a low, low interest rate of 2%. So, why not? Bugsy continues to liquify a very liquid global market where banks are afraid to loan creating a freezing cold credit environment. Banks are not lending to one another, which is what they often do, because they don't know who else is hold the hot potato called junk bonds (collateralized debt obligations, and credit default swaps), or what is often called Monopoly money, hiding deep within their balance sheets. These banks are thick and knee deep in our Treasury dollars as they swapped away their junk for the good stuff. They are swimming in liquidity. Yet they don't loan it to one another or use it to stimulate our drowning economy, but loan it out to the ultra rich. More money is channeled to the ultra rich investor class through unregulated private equity and hedge funds, while the middle class loses jobs, benefits, assets, and confidence in the government.

Bugsy, and Paulie Paulson (Treasury secretary) keep shootin' up the banks with the bad-credit-swap narcotic exchanging their riskiest junk bonds (student, auto, and credit card bonds) through their bi-weekly Term Auction Facility to the tune of $75 billion per pop. In addition, these two banksta gangstas have lifted the cash give-away, by 50%, as they swap with the European Central Bank and Swiss National Bank purging any subprime stuff the Europeans were stuck holding from the financial Wall-Street shysters. 

Spain, France, Germany and other European economies are doing well, as they did not get caught up in the subprime web (except for Britain) of lies, deception, and fraud to the extent that the Americans did. Also, they are not trapped in the buy-Chinese-cheap-stuff quick sand in which we are heavily sinking deep within. They respect livable wages, unions, and worker stability, which is paying off. The neo-con regressives took us in the opposite direction and look where we are today. The regressives were willing to destroy our economy so the ultra rich could become richer!!!

Robert Kuttner (5-5-08, Prospect.org) quoted Germany's Gunter Verheugen, the vice-president of the EU, "We need a strong and competitive industrial base in order to have a strong service economy. Don't try to be cheaper. Try to be better. Don't try to compete on low social standards." Now, that makes sense. Although, McCain't and BushCo don't believe in such thinking. The countries within the EU are running trade and/or budget surpluses!! Is that not a novel outcome?

It is clear to me that BushCo faked the economic expansion to sell a second term as he boasted about a booming economy throughout a completely failed presidency of 8 years. He built his lies upon a known but beautifully covered hole until the weight of a pervasive and burdensome debt load, accompanied by significant and widespread foreclosures sunk his fabricated illusive house-of-mirrors masterpiece.

He faked the economic expansion by performing two moves-one being the massive boosting up of housing prices and values (housing bubble), and the other by creating an extra $1 trillion in deficit spending handed over to the richest people in America through tax cuts.

Through the housing bubble, households took out approximately $6 trillion in home equity giving disposable income a 5% injection. But now, the high-flyin' spending Americans, from suburbs to cities, have lost their loft and are free-falling, along with Humpty-Dumpty, right to the ground.

All of this validates my theory that the plan all along was to allow the wealthiest Americans, by allowing laissez-faire regulatory standards, and oversight, as well as the reduction of paid government workers to do the regulating, and tax rules favoring the rich, and through high salaries, bonuses, commissions, fees and perks resulting in terrific corporate profits, the opportunity to profit further off of the misfortunes of middle and lower income Americans. The privileged elite within those corporations benefiting from such thievery by cashing in on the planned BushCo housing bubble (Greenspan believed in blowing bubbles) by investing in the sale of subprime and other mortgages, through an unregulated resale market, furthered their wealth at the expense of the nation's economic well-being. This should be investigated by the justice department and prosecuted to the highest levels and penalties. 

It was never about increasing the strength of the nation. It was only about greed, while manipulating the economics of the country toward its most devastating peril since the 1928 Great Depression. Nothing else mattered to these greedy neo-con regressive Republicans more than increasing the wealth of the "haves and have mores"--as Bush refers to his base of supporters and contributors. They have created nothing but our nation's greatest national security risk. This risk outweighs everything else that they have used to scare us into believing that the boogieman is not them. The truth is---they are the boogieman. No terrorist group could ever harm this nation as they have so calculatively done.

Bush, Beanie Bernanke and The Bailout

This giddy false exuberant belief that a rising stock market, lower oil prices and falling gold prices to only be temporary, will likely be proven wrong. So, be prepared for the reverse to reoccur and hit you on the back of the head like the day when you were walking home from school, and from out of nowhere came that icy packed snowball. Wham!!

The market has climbed not because of increased productivity, or the delight of a retreating recession, but because the Federal Reserve is handing out newly minted Greenbacks in exchange for worthless garbage cyber-dollars that cannot be sold to anyone with a brain other than Beanie Bernanke and his Federalies. Single payer loan dealer Wall-Street bankers. 

This is a bailout. Let us admit it now! If I gave you real money for Monopoly money, that would be a bailout. I would be saving you from looking stupid and from sure disaster.

The Wall Street banks gambled on making money from bundled debt securities in order to cover loans and deposits hoping to make billions from gullible suckers. This was all done off the bank's balance sheets and from the back rooms of a quiet, shadow banking system that would make Tony Soprano proud. These risky sales were made away from the public's eye. These deals were out of view from the handful of Bush regulators still on the job, and not hanging out at the local unemployment office. Unfortunately, these risky pieces of paper went up in flames as subprime loans went south taking down those home values and related over-extended personal unpaid debt.

So, Ben "Bailout" Bernanke could not have his rich, greedy banker pals lose their upper crusty lifestyles and end up in the pit with us middle-classites. Oh no; anything but that, Ben!! They have worked way too hard scamming working America to be knocked off their elitist pedestals.

Bernanke does not care to make any of these greed-lusting socialists accountable and responsible for their pre-planned fraud upon the American worker. The Fed holds only $709 billion in Treasury bills to pay for the bailouts and junk collateral exchanges at the Primary Dealer Credit Facilities discount window. Drive by and pick up your fat 2.5% government subsidy. So far, he has visibly given away $230 billion of the $709 billion in only one week. What a spending spree! Once that is gone, Beanie will head down to the basement printing press to pull an all-nighter rolling dollars off the copier.

The facts are that in spite of these "exchanges", there has been an $8 trillion housing bubble and foreclosures pile up. As home values fall further, some are scooping up bargains; yet, the question still remains, will those bargains lose more value over the coming weeks/months/year? Jobs continue to be lost. (Two consecutive months of actual job losses.) Prices continue to eat away at expendable incomes. And, for most Americans, they cannot afford to go into further debt. These giddy bankers really don't want to loan out money. It just is too risky. Instead, they take OUR Federal Reserve T-bills and rush over to Europe and buy Euro-backed bonds because they are worth more than the dollar. Back To The Greedy Future.

Is the Justice Department concerned? Are they going after these "gambling swindlers" with billions in their trust funds and beach houses? No.

Dean Baker, a smart progressive economist, with great ideas, suggested that the Fed should just take over such failed banks, kick out the top brass and restructure the operation with more

competent managers with a goal to sell the thing once they make it solvent again. Why cannot we do it, to? Oh, I forgot, Bush is still president and Reed and Pelosi run Congress. Oh, silly me!

What will the giddy Stock Marketeers, from Bernanke Brothers Studios, do when they realize that we are really in a credit crunch, and maxed out on it, too? If Americans will not, or cannot borrow another dime, then the flow of credit stalls, the nation's economy grinds down, the dollar falls further, and gold prices increase along with consumer prices causing a deepening recession and inflation. Remember, the developing world, such as India and China, are in great need of what we need, too.

We can thank decades of Regressive (credit to David Michael Green for the term) policies shipping away jobs, gutting our manufacturing sector and bringing about an approaching $9 trillion national debt, a $700 billion trade deficit, and a $500 billion budget deficit. And don't forget a $2000/second war budget.

The Bush Regressives want our economy and standard of living to fall so far down that labor costs are par with China and India instead of stabilizing our standard of living and building it back to a place close to where it once had been. Instead of reinventing America into the World's Greatest Green Show on Earth, they want to bring us the "more wars" Regressives, who want to perpetuate the war machine, while, at the same time, raising the national debt by borrowing more to make it run, and subsidizing their corporate cronies who produced the war machine with OUR tax dollars. When will America say enough is enough?