President Obama Gives Good Speeches!

President Obama has become a huge disappointment when it comes to saving the country from itself. We had hopes that he would live up to his promise of Change We Can Believe In. It has morphed into more of the same stuff that Little Boy Bush left behind.

The new book series he is writing has been titled, “I Left It Behind”. Harry Truman entered the Oval Office scared out of his mind. He had a nation to attend to. He rolled up his sleeves and placed a sign on his desk, which read, “The Buck Stops Here!”

After attending the inauguration ceremony in the bitter cold, on January 20, 2009, we all had hope for real honest to goodness change. That day, millions of us felt we did the right thing by voted for this guy. We defended his inexperience, his message, and his call for change, but now I, and many other progressives, am heavily disappointed. I have become so disillusioned that I have coined a new name for President Obama. I am now calling him President Peacock because he has begun to strut his colorful plumy feathers in full display for all to admire and applaud. I could forgive a president who struts his stuff about town, such as when he flew into New York City---Manhattan, where he and his misses attended a show, dinner and the splendor of the city that never sleeps. Good On Ya Barack, but Harry Truman would not have done that until he felt the nation’s suffering citizens were willing to say, ‘You deserve it now, Mr. President. You really busted your butt for all of us!”

We had Little Boy Bush riding the jet plane to Crawford, Texas in order to play in his brush pile, wear his cowboy hat, and his fancy boots driving around the dry, acrid and arid shrub plain where he could talk “Texan” and not look so stupid. A war had emblazoned around him, and the economy had seriously begun to show signs of crumbling, yet he took more time off than any president in his first term. So, really what is there to complain about when Mr. and Mrs. Obama decided to fly, not halfway across the country, but just over the state line? Little Boy Bush logged more Air Force One frequent flyer miles than anyone in history.

So lately, President Peacock has been out-sourcing himself in the Middle East giving great speeches about reconciliation, communication, respect for religious beliefs, tolerance, the strength of the U.S. economy and the resiliency of the American people, as well as the goodness of good people, while doing the work to achieve peace along with extinguishing the threats of terrorism and fanatical extremism. Who can argue with those talking points? Yet, Mr. Peacock, what is the best way to achieve those lofty goals of yours, but for the United States to be an example of those goals, and for the president to correct the greatest economic disaster since the Great Depression, along with dismantling the evils of the Cheney-Bush legacy. Unfortunately, China is laughing at Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner for claiming the U.S. believes in a strong dollar, as President Obama considers Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke as his chief economic regulator. So, President Peacock hires the Wall-Street pyromaniacs to replant the burned out forest, but then, asks the senior fire starter, Ben Bernanke, to guard the matches. These actions by President Peacock show Americans, and the world that he is not Harry Truman, nor Franklin D. Roosevelt during the nation’s most critical, and dangerous times.

Since last year, and on into this current administration the focus has been on rescuing the greedy bankers who stole the economy from everyone else, and various bankruptcies that ensued the nation while sucking out of the treasury $14 trillion, as the real economy was engulfed by an economic firestorm. Beginning in 1999, as the Clinton administration waned furthering the Royal Scam upon the country with the construction of the Future Commodities Modernization Act of 1999, making it illegal to regulate the private investment scam artists and the shadow banking industry located within every major crime syndicate financial bank, which was signed into law by the administration of Little Boy Bush, which allowed for a massive financial heist of America’s middle class wealth concentrating it within the confines of our corrupt Wall Street institutions and then, grabbed by the top executives running those companies. And, of course, there was the shelving of the Glass-Steagall Act, as well, no longer placing a firewall between savings banks and the financial casino-like institutions, such as Merrill Lynch, and Lehman Brothers.

As the Wall Street pyromaniacs began to experience the rapid fire storm sweeping subprime mortgages, 401Ks, foreclosures, unemployment statistics, then on into the prime mortgage market, pension funds, personal portfolios, and more, these banksta gangstas sitting in the executive suites of the biggest financial institutions were still buying their second and third homes, luxury cars, yachts, airplanes, condominiums, collectible art, country club memberships, and stashing their liquid wealth into accounts opened in places like the Cayman Islands, and other tax haven hideaways.

As Pam Martens tells us Sandy Weill, for example, the former CEO and chairman of Citigroup, walked away from his job with $1 billion in ill-gotten gain. What did he actually create at Citi? Did he create a company with sustainability, job security, or tangible products, like shampoo, or dog food? No! He walked away from a burned out company that he set on fire through “creative” gambling securities scams, through the hocus pocus of imaginative and make-believe AAA rating agencies, credit default swaps, and other bogus scams.

And now, because of the erosion of the Glass-Steagall Act, defining the boundaries between banks and financial institutions, the data released from the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation (FDIC), on March 31, 2009 revealed “there are 8,246 FDIC insured institutions with total assets of $13.5 Trillion and domestic deposits of $7.5 Trillion. Four institutions, Bank of America Corporation, JPMorgan Chase and Co., Wells Fargo and Co. and Citgroup Inc., four institutions out of 8,246, control 35% of all the insured domestic deposits and 46% of the assets according to the March 31, 2009 figures from the FDIC.”

Ms. Martens went on to report that Chairman Ben Bernanke of the Federal Reserve has not done anything to reduce this massive concentration of wealth into the hands of a very small portion of the population, and the collusion to corral more government funds to stuff in safety deposit boxes and fatten up balance sheets, since the crisis began, but has encouraged this concentration allowing these monopoly banks to absorb their financially wounded competitors at Blue Light Special prices. Such actions create even bigger “too-big-to-fail” behemoths that when found dying in their insolvency holes drowning in stale champagne, will ask Congress twice over for trillions more treasury minted dollars calling out once more that the sky will turn black, and the country will face mortal danger if they are not rescued again.

The Wall-Street taxpayer bail-out amounting to $14 trillion far exceeds the mere $500 billion offered up to Main Street’s real economy. The Wall-Street bail-out is 25 times bigger than the Main Street offering. Now, had this been reversed, we would be seeing a resurgence of new manufacturing jobs sweeping the work force, no doubt, contributing to a Green economy that would be exportable reducing the trade deficit, stimulating consumer spending, stabilizing the housing market, and replenishing the lost retirement dollars. But, President Peacock, and his flock of financial fundies have not moved toward such sensible solutions.

Part of the national bail-out is the U.S. government’s 60% investment in General Motors, which according to Robert Reich, the nation’s 22nd Secretary of Labor and professor at the University of California-Berkley, GM will eventually be no more. The only reason for the $60 billion rescue package is “designed to give the economy time to reduce the social costs of the blow” when its assets eventually get sold off and the company no longer exists. Dr. Reich went on to say that the $60 billion would have been better spent had it been allocated to retrain auto workers, as well as to give them extended unemployment insurance as they become retrained for other jobs.

As we recall, GM was able to retool during the build up to World War II in order to manufacture tanks and other war machines, therefore, why cannot GM retool to manufacture high-speed rail cars for the development of intra-city transportation corridors? Or, electric cars, such as the Aptera. But, President Peacock has stated that we, the investors who now own controlling interest in GM will say nothing about the products this dying automaker will manufacture. It appears that the GM brand name will eventually be sold to China, as has gone the Hummer.

Dr. Reich wrote that GM was once the nation’s number one private employer with strong middle class jobs paying $60 per hour to workers not requiring a college education. Today, Wal-Mart has replaced GM with their $10 per hour jobs. This is part of the new American paradigm shift the nation has been willing to accept over the last 30 years. Sit down, hold on, and shut up seems to be the mantra of Wall-Street to Main Street.

The real economy jobs are disappearing. Credit is not flowing. Borrowing has narrowed. The economy has contracted more than 6% average annual rate in the fourth quarter of 2008, and first quarter of 2009. From December 2007 through April 2009, the economy has burned up 6 million jobs. Dr. Morici has estimated that the economy will likely have lost more than 8 million jobs as the recession wanes.

The editor note on the website layoffdaily.com has calculated that “we would need 48 straight months (4 years) of 350,000 jobs added a month to reach January 2008 employment levels [which had been 4.9% and considered full employment]. Keep in mind that to get there, we need every last one of these rosy projections to happen [create 7 million jobs to get back to 4.9%, adding 137,000 new jobs to keep up with the pace of working-age population growth], plus a sustained job growth rate unseen in our lifetime, plus no worsening or new financial crises, no additional sector collapses, no double dip recession, and no black swans.” Wow! Now that is a tall order for President Peacock!

According to Tyler Durden of zerohedge.blogspot.com, it seems that credit default swaps, those bets that specific stocks will drop in value, continue to be purchased in the billions of dollars every month in nearly every sector. He wrote that the “net notional value change [with JPMorgan] was an almost record $2.1 billion in the name alone (on $52.1 billion in gross) on a ridiculous amount of contracts.” The gambling continues. The real economy suffers. And, Ben Bernanke, Timmy Geithner, President Peacock and Congress sit on the sidelines doing nothing to control such stuff.

Bernanke had spoken about keeping mortgage interest rates down in order to encourage home buying, but he has been buying up mortgage backed securities, and treasury issues that he has been printing up, which has driven up mortgage interest rates, and not dropped them. It just seems Bernanke has been saying one thing to the homebuilders but doing another to sabotage their survival.

There is good reason to be disappointed in President Obama. What he has done is just not good enough. It seems he was promising us more, but it appears we misunderstood those great speeches he gave us. The motto, “Change We Can Believe In” was just part of a darn good speech.

Thanks for reading, Jerry

The Swine Flu Began With Goldman Sachs And Has Infected The Entire Nation

The Royal Scam occurring at Treasury cannot help to draw up anger within the average American, if they are paying attention. Most are not paying attention. We have now been privy to the fact that the CEO and Chairman of JPMorgan, Jamie Dixon, is a psychopathetic conartist. He has decided to blame everyone and everything for the economic collapse but the actual real reason for the meltdown of the economy has to do with banksta greed by keeping mortgage rates dirt cheap, worker’s wages stagnant or near stagnant, keeping lending rates low, and encouraging borrowing for whatever the heart desires with teaser financial bank credit card rates, zero percent transfer rates, low home equity loan rates, no regulator rules, paying off the SEC to look the other way regarding securities violations, and installing banksters into the Treasury’s money supply system.
Mr. Dixon felt it was his duty to blame the war in Iraq, an enormous U.S. trade deficit, greedy individuals seeking higher profits, short selling, high energy prices, irrational pressures on corporations, money managers, and hedge fundies seeking more profits. He did admit that depressed interest rates was a factor in the creation of the housing bubble, yet he did not take one grain of responsibility for being a part of it. Very psychopathetic.

This week the largest financial banks published their earnings data. What we heard from the television Bobbleheads that blow out their optimistic steamy vapors clouding the truth, which they called information, was “Oh boy, look at Citi’s, as well as the other’s bank earnings. Better than expected!” Geewow!! Their better than expected earnings were based on “no-expectation” earnings projections, so anything better than flat was good. But remember, they received taxpayer dollars to improve their balance sheets, so the taxpayers pumped up these delusional earnings statistics.

At the same time, TimmyG unveiled some of the information regarding his stress testing circus act. His procedure is to reveal if the banks can hold up under irregular economic pressures and if they need taxpayer cash to stay alive. Instead of telling the zombie banks that they have a certain amount of time to find their own capital sources before being taken over by the FDIC, Geithner stated that any bank that showed a weak stress test will be pumped up with more cash by him-by us; no big deal? It is time to stuff the pig. Does this bring on the Pandemic Infection? Darn! The Pandemic Infection actually originated in the United States by the diseased banking industry. Their version of Swine Flu spread quickly throughout the world. The infection seems unstoppable. The richest Americans have gotten some of the financial serum to prevent their own widespread infection.
So, what does this do for the working American? NOTHING! This is not about people but the bankster economic ruling class. Goldman Sachs appears to be the master-thief and oligarch running the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. Goldman Sachs has installed their own people into the control of our monetary system. Hank Paulson was Bush’s Treasury Secretary and principal designer behind the financial extortion plan that forced Congress to authorize Treasury to hand over $700B in TARP cash to the masterminds running the Wall Street mega-banks. Congress was told by Paulson and Bush, as well as by a panicking John McCain after he had suspended his presidential bid, that the economic sky was falling upon the head of Chicken Little!! Without TARP funds the nation would fall into a depression. Goldman Sachs’ Neel Kashkari was asked to head the TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program). Goldman Sachs’ Jon Corzine, governor of New Jersey rushed into to offer support. Goldman Sachs kept Robert Rubin on the payroll for 26 years before he was installed into the Clinton administration in order to begin the deregulation process, which was signed into law by the BoyBush. Robert Zoellick is Goldman Sachs’ presidential mole in the World Bank, and served in the neo-con administration of DaddyBush. Now we have Larry Summers, Obama’s senior economic advisor as he heads the National Economic Council. Also, we have Tim Geithner who did not work at Goldman Sachs but was trained by their propaganda school headmaster by Rubin and Summers. Goldman Sachs trained John Thain well enough to be CEO of Merrill Lynch before a discounted purchase was arranged by Paulson to Bank of America. Then Goldman Sachs trained Robert Steel who heads Wachovia Bank. This defines Goldman Sachs and their deeply seated control of the United States of America’s financial system.

Since 1986, our financial sector grew from a modest 19% of corporate profits, to a current level of 41% of corporate profits. This has been a strong incentive for Goldman Sachs and the others to make sure Treasury and the Federal Reserve act on their behalf at every turn. Remember, Hank-the Paulie-Paulson made $38 million his last year as CEO as the leader of the oligarchy financial bank—Goldman Sachs. According to Paul Farrell, “Jack Bauer Can’t Stop The ‘Goldman Conspiracy’” he wrote, “Then during the market meltdown six months ago the $700 million personal fortune he [Paulson] built at Goldman was threatened by Goldman’s huge $20 billion derivatives exposure at AIG. Suddenly, his responsibilities at Treasury merged with a strong self-interest in protecting his personal fortune. AIG was saved.” He went on to say…John Whitehead, former Goldman Sachs chairman, former chairman of the New York Fed, former Reagan deputy Secretary of State, warned America’s problems will take years, burn trillions, result in massive deficits, which is a “road to disaster”. Mr. Whitehead then said in Farrell’s piece, “I’ve always been a positive person and optimistic, but I don’t see a solution here.” Farrell concluded with, “He [Whitehead] did see a depression at the end of the road, once you can call “Depression 2.”

How has any of this helped the real economy and the 300-plus million Americans? It isn’t helping. But, it is making life worse for everyone, but those at the top of the economic tier. Michael Whitney wrote in his piece called “Housing Bust Comes Roaring Back, Worse Than Ever”, “that more than 2.1 million homes will be lost this year because borrowers can’t meet their loan payments, up from about 1.7 million in 2008.” In his piece, Rick Sharga V.P. of RealtyTrac, said “We believe there are in the neighborhood of 600,000 properties nationwide that banks have repossessed but not put on the market.” If the banks decide to put those properties on the market all at once, there would be further depreciation and carnage in the housing market. Mr. Whitney said, “One thing is certain, 600,000 “disappeared” homes means that housing prices have a lot farther to fall and that an even larger segment of the banking system is insolvent.” The article went on to say, “Ten’s of thousands of foreclosures are only 1-5 months away from hitting that and will take foreclosure counts back to all-time highs. This will flood an already beaten-bloody real estate market with even more supply just in time for the Spring/Summer home selling season.” Whitney quoted Ruth Simon, “The Housing Crisis Is About to Take Center Stage Once Again, WSJ”. She said in his piece, “Another 20% carved off the aggregate value of US housing means another $4 trillion loss to homeowners. That means smaller retirement savings, less discretionary spending, and lower living standards. The next leg down in housing will be excruciating; every sector will feel pain. Obama’s $75 billion mortgage rescue plan is a mere pittance; it won’t reduce the principle on mortgages and it won’t stop the bleeding….The housing market is going under and it’s going to drag a good part of the broader economy along with it. Stocks, too.” These assessments sure don’t make the housing future look promising, nor does it make the economy appear to be stabilizing anytime soon.

“So far, the meltdown has wiped out more than $11 trillion of household wealth, ignited soaring unemployment, and pushed millions of people from their homes.” Whitney included Newsweek, “Don’t Buy The Chirpy Forecasts”, “If the United States follows the norm of recent crises, as it has until now, output may take four years to return to its pre-crisis level. Unemployment will continue to rise for three more years, reaching 11-12% in 2011.”

What we now hear is General Motors will layoff more workers and idle around 19 plants. That means their total goal of 47,000 layoffs will likely be realized. For every one autoworker layoff, a ripple effect of a loss of 10 other jobs is felt. With idle plants throughout the summer, and massive layoffs, small business closures, bankruptcies, business downsizing affecting the economy, the summer will be painful for many families. This will affect the tourism and entertainment industries. A deeper recession will likely be realized.

Congress and President Obama are all up in arms over the rip-off by credit card companies as they gouge the card users with higher fees, and interest rates. What is upsetting is that any reforms and pressures placed upon these financial corporate thieves will take over a year to be implemented, yet Team Obama and Congress sure acted fast to stuff the pockets of the largest financial American banking cartel operators. It only took days for hundreds of billions of dollars to hit their balance sheets. Wow!!! They sure act fast to serve the financial needs of the banking predators, but they move at a snails pace to help working America, who are the only ones that can improve the economic conditions.

Can they be that stupid and inept to not understand that unless working Americans psychologically feel that their economic livelihoods are stable, their retirement is back on track, their children have an opportunity to be financial independent, and their jobs are once again stable, there will be no economic recovery? I don’t believe they are either stupid or inept. Our top level government officials have chosen to serve those corporate kleptocrats, those bankstas, those corporate insurgents who are controlling and manipulating those operating inside the government that control the money.

It is clear that the Treasury will be finding fewer tax dollars coming in because working Americans have much less to be taxed on. This same problem will trickle down to state and local tax collectors. Revenues will be down and all taxing bodies will be having to tighten up their declining budgets, which means more layoff, or Pink Slips, leading to more unemployed and less tax revenues, less spending, more shop closures, leading to empty shopping malls and strips, and commercial foreclosures and bankruptcies, while Obama allows his Economic Team to serve the master crime syndicate leader—Goldman Sachs and sidekick Citigroup.

The only way Team Obama will bring about “Change That We Can Believe In” is if hundreds of thousands of protesters decided to ‘March On Washington’ demanding that this economic recovery start at the bottom and work its way up, instead of the other way around.

thanks for reading, jerry

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