http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=specialreport
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/economy/
By Shlomo Avineri
Those who are closely following events in the United States right now,
and more so those who are visiting there, will notice not only the
depth of the financial crisis and the fact that it is taking place
just a few weeks before the presidential elections. This powerful
drama is accompanied by a feeling that the U.S. and the global economy
are at a watershed both practically and ideologically.
The past 20 years have been characterized throughout the world, but
especially in the U.S. and Britain, by a number of principles that
were enshrined as sacred truth. Those who disputed them were
considered ignorant or charlatans, bewitched by obsolete formulas of
socialist thinking. The ideological prophet of this school was Milton
Friedman, and its political leaders were Margaret Thatcher and Ronald
Reagan. In the name of these principles it was determined that the
economy works best when no limits are imposed on market forces; that
government intervention damages market efficiency and the standard of
living; and that if there are market failures and ups and downs, they
will correct themselves if market forces are allowed to operate
freely. There will be casualties, but government intervention will
only make matters worse. "Government bureaucracy" became a dirty word
and the enemy of the people. Reagan put it this way: "Government is
not a solution to our problem; government is the problem."
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Based on this ideology, which could be described by the extreme term
"market fundamentalism," far-reaching privatization was implemented in
industry and in commercial companies (which could sometimes be
justified), but also in health, education and welfare services, and
even prisons; regulation was reduced and sometimes even abolished.
This regulation had been instituted following the 1929 crash - it
limited the activities of banks and other financial institutions, but
also reined in their tendency to take risks with the money of their
clients.
The Bush administration symbolized the hegemony of this idealism, to
the extent that even in the realm of security and warfare, fields
generally directed by the political sovereign, functions were
transferred to civilian contractors. In Iraq, for example, there are
nearly as many civilians employed by private U.S. army contractors as
there are U.S. troops.
Indeed, the system seemed to be working. In recent years the stock
market made huge profits; tens of thousands became rich, CEOs earned
tens of millions of dollars a year in salaries and bonuses, and
millions of people were swept up in a get-rich-quick mania caused by
low interest rates, generous credit and new financial instruments -
the kind that allowed banks, for example, to give generous mortgages
to whomever came along, and to fob off sometimes questionable loans
onto other institutions as a new kind of promissory note. All under
the umbrella of unbridled individualism.
Now the bubble has burst. More than 1.5 million American families have
lost their homes in the mortgage crisis; investment banks that were
the pride and joy of the American economy - Merrill Lynch and Lehman
Brothers - went bankrupt; two major mortgage banks have been
nationalized by the federal government to prevent their collapse; and
the largest insurance company in the world needed tens of billions of
dollars from the U.S. Treasury to prevent it from failing.
This is the moment when the crisis becomes a watershed: When the
president asks Congress to approve $700 billion to buy up the dubious
loans of the banks and the investment houses to prevent their
collapse, it turns out that the market cannot stabilize itself; if the
economy is left to market swings at a time of crisis, the result will
be global economic crisis; and in the end only the government can bail
out the economy and its citizens' money.
Bush, the icon of the free-market economy and the vision of easy
riches, begged Congress, in his speech to the nation, to pass his
salvage plan, which means that the state and not the market is what
ultimately guarantees citizens' well-being. His statements almost
sounded like socialist heresy when he said the question was not
whether government intervention was needed; the question was whether
the right thing would be done. The United States is not going back to
Roosevelt's New Deal, which saved the American economy in the 1930s,
and it is not going socialist. Clearly the government does not have to
manage the economy, but it is also clear that a market economy is not
efficient at correcting itself, and that it needs government
intervention.
All those who arrogantly dismissed every other position but their own,
and thought they understood how the world worked, have pushed the
economy to a crisis unrivaled since the 1930s. Now they should acquire
some humility and shed their excessive self-confidence. Economics 101
in universities in the West, and in Israel, will now have to listen to
other voices, and finance ministers will not be able to say, "for
example, in America...." The unbrided market has proven itself to be a
god that failed.
Henry Paulson says more banks will fail
It has been the responsibility of Henry Paulson to announce multiple
US bank failures during the period of the economic meltdown.
The US treasury secretary has now warned that some banks will still
fail despite the $700 billion rescue package which was granted by the
US Congress to shore up the financial system.
Henry Paulson, who called for the plan, has now warned the ongoing
financial chaos will cause other financial institutions to fail.
The International Monetary fund, which said global financial markets
were facing their most dangerous shock since the 1930s, has also
warned that central banks may still have to take extreme measures to
alleviate the crisis.
But buying bad credit with American taxes is mortgaging the American
people to the International Community. There is great danger in that
to foreign countries when they demand their debt be paid. The
American Military Complex may go to work as it did in Iraq. One thing
we learned from an act is the fact that it boomeranged on the American
people.
List :
a. WTC -----> http://www.911sharethetruth.com/
b. WMD ----> http://www.google.co.id/search?hl=id&q=Lies+WMD&meta=
c. Pentagon Hands Iraq Oil Deal to Shell ----->>http://
www.alternet.org/waroniraq/101012/pentagon_hands_iraq_oil_deal_to_shell/
c. George W. Bush’s Corruption and Lies --->http://mindprod.com/
politics/bushbookscorruption.html
d. Bush Official Arrested in Corruption Probe ------>http://
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/19/AR2005091901859.html
e. Why Bush Is A Loser ----->http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
content/article/2007/07/17/AR2007071701456.html
f. the "Republican blunder," the "Bush incompetence" that, by way of
the financial trouble----> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ashley-rindsberg/american-respite_b_134481.html
Corruption and Lies ?.........Only George W. Bush’s ?? .........Of
course not !!
Bush's Economic Indicator.............Can we trust again? - [
Obama on the other hand has superior intelligence and highly dedicated
to a pragmatic philosophy directed by an ideology to solve problems
without direct conflict or to get the honey without destroying the
beehives.
On Oct 17, 1:10 am, semusim <semu...@usa.com> wrote:
> Should We Trust Any President?.........Can we trust again?
>
> List :
>
> a. WTC ----->http://www.911sharethetruth.com/
> b. WMD ---->http://www.google.co.id/search?hl=id&q=Lies+WMD&meta=
> c. Pentagon Hands Iraq Oil Deal to Shell ----->>http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/101012/pentagon_hands_iraq_oil_deal_to_shell/
> c. George W. Bush’s Corruption and Lies --->http://mindprod.com/
> politics/bushbookscorruption.html
> d. Bush Official Arrested in Corruption Probe ------>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/19/AR2005091901...
> e. Why Bush Is A Loser ----->http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
> content/article/2007/07/17/AR2007071701456.html
> f. the "Republican blunder," the "Bush incompetence" that, by way of
> the financial trouble---->http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ashley-rindsberg/american-respite_b_134...
1. IDAHQ
2. WYOMING
3. UTAH
4. TEXAS
5. OKLAHOMA
6. SOUTH DAKOTA
7. NEBRASKA
8. ARIZONA
9. KANSAS
10. ALASKA
11. KENTUCKY
12. TENNESSEE
13. ALABAMA
14. SOUTH CAROLINA
15. MISSISSIPPI
McCain Bush oil
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=McCain%20Bush%20oil&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
“The New Pearl Harbor by David Ray Griffin.”..?
Obama has a very fruitful life. He will make a great president of the
United States of America.
Obama is inheriting a country facing all kinds of disasters man-made
and natural. It is a matter of trusting his solutions. I believe
having faith in him and his ability to sort things out is essential to
his success.
Your references are inspiring.
Nobody has the slightest idea of what the Messiah would be like as
president, because there hasn't been one like Him, ever**, but they are all
fawning over His almighty ass and telling us how He will make an absolutely
divine president.
One big problem the Messiah has staring at Him, and being the Messiah, He
obviously knows all about this problem by holy osmosis, if nothing else, is
that when all is said and done, us ever-suffering American taxpayers are now
on the official hook for a little more than $59.1 trillion bucks over in the
what they laughingly call the "Liabilities Column."
While He had not actually spent a moment addressing this kind of stuff, we
know the Messiah can work His way through this kind of stuff in the course
of an hour or so of his Messianic time. He is supposed to be a genius. Just
ask his followers.
Personally, I am just happy the Messiah only plans on running up another
Trillion or two in His first couple of months - that is, if He actually gets
into the job He has been so prepared for by the folks at Hawaii, Columbia,
Harvard, and the stint in South Chicago.
This, let's say $60 Trillion, over there is the Liabilities Column is
balanced out in the Asset Column by a rather embarrassing and unusual
condition where if everything there is in the USA, all personal wealth,
property, assets of all kinds, roads, bridges, airports - every god damn
thing there is that is owned by any individual or a government of any kind,
only adds up to about $52 Trillion bucks.
Without going into the negatives, liability figures like this indicate that
this balance sheet stuff amounts to about $516,348 for every U.S. household.
By way of comparison, "U.S. households only owe an average of $112,043 for
mortgages, car loans, credit cards and all other debt combined."
They must be speaking of Conservative, or Republican U.S. households,
because we know that liberal Democrat households have already called the
folks who promised to get them out of debt with only a couple of Trillion to
pay off. They have obviously left us holding the bag.
The way things look right now, I have a feeling that any president named
Barack Hussein Obama is going to drop His Quran, grab His favorite Crescent
Moon Scepter, and order out some of the same underlings from the liberal
Democrat finance side of things to salvage what they can in a monumental
garage sale of the United States of America.
Then He will don His biggest, fattest golden parachute of all time, and
disappear into the smoke leaving us schmucks holding the bag, because even
if they think He is a genius, He ain't that much of a genius. Not even the
Messiah.
Apologies to John Hawkins for pointing out that the Messiah has an alligator
by the tail, and is still bluffing.
** Apologies to Jesus, Who must be getting a huge kick out of watching us
mortals on the verge of getting the biggest, bestest screwing of all time
You must remember that George W. Bush has been the president for about
eight years and during his administration USA National Debt shot
through the roof. Bush received a country with a surplus and he
turned it around to be in trillions of dollars deficit or debt.
Accordingly, I would feel bad that Obama is to receive such a
situation for which he was economically foreclosed. But with his
intellect, Obama may find the right formula to save the United States
of America from the fangs of Evangelists, the racists, and the Jews,
the Zionists, who have been defrauding the American people.
"You must remember that George W. Bush has been the president for about
eight years and during his administration USA National Debt shot
through the roof..."
____________________
Things to comment on list:
(1) Put up another reminder about who/what it is in this government who/what
actually spends the money.
(2) Remind some folks which party has watched all this recent
malfeasance/misfeasance without uttering a peep.
(3) Plus here comes the famous Clinton, "Surplus," again. When will they
tell the truth?
(4) This making excuses for the coming poor performance of the Messiah is an
interesting new twist. They can always say they said it before the election.
(5) Then, I hate to see the poor, ever-suffering Evangelists, racists, Joos,
and Zionists get it in the ear again...the perennial "THEY," who have been
defrauding the American people"...but apparently, not nearly as much as THEM
Democrat Congress and Democrat appointees have been defrauding the American
people. A definite excuse.
(6) And this quasi-religious patter about their Messiah only being a social
leader, not divine, after all...and their Messiah, "finding the right
formula," to save all our asses from the evil - What? Probably another
excuse in the making?
(7) When will they admit the cadaverous sucker with the funny ears is just
another pretty liberal Democrat face? After all, their Messiah, and the
one's being secretly groomed, somewhere, maybe even in Manchuria, coming up
along behind their present Messiah - if He blows it, is evidence of hard
ball planning. Another excuse in the making.
Clinton left the country with surplus and National Debt seemed to be
coming to an end. Bush pushed the National Debt to about Eight
Trillion Dollars and it is not over yet. The Conservative Party is no
more than a Party that Spends on Credit until its Credit has drowned
it from head to toe.