When It All Goes Belly Up
I was thinking the other day about an episode of Roseanne that I saw years ago, which for me solidified her status as a working class hero. She had lost her job and her husband’s motorcycle shop had gone under and she received a notice that the power was going to be shut off at the end of the day. She ordered everyone into the kitchen to eat all of the food since it wasn’t going to stay cold much longer. As she opened the refrigerator door, the lights went out and the humm of the refrigerator went silent. “Well,” she said, “middle class was fun.”
Somehow I doubt that the 51% (give or more aptly take a few percent) of the American’s who voted for President Bush are going to take it quite so well when things suddenly go south.
With the EU making a play for economic super power and China and Saudi Arabia holding our in-the-red nuts over the fire, I don’t see the lights staying on much longer. I know that I will be able to walk out of my mortgaged-to-the-hilt house and be happy with what I’m taking with me (my books and my laptop, my children and their favorite toys, my husband and his guitars). The guy down the street who will undoubtedly lose his house, his retirement and his SUV despite the Bush/Cheney sticker on it, I’m sure he won’t be smiling like me.
With the Bush administration pounding out the drumbeat to war yet again, this time in Syria or Iran (I think they’re still keeping their options open at this point), what we the people need to realize is that another unprovoked, unnecessary and ill fated war will only add weight to the lead foot driving us over the economic cliff. Realize that when I say “our economy”, I mean the average American not the top 1% of the county that is thriving under this administration. There really are two economies, the insular one we live and suffer in and the internationally parasitic one that thrives with the help of deregulation and third world servitude and always profits from war (the military industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us about, but we know what a radical pinko he was). They will profit just as much from the next war as they have from this one. Do we need to see more than the grotesque profits posted by American oil companies over the last three months or Dick Cheney’s 3000% increase in the price of his Halliburton stock options? I don’t think we do, but we most certainly will see more of the same if Bush has his way.
posted by The (liberal)Girl Next Door @ 6:00 PM
1 Comments:
My greatest fear about this whole mess is that the new Federal Reserve Bank Chairman, Bernancke, is another Greenspan - bought and sold by the big banks, oil companies and other corporations (Microsoft, Geico, etc.), all a Wall Street circus.
Thus, there is no hope on the horizon for financial relief, until we get a Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, who will tell us the truth.
And, unfortunately, when that happens we shall surely all kiss our sweet Asses good-bye. Maybe then the GD Democrats will get it.
I doubt it because Clinton was and still is, just as guilty. He did not tell us the truth about Alan Greenspan.
But then, the fool Clinton also lied under oath like a moron. He could have refused to talk of his sex life. No, that would not have fueled his self-entitled narcissism.
As a matter of fact, as we know, Clinton kept the loser Greenspan in the position of Federal Reserve Chairman. Clinton and all presidents since Greenspan first took the office, know and knew full well, that Greenspan didn't have the credentials to hold the position.
They have known since Reagan was allowed to borrow (steal) Social Security monies, that Greenspan was and is, an Ayn Rand devotee.
Greenspan and Rand were personal friends and reading her books is where Alan obtained his PhD. - this is a joke, and what a joke it is, on US, except of course - the elite!
So it is, IOUs are in the coffers where Social Security was held in trust for the “Baby Boomers” (I am one of the many BBs).
Yes, Father Greenspan came up with the idea for Reagan to steal the money from the SSI and then the national debt didn’t look so bad and WOW, the money didn’t need to be factored into the accounting. My oh my, what a shell game.
I use the strong word steal because the masses were charged higher SSI taxes on their work to repay the SSI fund. Isn’t that an interesting twist. To repay our own SSI, which we had already paid into. We didn’t steal it so why did we have to repay it?
At this time we have Greenspan raising the Prime Rate, or the “Feds Funds Rate.” This really makes my blood boil.
Everyone who has credit cards, second mortgages, automobile loans, and “consumer” related interest loans, should write letters and demand that we do not repay - via hidden taxes - GWB’s campaign contributions from these companies who are raping record profits by Usury, endorsed and enforced, by none other than Mr. Alan Greenspan.
Or, Mr. Bernancke, our new guy –
“President Bush is reportedly ready to nominate his top economic advisor, Ben Bernacke, to replace outgoing FED Chair Alan Greenspan.
Professor Peter Morici, a professor of business, logistics and public policy in the Robert H. Smith School of Business says, "President Bush is expected to name Ben Bernancke to replace Alan Greenspan. He appears to be giving Wall Street exactly what it asked for: an inflation hawk. That would pose real dangers but don't pigeon hole him too soon.
Bernancke is a strong advocate of inflation targeting but as simple and elegant as that sounds, it can prove an unrealistic goal. These days, too much of the inflation challenge stems from structural issues beyond the control of the Fed - for example, hypergrowth in China and the resulting pressures on oil prices, and the mismanagement of energy policy and resulting shortages of refining and natural gas capacity.
Inflation targeting can result in overreaction to surges in commodity prices that the Fed cannot affect at the expense of sacrificing growth the Fed can help the economy accomplish. The end result would be rising unemployment and falling wages -stagflation.
Wall Street, whose view of the economy rarely extends beyond two quarters, wants an inflation hawk, even if it is at the expense of sacrificing growth and the interests of ordinary working Americans. That is even sadder because too much attention to inflation is bad for Wall Street too.
The Fed is charged with both maintaining stable prices and sustaining growth. Bernancke, while on the Fed Board, advocated attention to the output gap - that counsels more moderation from strict inflation targeting and concern about unemployment. However, Wall Street's fixation with inflation - even inflation that is inevitable and beyond the reach of the Fed--kept any viable candidate from talking too much about the importance of the Fed's joint responsibilities.
Just like a Supreme Court nominee, we really won't know how Bernancke will vote, until he is on the job.".
Post a Comment
<< Home