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Obama Hypocrisy Meter Off The Charts: "I Did Not Run For Office To Be Helping Out A Bunch Of Fat Cat Bankers On Wall Street"
Obama goes back to his Wall Street-bashing rhetoric in today's 60 Minutes on CBS, after he has already doomed this country to tens of trillions in excess debt to make sure that Wall Street not only thrives, but prospers, courtesy of Bernanke's vertical bond curve and the daily destruction of the dollar. With statements such as "I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street" which the WSJ disclosed will be uttered by Obama shortly, only the most clueless viewers will find empathy with Obama's latest message of banker "anti-hope."
And it is not only Obama, but Wall Street protege Larry Summer himself who continues the banker bashing:
White House economic adviser Larry Summers also voiced aggravation
with Wall Street on Sunday. "Here is what I think they don't get…It was
their irresponsible risk-taking in many cases that brought the economy
to collapse," Mr. Summers, who chairs the National Economic Council,
said on CNN's "State of the Union."
"And they don't get in some cases that they wouldn't be where they
are today, and they certainly would not be paying the bonuses they are
paying today, if their government hadn't taken extraordinary actions."
"For them to be complaining about serious regulation directed at making
sure this never happens again is wrong. For $300 million to be spent on
lobbyists trying to gut serious efforts at financial reform is not how
this country should be operating," Mr. Summers said. "For firms that
have benefited from taxpayer support to be complaining about the
government burdening them is, frankly, a bit rich."
First you bail them out, and now you bash them? It is one thing to dash criticism upon rhetoric but at least be consistent. If people can not read between the lines of this administration's endless hypocrisy, they deserve all they get. And if Matt Taibbi's latest controversial piece in Rolling Stone "Obama's Big Sellout" needed any final validation, you just provided it Mr. President. Because while your Wall Street-centric policies can be explained by your lack of financial comprehension and private-sector experience (thereby justifying your desire to be "advised" by those who are an integral part of the banker syndicate), your complete disdain for the average American's intellectual level exemplified by your most recent, upcoming 7 pm TV appearance is what is truly insulting. Maybe you can put Mr. Geithner up there next to you on the TV screen, and he can justify his reasoning for why incremental "fat cat" bonuses are such a bad idea. Come to think of it, why not make it into a round table, and include Larry Summer and Robert Rubin: we are confident they will have no problem distancing themselves from the very bankers they talk to 10 hours a day, telling them (and thus you) how to run national policy.
You say "Some people on Wall Street still don't get it"... The problem, Mr. President, is that more and more people on Main Street, do get it. They now realize just whose agenda you have at heart. And said Main Street expects nothing but merely more theatrics during your upcoming meeting with Wall Street "fat cats" tomorrow.
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barry o sold his soul to the non-christians --- the clintonistas and rubinistas --- they will drop him like a used trojan --- wake up people --- the only land mass to save the sorry ones is usa turf --- they do not want a repeat --- ....................
A lot of us, for a lot of different reasons, believed in Obama.
He fooled us, but good.
Retaining Geithner/Summers/Bernanke; enabling Goldman Sachs to serve as the fourth branch of government; allowing that fourth branch to trump the other three...
Shame on us and shame on him.
Welcome to a world where everybody's bullshit meter is pegged, and most listener's thresholds are pegged as well.
Welcome to 1984.
Tiger Woods corporate sponsors found a way to get out of there expensive contracts with him. But they tell us that he just does't fit in with there new plans. What do you believe!!
Wow.. that was too much obama bashing for my taste.
*chuckle* better get used to it...
I wonder how many will blame Obama for declines in the stock market once he takes decisive action against the fatcats similar to the beginning of this year in late february and march when the market was down and he was being blackmailed by the TBTFs, Cramer CNBC et al because he was not accomodative enough to wall street
No need to worry about that - he's not taking "decisive" action against anything or anyone. Count on it.
I loathe Barry O as much as the next guy - but he's merely the latest in a long line of symptoms to our larger problem. To wit, we elect people to "fix things" and then are amazed that the first things to get "fixed" are self-same politicians.
It's O'Rourke's Principle writ-large (not quoting directly, but pretty close): When buying and selling are controlled by legislation the first thing to be bought and sold will be legislators.
When the Federal Government (and you can include the states and locals here too) has the power to toss around billions (trillions???) of Other Peoples' Money and can through the force of law pick the winners and losers in every industry, why should we expect that everything (anything) will be done on the level? It won't, and it's simply naive to suggest otherwise.
Just about the only guy in DC who seems to understand that at all is the Honorable Gentleman from TX-14 and even he is hardly the perfect messenger (he has to play along, after all). We have two parties of government; there hasn't been a true party of anything resembling "limited" or "Constitutional" government in 90-years (probably longer) and I honestly doubt American Idol Nation would really go for anything that even approaches said ideal. And so, the beast will continue to grow, and grow, and grow.
I wish it were otherwise, but short of the whole thing crashing down I just don't see this being reversed - and of course we have to realize that if it does all come crashing down it's entirely possible that, rather than going back in the direction of freedom, Idol Nation will be looking to go exactly the other way with all deliberate speed.
/ Rant Off
legendary Walter Scott Bruan, wall street pioneer dead RIP
Look, a politician is a politician. None of us would have been elected president.
Rather than attack the guy for inconsistency/hypocrisy, it might be good to congratulate yourselves for moving the needle far enough that this is the line at the center of the road.
As a politician, he doesn't need support from the Left, because they have no choice. It may even help him with the dynamic center to hear the shrill and sharp attacks from this direction.
But ... Are you really saying you knew exactly what to do at the time of TARP or could have marshaled the political backing to do it, or that the perception of the country if it could have been done would have been widespread rejoicing? I understand that Summers and Geithner and the rest of the Treasury-Wall Street Cabal are not going to lead us out of this mess, and I think I was among the first to question Triple T Larry, (Targeted Timely and Temporary) when we needed somebody like Stiglitz or Galbraith.
On the other hand ... Democracy comes from the bottom up, not the top down.
Well put.
Well, Barack we're glad to see you're incensed about the injustice
WTF are you gonna do about it?
Obama job description: keep the peasantry quiet while we hit the reset button on the banks and set things up for a golden age of financial services.
So keep up appearences! Make sure they see you as a champion of the people! Make 'em feel all giddy when you say "banks could never have done it without your sacrifice!"
hypOcrisy you can believe in...
Obama wants the banks to keep lending?? TO WHO??!!
Have we learned anything by the Bush "ownership society" fantasy?? I used to work for a big lender, where there were strong "emerging markets initiatives and government-enabled mandates to lend to anyone with a pulse...where the hell did that take this country?? And that brings us to reality right now---
A. No one wants the loans! (Why allow the govt. to keep you tethered to an over-priced and rapidly depreciating asset)??
B. VERY few are financially qualified and stable enough to take on the purchase of a home right now due to falling wages, tanking house prices, and unemployment...
If YOU were a bank Mr. Obama, would you take the risk and loan YOUR money in this kind of a market right now?? (NOOOOOOO--you wouldnt)--not if you were trying to stay solvent.
Propping up these artificial housing prices IS NOT THE ANSWER. The government and the banks need to get the P#$@K out of the way and let the free markets set the price to clear these homes.
Maybe if the majority of Americans arent spending every dime of 2 full time salaries to keep a roof over their heads, they could actually afford to spend money on other things--What a concept.
Man, I used to look for intelligent comments on this forum. Obama was passed a live grenade at the door, the plutocracy handled that for him and it screwd us. Politicians are here to give you the idea you have freedom of choice...you dont. To think now that the plutocracy is in control and some of you somehow think that Obama has anything to do with it means you are all falling in line to dance to their song. Thats what they want you to think to take the focus off them.
Here, you want a real no frills explanation of whats going on articulated ? Ill say no more because this says it all clearly, and it aint funny!
Read Creature from Jekyll Island again or YouTube it but give up on all the Obama this/that blah blah hot blog air. This isnt a democracy unless you fight. For you whiners that dont know where you are this is supposed to be the Fight Club....Google "Tyler Durden".
One last quote: "In times of great moral duress Its those that don’t protest that end up in the hottest corners of hell."
"Man, I used to look for intelligent comments on this forum. Obama was passed a live grenade at the door, the plutocracy handled that for him and it screwd us."
I'm getting tired of the excuse-mongering. Obama knew damn good and well what he was getting into when he was elected, seeing that TARP was passed before the election took place. If he didn't want to deal with it, he shouldn't have taken the job. If he's not going to put on the Big Boy Pants and display the kind of strength and leadership to confront the guys who held the global economy hostage last year, his supporters are in NO position to be pleading with everyone to "give him a chance!" The Presidency is for men, not boy-kings who want everyone to adore them.
"To think now that the plutocracy is in control and some of you somehow think that Obama has anything to do with it means you are all falling in line to dance to their song."
Spare us. Obama voted for TARP last year and his economic team is loaded with squid cronies. He IS responsible for it, because he had a hand in it. Accept it.
This is great! Real gold! Hahahackhackha! I'm glad I gave up Comedy Central - I don't know everything there is to know (especially voodoo-Keynes-finance), but you should actually read Jekyll Island - or at least pay attention! I can't use enough '!!!!' in this reply. Fighting in a democracy? Getting fat eating fast food? Having sex in a porno? Hey, tell me what a constitutional republic is for!
Next thing you'll be telling me the executive branch can legislate! Hey, O, write us up some better laws - you're getting away with everything as it is!
I missed the first one! I'm coughing up blood! Somebody stop me!!!
Obama was passed a live grenade at the door...
Uh, what was Obama's previous job?
In other words, he either knew precisely what he was getting into and went along with it anyway, or he was in a position to know precisely what he was getting into and was too criminally stupid and/or full of himself to notice.
Tarp was divided into 2 tranches. So was the GM bailout. Bush bent over backwards to try to give Obama a far smoother (and more honorable) handover that the one he received from Clinton. That is why they agreed to split bailout into 2 parts. Later, Obama pressured Bush to implement his part of the bailout before Obama took power. Even though it was clear that this was really a bailout of UAW, Bush did it anyway.
The first thing Obama did upon taking power was to sink the knife into Bush's back (blame the entire Tarp and GM bailout on Bush). Now you claim Obama was handed a grenade. What really happened is Obama stuck the grenade in Bush's coat pocket as he left office. This was no more surprising than the way Obama reneged on all his campaign promises.
BACK IT UP BARRY...and we aint talking about your money maker..
TAKE ACTION against your biggest campaign donors now. They dont belong on your administration, they belong in JAIL.
We need to organize.
I don't think it's hypocrisy. I'm reasonably certain that he didn't run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat Wall Street bankers.
But once he took office, he got some real bad advice about who to appoint as Treasury Secretary and as lead economic advisor. Timmeh and Larreh are the poodles of fat cat Wall Street bankers and have done nothing to dispel that image.
Yeah, but this is what doesn't make sense...Any 3rd grader could do 20 minutes worth of reasearch and KNOW that the FED has not only done NOTHING to protect us, but was complicit in the biggest daylight robbery this country has ever seen.
Obama is a very smart man. How could he now state he wants to give MORE power to the FED, instead of fully auditing this obviously criminal institution??
When you read between the lines, it is truly very scary.
Once he took office? Were you paying attention AT ALL during the primaries and the general election?
Rahm was a close advisor during his whole run for the presidency. The Squid was one of his largest contributors. He was wishy-washy about doing anything with teeth in the Illinois legislature and in the Senate. He surrounded himself with advisors who would recommend people exactly like Geithner and Summers. But people ignored all that because they wanted to believe his rhetoric.
Look, a politician is a politician. None of us would have been elected president. Rather than attack the guy for inconsistency/hypocrisy, it might be good to congratulate yourselves for moving the needle far enough that this is the line at the center of the road. As a politician, he doesn't need support from the Left, because they have no choice. It may even help him with the dynamic center to hear the shrill and sharp attacks from this direction.
But ... Are you really saying you knew exactly what to do at the time of TARP or could have marshaled the political backing to do it, or that the perception of the country if it could have been done would have been widespread rejoicing?
I understand that Summers and Geithner and the rest of the Treasury-Wall Street cabal are not going to lead us out of this mess, and I think I was among the first to question Triple T Larry, (Targeted Timely and Temporary) when we needed somebody like Stiglitz or Galbraith. But this is not betrayal by Obama, it is a measure of victory.
Democracy comes from the bottom up, not the top down.
As if. I knew and most of the conscious knew you can't have Goldman Sucks monopolizing all the decisions, beginning with Robert Rubin, and Hank Paulson who shafted everyone.
What I would have done?
You mentioned two, there are many more, including a rotting corpse which could have done a better job in NOT SOCIALIZING
all the losses, sticking the taxpayer with a bill that as bad as it is now is nothing compared to what it's gonna be, all the while the Goldman Sucks partners like Lord Blankfiend walk away with trillions.
A democratic republic voted 4 to 1 against bailouts and instead got stuck with multitrillions of toxic trash.
You have to be kidding.
I'm sorry I cannot add to the above statements. You guys covered it all. Taibbi was spot on in his recent article in Rolling Stone. I was surprised he did not appoint Sandy Weil as head of SEC...lmao
Obama: the political face of the economic shock troopers. While they prep the field for a further putsch to consolidate the hegemony of financial services in American life, Obama keeps the peasantry docile by feeding them tripe on how patriotic they've been in sacrificing for the cause. How much gratitude the powerful must feel toward the multitudes for nobly keeping them in Italian suits this Holiday! Man, they must be toasting us at this very moment with tears in their eyes! That makes me feel proud to be American, I stand up tall! Lead on, herr Obama!
Meanwhile the Senate just today passed an ominous spending bill that increased last years by 12% and contained 5000 earmarks. The house had all of 24 hours to read the 100 page bill before they passed it.
Just waiting for your signature Mister Hopey Changy.
I just need to be loved by you all...signed Mr. President
Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. Thomas Jefferson
How is Jefferson's quote, concerning failed attempts to establish a uniform Christian church, relevant to the subject at hand? The full quote is:
Thanks for bringing it into the light. Interesting quote - easy to take it as anti-Christian.
Let obungle have his wall street rant. He won't be the one lining up next year to suck their cocks for the mid terms. In 2012 though, it'll be open wide for Blankie and Dimon...
'Mr President....YOU LIE!"
The "White House " ????
Really ?????
I thought Obama won ....
"Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, its that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers - in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people." -- Obama, 4 Nov 2008
Quite the contrary, it would seem. At least in the short run.
Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Today is the second straight day that Obama’s Approval Index rating has fallen to a new low.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administra...
"You Haven't Done Nothing"
We are amazed but not amused
By all the things you say that you'll do
Though much concerned but not involved
With decisions that are made by you
But we are sick and tired of hearing your song
Telling how you are gonna change right from wrong
'Cause if you really want to hear our views
"You haven't done nothing"!
It's not too cool to be ridiculed
But you brought this upon yourself
The world is tired of pacifiers
We want the truth and nothing else
And we are sick and tired of hearing your song
Telling how you are gonna change right from wrong
'Cause if you really want to hear our views
"You haven't done nothing"!
Jackson 5 join along with me say
Doo doo wop - hey hey hey
Doo doo wop - wow wow wow
Doo doo wop - co co co
Doo doo wop - naw naw naw
Doo doo wop - bum bum bum
Doo doo wop
We would not care to wake up to the nightmare
That's becoming real life
But when mislead who knows a person's mind
Can turn as cold as ice un hum
Why do you keep on making us hear your song
Telling us how you are changing right from wrong
'Cause if you really want to hear our views
"You haven't done nothing"!
Yeah
Jackson 5 sing along again say
Doo doo wop
Doo doo wop - oh
Doo doo wop - co co co
Doo doo wop - sing it baby
Doo doo wop - bum bum bum
Doo doo wop - um
Sing it loud for your people say
Doo doo wop - um um um
Doo doo wop - stand up be counted, say
Doo doo wop - co co co
Doo doo wop - ow
Doo doo wop - bum bum bum
Doo doo wop - ah hum
- Stevie Wonder
I guess this means "hope & change" can have bad connotation's as well as good ;-)
A "savior"???...from Chicago???...LOL.
"The government I live under has been my enemy all my active life. When it has not been engaged in silencing me it has been engaged in robbing me. So far as I can recall I have never had any contact with it that was not an outrage on my dignity and an attack on my security."
HL Mencken
nmewn
Amazing the only place we are getting real financial reporting in the MSM is from Rolling Stone.
Perhaps Tiger Beat could do an expose on the LOOSENING of derivatives regulations in the new financial reform legislation.
http://www.bopandtigerbeat.com/
Then we'd have two mainstream sources for accurate financial commentary
What a fucked up country
AndyC
Anyone who would take mccain over what we have now, would be flushing this country down at warp speed.
Sorry palin is an idiot, phil gramm is worse than larry summers, and that is a low bar. I voted for the President, he could have handled things very diffferently, I am sorry to see the path he took.
This whole thing, now, is a coverup. Now there is no way for the President to go after the banksters. He had the chance when he came in. The whole system is still a flimsy house of wet cards. The world went to the brink last year when all of the big houses were bidding up the price of oil. It was the only place there was real money, and they needed if fast. Sept 30 is when Basel II was going to go into effect and everyone had to prove they were solvent. All that money that mr. hankey and ben threw out of the treasury went to all the people/countries we sold that cds crap to.
I'm sure they got the call from europe, make us whole or you're toast. It is flagrantly obvious when bernanke tells Elizabeth Warren, that he can't tell her where the money went, he won't.
We were part of, and are paying for, fraud on a sovereign level and the treasury was, and is, being used to restore liquidity to the root canal that the 'financial instruments' business is. joseph cassano is still a free man.
The President blew it out his ass yesterday when he said 'what happened is in the past'. Well, every crime, once committed, is in the past. First you commit it and then it is the next day.
I hope to the divinity of your choice that behind the scenes the FBI and justice are looking into who and what they can bust for this. It is impossible to believe the entire world economy could implode 'legally'. I have been hoping that it takes a while to build a case, they have to play cool.
That said if there isn't some serious high profile perpwalks in the next year the dems are going to be sniffing teabags, we'll be stuck with a congress of idiot crackers, and we will have another monoterm president.
Matt,
What the fuck? As I read the first five pages of the article I began to feel genuine hope that sufficient members of the left might actually be willing to join with independents and angered conservatives in an effort the take the nation back from Wall Street. Then, in the final page, you dive headlong into the phony left-right paradigm with a totally off-target characterization of the resistance that was in town that day. That protest was organized specifically to protest health care measures.
Were you afraid that your strident critique of Obama would ruin your left-wing street creds if you didn't close the article with an obligatory "Yeah, well, the Right sucks too!"? I'm really fucking disappointed. Did you understand when you wrote your closing rant that it helps prevent any cooperation between left and right on this pivotal matter, guaranteeing the continuation of the situation you so aptly decry? Do you want to fix this or what?
What the fuck?
+1 WTF!
+100, I think he got an attack of cognitive dissonance
I think Taibbi was using the protester to illustrate how ignorant most Americans are about policy, even that small minority who are politically active enough to attend a political protest. (And those who are that politically active are probably better informed than the average voter.) I.e., voters are as much a part of the problem as the politicians.
I thought Matt was spot-on about the protester. I think she does represent one of the biggest problems in USA politics, in both parties and in independent voters. Very few voters know much about more than one issue, if that, even if they care passionately about those issues. That's true no matter where they lie on the political spectrum. That's how Bush got elected and how Obama got elected. That's how political consultants help manipulate voters of either party - you market your candidate by subtly or blatantly pushing the hot button issues to drive voters away from the opposition and to your candidate. I think it makes perfect sense that Mary Matalin and James Carville are married. Their products may differ SLIGHTLY but the game is the same. I think Taibbi was trying to highlight that voters' ignorance (and lack of interest in details about laws or candidates) makes it easy to manipulate us, though I think he should have made it clear that the protester represents voters of all stripes.
Why do we all patronize the companies that do business with Goldman Sachs? Wouldn't it be quite easy to post the names of companies that hire GS and just not use their products/services? Isn't that the American way?
When a TV or radio personality offends watchers or listeners, people boycott, or at least threaten to, the advertisers' products/services in order to apply pressure to exact a particular result.
Everyone bitches and moans about GS but it seems that this would be the one way to reach into THEIR pockets for once.
+1 this is a great idea, king silver, outstanding idea.
It is time for America to face reality: Obama can BLING it but he can't bring it. He should just turn the White House into a sort of Playboy Mansion D.C. for Holywood and his Chicago cronies.
His staff of clueless academics like Romer and Schapiro don't have chance (assuming they have integrity).
Dearest Leader and his congressional and bank skallywags are the saddest show in town. Saddest is that we got what we voted for. Oh and for all the ripe one who did not, well you still got what you voted for. Not to decide is to decide.
Now down to the real question, what do we do that is effective, innovative and moves us forward? Because all else is just gas.
it will require great personal sacrifice.
Lets vote ALL the SOB's out of office next election. We definitely can't do any worse than what's in office now. Let's speed this slow death to the taxpayer up a bit.
Someone start a petition to get this idiot of a president removed, or smash him in the face with a statue, or something.
Hmm. Speed it up, yes. Vote, no. Petition, who's paying the postage?
We can save time by actively resisting unconstitutional actions by the government - let's make the founding fathers proud.
This secular bear market is just getting warmed up. Wave 2 up is done 50% retracement on low volume. Wave 3 down has begun. We will now experience a crushing 90% decline in the dow jones industrial average over the next several years.
Larry Summers looked visibly scared this morning on Meet the Press. Keynsian economics has failed and he knows it.
There is only one way we can avoid an economic and social calamity. Dramatically cut taxes, raise interest rates and withdrawl liquidity. This is the only solution to the present conundrum.
I have not heard anyone mention the insidious misdirection here. We are setting up for more financial regulation that sounds peachy to the public, but effectively further entrenches the TBTF. The next hidden agenda is to crush the community banks with paper work mandated lending rules. The only institutions financially able to comply with this coming mandated buearocracy are those with the scale to buy or write the complying software systems.
They will crush the small regionals with all the existing TBTF subsidies estimated to be worth about 75 bps to liabilities. Then pile on the new systemic risk assessment, the special FDIC premiums and twist the knife with new mandated lending rules.
All the while the financial reform legislation just codifies TBTF and placates the public long enough for a continued screwing.
Once the community bankers have been crushed, the desired corporatism will be entrenched. No more upstart competitors to threaten the corrupt status quo. The Fascist plan will finally be complete.
This is exactly the plan Timmy, while trying to discourage revolution.
Because credit is the life blood of the economy, for a one world heirarchial government to work they are working to eliminate the regional and community banks that can compete.
Look at all the last names at the helm of the media companies and the leaders of governmental and corporate financial companies. 50%+ of bilderbergers are of the same lineage. I am calling for diversity, as power looks very concentrated in the hands of a few individuals that have a similar lineage - being friends with people that own printing presses will do that. If they are successful with their bolshevik one world government, what will be the last name of the individual at the top?
A great expose for Zerohedge would be - Who Owns controlling interests in the fed, big banks, and big corporations?
These banks do not have reserves, they are technically bankrupt, they create credit/loans out of thin air so why should we pay interest to them? Why shouldn't the country issue it's own loans to avoid interest payments? Why aren't we asking these questions when we are at a tipping point and could free ourselves from the tyranny of debt bondage?
Many community banks will go quickly if there is not a social safety net for commercial loans. In fact, we are seeing that unravel before our very eyes.
Can you imagine if the Fed starts to pull liquidity out of the system soon? The incremental system costs of remaining compliant to new rules would be a rounding error.
I always look for your posts Assetman, and agree.
The way the stress tests were created, the upcoming CRE implosion, and the ARM resets on homes will destroy the banks too small to succeed (TSTS). As they are taken over, the Potter's Banks (TBTF) are taking the good assets and passing the garbage along to the FDIC.
Most people don't understand this, although you do, but the banks create loans out of thin air and then when a loan defaults it takes ownership through their lien of actual hard assets (great trade, paper/air for hard assets). In a normal situation where bankruptcy was possible, this would not be a problem since assets would be impaired, balance sheets would be damaged, and the bank would be taken over. However, right now most people do not understand that with a government backstop (no risk of default) it is a moral hazard and a free for all on trading air for paper - a take over of both smaller banks and hard assets despite being technically bankrupt. With unlimited money printing without default risk, I could just buy up all securities, all commodities, and all homes at any price!! Remember it's about control, not the illusion of a P&L!!
Once you have a home, nice clothes, a nice car, and food what else do you really need? For some dominant men, they choose influence and power with the dream of world domination. Paper money is now a political tool, it is useful for social order and control.
When you look at the politicians pandering to these groups that control the printing press, I know you understand that the same owners of the press (media & money printing) will soon have all world citizens begging for printed paper (pandering) for their lives or even asking permission to breath, to move, to produce (CO2) if we let them.
Under this system, the last man standing will be the printing press operator. Will America bow down to the Wizard of Oz, this printing press, or will it pull back the curtain and realize there is a man behind the curtain? Perhaps we as a people need the heart of a lion, a brain bigger than the tin mans, and courage not to let them use fear propaganda against us (don't be a scarecrow made of straw). The two choices we are faced with are tyranny or liberty, but tyranny is not marketed as such and is usually robed in security.
This is your choice America, Potters Bank or George Bailey's Building and Loan?
Great post - especially about the 'great trade', backed by the printing press. When it is said, "Our grandkids will be paying for this." it's really not that accurate. The grandkids won't pay for any of it - there's no need to collect taxes when you have a printing press, unless you are trying to maintain an illusion.
With no gold-backed currency, and the ability to create money out of thin air, collecting taxes becomes a socio-economic issue, not a revenue one. The two purposes of this control are to combat rising prices and redistribute wealth.
The question for the American people is whether or not they will see this control, and then rebuke it - a true audit of the Fed would cause it to implode. Dr. Paul is astute - well, at least he has been at it for 26 years.
But after the end to the Fed will we have a better system? Again, we hear chirping crickets attempting to talk over Dr. Paul - he is the only one proposing a viable system: the Free Competition in Currency Act:
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/speech/tx14_paul/compcurr.shtml
What stands in his way? Well, the average, uninformed American, that's who! Until we, as a 'free' People, recognize the constitutional violations being committed by our government we will never be truly free. Rights cannot be given, they can only be taken away. The primacy of the Constitution was in that an individual could freely travel and trade with whomever they desired - no restrictions. This is not an anti-government rant - this is about requiring the government to stay within its limits - nothing more! Because freedom can only be taken away the American people are only as free as they allow their government to violate its agreement, its contract, with the people. People are waking up. They are slowly withdrawing consent. But an out-of-control government doesn't need consent, just naive compliance. Freedom requires active vigilance - and it will take all of us together to do it. We need a little more 'alter or abolish' running hot in our veins.
Sadly I am afraid you are too close to the reality for comfort.
+1000
Greg
+100
This is the plan.
Banks have been asked to pre-pay 3 years of FDIC premiums (amounts to be adjusted upward as needed).
The regulators have a tough set of rules for the small banks and no set of rules for the large ones.
The stage is set to crush all competitors leaving only the TBTFs.
TAKE YOUR MONEY OUT OF TBTF TODAY, MONDAY DEC 14. Get them before they get everyone else.
This man is dooming this country. He is nothing more than a thief, stealing the public's money for his own political gain. I look at my newborn son and can't fathom the financial hole we are leaving for his generation to climb out of. Truth is they probably won't ever make it out.
If the % of American's who understand what is being done to them by the gov't/Fed/Wall Street exceeded the % that know every detail of American Idol contestants lives, there would be a revolution tomorrow.
Good article. Most of all, thanks for the point out to the Matt Taibbi article, as I find the information in it very valuable.
wonder if obama is going to start a kill streak that matches clinton's. http://whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/BODIES.html
I was going to say : what can the president do without congress backing it, but Bush accomplished quite a bit
When Mugabe Jr. is done with this country there isn't going to be much left. GS&Co have never dealt with a true commie before. Just wait and see. Commies are full of surprises. . I have a lot of experience on this subject.(unfortunately)
Blagojevich's lawyers seek FBI interview with Obama
"Rod Blagojevich's lawyers want the FBI to give up details of interviews conducted last year of President Obama, his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, White House adviser Valerie Jarrett and others as part of the investigation into the former governor."
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/blagojevich/1935445,CST-NWS-BLAGO13.a...
this one is very interesting....i am shocked that it is taking fitzgerald the notoriously efficient and publicity seeking u.s. prosecutor this long on this case.
something smells fishy on this one, it has been laying low for waaaaaaaay too long.
take a look at the tape of Blagojevich on Jon Stewart from a few months ago.....blago is guilty as hell but he is not the only one....
...I can only hope that main street does indeed have the intellect to see through this guy's bullshit. He is an uber politician/salesman...the best perhaps. It's one thing to run for office under the standard BS of 'education', 'fixing the economy', 'ending the war'...but boy or people gonna get pissed when they realize that they got conned with 'hope and change'...That is a different kind of chord that is struck and will have people feeling like they just got banged hard on a one night stand by a charmer who turned out to be just another player. Yeah...the reaction that comes from that kind of spite is...er...unpleasant. How does that effect the market? The market is a social barometer of sorts...so when you have distrust and anger piled on top of unemployment and a crappy economy? You figure it out...
Barack needs to show his support by making a contribution to his local Tea Party.
"I'm a 50+ yr old registered Republican who voted for you and have spent my career in the financial services industry: what a phucking moron I am for believing your crap."
Were you drunk when you pulled the lever for this empty suit?
If people like you would have thought twice FOR ONE SECOND before falling for that hope-n-change BS......
Well at least now you realize you were a duffus.
I thought twice and for more than one second: I read ten hours per day and have closely followed politics for over thirty years.
Obama was the lesser of two evils and yes, I bought into the change message. I admitted that I was stupid to do so in retrospect.
I like McCain but he was way out of his league. His number two is probably the biggest idiot that ever stepped on the political stage.
deadhead I made the same mistake as you...now we know that anyone in the game is the same evil
So did I and so did millions.
#162808 is part of the problem not part of the solution. The past is gone.
deadhead my friend, learn to stop worrying and love the obama: he is the IDEAL president to finally make a dent in the two-party mindfuck we've been trapped in. if mccain had won, we would still have 99% of progressives in america stuck in the republican=satan democrat=jesus paradigm.
that is exactly why I voted for the guy, after two decades of supporting only third-party candidates, and I don't regret my vote one bit.
Sounds like a Kubrick movie. But you lost me at 'democrat=jesus'.
Wait....so all the campaign promises were lies and we used people like Volcker to sucker all of you, but NOW I really mean what I say....
What kind of dumbass still believes a word out of Wash D.C
at this point?
Obama believes in the supremacy of the federal system above all else. This is the worst kind of liberalism. With the exception of Volker, who obviously can't stand being down in DC, no one on this economic team has a clue. Summers is an arrogant ass. Roemer is ditzy. Whoever thought the Vice President had his own economist? They will call for old-school federal solutions based on deficit spending. All their ideas will be rooted in traditional democrat responses. Every day we get closer to a monarchy as the federal beast is growing with every passing day. Where are the capitalists when we need them?
Where are the capitalists when we need them?
They are counting their money and making arrangement for an early retirements to Barbados.
Or for those who worked at Halliburton-- Paraguay.
I think you're in the wrong century. I don't know if we've ever had true capitalists making policy in the USA but we certainly haven't had them in the 20th century. Corporate welfare (which has existed big time at least since the Robber Barons and probably before) is not capitalism.
Tax paying Americans do have a voice. It is not a cast ballot, it is the taxes we pay. Want to put an end to this crap quickly? Stop paying taxes and debt obligations. I think the message would be recieved quite clearly.
I think it is coming to that, I really do.
Obama: "Hey, don't hate the player! Hate the game!"
Put that one on the O pull-string doll along with, 'Yes We Can' and 'I got this.'
It's the new Tickle-Me Elmo! It would save the economy - just in time for the double-dip all the smart people are talking about. Frankly speaking, I think any talk of a double-dip, 'W' recovery is pessimisstic - we don't want to frighten the hens anymore than we have to. These smart economists need to take a 21st century journalism class.
"I Did Not Run For Office To Be Helping Out A Bunch Of Fat Cat Bankers On Wall Street. Some people on Wall Street still don't get it" - Barack Obama
bbwwwwahahaahahahahhahahahahhahahahhahahahhahahahahaahhhhaa!!!
mr soetoro - you were selected by the rockefeller cabal c. 1991 to be a future president....you are indeed lying in
the above statement just as you lied about your citizenship.....fuck you bitch. your actions speak louder than words....
The only way to win is to decouple from the banking system.
A ten year plan by the masses who can afford to pay off notes, sell off real estate, and get your money out of the system and into real stuff.
Put your money into local collective farming, cut down your burn rate,
do what you can to de-leverage from energy companies, utilities and the like.
Now might be the time to take stock in what you have rather than see it slide to zero in the coming years.
So now "winning" is to give in and become the peasants they want us to be? Who came up with your 10 year plan, Trotsky? I do think that having a shift away from being the robot consumer is necessary, but if we are going to take all the hardship in order to "win" over the laughing banksters watching from behind their cognacs, I'd much rather do the blood thing first.
Then load your guns and get moving.
During the campaign, Obama promised that all proposed laws would be posted on the internet for 5 days before he would sign them into law.
Guess what happened?
From the very first law he signed, he has not done this.
Media of course is silent.
Now we see some lefty journo get all upset (tho, he does manage to call protestors "teagbaggers" and make fun of them for being misinformed...)
Hey, why didn't you hold Obama to his pledges like you would have for any rightie? Hmmmmm? You have him a free pass, and he will use it to "ride"
Normally ZH is a balanced and very good site to look for interesting articles regarding finance.
This one though....is out-of-limits....It sound more like a megafone for GOP...it sucks
Get sober.
Dude-- Doesn't mean any of us would vote for the old man and his whack-job flight attendent assistant, Palin, but CLEARLY Obama needs to recognize he has been PLAYED by people he did not research closely enough before hiring.
People have good reason to be pissed off, and he needs to fucking DO SOMETHING to correct this cronyism faaaast!
"Doesn't mean any of us would vote for the old man and his whack-job flight attendent assistant, Palin, but CLEARLY Obama needs to recognize he has been PLAYED by people he did not research closely enough before hiring."
Yes - I would have, and did. You are the fool, and are only now finding out what I knew all along. Obama hasn't been played - you have. Here's some archives, have fun!
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2008/07/let-me-put-it-in-pictures-for-o...
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2008/10/secret-scrapbook-of-barry-soeto...
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2008/05/six-degrees-of-barack-obama-upd...
Wake up buddy. This isn't about left vs. right - it's top vs. bottom.
Obama and Rubin at the Bada Bing!
http://tinyurl.com/y87dbxa
Clearly and concisely stated Tyler !! We are all in agreement . Has Obama no shame ? Time for him and his band of arrogant thieves to be deposed . Lets start with 2010 elections . Lets hold their feet to the fire . Good piece !
Keep the faith, people; the Messiah WILL not fail you.
Change is already happening.
Well, perhaps NOT what you were expecting.
BUT the undead elite bankers on Wall Street are in line for bigger bonuses and there's always the HOPE that some spare CHANGE may fall into your begging bowl.
Now, lets hear it for the President !
4 more years,
4 more years ...........
Sounds like the O-man is trying to re-write history:) Throw some adamant quotes around and hope the historians make him sound like a man of the people; which he is if the people are fat cat Wall Street bankers.
He does not care about polls now....I could swear he kept track of them during the election via his blackberry....remember this anyone that voted for him....
Found this on Ritholtz's blog, wasn't O-man's administration supposed to be open:
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/12/fdic-ots-not-cooperating-with-media-investigations/
No doubt Obama senses the widespread political outrage on this issue, so it would be bizarre indeed if this is just more hypocrisy and posturing. However, doesn't really matter as the Pig Men have already won the war by picking up massive guarantees/supports and also by using Governut to restore fictitious capital.
Since TARP is really the only leverage Governut has to control this racket, it makes sense that the Pig Men would try to play their card to remove this, so as to get back to business as usual, such as paying outrageous bonuses and ratcheting up more cold dead hands gambling and hiding under slimy rocks. As far as Obama's complaint about small business lending, the question should be asked: why would a bankster make such a loan when he feed a steady diet of overpriced securities and fictitious capital to Governut?
Pig Men have played Governut like a fiddle, while Obama looks like a 4th grade schoolmarm who is scolding the bullies who have pants'ed every kid on the playground. Oh, what a tangled web we weave.
Ho ho ho! The extension of TARP provides the "payback" itself. Those naughty banksters needed the "Danger, Will Robinson!" money, but now it can be morphed into a 12 figure slush fund outside The Stimulus™.
YES we CAN !!!
- bailout the bankers
- limit the bonusses
what a distribution of lies and distortion!!
Mission accomplished on the Banker Bailout and maintaining the status quo. Now it's time to further distract the public by vilifying the banking industry and reinforce the "war of terror" to pass Climate Change legislation. It should be obvious by now that this is a controlled demolition of the US directed by western European unelected bureaucrats.
Ohhh, the COSEQUENCES of the big LIE-----
http://market-ticker.org/archives/1723-The-Consequences-Of-The-Big-Lie.html
The saddest part is that many of the star struck viewers still believe him.
-
What would help me is if he allowed Citi to pay back their TARP $$ and then he pushed for the same corporate 50% tax on bonuses similar to UK and France. He would then have some credibility in my eyes.
Dear Mr. President:
Two words disprove your claim that you are not interested in helping out fat cat bankers: SUMMERS, GEITHNER
I can't believe you've turned out like this; a black Bush.
You gave us hope! And then you pissed on us.
He’s not being hypocritical…he’s being calculating. It’s just a bunch of rhetoric for the benefit of the sheep, er aah, I mean the American people who swallow that type of garbage hook, line, and sinker.
The Bankers Summit and Some Significant No-Shows
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2009/12/bankers-summit-and-some...
Some White House Banking summit.
A one on one with Jamie Dimon and a few second tier, TARP-bound moneylenders. John Stumpf of Wells Fargo is running late but surely on his way. Tied up signing some last minute foreclosures.
It appears that Goldman's Lloyd Blankfein, John Mack of Morgan Stanley, and Dick Parsons of Citgroup will not be able to make the meeting today with The One regarding executive pay and the failure to lend by the Wall Street Welfare Queens.
The excuses are not the usual: end of year performance reviews, too busy with the office redecorators, trying to settle the tab at Scores, on hold with the Neiman Marcus trophy-wife and office-chippy department, making plans to fix the Superbowl.
Ken Lewis of Bank of America is there. LOL. Trying to pick up an unemployment check and cop a plea.
The boys were flying commerical to show their solidarity with the homeless people who fly coach, and are encountering traffic delays on their flights out of New York to Washington. Reagan National Airport is closed by fog. It doesn't get much more symbolic than that. Are Dulles and BWI are closed too? No. Jeez, these guys don't bother with alternate plans to visit the White House?
"We're sorry Timmy, but frankly the President DID call him a 'fat cat' last night on 60 Minutes. Did you really expect our guy to show up for coffee today like nothing happened? Larry had assured us that he knows his place. Besides, it worked better when he came up to see us the last time anyway."
It would be cool to be sitting at the gate with Lloyd. Think he is schmoozing there with the people? "Bagels and coffees for the terminal, on me."
Jamie did not condescend to act the plebe, and flew down in his corporate jet. And we do think Vikram was particularly ballsy in sending a delegate, executive figurehead, with a note that he is too busy negotiating the repayment of TARP in order to secure those year end bonuses for the troops.
Note to Lloyd and John and Dick, if you are traveling commercial from NYC to Washington in the winter, you take the train. And if flying you leave early or come down the night before, with dinner at The Palm. I recommend the peas and onions as your side. Carville hangs at the bar sometimes. He's a fun kind of guy.
It is always iffy when flying into National in the winter, except on Oligarch Express. Even Senators know that, and their feet barely touch the ground when they walk.
The Wall Street boys don't bother to show up for a command performance at the White House on some lame travel excuse, except for house banker and Treasury Secretary to be Jamie. Lloyd doesn't need to be Treasury Secretary because he already has one.
This is too good. You can't make this stuff up.
how is this a surprise?
republican zombies were all bent out of shape thinking that obama talked center but walked radical.
democrat zombies were all drooling in secret ecstasy thinking the exact same thing.
in other words, even the people who thought he actually WAS a vehicle for change weren't fooling themselves about his duplicity, just about what that duplicity was hiding.
independent media on "both" "sides" of the "political spectrum" have been all over this guy's hypocrisy since he was still a state senator.
excellent article, i love zero hedge you guys are always on top of things. when i heard this quote obama spewed "im not a puppet for the big bankers" i about lost it. thanks for the great article