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22 Comments:
JohnB says: Excellent post GW. Please keep it up.
America has jumped the shark. I’m totally over it. Suggestions for where to land?
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giggity says:
Yup. Might as well relax until TSHTF day.
I’m ready, I think. Or will we ever be?
Without a large swath of these billionaire and millionaire skeptics and contrarians uniting and helping to fund some real blowback against the mega corps, Fed, and corrupt pimp politicians, we’re doomed.
As sad as it is, there’s no way to reform the system without big money, but when you depend on that system’s money and beuracracy, you’re weakened.
The establishment has worked this all out quite well, everyone dependent upon it.
1776 isn’t going to happen again with the plutocratic technocracy running things.
But I’ve still got hope. Definitely all out of Obama’s brand, though.
Lavrenti Beria says: You know, I get sick of Ron Paul. If the man had had an ounce of authenticity he’d have run an independent campaign for president last year but, instead, he chose the easy and, I might add, self-serving route of re-election to a safe House seat as a Republican. Paul plunges ahead imagining himself the indispensable voice of those without a voice. Barely a week passes without Ron calling attention to himself calling attention to causes which, while meritorious enough in and of themselves, so threaten the Regime as to guarantee their suppression, the matter under consideration here a case n point. Paul’s presence in Congress simply serves to keep alive the imbecilic hope that the system is reformable and, of course, to guarantee him a lifestyle few others in this country happen to enjoy. Its time, I say, to imagine a world without Ron Paul and the illusions on which he thrives.
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Harsh.
I like Paul a lot. But sometimes the same thing goes through my head, that is he really risking anything by trying to work within the system? He’s in his 70s, not much time left, how about rocking the boat some more?
Although, it simply amazes me that a bill with a majority of co-sponsors, bipartisan at that, can’t even make it out of committee, yet ridiculous legislation, with a tenth of sponsorship makes it to the floor and eventually the White House, with no one so much as batting an eye.
If you’re not doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide? That goes for the Fed, and the CIA/NSA/etc.
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“Although, it simply amazes me that a bill with a majority of co-sponsors, bipartisan at that, can’t even make it out of committee, yet ridiculous legislation, with a tenth of sponsorship makes it to the floor and eventually the White House, with no one so much as batting an eye.”
I predicted this very result here on this and other blogs just a few week back, giggity. You’re in a dictatorship, that’s why things like this happen. Well intentioned people continue to cling to the illusion that somehow, someway we’re not going to have to make the effort of starting all over here in the United States. Its simply unimaginable to most that the scum holding political office aren’t really there to serve them. People like Ron Paul and Elizabeth Warren reinforce these infantile notions. Bill Moyer had an outstanding interview with Galbraith on Friday night. Galbraith grasps all but the most important elements of the question – that is, the hopelessness of there ever being a parliamentary solution to this dilema – yet when brought to the matter of remedies, all he can conjure up is recourse to the courts!! There will be no solutions apart from mass demonstrations and strikes. Anything less, like Paul’s Fed audit, is simply a pipedream.
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Vinny G. says:
I agree with you, Lavrenti Beria.
A few days ago Ron Paul and Michael Moore were on Larry King Live, and it was pathetic to see Paul agree basically with everything that Moore was saying, and still clinging on to his status as a “republican”. From the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to health care reform, from “corporatism” to the control of this nation by the military-industrial complex, from the crooks on Wall Street to the unsustainability of the overstretched American Empire, he did nothing but echo Michael Moore. He conveyed no new information during the interview.
At least Moore has more charm, more charisma, more passion, and certainly a better developed sense of humor, and he also comes across as more genuine. It just proves how redundant and unnecessary the Republican Party has become these days.
I suggest we outlaw the GOP, very much the way the Nazi Party was outlawed in Germany. Both these parties brought similar types of fiascoes on their respective nations, anyhow.
Vinny G.
gruntled says: Everyone seems to realize what an incompetent, soulless bunch of pimps (see the previous post by Washingrton) we have in Congress. Yet we expect them to be able to audit the Fed and do a better job! Come on, guys! The Fed sucks and may have sucked for the last umpteen years, but putting the jokers in Congress in a position of directly influencing monetary policy would be suicidal. Don’t you really see the possible irony here?
funkright says: I am reading ‘Web of Debt’ right now, that books literally scares the sh*t out of me.. We need to take the ownership of our economies and money supply back from the various Central Banks (I am not from the USA).. Usury of the masses to benefit the few is not part of the world I want to pass on to my children..
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Don’t worry, the dollar is well on its way to a disorderly collapse, and this nation is already finished both economically, politically, and socially. All the rest of the world has to do is just sit back and watch in amazement how this nation implodes into the banana republic that it so rightfully deserves to be.
Vinny G.
Francois T says: Who the hell is Mel Watt?
How much has he been promised to be the Fed’s bitch? A plush job for the wife? Is this all it takes to buy the conscience of an American public servant nowadays? Like Joe Lieberman and Evan Byah for the health insurance industry?
Is there any hope at all to see someone, anyone in the media sit down with him and grill the heck out of him, a la BBC?
In a word, is this country irremediably doomed to political turpitude, social polarization of its middle class (THE gift that keeps giving and giving to the elites) and descent into banana republic?
John B asked: “Suggestions for where to land?”
Canada is not a bad place to be, if you’re looking for steady-Eddy locale. If you crave action, Brazil or China should give you that.
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Francois,
I don’t know about Canada, my friend. Weather and lifestyle are worth something too. I suggest Cyprus.
Vinny G.
RueTheDay says: The criticisms of the Fed launched by Roach, Schwartz, and Kaufman are all legitimate, thoughtful, and deserving of serious consideration.
The “end the Fed” nonsense promulgated by Ron Paul and other radical laissez-faire adherents is uninformed and downright assinine.
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anon says:
good distinction
anon says: Too big to fail is a made in America excuse.
The largest Canadian bank is proportionately 3 times the size of Citi and B of A.
Enough said.
The problem lies elsewhere.
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chindit13 says:
It’s not quite so simple as that. Yes, proper regulation is as critical as size, but with regard to relative size of Canadian banks vs. US banks, one must consider the OBS derivative exposure, the size of which for the likes of BAC and JPM dwarfs the World Economy. In addition, the old argument about notional vs. risk value of derivatives has been obviated to a large extent by the newly rediscovered awareness of counterparty risk.
Seal says: from the Wall Street Journal Spring 2004
UP AND DOWN WALL STREET – By ALAN ABELSON
Saint Alan?
WHAT DO YOU CALL A FIRE DEPARTMENT that concentrates not on putting out the fire, but on cleaning up afterward? Different, if you’re polite. Insane, if you’re us.
IMO Greenspan has simply been non-compus mentus for years – too old to hold a responsible office of any kind.
ian says: Nothing has been nationalized. Quite the opposite. The Federal Government has been *privatized.*
It is now a subdivision of Goldman Sachs. Congress and the president, and you and I, now work for the financial sector.
winterwarlock says: fortunately, they made us non-persons long ago.
if you depend on a utility controlled by others, they will put a gun to your head every time.
EmilianoZ says: According to the prevalent theory of western democracy (Montesquieu) the government is divided into 3 separate independent powers:
1) The executive (president)
2) Legislative (congress)
3) Judiciary (supreme court)
In truth there is a 4th separate branch that is not acknowledged. The Fed acts in effect as an independent financial power.
Now, there is in theory nothing wrong in having a 4th separate independent power as long as this power is made to serve the people. The problem is that the Fed was created by the bankers for the bankers. They will tell you their interest is the same as the nation’s interest, which of course is a total fallacy.
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Yet another excellent column by George Washington.
Everything he lays out never sees the light of day in the corporate media …
If it wasn’t clear before, it is certainly clear now, that the privately owned and operated Federal Reserve is run by and for the banks as the Federal Reserve has doled out, bought and backstopped over $14 trillion for the banks. All without Congressional approval.
Nationalization; It’s so radical that Canada nationalized their Central Bank in 1936. Yet today Canada’s banks are some of the best-run in the world, according to the Bank of International Settlements.
Where is the discussion on nationalization?, De-leveraging?, Glass Steagall? … We can’t even get an audit to see where tax payer money is going and what tax payers are back stopping …