Day: March 19, 2009

Is It Fake Rage?

In my opinion is—-yes it is a fake rage.

The main concern of the Obama administration and the congressional Democratic leadership is that the AIG scandal will make it politically more difficult to enact the next round of the federal handout to Wall Street, tentatively budgeted for at least $250 billion by the White House, with the actual cost expected to soar to as much as $1 trillion.

There could also be problems enlisting financial firms to participate in the measures already announced by the Treasury, such as the “public-private” partnerships in which the Treasury would insure profits to speculators who buy toxic assets under the Temporary Asset-Linked Securities Fund (TALF). Given the greater scrutiny of executive compensation that is now likely in the wake of AIG, many big institutions may simply refuse to participate.

The highpoint of hypocritical outrage came at a hearing Wednesday before the House Banking Committee, where AIG Chairman and CEO Edward Liddy was verbally chastised by Democrats and Republican congressmen. Liddy, who was appointed by the Bush administration after the Treasury seized control of AIG last September, refused to make public the names of the executives and traders who raked in the million-dollar bonuses.

In January two congressional Democrats, Joseph Crowley of New York and Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania, wrote to the Federal Reserve and Treasury urging scrutiny of the AIG bonus plan. Kanjorski told the Associated Press that he had tried to alert both the Obama administration and AIG to the likely public reaction. The congressman’s concern was not to stop the bonuses, but to manage the release of the news carefully because otherwise “all hell would break loose.” He warned, “We should take every step to put that information out there so we wouldn’t have the shock.”

To me all this outrage in Washington is just simply political theater.  Repubs helped create the problem, but yet are somehow outraged at the outcome.  Dems helped create the problem but yet they are somehow guiltless and pissed at the bonusues.  It is all so much fakery…….and a soap opera….”As the stomach turns”.

I have heard the drama in the Beltway as “circular Firing Squad”.  IMO, it ius political hysteria.  Everybody is throwing someone under the bus.  Repubs are throwing the Dems, Dems are throwing the president, both past and present, Cantor is throwing Dodd, Dodd is throwing the administration and AIG is throwing the Federal Reserve and the media is throwing everybody but those responsible.  This drama is just all too comical for words.

There are two good things to come out of the AIG debacle….one, everybody in Washinton was caught being an acessory to the crime and two, the Repubs have given the tired old mantra of tax cuts a rest, at least for now.

To answer the original question, is the rage fake?  Then yes it is !  But the finger pointing is far from over…the spin is far from over……and the comedy of errors will go on.

2009 Anal-Ocity

In recent weeks Bushites have been hitting the airwaves trying to prop up the Bush legacy.  So far their efforts are pretty damn lame and boring.  And they should be a great source of anal statements.

But my fav, so far,  is from Bushite Gaffney, whose first name has escaped me, said on MSNBC’s Hardball when talking about Iraq and Saddam and the Bush legacy.

“There is circumstantial evidence that Saddam was involved with the 1993 Twin Towers attack and the Oklahoma City bombing”.  (I paraphrase)

So now Timothy McVey was working as an agent of Saddam…….these guys NEVER cease to amaze and amuse……

Hooray, The Markets Are Up

The stock market has shown a pretty steady climb up from the 6600 bottom of a week ago.  After several days of trading in a positive position some are saying that the recovery is getting close or that the stim package is working.

Their happy days are not what they are looking for…..one, this is just a pounce….two, it is bargain hunters and three, it is profit taking….nothing to write home to moma about.  The markets are NOT an indication of the economy.

wealth is declining

foreclosures are up

unemployment is up

consumer confidence is down

retail sales down

credit delinquencies are accelerating

production is down

Now what part of these indicators points to better days?  The media needs to report the facts and stop trying to incite confidence where there is none.

STOP!  STOP!  The markets do NOT reflect the health of the economy….it is just a/holes with money looking for bargains and praying for huge profits.

AIG Is Only The Tip Of The Iceberg

The president has told us of his anger at the bonuses being paid to AIG employees, but I am starting to doubt the sincerity of his words.

Lawrence Summers, director of the White House National Economic Council, declared in a CBS television interview, “The easy thing would be to just say, you know, ‘Off with their heads,’ and violate the contracts. But you have to think about the consequences of breaking contracts for the overall system of law.”

With this turn of phrase invoking the guillotine, Summers inadvertently put his finger on an essential element of the AIG bonuses furor. Like the nobility at the time of the French Revolution, America’s ruling financial oligarchy is an entirely parasitic social layer, whose relentless defense of its wealth and privileges stands as the basic impediment to meeting the most basic needs of society as a whole.

In reality, the AIG bonuses are hardly an aberration. Citigroup’s CEO Vikram Pandit hauled in $10.82 million of compensation in 2008, Reuters reported Monday. This payout came as the bank received a $45 billion capital injection from the US government.

Bank of America Corp. CEO Kenneth Lewis fared only slightly worse, getting $9.96 million as his bank also received $45 billion in bailout funds.

Moreover, these obscene pay packages and bonuses are only a small part of the money handed out to the financial elite.

Russia To Rearm!

For you history buffs—-which was the first country to get out of the Great Depression?  Do not hurt yourself…it was Germany.  And why?  Because they started a massive program of military spending to rearm after the defeat of WWI.

Where am I going with this?  All countries are feeling the problems of the economic crisis and some handle it in different ways.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced today that his nation would begin a “large-scale” rearmament campaign for both its army and navy starting in 2011 in response to persisting threats to the nation’s security.

Pointing to NATO’s continued expansion and the increasing amount of military forces massing along Russia’s western borders. Medvedev warned of “a serious conflict potential” that “requires the quality modernization of our Armed Forces and acquisition of a new advanced appearance by them.”

Sounds a bit like the rationale used by Germany to start their massive rearming program in the 30’s.

For about three years I have been saying that would be a “new” Cold War and stories like this one just adds to the validity of my prediction.