Day: March 20, 2009

Is It Fake Anger?–Part 2

I recently wrote a post saying that the whole outrage thing in Washington over the bonuses received by AIG was a total fake.  That this was so much political theater.  I watched the game play out yesterday as congressman after congressman spouted one form of opposition to the bonuses.  Then the House overwhelmingly voted to tax the bonuses at 90% to get the money back from those execs who received them.

Good right?  Nope, just part of the game.  These dipsticks in Washington should be well aware of what the US Constitution has to say on this type of thing.

Article 1  Section 9–Limits of Congress

No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

Simply, they cannot target one group over another or they cannot tax a thing once it has been done.

This new tax will NOT hold up in court and the boys and girls in Washington know this…so all this fake outrage and action is nothing but political theater.

So if you, as a voter,  buy into the bullsh*t that these people are truly concerned with what is going on in the bailout and that they are truly outraged,  then you are a lot more STUPID than I gave you credit.

These bonuses were part of the original TARP and then carried on into the next phase, the TALF….all concerned knew what was happening and if they truly did not know of the outcome, then it is time for them to be replaced with people who will look after the business of the country.

Is The Economic Anger Populist?

I keep hearing the word “populist” being used more and more in the media to explain the anger of the American people.  Why is this word being used so much?

Populism can be defined simply as :  Academic and scholarly definitions of populism vary widely and, among both journalists and scholars, the term is often employed in loose, inconsistent and undefined ways to denote appeals to ‘the people’.

Administration officials and the corporate media characterizes the growing popular anger against AIG and the bailout of Wall Street as “populist” in an attempt to de-legitimize it, portraying it as backward or ignorant, implying that it could disrupt supposedly necessary measures to revive the economy.

But what are these measures? One measure initiated by the Obama administration will divert at least a trillion dollars more to the Wall Street banks through a program to entice hedge funds and private equity firms into purchasing toxic assets from the banks. The hedge funds will be given cheap loans from the government and will be guaranteed against major losses. The scheme, like all of the previous measures, is designed to privatize profits and socialize losses, guaranteeing that the interests of the financial parasites will not be impinged upon in the slightest.

The fear that popular outrage over the AIG bonuses could interfere with this program is well-founded because they are of a piece, both involving the bailout of a wealthy oligarchy at the expense of the rest of the population.

What they fear is that all of the rhetoric about “change” and “hope” notwithstanding, Obama will be seen more and more for what he is: a front man for finance capital who is implicated in its criminality and fraud and is carrying out a naked class policy to defend its interests.

The Battle Of The Collars is beginning.

When Will There Be Economic Growth?

And a damn fine question for the “Professor’s Classroom”.

We will have a growing economy when it generates increasing amounts of jobs, incomes and good and services.  Is the simple econo 101 answer.

What do we need to make this economy grow?

Consumer spending grows–then the economy grows

Business investment grows–then economy grows

Government spending grows–then the economy grows

So far with the economic downturn we are now experiencing the only growth is in the government spending sector.  What the government needs to do is stimulate the consumer spending, but that would mean that increasing jobs and incomes.  The government is betting on the business investment part of the equation that is why all is being done to get the businesses spending.

But there is a paradox…..unemployment is high and income is low there will be little use for the products that business would create…….if there is no businesses spending why would banks loan to the business?  Government spending is attempting to help business to start spending by control; of interests rates and taxes.

Now you have the paradox–there will be money for loans, but business will not engage because there is little or no consumer spending……now we come to the point of the post……DEMAND is the only answer to the economic situation.  The government spending that has come has NOT create the goods that business would make.  Making banks more loan friendly is NOT helping.

Yes, I am Harping!  Without money there is no demand…without demand there is no production….without production there is no loans……without loans there will be no jobs….without jobs there is no money….without money there is no demand……IT IS THAT DAMN SIMPLE!  DEMAND is the key….create demand and you can create a growing economy.

Peace….Out

How Did The Economy Sneak Up On Us?

It did not sneak….it was a long time coming and had many warning signs and causes.  One of the seers was former GAO comptroller David Walker.

For too long the airwaves have been full of political rhetoric…no one wants to talk about what the problem really is…….procrastination.

The President and the Congress are to blame!

What they don’t talk about is a dirty little secret everyone in Washington knows, or at least should. The vast majority of economists and budget analysts agree: The ship of state is on a disastrous course, and will founder on the reefs of economic disaster if nothing is done to correct it.

There’s a good reason politicians don’t like to talk about the nation’s long-term fiscal prospects. The subject is short on political theatrics and long on complicated economics, scary graphs and very big numbers. It reveals serious problems and offers no easy solutions. Anybody who wanted to deal with it seriously would have to talk about raising taxes and cutting benefits, nasty nostrums that might doom any candidate who prescribed them.

You see Walker told the Congress of the coming problems if they did not start looking at a long term solution and that was not acceptable to them.  You see, that would not be good for their re-election campaigns…to tell the voter the truth.  All concerned are always looking for short term solutions and avoiding the inevitable.

And that Irene, is how we got in this pickle that we are trying fix.  Cowards, always afraid of the future and concerned with their own little menial problems while the country drowns in the sea of BS.

Why Does Lou Dobbs Hate?

Remember the days gone by, during the height of the immigration debate and the rants and the raves of CNN’s chief immigrant basher, Lou Dobbs.  Well apparently, the immigration debate is a bit slow so he thought he would spice it up a bit.

While bitching about St. Patrick’s Day on his radio show Dobbs said:

“And by the way, I’ve got to wish to you, each and every one, Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! I do that, and I have to be honest with you, despite my fervent anti-ethnic holiday position. That’s right! I’m against St. Patrick’s Day. I’m against St. Columbus Day. Saint Joseph’s Day. I’m against all of those things. Is there, by the way, is there a Jewish, a Jewish ethnic holiday? Is there one? No? Okay. The Jews have disappointed me. I mean, is there a St. Mauritius? No? A Belize? I don’t know. We gotta have — there’s gotta be something else going on here! How about an Asian ethnic holiday? Is there one? You know, a Saint Jin Tao Wow? Chinese New Year? All right, we can do that … I mean, what is with all of these ethnic holidays? I mean how about an American Day? How about were all the same kind of day?”

An American Day?  Lou,  how about the 4th of July?  If I had to guess I would say that Dobbs is a WASP that has a really hard time with people with skin tones other than white.