Day: June 10, 2009

I Have Heard It All, Now!

Think back to the days gone by of political pandering and lies….I am speaking of the last primary then election cycle.  Recall when the buzzword of the day was patriotism or patriotic?  Remember when one candidates patriotism was questioned when there was no pin visible?  Think back to when liberals in Congress and the country were called un-American.

I know you would like to know where I am going with this…..I am coming to that.  Recently a conservative talk show host has called for a boycott of Chrysler and GM.  Yes you heard it right…a BOYCOTT!  Why would he do this?  Because if we buy from GM or Chrysler we woulkd be supporting socialism……and there it is the conservative argument to Obama’s success.

Several othe talk show host have signed on to this thinking…telling there listeners that it is better if these companies fail and disappear then to support they paranoia over socialism.

These dipsticks had rather see American workers loose everything than support a popular president.  I have even heard them say that the workers will get over it…that they will find other employment …..would that be in the same country as I live where the unemployment is 9.4% and climbing?

Sorry guys but that call is about as unpatriotic as it comes…..anytime someone calls for the destruction of an Americaqn industry…they are unpatriotic.  The biggest problem is that someone is listening….the same people that still think Obama is a Muslim….the same idiots that wantr the country to fail….the same people that hate.

The Real Health Care Story

The debate is heating up over health care….Dems have a plan….Repubs….as usual have nothing to offer in opposition.

I received this in an email from a friend in Oregon.  The exerpt was from a piece written by Patrick Martin.

President Obama’s Saturday address initiated the public phase of his administration’s effort to pass major healthcare legislation. His remarks were notable for the absence of any reference to the actual crisis facing tens of millions of working people in the United States: more than 47 million people are living without health insurance, and millions more are underinsured and face crippling bills and even bankruptcy in the event of a serious illness.

Instead, Obama focused entirely on the rising cost of healthcare, which he presented as a major problem both for the federal government, the largest single payer of healthcare bills, and for corporate America. He declared, “The soaring costs of health care make our current course unsustainable” and pledged to heed concerns “that the ballooning costs of Medicare and Medicaid could lead to fiscal catastrophe down the road.” In other words, the administration is concerned, not about improving healthcare services for the American people, but about cutting costs in order to improve the financial health of American capitalism.

The Obama administration has already ruled out the only rational response to the crisis of healthcare availability: the establishment of a single-payer system in which the federal government would guarantee universal access to healthcare as a matter of right. Every other advanced industrialized country has some form of universal coverage. But such a system would eliminate the tens of billions raked in by insurance companies whose “business model” requires that they limit coverage, deny treatment or reject bills—in other words, it would infringe on the “right” of MetLife, Aetna, CIGNA and other giant corporations to make a profit from illness and disease.

So far the debate has offered nothing, in my opinion, that would actually help the average person…the debate continues….we will see.

Payback Is A Bitch!

Reuters is reporting:

The Obama administration is expected to announce next week that a higher-than-expected number of large financial institutions will be allowed to repay their government bailout funds, the Washington Post reported in its Saturday edition.Citing unnamed sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the official announcement has not been made yet, the newspaper report said the size of the repayments may be twice the initial estimate of $25 billion.

That could mean that nearly all of the nine institutions found to have sufficient reserves in a recent government-run “stress test” might be allowed to return the money under the Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Now Geithner and the Boyz will decide if these banks will be allowed to repay their loans.

At first I thought, “what the hell?”  Be allowed to repay their loan…..I thought you mean the government may not want the taxpayer’s money returned?  But after I calmed down I realized that it would mean that the Treasury would look to see if the banks could remain slovent if they repay.

Institutions want to repay the government as soon as they can in order to get out from under some unwanted obligations such as executive compensation restrictions, dividend payments, among others.  It aloso sounds like these banks are dying to get out of the government spotlight so they can return to their speculative ways that caused the situation we are fighting today.

So you think I am making this stuff up or that I am paranoid, eh?

Barry Grey wrote for wsws.org:

In the guise of enhanced regulation, the Obama administration is working with major Wall Street banks to sanction a continuation of the speculative practices that precipitated the financial meltdown and deepest economic slump since the Great Depression.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has, according to a detailed exposé published June 1 by the New York Times, adopted a proposal drawn up by a group of big Wall Street firms for new regulations on the lucrative trade in derivatives such as credit default swaps. Geithner headed the New York Federal Reserve Bank and played a key role in the Bush administration’s bank bailout program before being named to his present post by Obama. His recently issued proposal on derivatives regulation, in opposition to measures backed by certain corporate interests, such as agribusiness firms and the congressmen who represent them, would exempt most trading in credit default swaps from any serious public exposure or government regulation.

Does the word credit swap ring a bell in your head?  In case you are not sure let me help.

Trading in credit default swaps played a major role in the subprime mortgage bubble that imploded in August of 2007, leading to the financial crash of 2008. The collapse of insurance giant American International Group, which has to date received $170 billion in government funds, was the result of the firm’s massive holdings in credit default swaps tied to subprime mortgage-backed securities and other dubious assets. AIG bet that the underlying mortgages would not default. It lost its bet and was required to come up with huge amounts of cash as collateral, which it did not have.

Does that help?  In other words, NOTHING will have changed and this whole ball of crap will happen again.