Shearing The
Sheeple
Fundamentals Of The Economy Are
Solid...Remember?
By Rand Clifford
30/09/08 "ICH" -- September, 2008, a month that will
live in infamy. A month where official purring about our
economy’s solid fundamentals have erupted into official
bayings about economic "Armageddon". Financial markets are
suddenly so choked with "toxic debt" that only a
hasty trillion-dollar taxpayer Heimlich Maneuver
"might" get credit flowing again.
Taxpayers just bled about $300
billion into the maw of the "the mess", bailing out Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac, American International Group...and at
week’s end the FDIC seized "The Friend of the Family",
Washington Mutual (largest failure ever of a U.S. bank). All
just drops in the bucket. But now, our Corporate Government
wants to get it right with $700 billion more. Does the
bucket even have a bottom?
Our budding High Priestess
of Christian Fascism, Sarah Palin, told Katie Couric, anchor
of CBS Evening News, that Senator John McCain would take the
lead in reforming Wall Street—"...or we’ll find ourselves in
another Great Depression." Of course Palin’s chief expertise
is in international affairs (she HAS lived for years just
across the Bering Strait from Russia), so she glazed over
when asked for examples of how McCain would reform the
banking industry—but rallied with, "I’ll try to find some
and I’ll bring them to you." This was on Wednesday, an
interview virtually ignored by mainstream corporate media
because Palin came across so crudely like Sarah Palin, and
it’s time to work even harder at hiding her.
After Congress proved what a
very large problem we have by working right through weekend
of the 20th and 21st on The Bailout,
the week of headlines, and quotes in addition to Palin’s
drove a lot of ink, if nothing else.
Some of last weeks choice
headlines (reproduced as printed):
Monday...Capitol Hill
wants limits Draft bill targets CEO salaries
Tuesday...TALKS
PROGRESS AMID ANXIETY MARKET PLUNGES AS
ADMINISTRATION, CONGRESS TACKLE DETAILS OF BAILOUT
—ON MAIN STREET, LITTLE
SYMPATHY FOR WALL STREET
Wednesday...Bailout
proposal runs into outrage Cheney, others find
bipartisan resistance
Thursday...Bush makes
case for bailout President warns of "financial panic"
Friday...Bailout talks
break down Republicans rebel against price tag
Some of the week’s finer
quotes include—remember, many of these people are barely
weaned from the "...fundamentals of the economy are solid"
mantra:
President Bush: "We’re in
the midst of a serious financial crisis. Our entire economy
is in danger. America could slip into a financial panic."
—"I know that Americans
sometimes get discouraged by the tone in Washington and the
seemingly endless struggles, yet history has shown that, in
times of real trial, elected officials rise to the occasion.
And together we will show the world once again what kind of
country America is: a nation that tackles problems head on,
where leaders come together to meet great tests, and where
people from every background can work hard, develop their
talents, and realize their dreams."
Treasury Secretary Henry A.
Paulson (the administration’s point person on the "rescue"
effort): "The American people are angry about executive
compensation, and rightfully so. We must find a way to
address this in the legislation."
—"I’m not only concerned,
I’m angry about the things that got us here. It makes me
angry, and it makes you angry. You talk about taxpayers
being on the hook? Guess what? They’re already on the hook.
If the system isn’t stabilized, they’re going to bear the
cost."
—"We want this to be clean,
and we want this to be quick, and it’s urgent that we get
this done."
(Note: acknowledging
"excesses" in executive compensation—but saying that debate
should be put off for another time, Paulson said), "If we
design it so it’s punitive and so institutions aren’t going
to participate, this won’t work the way we need it to work."
Rep. Joe Barton, R–Texas
"Just because God created the world in seven days doesn’t
mean we have to pass this bill in seven days."
Rep Gene Taylor, D–Miss.
Where have I heard this before? The Iraqis have weapons of
mass destruction, and they’re ready to use them. I’m in no
rush to do this."
Sen. Christopher Dodd,
D–Conn. Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee "It’s still
possible to meet the deadline. But this is of such import,
if it takes a little longer to get it right, then so be it.
I’m all for moving as quickly as we can, but I’m far more
interested in getting it right."
Speaker of the House, Nancy
Pelosi "We’re moving forward. I think we are making some
progress."
—"We will not simply hand
over a $700 billion blank check to Wall Street."
—"This legislation will
pass, and it will pass soon."
(And wrapping up her week,
Pelosi said), "We will not leave until legislation is passed
that will be signed by the President. The market needs a
message from us that we are acting."
White House spokesman Tony
Fratto (Note: Regarding Paulson echoing of the
administration’s objections to limits on executive
compensation, saying limits would discourage "successful"
firms from participating in the bailout) "These are not all
weak or troubled firms that own mortgage-backed securities.
They were not necessarily irresponsible players, and so you
have to be careful about how you deal with them."
Chairman of the Federal
Reserve, Ben Shalom Bernanke "I’m a college professor. I
never worked on Wall Street. My interest is solely for the
strength and recovery of the U.S. economy. I believe if the
credit markets are not functioning, that jobs will be lost;
the unemployment rate will rise; more houses will be
foreclosed upon; GDP will contract; that the economy will
just not be able to recover in a normal, healthy way, no
matter what other policies are taken."
Barney Frank, D–Mass.,
Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee "It would
be a grave mistake to say that we’re going to buy up the bad
debt that results from the bad decisions of these people and
then allow them to get millions of dollars on the way out
the door. The American people don’t want that to happen, and
it shouldn’t happen."
(Regarding the partisan
battle brewing over the bankruptcy provision for homeowners’
mortgage payments—a rally point for Democrats, Frank said),
"We’ll see how hard they fight. It’s something we care
about."
Obviously, the economic
crisis we are facing pales in comparison to our leadership
crisis....
Regarding how fundamentally
sound our economy was just weeks ago: our leaders are
implying that they were either too stupid to know what has
been building up for years, or they are liars. Certainly,
any pleas of stupidity remain solidly backed up by actions.
But even more fundamentally, these people are liars, always
have been, always will be. And now they expect to be
believed when pleading for a trillion dollars more so
everything will resolve itself in the financial markets?—so
your retirement funds won’t simply go
pppffftt!
Remember the trillion-plus
taxpayer dollars that went pppffftt! in the "Savings
and Loan Crisis" about twenty years ago?
Remember, since then, the
trillion-plus taxpayer dollars in the "Tech Stock Bubble"—pppffftt!
And now, essentially the
same species of greed and deregulation has us in today’s
"Credit Crisis".
Point person in this new
orgy of taxpayer bloodletting, Secretary Paulson—the man who
last week got down on one knee in front of Nancy Pelosi to
beg her not to "blow up" the bailout deal by withdrawing
Democratic support...what about his trustworthiness?
Before becoming Treasury
Secretary, Henry Paulson was Chairman and CEO of Goldman
Sachs for 8 years, where he pulled down a paltry $1.5
million—a month! Goldman Sachs was the country’s
biggest investment bank before the recent takeover (and is
suddenly doing much better thanks to Paulson’s
"intervention"). While commanding Goldman Sachs, Paulson was
deeply involved in creating exactly the kind of "toxic
waste" that now has the financial markets melting down. With
this in mind, consider again the awesome hypocrisy in
Paulson’s statements last week:
"I’m not only concerned, I’m
angry about the things that got us here. It makes me angry,
and it makes you angry. You talk about taxpayers being on
the hook? Guess what? They’re already on the hook. If the
system isn’t stabilized, they’re going to bear the cost."
And.
"The American people are
angry about executive compensation, and rightfully so. We
must find a way to address this in the legislation."
Also, in Paulson’s
acknowledgement of "‘excesses’ in executive
compensation"—while saying debate on that should be put off
for another time, because..."If we design it (the Bailout)
so it’s punitive and so institutions aren’t going to
participate, this won’t work the way we need it to
work"...do you sense any trustworthiness?
Tiberious Caesar once said,
"I want my sheep shorn, not shaven."
Obviously, our corporate
government wants the American flock skinned...at least.
Rand Clifford is
a writer living in Spokane, Washington, with his wife Mary
Ann, and their Chesapeake Bay retriever, Mink. Rand's novels
CASTLING, TIMING, VOICES OF VIRES, and PRIEST LAKE
CATHEDRAL are published by StarChief Press:
http://www.starchiefpress.com
