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DEL.ICIO.USObama, McCain both wrong
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In a crisis politicians are just worthless. There’s nothing helpful they can do — and therefore they have nothing of value to say.
Not John McCain. Not Barack Obama. Not Barney Frank. Not Jim Martin. All are quoted in today’s AJC commenting on the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the takeover of Merrill Lynch and the Federal Reserve rescue of insurer American International Group.
McCain’s response to the rapid demise of Wall Street financial institutions was to say that “we are going to reform the way Wall Street does business and put an end to the greed that has driven our markets into chaos. We will stop multi-million dollar payouts to CEOs who have broken the public trust. We will put an end to running Wall Street like a casino. We will make businesses work for the benefit of their shareholders and employees.”
Obama is an empty suit, once again vowing that he would have been smarter, better and wiser in providing solutions — something he’s never yet demonstrated in his life. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin had him pegged in her acceptance speech: “Listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate.” The problem with Obama and his rhetoric is that, in his mind, all the world’s troubles started 8 years ago and they end with his election. This is not a guy you want around in crisis, any crisis.
Then there’s Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, who is part of that cozy Washington insider culture that allowed Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac to operate with lax regulatory oversight, while using its profits to fund their social programs and campaigns and provide employment to the well-connected. Frank is part of the problem.
His comment to the AIG action?
“This is one more affirmation that the lack of regulation has caused serious problems. That the private market screwed itself up and they need the government to come help them unscrew it.” You wonder why politicians are unpopular? Barney Frank. Their action, or lack of it, help to create the problem — and they take no responsibility.
Even Jim Martin, the Democrat running for the U.S. Senate in Georgia, can’t resist the temptation to say stupid things. Opponent Saxby Chambliss has “been part of a system that’s been broken in Washington” and “I hold him accountable for the financial crisis we’re in,” said Martin. May-lar-kee. Chambliss has been there one term — of course, all this just started 8 years ago, as the left sees it — and during that time he’s been part of some problems, excessive spending among them. But on this Martin’s just background noise.
Right now the Bush Administration and the Federal Reserve are putting out fires that have been smoldering for decades. It is outrageous that even a dollar of taxpayer money has been required to salvage financial and now insurance firms. I’m not sold on the AIG rescue and want to see no more for financial institutions, but so far the Administration has handled the crisis properly to keep turmoil from spreading.
They’re not bailouts in the sense that taxpayers rescued investors and managers from bad decisions and reckless lending behavior. The reckless lost their investments, their companies and in many cases their jobs. The golden parachutes that would have brought Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd $8.4 million and former Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron $15.5 million have been taken away by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
It’s probable that the failed companies are in better shape financially than the current panic among investors would suggest. It’s the panic the Administration and the Federal Reserve have to contain. Ultimately, these loan guarantee should turn out like the 1979 Chrysler Corp. guarantee. Taxpayers lost no money, but still government loan guarantees to private companies is no more desirable as financial policy than it was as industrial policy.
McCain suggests that something like a 9/11 Commission is needed and he’s right, though Obama ridicules it. The worst possible outcome now would be for Congress to dash out regulation, even of the sort McCain first suggested to combat “greed.” What’s needed is a careful analysis of how the Washington insiders and Big Money got so close that government lost its ability to regulate properly.
It started at the bottom with a system that allowed people to buy homes they couldn’t afford without checking their ability to repay and without requiring them to put down their own money. And it continued up the line. Nobody was accountable. Nobody owned the bad loans they made or took.
The solution is not more regulation. In some cases it may be less. At the end of the day, though, no private business — and especially not Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae — should exist in the marketplace with real or implied taxpayer guarantees.
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Comments
By Get Real
September 17, 2008 8:48 AM | Link to this
Less regulation? Wooten you have lost it. I do agree with you on one point: none of these companies should be bailed out. But if you start bailing out the companies that approved these bad loans and reward them for their bad decisions, why not the people who bought the houses as well? Less regulation though, I mean get real. Seems to me there was none to begin with. And I wonder what your post would be like if this exact downturn occurred under Democratic leadership? Probably not the same. When are you going to put your partisan ways aside, when you know that Barney Frank did not become head of the House Financial Services committee until 2006. Subprime loans began to spring up as early as 2001. Present all the facts old man.
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
September 17, 2008 8:58 AM | Link to this
Good morning all. Before Jim published this morning I drafted the following notes:
Perhaps Jim would agree with me that the AIG bailout is less justifiable than even that of the corrupt democrat funding organizations FNMA and FHLMC? I think AIG is more like Chrysler in the 1970s, except AIG is stronger. The core business of AIG is sound, and I have little distress that the government will lose anything on the AIG liquidity-based bailout. For anything other than an insurance company, I think bankruptcy court – chapter 11 - should have been the reasonable alternative, except that the attorneys likely would have bled it dry, and the regulatory capital requirements are a special constraint on insurance companies and banks. My sense is that the AIG failure belongs to democrat Eliot Spitzer alone.
By Peter
September 17, 2008 9:00 AM | Link to this
Well folks the government is sending YOUR TAX DOLLARS to save Corporations, and now in the case of AIG they own 79.9%……..
Is the Government giving you money to bail yourself out of your problems ?
WELCOME TO REPUBLICAN LED COMMUNISM !!!!!
VOTE REPUBLICAN FOR COMMUNISM !!!!!
By Ga Values
September 17, 2008 9:01 AM | Link to this
Our Conservative colume for today
Throwing away a winning hand Senate bill might scuttle momentum for the energy reform Americans want Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff Wednesday, September 17, 20083 Usually we’re in accord with Georgia’s GOP U.S. senators, Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isaakson; for the most part they are excellent public servants. And despite inappropriately wandering off the conservative reservation a few too many times, we also admire South Carolina U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham.
But this Gang of Three, which spearheaded a so-called bipartisan energy bill that grew to a Gang of 10 and in recent days to a Gang of 20, may be on the threshold of a huge mistake.
The energy measure they’re pushing, which may be voted on this week and, even worse, might pass the Senate and eventually the full Congress, is ostensibly a compromise between the two political parties. Using consumer and business tax credits — paid for by repealing tax credits to major oil and gas companies — it would transition 85 percent of the nation’s cars and trucks away from gasoline and diesel to renewable fuels by 2028.
And in a sop to the widespread public demand to “drill here and drill now,” the bill would increase domestic oil drilling to 100 miles off shore, but would permit Georgia, Virginia and the Carolinas to petition for leasing as close as 50 miles off shore.
Sounds like it might be a good “compromise” deal, but it isn’t. The four states would have to jump through a bevy of federal and state environmental regulatory hoops before they could move ahead on their 50-mile offshore leases.
The Gang of 20’s measure also cuts the heart out of the GOP House bill, which was picking up steam across the nation and has gained the tentative backing of the party’s presidential candidate, John McCain. That bill, sponsored by House minority leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, is detested by liberal Democrats and their environmental extremist allies.
Informally known as the “all-of-the-above-bill,” it, too, would encourage alternative fuels and the like, but it would also allow drilling more than three miles offshore, instead of 50 — and with fewer regulatory hoops. The measure also permits revenue sharing with the states and opens the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.
This kind of energy action is what the public has been clamoring for, and for good reason: It makes the most sense in a time of soaring fuel and energy costs that are cutting into every American’s pocketbook. So it’s beyond us why any Republican lawmaker would abandon support for Boehner’s bill, which is not only best for America, but, as a bonus, is also a winning issue for Republicans heading into the November elections.
Conservative critics rightly note that the Gang of 20’s “compromise” is much more compatible with Barack Obama’s energy policies than with John McCain’s.
It’s inexplicable to us why Chambliss, Isaakson and Graham are pushing an energy plan that falls so far short of what’s needed for the nation and robs their party of an issue that was winning it votes.
It’s like offering to split a poker pot while holding four aces in their hands.
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
September 17, 2008 9:01 AM | Link to this
I urge all to read Dr. Walter E. Williams’s essay today on the mortgage market meltdown and causation. It tracks our discussion yesterday: my arguments from 9:34, 10:49, and 1:15. I would claim genius inspiring even Dr. Williams – one of my heroes – but I found an uncomfortably similar argument that predates my discussion. I suppose our genius is not as original as we imagine. But for the unfortunate tie to another controversial character, I would cite the democrats’s role in the causation of the mortgage disaster as “chickens come home to roost.” Or, in any discussion of the role of the democrats’s policies here, as maybe “lipstick on a pig?”
Look at the sham “drilling” bill the Pelosicrats passed yesterday, a law making it even harder to drill than before – locking up some territory forever - and raising taxes for motorists in order to fund corporate welfare for well-connected “friends of leftists” who have pie in the sky energy sources that defy the laws of physics. But no new nuke plants, nothing to use abundant coal, nothing that actually works. Why would anyone let those corrupt people continue to run Congress? Everything they do is wrong.
By findog
September 17, 2008 9:03 AM | Link to this
Jim, Senator Chambliss was in the House for I think eight years before his ascension, so his tenure dates back to when Speaker Gingrich came to power. However, you are only partially correct on your basic premise that politicians: one – there is nothing helpful they can do [yes]; and two — therefore nothing they have of value to say [no] they can either have a plan (neither has presented one worthy of a pot it note) or they can try to quell a panic by not blaming everything on Washington. Then again if they were to just be quite they would all be like potatoes in a microwave, “poke them with a fork or they’re going to explode.”
I eagerly await Rangar who is wiser than I in financial matters to weigh in on today’s topic.
By hillbilly ragger
September 17, 2008 9:03 AM | Link to this
“Listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate.”
That’s a lie, Jim.
Why can’t your side tell the truth to make its case?
Why does it have to lie, lie, lie, and lie some more, in order to have a shot at winning?
By "The Corporal"
September 17, 2008 9:08 AM | Link to this
Federal law should be changed so that the top management of any of these huge financial corporations being bailed out by the taxpayers should not be able to receive any type of “golden parachute” compensation.
By Goldie
September 17, 2008 9:10 AM | Link to this
all the world’s troubles started 8 years ago and they end with his election.
WOOTEN— maybe not ALL of the world’s troubles, but the majority of them will end with Obama’s election to the White House…. Bank on it!
Of course, you, WOOTEN, can keep hoping that America gets attacked again by “those terrorists” before November, and then your guy can go back to his war-mongering and nation-building drumbeats in an attempt to win in November. Just keep clinging to that cherished thought of yours.
By Goldie
September 17, 2008 9:12 AM | Link to this
John McBush— “he’d rather lose his integrity than lose an election!”
By "The Corporal"
September 17, 2008 9:19 AM | Link to this
Luke Chapter 14
28For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
29Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,
30Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
Wise words from the Banker of the Universe.
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
September 17, 2008 9:21 AM | Link to this
Dear real @ 8:48, perhaps this is the rest of the story an immature girl would seek?
Dear GaValues @ 9:01, great argument, I fully agree. I also liked the link yesterday, but not for the reasons you published. It persuaded me that the libertarian candidate is intellectually dishonest.
Dear Findog @ 9:03, I have a friend practicing in Memphis who pretends to be uninformed, using that as bait to snare the overconfident. You do not fool me on your financial expertise!
By Goldie
September 17, 2008 9:25 AM | Link to this
Peter @ 9:00 — I believe the AIG bailout can be included with all of the other CORPORATE WELFARE that the Repugs promote year after year? Billions of our tax $$$ going to BIG OIL companies alone, and those guys are raking in BILLIONS in PROFITS — can you connect the dots as to where our tax $$$ are really going? I mean, besides going to that sinkhole in the Middle East?
Vote For Dems in November to save America!
By Ga Values
September 17, 2008 9:25 AM | Link to this
Ragnar Danneskjöld
Pelosi’s drilling program is basically the program of the gang of 10 TRAITORS, whisch is led by Jim’s hero Saxby Special Interest Chambliss. McCain says Country First, Saxby says LOBBYIST First. If OBAMA is our next president thenk Saxby Chambliss.
By AmVet
September 17, 2008 9:29 AM | Link to this
What a laugh.
All of this teeth-gnashing and faux erudition by sheep and arm-chair economists.
The mantra goes, “There is nothing the politicians can do…”
WRONG.
There is nothing the politicians WILL do.
They simply are indentured by their corporate masters.
Bought and paid for.
Owned, lock, stock and barrel.
And NOT ONE OF THEM, Republican or Democrat, of them will ever stop taking the dirty money.
But there is one candidate.
He has spent his life fighting the plutocrats and corporatists on behalf of Americans.
And you fools pay him no heed.
And continue the laughable woe is us mantra…
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
September 17, 2008 9:30 AM | Link to this
Dear GaValues @ 9:01, I belatedly noticed one additional defect in the otherwise excellent litany of shortcomings in the house drilling bill. The courts are hamstringing development, in that enviroloons currently have standing to seek injunctive relief to block drilling that manages to jump through all regulatory hoops. Of course, in a rational world, the regulators would do the regulating and the courts would not recognize standing for the litigious Luddite obstructionists.
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
September 17, 2008 9:40 AM | Link to this
Dear hillbilly @ 9:03, after reading your link, I think Jim got it right the first time.
By walterrhett
September 17, 2008 9:49 AM | Link to this
Carefully look at the fall of mega-financial companies through non-partisan lens!!! finding the flaws in McClain’s and Obama’s positions and crtiquing the rresponses of other elected officials who serve on national economic committees begs the question! Looking at politivcal views is exactly that: looking at political views!
Rather look at the actual failures! Ask: 1) how come the accounting firms hired by these companies give no warning of the tilt toward impossible debt? 2) How come the internal firewalls, safe guards, oversight, risk assessment committees dismally failed to sound alerts far in advance of the brink of collaspe? 3)Why, after the junk bond fiasco, the savings & loan implosion, Enron’s failure, international hoaxes by rogue traders, there is still no system in place that offers a measured, planned response to the failure of firms that affect the economic well being of the entire planet? 4)how do government and private economic leaders work together, apart from weekend meetings where they shift tens of billions of dollars w/o the public, the President, or other peers weighing in, how do these leaders arrange relationships that strenghen the system, rather provide for the “rescue” of failures?
Really, the current situation is much larger than partisan politics! The global system is at risk, and being fixed w/ band-aids! The real question is not who is right, but who will step up.
By Redneck Convert
September 17, 2008 9:54 AM | Link to this
Well, as best I can tell, I own a part of AIG now. I kinda like this notion of the guvmint owning part of whoever and whatever gets aid from it. Matter of fact, I wish they would do it with people too. For instance, if you are a welfare bum, the guvmint gets to decide what you do and what your rights are. And if you don’t pay no taxes, you don’t get to vote on weather the rest of us do.
I feel all manly this a.m. We put the needle to another criminal down in Jackson yesterday. Trouble is, it took him 14 minutes to die. Seems to me the guy was being stubborn. Seeing as how Fambly Values sort of comes with no jobs these days, this would be a good job for a GA redneck. Some good old boy could roam the death chamber with a piece of lead pipe and hurry stubborn people like this criminal along.
Anyhow, I’m awful glad all my retirement plan down at the warehouse is in beer co. stocks. Alot of people woke up yesterday a.m. to find out they were broke. Long as we got winos and potheads like Captain Freedom and TFTT, my plan got nothing to do but grow and grow.
Have a good day everybody.
This message sent by handheld wireless Blackberry, invented by Senator John S. McCain.
By Captain Freedom
September 17, 2008 9:58 AM | Link to this
THE Captain wonders how Cynthia McKinney Tucker managed to get her apostasy published under Mr Wooten’s name. THE Captain just had to stop at the first line:
In a crisis politicians are just worthless. There’s nothing helpful they can do.
Nice try, Commie Cindy. This is clearly just another Islamunistoliberal slander of Our Leader, who proved his worthy helpfulness when he calmly listened to My Pet Goat as the Towers fell; when he cheerfully celebrated St John’s birthday as the flood waters inundated New Orleans; when he rolled up his sleeves for one photo opportunity after another in the wake of Katrina and Ike; and just this year, when he boldly stepped forward to initiate the full nationalization of the US Banking Industry, thus cementing his reputation as the Hugo Chavez of Wall Street.
So, whatever else Ms McKinney Tucker had to say under the Wooten byline, THE Captain has managed to work up a hearty state of outrage a la Carlton Snead Fiorina excoriating that anti-woman Tina Fey.
And it is this outrage that shall fuel THE Captain’s labors today as he watches the Wall Street crash sweep away the losers and suckers who are not as smart as THE Captain and Ragweed Duznotknow. Indeed, THE Captain intends to demonstrate His faith in our sound economic fundamentals by loaning himself another $2 million dollars today. It worked for AIG!!
By Chris Salzmann
September 17, 2008 10:02 AM | Link to this
Jim wants even LESS regulation? So how do you oversee greedy mortgage brokers and bankers selling mortgages to folks who cannot afford them? How do you oversee these folks from getting people into complicated mortgage deals (buy downs/upside down loans, negative equity loans, etc, etc) they just don’t understand? Less regulation??? So what are we going to rely on, Jim? Their sense of right and wrong? Wow, you and Phil (mental recession) Gramm would fit well together. Phil is right up there when it comes to folks who led the push for deregulation of the financial system the results of which we are seeing now.
McCain want’s a 9/11 commission? In Washington speak, that says “Kick it down the road”. When in doubt, always set up a commission because the end result’s going to be the same: Announce findings that were already self evident. BTW, can anyone even explain what the original 9/11 commission accomplished that we already didn’t know??? Jim, this proves you’ve really lost your marbles.
Obama an empty suit??? Try looking those up on Wikipedia, Jim. Or are you also “internet challenged” like your friend John McCain? What’s your excuse? Were you also a POW? ROFL
By Churchill
September 17, 2008 10:03 AM | Link to this
A Failure Tax By JONATHAN G S KOPPELL Published: September 16, 2008 New Haven
AS venerable American financial institutions topple like dominoes, the concept of “too big to fail” is being sorely tested. Bear Stearns gets help. Lehman Brothers does not. The Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department are acting like insurance claims adjusters, selectively providing assistance when a company’s failure seems too much for the financial markets to withstand.
Why not make investment banks and other companies pay premiums for this catastrophic risk insurance? The government already provides flood, bank and crop insurance. Unlike participants in those programs, however, the companies that qualify for “too big to fail” insurance do not pay for the privilege.
Designing this too-big-to-fail insurance would be tricky but feasible. The potential economic impact of financial companies’ failure and the risk in their portfolios would have to be evaluated to determine which companies would be required to obtain this protection, and to calibrate premiums.
The goal should be to limit the contagion of failure rather than to prevent failure itself. Thus the payouts, which could still take the form of loan guarantees to parties willing to cover the failing institutions’ obligations, should not go to shareholders, who would lose all or most of their equity, but to counterparties — the banks, hedge funds and pension funds that are jeopardized by default. Still, these parties must share in the losses to reinforce the need for due diligence in securities transactions.
Critics might denounce institutional risk insurance as a tax. But so what? Forcing companies to pay for undesirable side effects is routine. The risk of a financial meltdown introduced by companies intertwined through Byzantine financial transactions imposes a burden on the government as real as pollution. The premiums could cover the costs of better regulation, a trade most stockholders would happily make today.
What’s truly radical is that government officials are empowered to determine when corporate failure is not tolerable. The question now is who should pay for the intervention.
By Dutchman
September 17, 2008 10:06 AM | Link to this
After writing, faxing and emailing Senator Chambliss, I must conclude that he does not have the good of the country at heart.
In his bill, the New ERA 2008, he cedes to the states the first 50 miles off their coasts. Guess where the best chance of finding oil is? Within the first 50 miles.
He wants to “allow” the states to decide whether or not to drill beyond the 50 mile limit.
Another idea in the bill is to take away from the consumer, what kind of cars and trucks we can buy. The Apollo Project will fund the transitioning of 85% of our cars and trucks to non-petro fuels over the next 20 years. At the tax payers expense.
Senator Chambliss has lost it and sold the overall good of the US down the tubes - metaphorically speaking. With his bill we will continue to be dependent on foreign oil while we sit on untold reserves. Between our untapped reserves of oil, natural gas and coal, (not to mention wind, solar and other non-traditional forms) we should not be dependent on any foreign country for energy.
By jm
September 17, 2008 10:11 AM | Link to this
I wonder why the bond rating companies - whose downgrade of AIG accelerated this mess - are getting a free pass. After all, they were the ones who told us that all of those sub-prime loan backed mortgage securities were AAA.
By Dutchman
September 17, 2008 10:21 AM | Link to this
Chris Salzmann,
The “oversight” the lending institutions have encouraged them to open more pathways to home ownership. Remember the great 0% down loans? How about the 125% equity loans? I really loved the interest only loans.
With the regulations the lenders did not see the need to be prudent in their lending practices, Hey, the Fed’s will back us - yep Fannie Mae and Feddie Mac will back us up.
Now, we see these “progressive” lenders reaping what they sowed.
Making the lenders more responsible and cutting back on their ability to sell the notes to someone else would help all of us.
By Maniac is accurate
September 17, 2008 10:21 AM | Link to this
Well, if we’re going to bail out faltering businesses, why don’t we go ahead and nationalize the oil industry to pay for it? Then show me some cheap gas and diesel.
I jest, but, dang, boy!
By Jim is a caveman
September 17, 2008 10:25 AM | Link to this
Yes, Dagwood, Elliott Spitzer is the reason that AIG failed. Those executives who ran the company, chosen by the AIG board, had nothing to do with it. It was all the former gov. of NY’s fault. Brilliant deduction. Perhaps your genius isn’t really genius at all.
By findog
September 17, 2008 10:34 AM | Link to this
President Roosevelt chose Joe Kennedy, inside trading stock market swindler, to develop the regulations put in place after the big crash and depression. Maybe as a get out jail free card we make these banking CEO’s take on a similar role at the rate of a dollar a year to come up with a regulatory method that: 1 – protects the economy, 2 – protects the consumer, 3 – protects the builders and suppliers, and 4 – drives the bus over those who feed off of our financial markets with dishonest practices.
Rangar @ 8:58 One other thought, F&F did not provide funds for sub-prime loans. They could only back loans that were made to people who qualified for a prime mortgage on moderate [middle class] housing. That they allowed capital to be made available for people who qualified for loans then is not a bad thing, just like people in California are not bad people. These two institutions, flawed as they were, did not create the crisis; they just saw the bubble burst and the valuations of the homes drop to where they were not prudently capitalized. I feel that a Bush-1 type resolution trust bailout of the mortgage industry would find the majority of their loans to be in the column of limited risk good banks would crave while the sub-prime’s of the other unregulated institutions would end up being those held by the government for years until they finally became viable properties.
To hold Freddie and Fannie out as the cause of the current crisis is in violation of the ninth commandment and everyone who utters it, or repeats it, is going to heck.
By Dutchman
September 17, 2008 10:37 AM | Link to this
Maniac is accurate,
Bailing out viable companies is less dangerous than bailing out non-viable corporation.
What is happening today, this week is a massive market correction brought on by fool hearty lending. Not everyone should have their own house in the suburbs. I have had relatives that lived their entire live in apartments.
If you can’t handle the note, don’t buy.
By Ray
September 17, 2008 10:37 AM | Link to this
Unregulated greed, pure and simple.
By Dennis
September 17, 2008 10:39 AM | Link to this
Jim Wooten writes, ““This is one more affirmation that the lack of regulation has caused serious problems. That the private market screwed itself up and they need the government to come help them unscrew it.” You wonder why politicians are unpopular? Barney Frank. Their action, or lack of it, help to create the problem — and they take no responsibility.”
Who are you, Mr. Wooten, to point the finger?
On any other day you would be screaming your usual trash about keeping government out and leaving the market to regulate itself.
You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.
By Dutchman
September 17, 2008 10:41 AM | Link to this
“At 35%, the United States has a higher corporate tax rate than France (34.4%), the United Kingdom (28%), Japan (30%), Germany (15.83%) and even that Scandinavian welfare state deluxe, Sweden (28%). And Barack Obama intends to keep it that way—-competitiveness be damned!” —-Don Feder
another pearl -
“[Barack] Obama… blamed the shocking new round of sub prime-related bankruptcies on the free-market system, and specifically the ‘trickle-down’ economics of the Bush administration, which he tried to gig opponent John McCain for wanting to extend. But it was the Clinton administration, obsessed with multiculturalism, that dictated where mortgage lenders could lend, and originally helped create the market for the high-risk sub prime loans now infecting like a retrovirus the balance sheets of many of Wall Street’s most revered institutions. Tough new regulations forced lenders into high-risk areas where they had no choice but to lower lending standards to make the loans that sound business practices had previously guarded against making. It was either that or face stiff government penalties. The untold story in this whole national crisis is that President Clinton put on steroids the Community Redevelopment Act, a well-intended Carter-era law designed to encourage minority homeownership. And in so doing, he helped create the market for the risky sub prime loans that he and Democrats now decry as not only greedy but ‘predatory.’ Yes, the market was fueled by greed and over leveraging in the secondary market for sub primes, vis-a-vis mortgaged-backed securities traded on Wall Street. But the seed was planted in the ’90s by Clinton and his social engineers.” —-Investor’s Business Daily
By deegee
September 17, 2008 10:55 AM | Link to this
What do managers do when they don’t have a clue? Form a committee. McCain was at the center of the S&L bailout 20 years ago. The underpinnings of that disaster are the same as those of the present crisis. Can we all agree now that in a capitalist economy unsupervised industries will not police themselves after they are deregulated? We have learned that a corporation can grow to a point where it is too big to fail. The consequences of their reckless actions will fall on the federal government and the taxpayers. Over the last few months we have seen large banks being acquired by investment firms and large investment firms being acquired by banks. Where risk was spread out over a larger swath it is now becoming even more concentrated. When all is said and done, will we have even more Fannies and Freddies and AIGs that are just too big to fail? Twenty years from now will we be having the same conversation that we had twenty years ago after the S&L disaster?
By Dutchman
September 17, 2008 11:02 AM | Link to this
deegee,
Yes, a committee. A gathering of people to look into a problem and to suggest possible solutions. I would forward that it is too large for a single person to handle, even if they were a community organizer.
By Saxby got to Go
September 17, 2008 11:06 AM | Link to this
After a five-week paid vacation, Democrats are back in Washington and claiming that they want to do something about oil prices.
But the problem is that their plan, which passed the House yesterday and will likely come up for a vote in the Senate later this week, will not produce a single drop of oil.
Why? Because it does nothing about environmental groups that are suing to stop drilling.
The Democratic proposal is not a death-bed conversion, it’s designed to solve their political problem. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told her members in August that they can say they are in favor of drilling, but that she wouldn’t allow a vote on a drilling bill. Now that she has been forced to, she knows her environmental allies will block new drilling from going forward.
The Sierra Club has told its members that it is “working to ensure that the final bill’s focus is on real clean energy solutions rather than expanded offshore drilling.” Democratic Rep. John Murtha, a Pelosi confidante, went further last week in noting that his party’s not above cynical politics: “This is a political month. There’s all kinds of things we try to do that will just go away after we leave.” And Legislative Director for the Natural Resources Defense Council Karen Wayland has said “This is about politics, not necessarily about policy.”
The green lobby, however, is not going away. EarthJustice, which employs over 150 people, has filed hundreds of lawsuits. On its Web site, it says “Because lawsuits can be so effective, we have a team of policy experts in Washington, D.C. that work hand-in-hand with our attorneys to stop legislative backlash …”
Indeed, incessant legal and administrative challenges make true the Democrat claim that oil from newly opened areas will not reach the market for years. These groups make use of a wide range of laws and regulations to challenge development. And they will make sure that the Democrats’ proposal is meaningless.
In February 2008, the administration issued 487 leases in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, which holds an estimated 15 billion barrels of oil and 76 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, and other groups used the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act to challenge and delay progress on all 487 leases. In a separate lawsuit, they challenged the entire national outer continental shelf (OCS) leasing program, seeking to block all future leases.
Even if a lease makes it through these challenges, it isn’t clear sailing. Right now, there are 748 leases in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. Exploration activities in every single one were challenged in May of this year by EarthJustice in conjunction with others.
The Alaskan OCS contains 26 billion barrels of oil and 132 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Not one offshore lease has escaped litigation.
And it’s not just Alaska. Wild Earth Guardians and others recently filed suit to block energy exploration on all leases in recent sales in Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. Last year, almost 50% of gas leases in the Rocky Mountain states were protested in court.
Environmental protections are necessary. But, there must be reasonable limits on litigation.
During the oil embargo in 1973, Congress waived environmental laws for the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. That waiver, Democratic Sen. John Tunney of California said at the time, “in no way dilutes or diminishes the applicability of NEPA [National Environmental Policy Act].” Rather, he said, it “brings into balance grave concerns of national security” with our nation’s environmental safeguards. In 1996 and again in 2006, environmental laws were waived for the construction of fences along the southern border of the United States.
Absent provisions to stop abusive litigation, the bills Democrats support will not lead to oil production. Any serious energy plan would encourage the development of alternative and renewable fuels, and open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the OCS and the Western U.S. to drilling. It also would put a stop to never-ending litigation. But that’s not what Democratic leaders are offering.
We’re told that the Democrats now favor drilling. That they have seen the light after feeling the heat all summer. What’s really happening is we’re mid-way through a political hoax.
Some 70% of Americans favor increased domestic drilling. Unfortunately, if Mrs. Pelosi and her party’s leaders continue to play politics, we can be sure Americans won’t get the energy they want.
Mr. Shadegg, a Republican, is a U.S. congressman from Arizona.
By Copyleft
September 17, 2008 11:20 AM | Link to this
who is part of that cozy Washington insider culture that allowed Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac to operate with lax regulatory oversight
Thank you, Mr. Wooten, for acknowledging the obvious: the only way to avoid crashes and bailouts like this is to step up regulation of the irresponsible industries involved. More regulation, not less, is needed to ensure a prosperous middle-class society.
This “government is the problem” nonsense should’ve died with Reagan, or perhaps with his brain.
By "The Corporal"
September 17, 2008 11:25 AM | Link to this
It’s all about greed.
“For the love of money is the root of all evil.”
I Timothy 6:10
By getalife
September 17, 2008 11:28 AM | Link to this
Fiscal conservatives should be screaming about all the corporate welfare and socialism.
Where have you been Jim? Oh, pimping Palin with country first bs. Pathetic.
And the last betrayal was capitalism in the death of America.
Hopefully, this will finally wake up America to stop trusting these corrupt politicians.
They don’t deserve our trust so stop blindly supporting them and giving them money.
Tell them to fix our broken government or shut it down. Lock the doors and stay until it is done. They can start by banning lobbyists and shutting down K Street.
And ideologue, partisan, hacks should join the unemployment line.
By deegee
September 17, 2008 11:28 AM | Link to this
Sorry, Dutchman but you may be the only person that needs a committee to understand what went wrong here. Barack Obama doesn’t need one and in spite of what John McChange says publicly, he doesn’t need one either. Let’s have a 9/11 type committee formulate a color-coded warning system that will alert an anesthetized American public to the state of the economy. I suppose that today we would be seeing the color pepto-bismol pink.
By GOOD INFO
September 17, 2008 11:46 AM | Link to this
It is too bad that politicians continue to exempt themselves from Do Not Call law.
StopPoliticalCalls.org is fighting for the privacy of the American voter.
1 - Creating a Political Do Not Call Registry 2 - Testifying in the US Senate about robo calls (Sen. Feinstein’s Robocall Privacy Act) 3 - Forcing states to enforce existing robo call laws (CA, MN, NJ, etc..) 4 - Getting politicians to take a do not robo call pledge (7 have)
As I testified at the US. Senate these robo calls are an epidemic and this election cycle “phone spam” and are invading the privacy of All American Voters.
Our members are taking a stand and saying enough is enough at the National Political Do Not Contact Registry at StopPoliticalCalls.org.
Here is a quote from a member recently:
“I’m a shift worker, working variable shifts. I depend on my sleep to be able to do my job safely and efficiently. I’m a locomotive engineer. Imagine the disaster were I to fall asleep, operating a freight train carrying hazardous materials in your neighborhood, due to fatigue from being awoken in my middle of the night on a continuous basis during election season. Please stop..”
Learn more.
Shaun Dakin CEO http://www.stoppoliticalcalls.org A non-profit fighting for the privacy of the American voter
By AmVet
September 17, 2008 11:51 AM | Link to this
With one day shy of six weeks left before the elections, it’s time to change the discussion.
*I contend that most Americans truly want fundamental changes in our government that result in an improved America. *
There is after all little reasonable counter-argument that it has been essentially hijacked and has gone TERRIBLY awry.
The cause of this problem is that the finger pointing by both of the dominant, self-serving political parties is both disingenuous and counter-productive.
There is a better choice. And its time will come.
http://www.votenader.org/issues/national-initiative/
By Tonia
September 17, 2008 11:54 AM | Link to this
And I quote:
““What people still are missing is that every growth story of the last five to ten years has been based on credit. China, commodities, real estate, hedge funds, everything was a capital-intense endeavor. Global growth was the symptom of the credit bubble,” he said.”
By aaa
September 17, 2008 11:54 AM | Link to this
SO, Jim should we vote for you?
By getalife
September 17, 2008 11:55 AM | Link to this
And then Jim spews for less regulation.
Retire Jim.
By Chris Salzmann
September 17, 2008 11:57 AM | Link to this
Dutchman: It isn’t the tax rate that’s the issue here, its the loopholes. Most corporations don’t even pay taxes or pay a ridiculously small amount in taxes because of loopholes. Remember the 60 minutes story about Wachovia/First Union “leasing” the sewer system from a small town in Germany??? There are tons of other loopholes out there that allow corporations to avoid even coming close to that 35% figure.
By Saxby got to Go
September 17, 2008 11:57 AM | Link to this
Where Saxby Chambliss gets his money::
Agri Business—-$1,368,000 Banks, Insurance, Real Estate—-$1,332,000 Lawyers & Individual Lobbyist——$641,000 Misc Business —-$679,000 Other ——$606,000..
The Agi Business got a gift of $20 billion waste from Saxby’s Farm Bill. The Banks, Real Estate & Lawyers just got a $2 TRILLION gift from the Bail Out the Banks act which Saxby & Johnny voted for. Not a bad return on your money.
By Jim is a caveman
September 17, 2008 12:01 PM | Link to this
And you quote who, Tonia?
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
September 17, 2008 12:06 PM | Link to this
Dear findog @ 10:34, while I agree that FNMA and FHLMC are not responsible in any way for any portion of the mortgage security meltdown attributable to nominally subprime loans – there really were not so many of those - I think nominally “subprime” loans are not the cause of the mortgage security meltdown. To the extent that FHLMC and FNMA contributed to the formation of the house price bubble through their funding of “interest only” loans, “adjustable rate” loans (and other inherently unsound forms of lending that became mainstream via the taxpayer backed securities), they are the main culprits. I deem the ratio 5% subprime/95% creative financing loans. Worse, the executives of FNMA and FHLMC consistently sought to grow the bubble by putting the taxpayer on the hook for ever-larger (“jumbo”) mortgages. If we had a responsible Congress that would not have put the taxpayer on the hook for any mortgage larger than, say, $200k, no bubble could have grown. Of course, the executive bonuses at FHLMC and FNMA would have been constrained also, and Congress would never let that happen to their friends.
Dear Dutchman @ 10:37, you make my argument without all of the fluff, well-said.
Dear Deegee @ 10:55, “The underpinnings of that (S&L) disaster are the same as those of the present crisis. Can we all agree now that in a capitalist economy unsupervised industries will not police themselves after they are deregulated?” The underpinnings of the S&L disaster, as in the present “crisis” – your word, not mine – are in a Congressional mandate for funding housing. Then the problem was a legislated effort to fund long term loans with short term deposits – one can defy gravity, but not indefinitely, and of course the Roosevelt-era S&L industry came crashing to earth. The unlimited taxpayer-backed spigot for FHLMC and FNMA, coupled with obscene short term profit incentives for executive management, created a bureaucracy protected by Congressional lapdogs from any meaningful executive oversight. I think we can all agree that a capitalist economy will always blow the whistle on uneconomic Congressional schemes. Can you say “medicare” or “social security?”
Dear Corporal @ various times, I think you are closer to the Truth than any other posts here.
Dear goodinfo @ 11:46, I like that idea.
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
September 17, 2008 12:16 PM | Link to this
Dear findog @ 10:34, I realize suddenly that @ 12:06 I failed to tie the loop between the house price bubble and CRA. The easy cure for CRA, one that always pleased bank examiners, was originating mortgage loans. Selling off those mortgage loans was a great way to “serve the community” without keeping the risk.
By @@
September 17, 2008 12:24 PM | Link to this
Alrighty Jim! The economically challenged @@ has arrived to offer my “expertease” on the “wall” we just hit in NYC. So I’m watching the Governor of NY (the legally blind shaker) in a press conference, wondering what he’s up to. Anyhowitzer……
Left————-to————Right — @@’s Linear Math 2+2=22
Shock waves from Wall Street endanger state finances
But just as in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in 2001, the state expects a financial slowdown from just five ZIP codes in Manhattan that will affect the rest of New York. That means even further cutbacks in state government, less revenue for cities such as Buffalo and a topic that nobody dares to openly discuss in an election year — raising taxes.
Damn New York State De-publi-cans. What the heck is wrong with just raising those taxes?
Governor Paterson, playing “Kick the Can” in New York City.
See ‘ya Jim…….gotta bail for the homefront.
By getalife
September 17, 2008 12:27 PM | Link to this
The ad that won Obama this election
By deegee
September 17, 2008 12:31 PM | Link to this
Ragnar, so what you are saying is “the devil made me do it.” It was funny when Flip Wilson said it and it’s still funny.
By "The Corporal"
September 17, 2008 12:39 PM | Link to this
Ragnar Danneskjöld
Thank you sir. I try. I’m not the most intelligent person on these blogs but I like to think I have a little wisdom and as you know there is a big difference.
By Hillbilly Deluxe
September 17, 2008 12:45 PM | Link to this
The big guys are too big to fail. Screw the little guys. Everybody keeps their commissions. Isn’t that about it in a nutshell?
By Up the Downstairs
September 17, 2008 12:47 PM | Link to this
My Favorite Things ……………
Lipstick on Pitbulls and Flip Flops on Stances
Smear ads that swiftboat both candidates’ chances.
VPs that poll well because of their bling
These are a few of my favorite things
When the veep stings, attack-dog style
and the polls are bad,
I simply remember my favorite things, and then I dont feel so bad.
Pink liberal whiners, and GOP bashers
Cops weilding numbchucks at convention crashers
Speeches that say nothing yet still impress
Imagine our president wearing a dress
.
Snowflaking babies that lead to the alter
Bailing out Wallstreet when Ponzi Schemes falter
Tortured insurgents all tied up with string
These R a few of my favorite things.
.
Losing elections instead of the wars
Not teaching Johnny about dinosaurs
Russia’s white winters I see from my swing
These are a few of my favorite things.
When the veep stings, attack dog style
and the polls go bad
They simply refuse to allow paper trails
or recount the hanging chads.
By ron
September 17, 2008 12:48 PM | Link to this
Good afternoon,I would like to be able to follow the 85 billion dollar loan to see where the money goes.That would be an enlightening exercise.Is 85 billion going to be enough to keep AIG afloat?I seriously doubt it.When will they be back?Next month?
No drilling inside of 50 miles unless the state wants to drill.Texas will drill one foot off shore.New England,the user of fuel oil,opted out entirely.No drilling on George’s Bank,period.No nuclear plants,no coal,nothing.What a sham of a bill.Pelosiesk,to say the least.
United States sits with it’s banking system in a shambles,it’s stock market going down,It’s energy policy is buy, baby buy,and all is well in Dem land.
Obama rubbed shoulders with his citizens last night.The ones he wants.9 million was extracted from the wallets of the Hollywood elame.Rock stars make money.Was Paris there?She’s Barak’s mentor you know.Life has become a movie for Americans.If we can’t fix it before the credits roll,too bad.We’ll run a sequeal.The next monetary bubble will be……?
By davidg11
September 17, 2008 12:51 PM | Link to this
CONG. BLACK CAUCUS: HOMEOWNERSHIP KEY TO MINORITY WEALTH
Watt told attendees of the First Annual Mortgage Industry Diversity Conference in Arlington, Virginia, in October that the CBC remains committed to the removal of obstacles to home-ownership for minorities, including the elimination of disparities in mortgage lending.
“We don’t own retirement accounts, we don’t own stocks and bonds, we don’t own other real estate-but the one thing we own in our community, sometimes, is our home,” said Watt. “And those homes are disproportionately our wealth.”
not to mention everyone elses. Sheesh!
By findog
September 17, 2008 12:53 PM | Link to this
Now Rangar please accept my applause [golfer level of course]
By Common Sense
September 17, 2008 12:54 PM | Link to this
Jim nice compliment to Mr. Obama about an empty suit! Funny now that is has more money then you and is smarter then you!
I guess by those standards he is better than you are!
How about tomorrow’s article Governor Palin is going to visit the U.N. and the Republicans are going to call that foreign experience the next day!
I cannot believe what is going on in this country with the politics!
AMERICANS we are being played by our politicians. Can anyone tell the truth?
TRUTH DOES NOT COUNT IN THE COUNTRY!
By deegee
September 17, 2008 1:01 PM | Link to this
And does anyone want to speculate which cabinet position Carly “They’re so disrespectful!” Fiorina will end up with if John McChange lands in the white house? Hopefully she made another career limiting choice yesterday and she can make her retreat to the Fox News Commentary wilderness. After she was dismissed from HP with a $21Million golden parachute that, BTW, came from the “fundamentals” that work for HP, she had the nerve to go on the 60 Minutes show and whine to Lesley Stahl that she was dissed and deserved so much more respect than what she got from the male chauvanist board of directors. What a Lulu she is.
By Grading Wooten
September 17, 2008 1:07 PM | Link to this
Who does Wooten propose we want around in this crisis? the conservative pirates who caused it?
Wooten has to weigh in on the AIG bailout with more partisan sellout hack-wipe. What a waste of a great talent. Every sentence this menace to journalism writes has to conform to GOP hatespeak because of some old pledge to a conservative Professor Higgins; but it’s not so much My Fair Lady, as Lipstick on Pygmalion.
By davidg11
September 17, 2008 1:09 PM | Link to this
Rep. Gary Franks elected from Connecticut in 1990, accepted membership in the CBC but soon found that, despite paying $5,000 in dues, he was never informed of some of its meetings and was locked out of others by Democrats who wanted to keep what they discussed in those meetings secret from Republicans.
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
September 17, 2008 1:14 PM | Link to this
Dear Deegee @ 12:31, although I never equated the Congress with the devil, perhaps you are onto something there.
By Dr. R
September 17, 2008 1:16 PM | Link to this
As a Libertarian, I am of the belief that like letting forest fires burn to clear off the undergrowth, you need to let some investment houses fail so others will learn their lessons. But I don’t suspect that will be allowed to happen in an election year. And I also think that we’ll probably have to elect Obama and let the Democrats mess up the economy even more to prove to their followers that they do not have all the answers, as is commonly believed. You can blame Carville and Begala for convincing voters that the president “handles” the economy from the Oval Office. God help us if that ever really is the case. Free markets mean freedom to succeed and freedom to fail. Yet our coddled masses, in their unwillingness to cash in their government-protected security and go it alone, aren’t willing to buy the notion. So we get what we get. Maybe we individuals could start by no longer living beyond our means with fancy cars, plasma TVs and unnecessary gadgets we can’t afford. Perhaps we should get our own houses in order before we condemn Wall Street for the same behavior.
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
September 17, 2008 1:22 PM | Link to this
Dear up the downstairs @ 12:47, nobody will top that. Magnificent.
Dear findog @ 12:53, “golfer level” is the most sincere applause, thanks.
By deegee
September 17, 2008 1:23 PM | Link to this
Yeah, right, Ragnar. You never equated the congress with the devil until about 7 minutes ago. That’s about how long it takes John McChange to go from a deregulator to a regulator.
By Grading Wooten
September 17, 2008 1:24 PM | Link to this
My Favorite Things ……………
Lipstick on Pitbulls and Flip Flops on Stances
Smear ads that swiftboat both candidates’ chances.
VPs that poll well because of their bling
These are a few of my favorite things
When the veep stings, attack-dog style
and the polls are bad,
I simply remember my favorite things, and then I dont feel so bad.
Pink liberal whiners, and GOP bashers
Cops weilding numbchucks at convention crashers
Speeches that say nothing yet still impress
Imagine our president wearing a dress
.
Snowflaking babies that lead to the alter
Bailing out Wallstreet when Ponzi Schemes falter
Tortured insurgents all tied up with string
These R a few of my favorite things.
.
Losing elections instead of the wars
Not teaching Johnny about dinosaurs
Russia’s white winters I see from my swing
These are a few of my favorite things.
When the veep stings, attack dog style
and the polls go bad
They simply refuse to allow paper trails
or recount the hanging chads.
By tcoach
September 17, 2008 1:26 PM | Link to this
This all started because banks and lenders were forced to offer loans and mortgages to those, let’s say unqualified individuals. The banks and other coorporations did what they are taught in school. They took advantage of the situation. They offered the loans. There was never anyone ther forcing the people to sign off on their loans. I hear many people whinning about the people on Wall Street being greedy. What about the people who were forclosed on? Where they not being greedy by trying to live far beyond their means.
There is a reason that the government bailed out these coorporations. People who had done nothing wrong would have to suffer more. There were people who had money and other types of interest in the companies recently purchased. These people had done nothing wrong and would face ruin by the poor judgment of lenders, and the greed and unwillingness to pay of the forclosed.
That is why the government bails these companies out, while not doing the same for individuals. The individual is teh only one directly hurt, I know we are all indirectly hurt too, so they should have to suffer the consequences. Had the government NEVER stuck its nose in the business of telling loan officers what crieteria to take, none of this would have happened. It is simple if the people did not have an overwhelming desire to “keep up with the Jones’ ” then the banks would have had no bad loans to be forclosed on.
I am young and own a home, no trouble paying my mortgage, do not know any of my friends that can’t pay theirs. However I have watched three houses in my neighborhood be forclosed on in the last year. Each and every single house was someone trying to live a lifestyle well beyond teh paycheck they take home.
When did it become a bad thing for people to rent?
I guess at the same time everyone began to complain that minorities can’t get a loan You people asked for this now take it.
By Sherry
September 17, 2008 1:27 PM | Link to this
Our country is going to hell in a handbasket. The high cost of fuel has driven up the production and shipping cost of everything. Consumers have nothing left over after filling the tank and paying more for the necessities of life to spend on extras, save or invest. We need to get ourselves out from under our dpendency on foriegn oil.Just as gas prices start to fall slightly and we felt like there might be hope along comes Ike and causes them to spike to an all time high. Families everywhere are wondering where else they can cut back to cover the cost of fueling up the family vehicle to get back and forth to work and take care of the necessities of life. There is no money left for relaxation and family fun. The stress level continues to rise. Most areas of the country have seen a sharp rise in their electric bill as power companies pass their increased production costs on to consumers. The price of a gallon of milk is almost as precious as a gallon of gas. The cost of every consumer product has risen sharply. Americans are stretched to the limit. Jobs are being lost, foreclosures are increasing at an alarming rate. Seems even the family pets are suffering the high cost of fuel as almost daily a sad new story is on TV about shelters being forced to euthanize record number of surrendered pets from those forced out of their homes due to foreclosure or they simply can’t afford to feed them anymore. The energy crisis in our country is far reaching and needs immediate attention. Our economy is in a sorry state of affairs directly related to the high cost of fuel. We have become so dependant on foreign oil that we have neglected to fully utilize such natural sources of energy such wind power & solar power. Along with modern technology such as plug in cars, hybrid cars, v2g technology ,and regenerative braking, technology we still seem to be floundering as a nation as to devising the best plan utilize all that is available to us and lift ourselves out of this mess we are in. We need to take our closest look at which candidates put our economy and energy crisis at the forefront of their agenda. The Manhattan Project of 2009 by Jeff Wilson
By Dutchman
September 17, 2008 1:31 PM | Link to this
Chris Salzmann,
In reality, corporations pay NO TAXES. If you own a company , your cost of doing business, including taxes are passed on to the consumer. The left over is called profit.
That 35% Corporate Tax is tacked on to the cost of - take your pick - your new American made car, comes out of your pocket.
By getalife
September 17, 2008 1:32 PM | Link to this
Lets socialize big oil for cheap gas.
Let’s socialize health care like Canada.
The door is open.
w killed capitalism and opened the door to socialism.
Chavez is laughing today.
By Elberton Libertarian
September 17, 2008 1:33 PM | Link to this
I agree 100% with the author’s comments on BHO, what a joke Obama is!
And a note on Chambliss:
He is a RINO, a big-spending w******* to special interests (farm Bill, Gang of 10, etc.), who will be just as comfy in a Chavez-like Obama socialist government as he is in a big-government, warmongering neoconservative Bush / McCain administration.
Vote Liberty!
Barr/Root 2008 Buckley for Senate
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
September 17, 2008 1:34 PM | Link to this
Dear Dr. R @ 1:16, I am not as pessimistic as you – I think people can learn and those of us who know are obliged to teach. I think even our leftists are slowly beginning to understand that every problem in the country arises from the democrat Canute believing he can command the tides. All of the most fantastic disasters seemingly spring from government activities. Social security and medicare are Damocles’s sword, and that truth is unavoidable even for leftists. The leftists whine that, if only the market would cooperate, the world would be more beautiful under their schemes; if only the leftists were smart enough to appreciate the superior beauty of freedom.
By Grading Wooten
September 17, 2008 1:44 PM | Link to this
Now Jbmlaw is quoting Moe?
This is a serious crisis.
By Grading Wooten
September 17, 2008 1:46 PM | Link to this
Now Jbmlaw is quoting Moe? (sword of damacles)
This is a serious crisis.
By Dutchman
September 17, 2008 1:48 PM | Link to this
getalife,
That undoubtedly is the most ignorant statement I have ever heard. Socialism did what to Russia, you know the old USSR? Look what it has done to Cuba and Hugo is not doing much either. Guess where he has to go to get his heavy crude refined?
If the Canadian and British model of heath care is so great, then why is there private heath practices doing so well - or why are they all coming here?
Another thought, after we nationalize the 4-5 American oil companies, what do you think Shell, BP and the others would do?
By @@
September 17, 2008 1:49 PM | Link to this
O.K., so I don’t really understand this economy stuff, but HEY!!!!!!!!!!
New York Would Suffer Under Obama Tax Plan
In 2006, New York, which has about 6.3% of the national population, was home to 10.5% of taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes of more than $200,000. The average income of those earners was also the highest in the nation.
The study calculated that Mr. Obama’s tax plan would direct $13 billion in credits and subsidies to New York residents but would raise the taxes of the state’s highest earners by $16 billion, a net difference of $3 billion over a two-year period.
The figure assumes that the candidate would implement his tax hikes immediately. In recent comments, Mr. Obama has suggested that the Wall Street turmoil may lead him to delay the increases until the market stabilizes.
Mr. Obama’s federal tax proposal comes as Governor Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg are considering raising state and local taxes as a last-resort measure to cope with deficits that may expand further in the wake of the Wall Street crisis.
My left brain (conspiratorial) is operating in overdrive.
Hmmmmmmmm……
By getalife
September 17, 2008 1:53 PM | Link to this
dutchman,
Why ask me?
Ask the socialist that opened the door, w, your hero.
By hotlanta
September 17, 2008 1:59 PM | Link to this
Wooten you couldn’t have the headline say McCain is wrong you had to throw Obama in it. Shouldn’t McCain name been first since M is before O. Thought you was slick didn’t ya.
By hotlanta
September 17, 2008 1:59 PM | Link to this
Wooten you couldn’t have the headline say McCain is wrong you had to throw Obama in it. Shouldn’t McCain name been first since M is before O. Thought you was slick didn’t ya.
By ron
September 17, 2008 1:59 PM | Link to this
The speculation of naked short selling was put out of business by the Securities and Exchange Commission today.It will not be so easy for speculators to run stock values down after this ruling.This will help a little.
By getalife
September 17, 2008 2:02 PM | Link to this
I feel ya.
But you should have got out of the market when w spewed, “Wall Street got drunk.”
Red flag, don’t ya think?
Duh.
By Curious Observer
September 17, 2008 2:03 PM | Link to this
And does anyone want to speculate which cabinet position Carly “They’re so disrespectful!” Fiorina will end up with if John McChange lands in the white house?
Easy—since the immediate cause of her getting the boot was her ordering illegal spying on outside members of the HP board of directors (tapping telephones, etc.). Can you spell Director of Homeland Security?
By BS Aplenty
September 17, 2008 2:08 PM | Link to this
Sorry, Jim, I’ve spent my intellectual capital regarding the AIG bailout on Bookman’s site - mea culpa.
Here’s the Cliff Notes version of my take on this issue. Big $85B loan by government to AIG secured by every asset on AIG’s books and the kitchen sink. Also, government gets 79.9% ownership interest in AIG. AIG old management gone, new management team on site. Interest charged on corporate loan is floating at 11.6% - nice if you can get it.
Bottom line, 1) I am confident the government will be paid back in full and still own 79.9% of AIG (as I understand deal terms), 2) loan is secured so American taxpayer appears to well-protected and 3) loan carries an (almost) usurious rate (I know Esquire, there’s no usury in business loans, but I jest).
The Bush Administration is charging one of its corporate friends a usurious rate and fleecing its shareholders just so the company can get a loan from the Federal Reserve. Let’s allow the Dems some time to ponder how BushCo couldn’t have let that happen.
And when the loan is paid, the American taxpayer will still own 79.9% of this company. Hopefully, there will be some value left.
Not where the government should be, but the terms of this loan appears to protect the taxpayer.
Special Note - Grading Wooten that was good.
By Churchill
September 17, 2008 2:10 PM | Link to this
Dan Balz’s Take McCain’s Fundamentals Problem By Dan Balz John McCain has a fundamentals problem. It is political as well as economic and it remains the biggest obstacle standing between the Arizona senator and the White House.
McCain didn’t single-handedly create this problem but he made it worse Monday when, as Wall Street was melting down, he uttered words — “the fundamentals of our economy are strong” — that totally muddied the real message he meant to deliver. Barack Obama has hammered him at every stop since as a man out of touch with reality.
Were McCain known as a student of the economy, this instance of a badly delivered statement would matter little. Because he is known as someone who is not, it matters plenty. McCain has responded by ratcheting up his rhetoric about cracking down on Wall Street and Washington.
As with his Monday misstep, once again the message is mixed. Guns blazing, McCain is promising to ride into town to — oversee the creation of a commission to study the problem. He is speaking out in favor of regulation but against a history of opposing a heavy government hand. He has expressed his outrage, but what is the balance he would strike between the old and new McCain?
In many ways, the opening to Obama provided by McCain’s verbal misstep is the least of his problems. What should worry the McCain camp most is the intersection of the renewed focus on the economy and the underlying political climate that has created such difficulties for McCain and his party all year.
McCain’s advisers have noted for months that the political environment could hardly be worse for their candidate. None of them has ever suggested that the political fundamentals remain sound. Quite the opposite.
President Bush’s approval rating appears stuck close to its lowest ever levels — hovering just above 30 percent. Nearly eight in 10 Americans believe the country is heading in the wrong direction. The Republican Party’s image is worse than the Democrats’ and well below its levels when Bush won reelection four years ago.
McCain’s party made some gains after his convention but it’s not clear whether that was temporary or lasting. Four years ago on election day, the exit polls showed an electorate at parity between Republicans and Democrats. That’s not likely to be the case this November.
Combine that with the economic indicators. The stock market’s plunge has wiped out recent gains and more. The unemployment rate now stands at 6.1 percent and has risen a full percentage point since March. Four years ago this month it was at 5.4 percent and heading down. The economy has been shedding jobs monthly throughout the year.
In the past, the unemployment rate was the most sensitive indicator politically. Today both the jobless rate and the stock market can send shivers of anxiety through the electorate — as they are this week. Nothing in all of that is good for John McCain’s hopes of winning the White House.
Only once since World War II has a political party maintained control of the presidency for three consecutive terms, which was from 1981-1993. Eisenhower’s eight years were followed by Kennedy’s and Johnson’s eight years, which were followed by Nixon’s and Ford’s eight years, which were followed by Carter’s four years.
Voters would not give Democrats a third term after the Clinton presidency, despite a robust economy and a nation at peace. After the tumult of Bush’s eight years, what might compel voters to reward the Republicans with a third consecutive term in control of the White House?
McCain has managed to make the best of this terrible environment. His pick of Sarah Palin proved enormously effective in the short term. His party appears newly energized, even enthusiastic about their ticket, even if they still distrust the leader of that ticket.
He has reinvented himself for the final stretch of the campaign — or perhaps found a voice that had been missing throughout this election cycle. As in the primaries, he has been reduced to basics and they have served him well over the past two months. His best hope of winning is to make the campaign a test of character.
How long can he sustain all this? Absent external events, he was doing well. With the economic news of this week, the polls hint at a deflation in his position. The playing field has once again tilted slightly toward Obama, who now must take advantage of it.
This remains as competitive a race as many had forecast. National polls are tight. Battleground states are tight. But the underlying structure that has governed this campaign from the start has not improved. That is the real fundamentals problem for John McCain.
By getalife
September 17, 2008 2:13 PM | Link to this
The headline should read:
“McCain flip flops on regulations and restates he has no clue on the economy.”
But you morons will vote for him anyway.
Beyond insanity.
By "Charles", The Original
September 17, 2008 2:13 PM | Link to this
Jim Wooten is correct in his analysis. Barack Obama and John McCain are both wrong.
Former President Bill Clinton’s mentor Professor Carroll Quigley authored a book entitled, Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time. Professor Quigley writes, “The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one perhaps of the Right, and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can ‘throw the rascals out’ at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy…. [E]ither party in office becomes in time corrupt, tired, unenterprising, and vigorless. Then it should be possible to replace it, every four years if necessary, by the other party, which will be none of these things but will still pursue, with new vigor, approximately the same policies”.
Writer, journalist, Antonia Feitz gives clarity to the quote of Professor Carroll Quigley in an article posted November 22, 1999. She writes, In other words, only simpletons believe that changing the government will change government policies. Under the party political system, democracy is a total sham. It has been so for many years, and the sham is intentional. But anybody who draws attention to that fact is labeled a ‘conspiracy theorist’ by the media. Journalists in the mainstream media are either unutterably stupid, or else unutterably hypocritical. Take your pick. Actually, mainstream journalists are now being exposed for the fools and/or hypocrites they really are. After all, Quigley’s anti-democratic system of government is now out in the open. It’s chic. It’s even got a name: they call it the Third Way. All the sophisticated people of the world think the Third Way is progressive but it’s nothing of the sort. It’s an unholy marriage between socialism and capitalism and combines features of both. The two sides have divvied up the spoils. Under the Third Way, the socialists have been licensed to exercise tyranny over people’s thoughts and actions, and the capitalists have been given free rein to be as rapacious as they like with no moral or social obligations…
By Grading Wooten
September 17, 2008 2:16 PM | Link to this
When the French Revolution occurred, the peoples had allowed themselves to think they could replace the Royal Family’s economic plan and perpetual war with england with a democratic republic like the United States. They ended up with Napoleon and canned pate de foie gois.
Similarly, our wise pundits here think they can understand and postulate about the satellites in the AIG orbit if Uncle Sam hadn’t put up the 85 bill.
They will end up with Napoleon Dynamite and making their own beef jerky.
‘muff said
By Fabb4eyes
September 17, 2008 2:24 PM | Link to this
Churchill: 2 long, (nobody read it)
WipemySnatch: 2 short, (and moronic, but people read it. now they know 2)
Charles: Just right in length, but as for content: Goldilocks called, she wants her skidmarks back.
By Dr. R
September 17, 2008 2:27 PM | Link to this
Thanks for the support, Ragnar. But even I confess my inadequacy in fully understanding how our economy works at every level, and I think I’m a bit more informed than the average Jane or Joe. I wish our schools did a better job of preparing us all, objectively, in understanding how markets work and the forces behind them. Unfortunately, public school teachers, well-meaning though they might be, have their own points of view to inject and we’re back at politics instead of reality. As a result, we all go into election time somewhat blinded by our lack of information, beyond what jabs the candidates throw at each other. Which is why we can and do make mistakes … like the beady-eyed dolt we have now. Voted for him the first time. Ain’t proud of it. Didn’t do it twice.
By Churchill
September 17, 2008 2:28 PM | Link to this
It is over for tired John McCain.
Over the next 7 weeks we are going to have more bad market days, Washington Mutual, Unemployment Reports, GDP…and on and on and on.
He is one good Obama ad buy (“..the economy is not my strong suit….I am not expert on the economy…the fundamentals of the economy are strong….”) away from 100 electoral votes.
The Obama folks are smart…they will wait until about 3 weeks out and just drop these bombs all over him
By Churchill
September 17, 2008 2:38 PM | Link to this
McCain on the economy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mHsuL6FfY4
By Chuck
September 17, 2008 2:42 PM | Link to this
Spare me the McCain obits. Obama has demonstrated no particular expertise on the economy either. He’s demonstrated no particular expertise in anything… beyond handling a teleprompter. That said, I have no real faith in either party to make the tough economic reforms necessary, because they will be politically suicidal… and therefore, populist band-aids will be applied instead.
If Band-aids are your thing, Obama’s your physician.
By Churchill
September 17, 2008 2:47 PM | Link to this
Jim just what you love Palin 1 linners::
Bush In A Skirt Palin She Be Failin Jesus Was a Community Organizer Palin: Thanks But No Thanks Smearing Alaska’s Good Name One Scandal @ a Time Candidate To Nowhere Rape Kits Should Be Free Voted For Her Once: Never Again! Community Organizers are the Real Patriots Barbies for War I Shall Not Be Pandered To Give Palin Your Vote AND Your Draft Age Child Sarah Palin: So Far Right She’s Wrong Alaska Is Not Frisco Coat Hangers for McCain Sarah Palin, Undoing 150 Years of American Feminism Hockey Mama for Obama (on a hockey stick)
By James T.
September 17, 2008 2:48 PM | Link to this
Mr. Wooten is just as off on what Senator Obama has done as the quote he gave fron Gov. Palin. Please check what you are quoting others on, before you print an untrue about anyone in the future. Jim
By Churchill
September 17, 2008 2:50 PM | Link to this
I’m a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight…..
If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you’re ‘exotic, different.’
Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, and its a quintessential American story.
If your name is Barack you’re a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you’re a maverick.
Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you’re well grounded.
If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate’s Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran’s Affairs committees, you don’t have any real leadership experience.
If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, and cook caribou/grizzly/wolf stew, then you’re qualified to become the country’s second highest ranking executive.
If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you’re not a real Christian.
If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you’re a Christian.
If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state’s school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant , you’re very responsible.
If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family’s values don’t represent America’s.
If you’re husband is nicknamed ‘First Dude’, with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn’t register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated: the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.
OK, much clearer now.
By "Charles", The Original
September 17, 2008 2:51 PM | Link to this
Fabb4eyes,
I was taught by the master teachers in the black community that compliments from an unknown entity and or enemy usually indicates a weakness in presentation. But when they are critical, almost always it’s an indication of excellence.
Fabb4eyes, next time, I’ll make an effort to present a shorter comment.
By Churchill
September 17, 2008 2:53 PM | Link to this
I get the best email, just had to share
Who would you trust to get us out of this financial mess? A. A former POW who graduated 897 out of 899 students and can’t use a computer. B. Former beauty queen, weathergirl and mayor of a 6000 person town in Alaska. C. An Ivy league professor who graduated from Harvard U.
Correct Answer: C
By celllife
September 17, 2008 2:57 PM | Link to this
Not only is McCain and Palin liars, there also thieves. Why must they steal everyone lines. Who was promoting change? Who was the first to say the economy is stable, who was the first discussing a woman of being the V.P. Who was the one that said enough is enough. What up McCain with your new ad.
If you get to the White House what are you going to call Palin? I suggest calling her Monica.
By Dr. R
September 17, 2008 3:01 PM | Link to this
Comparing Obama to Palin doesn’t work, slick. He’s at the top of the ticket; she’s the distaff side of hers. O learned his lesson already: Go after McCain and make it mano a mano and leave the dang girl out of it.
By Fabb4eyes
September 17, 2008 3:04 PM | Link to this
Dont bother, Charles, I’ll just make my critique longer.
LOL JK
Churchill, whoever sent that email: take him/her off your spam list.
No one person can “get us out of this financial mess”, in fact, the phrasing is all wrong, and thus the premise of the little moron quiz is wrong, thus the entire email is nudnickery.
We are going to require teams of economists, working around the clock at the university level in Zurich to “get out of this mess”. (or Oliver and Hardy)
mmph!
By Ga Values
September 17, 2008 3:06 PM | Link to this
Dr. R
I have the best education money can buy, I was sucessful enough to retire at 53. Yesterday I talked to 6 friends thet are better educated, smarter & more sucessful than me. None of us understand what’s happening or what is going to happen. We are just all along for the ride. You have a better grasp of economics than most professors.
By Davis-Lewis
September 17, 2008 3:08 PM | Link to this
By Jim Wooten:Both McSame and Obama Are Wrong? Mr. Wooten like all outdated hacks of conservative ideology likes to spread the blame all around in an attempt to appease his conservative readers and his own ancient idealogical leanings. Its ashame that there are no criminal liabilities for criminal journalism or falsity of print in the public sphere! We Americans must understand that government does play a major role of how businesses operate within our system and operate overseas as representatives of our culture and constitional system of laws. America’s governmental institutions must monitor it’s corporate culture closely since, now we are left holding the bailout funds needed to rescue that culture who has gotten to believe its own complex lies and warped sence of business ethics and accountability. The 900billion dollars in Taxpayer bailouts and mergers is a sign that the kids are running roughshod over the adult world of the global economy and its time for the taxpayer to come home and strenghten out once and for all how things must be run. The world today is complex and dangerous, so Mr.Wooten next time drop the ideological conservative crap—we are all Americans and this is an American solution not a Publican or Democratic one. Mr. Obama is right in that there will have to be a full audit of our major business structures and put in place a accountable system of checks and balances to decide who should even have a business in the first place! No more job security for cronies and family members or connected misfits who shouldn’t even be president of a dog kennel or the U.S.!
By Fabb4eyes
September 17, 2008 3:16 PM | Link to this
My Favorite Things ……………
Lipstick on Pitbulls and Flip Flops on Stances
Smear ads that swiftboat both candidates’ chances.
VPs that poll well because of their bling
These are a few of my favorite things
When the veep stings, attack-dog style
and the polls are bad,
I simply remember my favorite things, and then I dont feel so bad.
Pink liberal whiners, and GOP bashers
Cops weilding numbchucks at convention crashers
Speeches that say nothing yet still impress
Imagine our president wearing a dress
.
Snowflaking babies that lead to the alter
Bailing out Wallstreet when Ponzi Schemes falter
Tortured insurgents all tied up with string
These R a few of my favorite things.
.
Losing elections instead of the wars
Not teaching Johnny about dinosaurs
Russia’s white winters I see from my swing
These are a few of my favorite things.
When the veep stings, attack dog style
and the polls go bad
They simply refuse to allow paper trails
or recount the hanging chads.
.
.
By Dutchman
September 17, 2008 3:17 PM | Link to this
Churchill,
Definitely the elitist anointed one.
He will stand on the shores of Lake Michigan, spread his arms and tell the economy to HEAL!
But then again, maybe someone who lived a real life and not the sheltered life.
By Fabb4eyes
September 17, 2008 3:21 PM | Link to this
Davis, Wooten cant drop his ideological spin. He pledged his loyalty to conservativism in a fraternal ritual and ceremonial spanking long ago with his first employer/mentor, a conservative Professor Higgins: Not so much My Fair Lady, as Lipstick on Pygmalion.
By @@
September 17, 2008 3:21 PM | Link to this
Just saw a young Wall Street type on T.V. explaining the mess to Shepard Smith.
With a look of fear and frustration, he looks into the camera and says “Maybe the two campaigns can put up the money! They’ve got it all! Wall Street’s got zero!
Wonder who he’s gonna vote for?
By @@
September 17, 2008 3:28 PM | Link to this
Jury selected for Nichols trial Testimony to begin Monday in death penalty trial
Well it’s about damn time. How much did his showboating cost the government/us?
By Fabb4eyes
September 17, 2008 3:29 PM | Link to this
Greenspan just weighed in on CNN about AIG: “The viscissitudes that AIG has experienced and the extra-curricular activity that the Feds must now encounter should elevate the economy to astronomical heights. If I may be so pedantic.”
Does anyone have a clue what Greenspan just said? Honestly. That man makes me feel like a stooge.
By Common Sense
September 17, 2008 3:38 PM | Link to this
People I think the choice is clear whether you are Democrat or Republican we should vote in Jesse ( The body)!
Really we need a young mind who can hire our best to pull put new regulations in place in order to stimulate the economy.
We will have to tweak capitolism it is making this country weak. When people lose their jobs and dip into their 401k for lack of work it reduces this changes the mentality in a bad way!
To Ron: Please do not post anymore your comments are the weakest on board everyday. You should read up and start practicing telling the truth!
The fundamentals are not good! Housing/construction is tied to credit that is tied to mortgage back securites
When financial companies make bad investments (it does not matter about the rules you have to make good decisions) we all suffer.
Timing is extra bad due to rising fuel prices which effect retail prices and food prices. We are in a double whammie!
The next president will have to reduce costs and spur middle income wages!
By Disgusted
September 17, 2008 3:40 PM | Link to this
I find the ignorance of the essential nature of the bailout of AIG ludicrous. AIG was not merely engaged in issuing life and casualty insurance policies. Rather, it provided insurance to many financial firms against losses in certain investments. These firms are in business today because AIG indemnified them against losses in mortgages and certain other investments.
Bottom line: If AIG had been allowed to go under, scores of other investment companies would have followed, and the cost would have been much greater than the amount the federal government loaned AIG. How much of a bloodbath do you want?
By Fabb4eyes
September 17, 2008 3:41 PM | Link to this
The SnowWitch Part Eleventy
The day for the second debate arrived. The two candidates sat this time, and appeared more comfortable with easy aplomb and master of ceremonial splendor and everything.
The SnowWitch opened.
“Lipstick”. she said.
Her gambit worked instantly. The crowd nodded in approval and a smattering of applause rang out smatteringly. The host pounded his gavel, and soon there was order.
“Gays”. the Black Knight retorted. He was keeping his own, but he’d have to do better if he wanted to take back the momentum he kept losing over and over to the SnowWitch’s trickery earlier in the campaign.
“Baby Jesus”. the SnowWitch went for the kill on the second exchange. The crowd reacted instantly. They cheered, and once again there appeared snakes out of nowhere and people speaking in tongues and people re-enacting the crucifixion, and hark the herald angels sing…..
The Black Knight spoke but nobody could hear. It was a first round knockout, and the SnowWitch was clearly in command going down the stretch to the november 4th polling.
By SaveOurRepublic
September 17, 2008 3:41 PM | Link to this
I actually find myself (partially) agreeing with Neocon Wooten today. Uncle Scam needs to get out of this Corporate Welfare business asap. BTW (re “McAmnasty’s” suggestion), the 9/11 Commission was a total whitewash (by design)…they buried “Able Danger”, sidestepped the WTC 7 implosion & other key facts (that would expose the false flag op).
“Charles”, The Original - You are very astute to reference that incredibly telling book “Tragedy and Hope” by Carroll Quigley (“Slick Willie Clintax’s” Georgetown college professor & mentor), in which he openly alludes to the Globalist Elite and their mass control over the deceived populace. Indeed the duped masses have been preconditioned to accept the propaganda churned out by the controlled media outlets. Any challenge or serious questioning of the “mainstream” fodder is labeled “conspiracy theory”, therefore any further pondering of these so-called “conspiracy theories” results in cognitive dissonance for the sheeple. It’s easier for a lemming to take the bait, then to resist and further research the truth. Bottom line…”Yes Virginia, there is a New World Order!”.
http://www.infowars.com
By ed J
September 17, 2008 3:59 PM | Link to this
The present crisis is rooted in the deregulation of the financial and insurance sectors that has occurred over the last 20 years. The pace of this deregulation accelerated in the last 10 years. First under the Clinton adminstration and then under Bush. So we can thank both parties for this mess.
Until about 20 years ago, banks, brokerage firms and insurance firms by law had to be kept separate under the Glass Stegall ACt which grew out of the financial meltdown in 1929. Gradually this separation has gone away until we have the wild wild west in the financial markets today.
Now we have the ulitmate irony. The Federal Government deregulated in the spirt of unbridled capitalsim. But now to keep the economy from collapsing it resorts to socialism by taking ownership of Fannie, Freddie and now AIG.
What we need is regulation! It is all too plain to see.
It is amazing to me that Mr. Wooten says otherwise in the face of this all.
By Tar and Feathered
September 17, 2008 4:00 PM | Link to this
Gading wooten -Fabb4eyes same idiot aka hans apolgy, einsteins ghost, gaybait, the way, Oz
By getalife
September 17, 2008 4:10 PM | Link to this
It’s beyond bizarre.
First, McLair steals Obama’s change and calls it reform.
Then McLiar flip flops on regulations he deregulated with Gramm and now wants regulations.
My head spins wondering why Americans will vote for this obvious fraud.
If it is race, don’t hold Obama accountable for being half white.
White powder! -460 wow.
By getalife
September 17, 2008 4:12 PM | Link to this
How we long for the Clinton time in power.
I think we can all agree, those were the good ole days.
By ButtHead
September 17, 2008 4:12 PM | Link to this
I have never read so many uninformed bloggers in my life. It is NOT the republicans that are throwing good money after bad, it is the Dimacratic run congress you idiots. The oil companies PAY an average of OVER 30 BILLION dollars a quarter to our government for the right to drill and taxes. So if they get a break on taxes so be it, but they still pay more than other companies like pharmaceutical. Our government makes more per gallon of gas than the oil companies, so when is our dimacratic run government going to put a windfall profit tax on them selves?
By Tell It Like It Is
September 17, 2008 4:13 PM | Link to this
The economic problems are independent of individuals or political parties. Greed and avarice under our capitalistic system is the cause. All of us have been duped to work more hours to increase productivity at the expense of our families. Then we are faced with corporate downsizing to reduce costs. Romney made his fortune doing this. Guess who gets the bonuses? The corporate monguls do while simultaneously placing us in the economic chaos.
Neither Obama nor McCain can solve it and to suggest that Palin even has a clue is laughable. She is too busy making her own mint back in Alaska. Wooten, please deny us your right wing comments. It only stirs the flame of discontent and divides our nation. We need to come together or we are all doomed.
By @@
September 17, 2008 4:19 PM | Link to this
Rival companies are clamoring:
“AIG has some attractive assets in our view. We are now undoubtedly in a buyer’s market in our opinion, although we expect a lot of competition for the assets.”
AIG, paying off their debt with a hefty 8.5% interest rate. Predicting the feds money will be paid back within 2 years if not sooner.
By Dusty
September 17, 2008 4:21 PM | Link to this
Well, as always, the question, as put by Will S., is ” To be or not to be” or “Will more companies go down the drain or will the government take care of it?”
I just don’t know. Some sold, some gone (Lehman) some (AIG) saved by our generous government to save others. If we save them, we go broke. If we don’t save them, the biggies go boom!
So what’s left? Like that good guy whatshisname said ” If you come to a fork in the road, take it!”. That’s my advice too. Take it and wait.
Otherwise & etc., Churchill has taken the lengthy place of Devastator interminably.
Captain Freedom and RedNeck are one and the same subliminal liberals.
SaveOUr Republic…professional lib and community poster
Dr. R..maybe a Doctor of some kind (Natural Treatments & Diet??) but I doubt it.Bush a “beady eye doll”! Dr R—phony!
I applaud all poetic attempts.
Ragnor comes up with a fine sentiment@ 1:34 If only leftist were smart enough to appreciate the superior beauty of freedom.
Yes, Ragnar, if only..if only….
By @@
September 17, 2008 4:32 PM | Link to this
So here’s a quest-i-own.
Why is it that CEOs often chair the Board of Directors who set their salaries? Why is it that the CEOs get to seat board members?
Heck! That one seems easy enough to fix.
I mean their salaries/severence packages/bonuses are a drop in the overall bucket. They do seem to irritate the shareholders, so what’s stoppin’ em from doing something with their little bout of envy? The class wararemongers would sure be interested in an answer.
I’m here to learn.
By getalife
September 17, 2008 4:32 PM | Link to this
Who’ll Bail Out Uncle Sam? CBS’ Mark Knoller On The National Debt, And Who Picks Up the Tab
Your kids and their kids and their kids, etc…..
If the gop really are country first, they would not run anybody this cycle.
By SaveOurRepublic
September 17, 2008 4:33 PM | Link to this
Dusty - LOL! That’s the first time in my life (seriously) that I’ve ever been called a “liberal”. Unlike your Neocon/Bushbot self, I am a real conservative/paleoconservative of the Ron Paul & Pat Buchanan mold. I’m a proud member of the John Birch Society, GAO, NRA & Constitution Party. You’ve been soundly deceived by the Machievellian Globalists who’ve hijacked the GOP (which I had been a life-time member of until a few years ago). Stopping being programmed by Neocon mouthpieces like “Pawn Vanity”, “Bull O’Lielly” & phoney “Libertarian” Boortz & research the truth! The GOP has totally sold out real, legitimate conservatives!!!
http://www.jbs.org
By Jim is a caveman
September 17, 2008 4:47 PM | Link to this
Dow down 449 points today. Where will it end? Is Bush still dancing on the North Portico while Wall Street goes up in flames?
By Noelle
September 17, 2008 4:50 PM | Link to this
Sarah Palin’s assessment of Barack Obama in her convention speech was a bald-faced lie, like so many of the other false statements coming out of the GOP these days. Obama has authored a number of major pieces of legislation at both the state and national level, as an actual review of his record would show. But then, that simple truth doesn’t fit into the McCain-Palin plan of deceit and deception, now, does it? And Wooten’s bought into all of it, hook, line, and sinker.
By findog
September 17, 2008 4:52 PM | Link to this
Churchhill @2:50,
that email is kind of old by now
By getalife
September 17, 2008 4:58 PM | Link to this
“A new poll of economists finds Sen. Barack Obama is overwhelmingly preferred over Sen. John McCain by a 66% to 28% margin. The survey consisted of 523 economists who are both U.S. citizens and members of the American Economic Association.”
Duh.
By Dusty
September 17, 2008 4:58 PM | Link to this
Save Our Republic@4:33
Say no more. JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY!!! The outdated searchers of those red devils that they think beset our government!! You may call that conservative but I wouldn’t. Extremism is NOT conservative OR liberal. It is just ….EXTREME.
So ride your valiant steed to nowhere with Ron Paul or Pat Buchanan. You are just a burr in the side of normal Americans who try to work out their politics with thought and consideration, not hellfire and brimstone.
So I apologize for calling you a liberal. You are not. You, sir, are a menacing extremist. We will beware.
By Chaz
September 17, 2008 5:02 PM | Link to this
I’m sure if Obama could, he would’ve fixed Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac… after all, they donated $111,000 to him during his three years in the Senate.
By Common Sense
September 17, 2008 5:15 PM | Link to this
Wow leave it to Butthead and Chaz to lend an astute observation!
Obama takes money from Fannie and Freddie. Therefore he will not be able to police them!
Wow utter amazement from our fellow bloggers the intelligence is umcomprehensable!
Harvard graduate/Navy Graduate
You make the choice!
To: Butthead was the Democratic Congress suppose to stop the subprime lending in 2002,2003,2004,2005, and 2006?
Maybe their are able to reach back in the past to rectify all the lending instutions who saw dollar signs and thought they were in paradise!
By findog
September 17, 2008 5:22 PM | Link to this
Dusty @ 4:21 You violated your own rule from yesterday, four paragraph limit please!
By Dusty
September 17, 2008 5:28 PM | Link to this
Getalife, 4:58
You can do a dance around the May Poll all you want. Every liberal group in the country will follow Hollywood and delicately say that they prefer the great actor and dramatist OBAMA. So he doesn’t have any EXPERIENCE…oh poo!! Who cares??
These groups would prefer he not read all his lines from a teleprompter but he is DIFFERENT! DARING! DELICATE! Just the kind of performer they like.
So do tell us about the next poll at the….Kennedy Center or the Oscar Awards…or..Farrahan Institute..or.the Rezko Community Center or the Clinton Library. We would never guess at the results if you did not tell us.
By @@
September 17, 2008 5:29 PM | Link to this
Hello Joe, we gotta go, me oh my oh.
Getalife:
Are you smokin your weed in a corn pipe? cause you sho ‘nuff seem “cornfused.” Why it was just the other day that OBlahMa was as incompetent as any other — typical politician.
Small tokes over the line? (ISH)
By TW
September 17, 2008 5:30 PM | Link to this
Darn it, Mr. Wooten. It’s day like this, articles like this, that make me wish you still had some credibility.
By Dusty
September 17, 2008 5:35 PM | Link to this
Findog the Fido, 5:22
Single lines don’t count as paragraphs. so there. If I make the rules, I can break ‘em.
But I will try to do better otherwise someone might think I am a Kerry kinda liberal…you know…flippity flop! We can’t have THAT!!
By StevenCee
September 17, 2008 5:39 PM | Link to this
I’m not quite sure the purpose of even writing this Jim. Sure they are “both wrong”, it’s obvious ALL of Congress (& the Executive branch) hasn’t a clue, & those that do, are REALLY wrong, for letting all this go down unchallenged!
When a nation’s entire government gives unquestioning service to the wishes & interests of mega-corporations, how can anyone honestly be surprised at the current consequences?
By catlady
September 17, 2008 5:40 PM | Link to this
So now everyone (big biz) is “entitled” to bailout/loan? What happened to those Republicans who howl over the black welfare mama “entitlement” attitude? What happened to ” responsibility”? What happened to “no welfare”? What happened to “you made your bed, now lie in it”? What happened to truth and justice?
By SPUD
September 17, 2008 5:42 PM | Link to this
The mess started with political pandering to provide loans to people who could not afford them. Even today banks provide home improvement loans to apartment dwellers as required by the Community Reinvestment Act.
So all of this democrat vs republican squabbles are bunk. Both democrats and republicans instituted policies that set the stage for todays spectacular failures and subsequent transfer of risk to the American taxpayer. I doubt either McCain or Obama will be able to do much about this mess.
It is the house and senate that needs turned on its head with us the voters settinge expectations for leadership to ensure the USA stays competitive.
The question to all who post is can you vote out your favorite congressman or senator or are you too attached because of the party they belong to? Or maybe you just love bashing republicans or democrats without really holding either responsible.
By Dusty
September 17, 2008 5:50 PM | Link to this
Dear catlady,5:40
You are exceptional. You are one of the few people who can turn an economic development into a racist reference. That was not easy but YOU DID IT!
Congraulations on your innovations. But please try to soften them with a nice bowl of warm milk. That might help.
By SaveOurRepublic
September 17, 2008 5:56 PM | Link to this
Typical Neocon rebuttal. Since when is standing for Constitutional principles and the limitations of government therewithin outdated & “extreme”??!! ….Since the puppets (Neocons) of the Globalist Elite took over the GOP and sold out the foundation laid down by the Founding Fathers! If you don’t believe the DNC & GOP “leadership” are 2 sides of the same coin, look at the CFR roster & notice all the Bush Sr/Jr and Clinton cabinet & administration members. Or take note of John Kerry & Prescott/George HW & George Jr’s membership in the Skull & Bones at Yale (along with President Taft). Google the attendance at the annual Bilderberg Group conference and take note of all the GOP, DNC & major contributors to both parties who take part (&/or are members thereof).
By “normal” Americans are you referring to the sheeplized lemmings mesmerized by iPods, video games, “Reality” TV & can’t name one Amendment on the Bill of Rights? If so, I’m certainly not a “normal” American. I don’t lobotomize myself with a steady dose of the idiot tube & the garbage spewed across the airwaves.
If “menacing” means I want to restore this Constitutional Republic (not “Democracy”) to the precepts it was founded on & educated Americans (who truly care) to the GOP & DNC’s subservience to the Internationalist agenda…that I stand guilty as charged. I suggest you do some research beyond the fodder churned out by “Faux” News & “Hush Bimbo”, and do some research beyond the propaganda outlets!
By Captain Freedom
September 17, 2008 5:58 PM | Link to this
THE Captain notes that conventional wisdom avers that FDR made America safe for capitalism by spreading a safety net for the masses. How odd that it is Our Leader, the Godly Light of Common Sense Conservatism, to make America safe for socialism by spreading a safety net for the Barons of Wall Street. THE Captain predicts that Our Leader will nationalize the automobile industry as soon as he is finished with the banks, and then move on to (what is left of) the steel industry. But no worries…Major League Baseball shall remain sacrosanct.
Who knew that Compassionate Conservartism would turn out to be Socialism?
By Dusty
September 17, 2008 6:05 PM | Link to this
Save Our Republic,5:56
Your post sounds like lines right out the John Birch textbook.
We hear you knocking but you can’t come in. No extremists allowed!! This is America the beautiful, not the battleground. Relax and appreciate!!
By bearcasey
September 18, 2008 8:21 AM | Link to this
The Republican Party’s economic policy is the Gordon Gekko doctrine: “greed is good!” And the poor “social conservatives” don’t even realize they are consistently being screwed. Just throw them a Sarah Palin and they won’t notice that they are being “whipped like yard dogs.”
By norman ravitch
September 18, 2008 8:47 AM | Link to this
Cynthia Tucker has it right. Americans have been taught the religion of free enterprise capitalism and believe in it — until it bites you; then Americans become non-believers for a while, until the demagogues come back to denounce everything desirable as socialistic.
The American booboisie falls for capitalism like it falls for another false religion, christianity.
By Dmha726
September 18, 2008 9:06 AM | Link to this
How come you did not quote McCain’s first response to the collaspe of Wall Street, “The economy is still fundamentally good.” How can that be if everything and everyone is losing jobs, closing down, pensions are being lost, etc. The economy is not fundamentally strong and even a 2 year old can see that. If you’re going to quote Obama, make sure you quote McCain also. He was more wrong than Obama.
By Zeke
September 18, 2008 9:20 AM | Link to this
Right on Jim! Too bad no one has the balls to tell the real truth! These problems are based in the faulty legislation of the 90’s under Clinton that demanded that banks, mortgage lenders,Freddie and Fannie lend to minorities, lend in depressed areas, lend to those who could not make a 10% or 20% down payment of their OWN MONEY NO GIFTS FROM FAMILY! These feel good policies to guarantee all a home, even though they could not pay for it, is the cause of the current fiasco! It was funded by $3 trillion of taxpayer money at the beginning, then an additional $2 trillion was added later! THE TAXPAYERS HAVE A $5 trillion “investment” that is lost on this ridiulous socialist program! Democrats bear the fault! Repubulicans are complicit for allowing it to happen so that they could not be branded racist or beholding to the so called wealthy! It is time to change all those in Congress as well as many that work behind the scenes in government jobs that are strictly liberal and socialist! We must return to our roots af coservatism, capitalism, personal responsibility, private instead of public ownership and EVERYONE PAYING THEIR OWN WAY!!!NO ENTITLEMENTS, NO HANDOUTS, NO WORK NO EAT!!!! eVEN THOSE WHO RECEIVE WELFARE CAN AND SHOULD WORK WHEN JOBS ARE AVAILABLE!! LOOK AT THE PAPER!! THERE ARE ALWAYS JOBS AVAILABLE!!
By Common Sense
September 18, 2008 9:25 AM | Link to this
Hey an aide to McClain states Mr. McClain had something to do with the blackberry!
Also Mrs. Palin is going to meet U.N. officials this week and this will give her instant foreign policy experience and you will believe Governor Palin has foreign policy experience because she met with U.N. officials.
Can you say suckers? Conservatives
By ron
September 18, 2008 9:35 AM | Link to this
According to Biden,if you want to be more patriotic you pay more taxes.Obama wants you all to be more patriotic.
By Hypocrisy101
September 18, 2008 9:41 AM | Link to this
What, not a word about Phil Gramm in this situation? In your examples, it was all Democrats of course. Except for the weak quote from McCain.
McCain suggests that something like a 9/11 Commission is needed and he’s right
That was a joke, right?
By chester
September 18, 2008 9:51 AM | Link to this
you fools..If the government did not bail out the company right or wrong..it could have possible collapsed the US market and possibly abroad..they everyone on this post could have lost their jobs..even you Jim Wotten…Think about it..If AIG pretty much insures darn near every thing and they went under..who would the AJC be insured by…the ajc is not big enough even for the feds to bail out..so there you have it….I do agree that there should be better regulations..other than that it is what it is..
By Shrugging Atlas
September 18, 2008 10:13 AM | Link to this
Dusty, gotta love that you stick to your guns, but regarding your earlier post with the Kerry flip-flop reference, I thought you would have gotten the memo, that’s so 2004. Everyone now says “someone might think I am a McCain you know…flippity flop!”
Example A: Responding to the turmoil on Wall Street, John McCain said flatly yesterday: “We need strong and effective regulation.”
But throughout his two-decade Senate career, McCain has cast himself as an outspoken critic of government intervention in the markets, saying that he is “fundamentally a deregulator.”
The dizzying series of bankruptcies, buyouts, and bailouts on Wall Street has prompted McCain to recast his outlook at a crucial moment in the presidential campaign.
“After all the years of tearing down the regulations that govern financial institutions, it rings hollow to claim that he will build them back up,” said Elizabeth Warren, professor of bankruptcy law at Harvard Law School. “This economy is the direct consequence of the deregulation that John McCain fought for day after day, year after year, since the mid-1980s.”
By Shrugging Atlas
September 18, 2008 10:24 AM | Link to this
I also thought this post from a couple of days ago still rings true as a great exmple of how McSame has no clue about what’s going on and what to do about it. And this is besides his clear admission that…’The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should. I’ve got Greenspan’s book.”
*By fearless fosdik September 16, 2008 5:05 PM |
Today McCain was on all the network shows explaining what he said about the meltdown in the financial and banking sectors. He calls it a “crisis.” He proposes a commission to study the crisis. I hate to break it to you, JOHN,but “crisis” and “commission” don’t really fit together in the same sentence. A crisis requires crisis management, rapid response, decisive leadership, doesn’t it? A commission is a body that takes its time to deliberate and investigate and recommend long-term systemic solutions.
So either, you are wrong that it is a crisis, or wrong that what’s needed is a commission.
Poor John…He just doesn’t get it!*
So out of touch. Please someone change his depends and put him down for a nap.
By Jacob Zeitman
September 18, 2008 11:29 AM | Link to this
Poor Jim, he says this has gone on for decades. So of the past 30 years, how many of them belong to Democrats and how many belonged to Republicans? Have a good day folks.