Does America really want a change?

[homedawg]

Pelosi: '500 million Americans' losing jobs
House speaker makes big goof on how bad economy really is:

(the total population of the United States is only about 305 million.)


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It has prompted over 1,100 comments already on YouTube, including:

-500 million Americans? And she called George Bush dumb? Any chance this will be played over and over and over tonight on the news? Nah, didn't think so.
-Egad. With idiots like this in charge, we are doomed.
-She's as sharp as a sack of wet mice.
-500,000,000 jobs. What's this about [Sarah] Palin being dumb again?
-Every word Bush uttered was analyzed for potential stupidity content and each detected instance was replayed in mainstream media (or cult media depending on your point of view) repeatedly. We owe the new "regime" (that is what we called the Bush administration, right?) no less "unbiased" treatment.
-Maybe the plastic surgeon stuck the Botox needle in a little too deep when he pressed the plunger down.
-They'd better do something quick! At this rate, my grandchildren will be unemployed 10 years before they're born!
-This no doubt takes into consideration job loss in all 57 states.

[Billy Barooooooo]

Israeli Spokesman Says We Control Stupid Americans | Pakistan Daily
Israeli Spokesman Says We Control Stupid Americans
"Another Israeli spokeswoman, Tzipora Menache, stated that she was not worried about negative ramifications the Israeli onslaught on Gaza might have on the way the Obama administration would view Israel. She said 'You know very well, and the stupid Americans know equally well, that we control their government, irrespective of who sits in the White House. You see, I know it and you know it that no American president can be in a position to challenge us even if we do the unthinkable. What can they (Americans) do to us? We control congress, we control the media, we control show biz, and we control everything in America. In America you can criticize God, but you can't criticize Israel.":puke:

[homedawg]

“Clusterf#@k to the Poor House - Economic Recovery Plan”


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[homedawg]

Smoking Gun: Democrat Insider Says "Obama Has Secret Plan to Fund a Patronage System"

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Need some ca$h to pay your bills?




'Stimulus' raises taxpayer risk to $9.7 trillion

U.S. Taxpayers Risk $9.7 Trillion on Bailout Programs (Update1)

By Mark Pittman and Bob Ivry

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The stimulus package the U.S. Congress is completing would raise the government’s commitment to solving the financial crisis to $9.7 trillion, enough to pay off more than 90 percent of the nation’s home mortgages.

The Federal Reserve, Treasury Department and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation have lent or spent almost $3 trillion over the past two years and pledged up to $5.7 trillion more. The Senate is to vote this week on an economic-stimulus measure of at least $780 billion. It would need to be reconciled with an $819 billion plan the House approved last month.

Only the stimulus bill to be approved this week, the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program passed four months ago and $168 billion in tax cuts and rebates enacted in 2008 have been voted on by lawmakers. The remaining $8 trillion is in lending programs and guarantees, almost all under the Fed and FDIC. Recipients’ names have not been disclosed.

“We’ve seen money go out the back door of this government unlike any time in the history of our country,” Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, said on the Senate floor Feb. 3. “Nobody knows what went out of the Federal Reserve Board, to whom and for what purpose. How much from the FDIC? How much from TARP? When? Why?”

Financial Rescue

The pledges, amounting to almost two-thirds of the value of everything produced in the U.S. last year, are intended to rescue the financial system after the credit markets seized up about 18 months ago. The promises are composed of about $1 trillion in stimulus packages, around $3 trillion in lending and spending and $5.7 trillion in agreements to provide aid. The total already tapped has decreased about 1 percent since November, mostly because foreign central banks are using fewer dollars in currency-exchange agreements called swaps.

Federal Reserve lending to banks peaked at a record $2.3 trillion in December, dropping to $1.83 trillion by last week. The Fed balance sheet is still more than double the $880 billion it was in the week before Sept. 17 when it agreed to accept lower-quality collateral.

The worst financial crisis in two generations has erased $14.5 trillion, or 33 percent, of the value of the world’s companies since Sept. 15; brought down Bear Stearns Cos. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.; and led to the takeover of Merrill Lynch & Co. by Bank of America Corp.

The $9.7 trillion in pledges would be enough to send a $1,430 check to every man, woman and child alive in the world. It’s 13 times what the U.S. has spent so far on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Congressional Budget Office data, and is almost enough to pay off every home mortgage loan in the U.S., calculated at $10.5 trillion by the Federal Reserve.

‘All the Stops’

“The Fed, Treasury and FDIC are pulling out all the stops to stop any widespread systemic damage to the economy,” said Dana Johnson, chief economist for Comerica Inc. in Dallas and a former senior economist at the central bank. “The federal government is on the hook for an awful lot of money but I think it’s needed to help the financial system recover.”

Bloomberg News tabulated data from the Fed, Treasury and FDIC and interviewed regulators, economists and academic researchers to gauge the full extent of the government’s rescue effort.

Commitments may expand again soon. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner postponed until tomorrow an announcement that may invite private investment as a way to clear toxic debt from bank balance sheets. Measures that have been settled include a new round of injections of taxpayer funds into banks, targeted at those identified by regulators as most in need of additional capital, people briefed on the matter said.

Program Delay

The government is already backing $301 billion of Citigroup Inc. securities and another $118 billion from Bank of America. The government hasn’t yet paid out on any of the guarantees.

The Fed said Friday that it is delaying the start a $200 billion program called the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF, to revive the market for securities based on consumer loans such as credit-card, auto and student borrowings.

Most of the spending programs are run out of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where Geithner served as president. He was sworn in as Treasury secretary on Jan. 26.

When Congress approved the TARP on Oct. 3, Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and then Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson acknowledged the need for transparency and oversight. The Federal Reserve so far is refusing to disclose loan recipients or reveal the collateral they are taking in return. Collateral is an asset pledged by a borrower in the event a loan payment isn’t made.

Fed Sued

Bloomberg requested details of Fed lending under the Freedom of Information Act and filed a federal lawsuit against the central bank Nov. 7 seeking to force disclosure of borrower banks and their collateral. Arguments in the suit may be heard as soon as this month, according to the court docket. Bloomberg asked the Treasury in an FOIA request Jan. 28 for a detailed list of the securities it planned to guarantee for Citigroup and Bank of America. Bloomberg hasn’t received a response to the request.

The Bloomberg lawsuit is Bloomberg LP v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 08-CV-9595, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

[homedawg]

Communist: Obama working to nationalize U.S. economy
Claims 'people advocate president' pushing through radical agenda

Communist Party USA leader Sam Webb

President Obama is "considering" a radical agenda to nationalize the U.S. financial system, the Federal Reserve Bank, and private industries such as energy and other sectors whose future is "problematic" in private hands, claims the leader of the Communist Party USA.

In a major speech focused on Obama titled "Off and running: Opportunity of a lifetime," CPUSA leader Sam Webb also alleges Obama's administration is considering turning education, childcare, and health care into "no profit zones;" rerouting investment capital from military infrastructure to "green economy" projects and public infrastructure; and waging a "full scale" assault on global warming.

"We now have not simply a friend, but a people's advocate in the White House," declared Webb at a recent speech in Ohio for People's Weekly World Communist newspaper.

"An era of progressive change is within reach, no longer an idle dream. Just look at the new lay of the land: a friend of labor and its allies sits in the White House," Webb proclaimed.

He stated Obama and the "broad coalition that supports him will almost inevitably have to consider – and they already are – the following measures:

• Public ownership of the financial system and the elimination of the shadow banking system and exotic derivatives.
• Public control of the Federal Reserve Bank.
• Counter-crisis spending of a bigger size and scope to invigorate and sustain a full recovery and meet human needs – something that the New Deal never accomplished.
• Strengthening of union rights in order to rebalance the power between labor and capital in the economic and political arenas.
• Trade agreements that have at their core the protection and advancement of international working class interests.
• Equality in conditions of life for racially minorities and women.
• Democratic public takeover of the energy complex as well as a readiness to consider the takeover of other basic industries whose future is problematic in private hands.
• Turning education, child care, and health care into "no profit" zones.
• Rerouting investment capital from unproductive investment (military, finance and so forth) to productive investment in a green economy and public infrastructure.
• Changing direction of our nation's foreign policy toward cooperation, disarmament, and diplomacy. We can't have threats, guns and military occupations on the one hand and butter, democracy, goodwill, and peace on the other.
• Full scale assault on global warming.
• Serious and sustained commitment to assisting the developing countries that are locked in poverty and misery."

Webb lauded Obama's $800-plus billion so-called stimulus package as "a good bill that will ease the pain of this crisis, create jobs, and begin to reflate the economy."

He explained labor unions, which he said were instrumental in Obama's election, must work to keep the White House in check by "exercis[ing] an enormous influence on the political process. Never before has a coalition with such breadth walked on the political stage of our country," he said.

Indeed, in an article just after last November's election titled, "Special Interest or Class Consciousness? How Labor Put Obama in the White House," Political Affairs reported on polling data released that revealed the extent of union support for Obama.

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, or AFL-CIO, sponsored a poll showing union members supported Obama by a 68-30 margin and strongly influenced their family members.

According to the survey, Obama won among white men who are union members by 18 points. Union gun-owners backed Obama by 12 points, while union veterans voted for Obama by a 25-point margin. In the general population, Obama lost these groups by significant margins.

[homedawg]

Obama's Empty Promise




Last October, while campaigning in Toledo, Barack Obama promised "a new ethic of responsibility." The nation's economic troubles, he said, occurred partly because "everyone was living beyond their means," including politicians who "spent money they didn't have." In his inaugural address last month, Obama regretted "our collective failure to make hard choices" and heralded "a new era of responsibility."

Let's Recap:

1, The American people elect an unknown senator, who still doesn't know where the men's room is in the Senate. He's from the most politically corrupt state in America, whose governor is thrown out of office. His first official act is to close Gitmo and make sure that al-Qaeda terrorists' constitutional rights are not violated.

2, The U.S. Congress rushes to confirm an Attorney General, Eric Holder, who pushed the 1999 grant of clemency for 16 FALN terrorists and whose law firm represents seventeen Gitmo terrorists.

3, The new CIA Boss, Leon Penetta, strongly sympathized with the "Institute for Policy Studies" (IPS), a Washington based leftist think tank known for its bitter opposition to the intelligence community, notably the CIA. He has absolutely no intelligence experience. His daughter Linda is a radical anti-American activist, who is a supporter of all the Anti-American regimes in the western hemisphere. Here's a photo of Linda and Hugo Chavez.

4. We got the most corrupt woman in America as Secretary of State; bought and paid for.

5. We got a tax cheat for Treasury Secretary who files his own taxes.

6. A Commerce Secretary nominee who withdrew due to corruption charges.

7. A tax cheat nominee for Chief Performance Officer who withdrew under charges.

8. A Labor Secretary nominee who withdrew under charges of unethical conduct.

9. A Secretary of HHS nominee who withdrew under charges of cheating on his taxes.

And that's just the first two weeks . . . but who's counting.

America is being run by the modern-day 3 Stooges ~ Barack, Nancy, and Harry ~ and they are still trying to define stimulus.

Stimulus is where the government gives a smidgen of your tax dollars back to you making you feel so good about yourself [stimulated] that you want to run out to Wal-Mart and buy a new Chinese-made HDTV and go home and watch Telemundo!


Barack Obama Latest News

[homedawg]

General Motors to Invest $1 Billion in Brazil Operations
Money to Come from U.S. Rescue Program
By Russ Dallen
Latin American Herald Tribune staff

SAO PAULO -- General Motors plans to invest $1 billion in Brazil to avoid the kind of problems the U.S. automaker is facing in its home market, said the beleaguered car maker.

According to the president of GM Brazil-Mercosur, Jaime Ardila, the funding will come from the package of financial aid that the manufacturer will receive from the U.S. government and will be used to "complete the renovation of the line of products up to 2012."

"It wouldn't be logical to withdraw the investment from where we're growing, and our goal is to protect investments in emerging markets," he said in a statement published by the business daily Gazeta Mercantil.

Meanwhile, he cut the company's revenue forecast for this year by 14% to $9.5 billion from $11 billion, as the economic crisis began to cause rapid slowdowns in sales.

GM already announced three programs of paid leave, and Ardila added that GM Brazil "is going to wait and see how the market behaves in order to know what decision to take" with regard to possible layoffs.

For Ardila, the injection in Brazil's automobile sector of 8 billion reais ($3.51 billion) recently announced by the federal and state governments of Sao Paulo "has already begun to revive sales," which fell by 12% in October.

The executive said that the company will operate a "conservative" scenario in 2009 with an estimated production of 2.6 million units, and another more "optimistic" that contemplates sales of 2.9 million.

This year sales will reach 2.85 million vehicles, which represents a growth of 15% over last year.

[homedawg]

2/10/09 (3wks in)


Red State Update
Travis and Jonathan

Obama's Stimulus News Conference

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Obama fears 'catastrophe'

February 10, 2009

Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON—In his strongest response yet to Republican attacks on his economic stimulus package, President Barack Obama hit the airwaves and the road Monday to make the case for quick action, warning that delay risks turning "a crisis into a catastrophe."

Obama spoke to a national television audience in his first prime-time White House news conference after traveling earlier in the day to a town meeting in Elkhart, Ind., a manufacturing community reeling from the recession.

Stocks tumble as bailout plan is unveiled

DJIA :Dow close 7888.88
-381.99 (-4.62%)

[homedawg]

'Doom' talk scored as 'not presidential'
Poses risk for 'Yes, we can' candidate
Joseph Curl
Monday, February 9, 2009

ANALYSIS:

From crisis to catastrophe. Off a cliff. Dark, darker, darkest. Mortal danger of absolute collapse. Armageddon.

President Obama and top Democrats on Capitol Hill are deploying these and other stark predictions of doom and gloom to push through their economic-stimulus package. In terms not heard in Washington since the late 1970s under President Jimmy Carter's watch, the new president has sought to terrify Americans into supporting the $800 billion-plus bailout bill.

While President Bush was accused shortly after taking office in 2001 of "talking down the economy" - and for saying the economy was "slowing down" - Mr. Obama is using ever-heightening hyperbole to hammer home his message. But the strategy brings great risk for the "Yes, We Can" man, who just three weeks ago told America in his inaugural address that despite "a sapping of confidence across our land," his election meant Americans had "chosen hope over fear."

See related story: Overseas tests cascade on Obama

"Mr. Hope has to be careful not to become Dr. Doom," said Frank Luntz, a political consultant and author of the book "Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear."

"The danger for him is using the Jimmy Carter malaise rhetoric, particularly for Mr. Obama, who was elected because people thought he was the solution. There's only so much negativity they will tolerate from him before they will feel betrayed," Mr. Luntz said.

Brad Blakeman, a senior aide to Mr. Bush from 2001 to 2004, said the new president's language is immature.

"It's not presidential. An American leader needs to be hopeful and optimistic - and truthful. Everything he says is parsed; everything he says is searched for deep meaning. When he goes to 'DefCon 5' on the economy and says that we're on the brink of catastrophe, it's absolutely insane."

See related story: EXCLUSIVE: Partisan dirt-digger joins WH office

With his fiery rhetoric, the new president runs the risk of terrifying consumers and investors, which could depress the economy even further. While the economy is bad, it is a far cry from Great Depression levels, when as many as 30 percent of Americans were unemployed, compared with the 7.6 percent now.

Every president must walk a rhetorical tightrope when talking about the economy, a lesson Mr. Bush learned quickly, being bashed just after taking office for delivering somber news. The United States was just entering a mild recession - it had been in one, it turns out, for about nine months - and the new president said so.

Liberals went berserk.

"Every time we turn around, this guy is bad-mouthing the economy. Is that lifting our spirit or dumping on it in order to sell his tax cut?" liberal comentator Bill Press said on CNN. Newsweek's Jonathan Alter, in an article headlined "Thanks Ever So Much, President Poor-Mouth," said, "Even if Bush turns out to be right in his predictions of gloom, that doesn't mean he was right to make them." The New York Times lectured Mr. Bush, saying that presidents were supposed to be "cheerleaders for the nation's economy."

But Mr. Bush tried that, too. As the United States recovered from the economic devastation caused by the 9/11 attacks, the president constantly talked up the economy, asserting that the American work force could compete with any in the world, and he assured Americans that happy days were right around the corner. Even as the currrent recession took hold, he continued to portray the nation's future in optimistic tones.

For all his effort, he was portrayed as a Pollyannish rube whose naivete so clouded his vision that he could not see the stark reality of the economic situation. How else to explain his optimism in the face of $4-a-gallon gas or exploding unemployment, or presidential statements a year ago, such as "I don't think we're headed to a recession, but no question we're in a slowdown."

Mr. Obama has gone much further than that. Just Friday, Mr. Obama said a report that 600,000 jobs were lost in January meant "it's getting worse, not getting better. ... Although we had a terrible year with respect to jobs last year, the problem is accelerating, not decelerating." Last week he said, "A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe."

But he isn't the only Democrat ramping up the rhetoric while talking down the economy. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said last month that our economy "is dark, darker, darkest." Rep. David R. Obey of Wisconsin said, "This economy is in mortal danger of absolute collapse." And Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri said of the economic-stimulus bill, "If we don't pass this thing, it's Armageddon."

[homedawg]

Obama: The Market Is Issuing You A WARNING

Put the kids away - this is not going to be pleasant.

I'm done Mr. President.

You stood in front of the American Public and lied through your damn teeth. You claim that America faces a "catastrophe" if we don't pass your bill - but its not YOUR BILL, its Pelosi's and Reid's bill - a bill full of PORK and BS.

I'm tired of the lies, America is tired of the lies, and we the people are not going to sit still for it any longer.

You promised us change. This is what we got for "change":

Your Treasury Secretary, Geithner, cheated on his taxes. He was caught. He then failed to pay the other two years of tax for the same thing he got caught doing, until you told him you wanted him to be the tax collector. But that's not the worst of it. No, the worst part is that when Bear Stearns got in trouble he, as the head of the NY Fed, knew full well that The Federal Reserve intended to open the discount window to investment banks THE VERY NEXT DAY and yet this fact was NOT disclosed to Bear Stearns, forcing them into a merger they would not have otherwise consummated. THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS LOST THEIR JOBS AS A DIRECT CONSEQUENCE OF TIM GEITHNER'S AND BEN BERNANKE'S INTENTIONAL CONCEALMENT OF THIS MATERIAL FACT. Here is the quote from the NY Times:

"But the night that Bear signed the original bid, the Fed opened what's known as the discount window to companies like Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers - oh, yes, and to Bear, too. Except that the Fed didn't tell Bear that it planned to open the window when it was signing its deal with JPMorgan.

Had Bear known it might have access to the discount window - a crucial source of liquidity - it might have been able to hold out for a couple more days or at least had enough leverage to seek a higher bid. But the Fed clearly preferred the original bid."

You WISH The Internet wasn't around to hold your butt over the pot of hot oil and dunk you on this one. Sorry Mr. President, NO DICE.

GEITHNER MUST RESIGN NOW; HE IS UNFIT TO HOLD THE OFFICE TO WHICH YOU APPOINTED HIM. PERIOD.

We dealt with George W. Bush playing "disaster capitalism" with us for more than eighteen months. Now you're doing it. Nice try, no donut. I have been writing for close to two years in The Market Ticker about the fact that The Fed, Treasury and the former administration were directly responsible for this mess through various machinations such as "23A Exemption Letters", Paulson's entreaties to remove leverage limits and the OCC's move (including asserting federal preemption in court!) to preempt state regulation of subprime and ALT-A mortgages. You've put forward plans to address exactly none of these frauds and yet they are the root of the problem.

Further, you can't claim to "not know" because as a Senator your office got copies of my petitions, faxes, and other communications. Your constituents from Illinois asked me to send thousands of petition signatures over those two years, and you did get them. Don't run a grand line of BS on America that this all "came out of nowhere" and "it was all Bush's fault." That's nice political theatre but it is also a grand lie.

America has a confidence problem with the Capital Markets. So does the rest of the world. That problem exists because of the outright fraud and idiocy that has been undertaken and permitted by all levels of our government, including the Executive. These frauds included knowingly using bad model data to "rate" securities, shopping ratings, shorting securities you're selling to your own customers in the next room (without telling them you think they're overvalued, of course) and getting "23A Exemptions" so you can lever up your exposure to failing parts of your business, thereby creating systemic risk where it did not already exist. Go have a look Mr. Obama - there are literally dozens of "23A Exemption" letters now on file with The Fed. Virtually all of these institutions, if not all, have either failed or received public support, yet exemption from safety and soundness banking regulation has made their plight worse and their drain on the taxpayer more onerous. You have done exactly nothing to address this outrage nor is there any reason to believe you will.

These "exotic financing products" were not bought Mr. President - they were sold by so-called "professionals" who knew full well that the borrower could never complete the original term as contracted. Yet the firms who packaged up these securities and sold them knowing this fact remain in business, their executives remain in the corner office and they siphoned off $70 billion in bonuses from the first half of the TARP. You have done exactly nothing to disgorge those funds nor have you directed the FBI to bring indictments or brought pressure to remove these individuals from their positions. You have not revoked one banking charter from any of these firms despite the fact that these practices are the precise reason we are here.

These same firms have literal trillions in off-balance-sheet securitizations that remain undisclosed and opaque. You have taken no step to force their consolidation back onto the balance sheet, nor have you announced any intention to do so. These conduits and SIVs are literal ticking financial nuclear weapons and they will explode as defaults continue to increase.

You continue to pretend that these firms "need some help" and "need a backstop." Increasingly it is becoming clear to market observers such as Nouriel Roubini, FT's Wolf, myself and others that the fact is that these firms are and have been bankrupt and you are conspiring with others to intentionally deceive the public by refusing to demand that regulators and examiners to go in, do their jobs, and report the true capital levels of these companies - an act that would result in their immediate seizure by the FDIC.

You believe you can pull the wool over Americans' eyes with your new "TARP II" and "TALF" programs. The truth is that you intend to use Treasury and Fed credit to allow hedge funds to make obscene profits while essentially all risk of loss is born by the taxpayer, shifting off these bankrupt firm's liabilities TO US while the executives and firms continue to operate!

This is yet another outrage and is nothing more than an attempt to shift the liabilities of BANKRUPT institutions that have become insolvent by their own hand and acts to The American Taxpayer.

Now let me explain what is almost certain to happen if you are foolish enough to let Taxcheat Timmy pull this garbage.

See, these assets really are trash. Yeah, right now they are kicking off cash flow. For now. But they're impaired and while their coupon will pay for a while they will ultimately default on their face value and recovery is pennies (and in the case of synthetics, zero) when they do.

So what happens here is that you provide 95% non-recourse financing. Sir Hedge Fund buys a buttload of this garbage having only 5-10% of the face at risk, and that's all they need to put up as well, since the government is going to provide the financing - as a "no recourse" loan (presumably very cheaply.) They get a 6-7% coupon which means that in one year they're covered, and in two they're making money like a madman, up 200% or more on their original risk capital.

But what happens when these instruments default?

Treasury is sitting on several trillion in backstops and financing of loans to cover "assets" that are in fact worth zero. It winds up eating the entire face value, while the Hedge Funds have made off with all of the coupon money in the meantime!

The risk here is that Treasury is backed into a corner due to ramping yields and perhaps even inability to roll over this debt at all and we find ourselves forced into immediate cash accounting as a nation. This in turn causes the instantaneous cessation of Social Security and Medicare payments, as that is the only bucket big enough to cover the shortfall.

Do you really want to go down that road Mr. President, because that is precisely what's at the end of it, and it may be only a year or two out!

If you think nobody beyond your vaunted administration has figured it out YOU ARE WRONG.

If you think Americans will pay taxes to an institution that intends to knowingly allow Hedge Funds to make hundreds of billions of dollars in profit while sticking the taxpayer with upwards of $2 trillion in losses and destroying all entitlements in a few years' time I suggest you have a mental examination and get your lithium dose adjusted.

Your approval rating and in fact American's tolerance of this blatant fraud, theft and chicanery is about to go straight down the toilet.

If you have an interest in having a successful Presidency (not to mention any chance of a second term or even a stable, sound America to be President of) you must immediately do all of the following:

Revoke ALL of the so-called "23A Exemptions." Bernanke issued them, you need to direct him to revoke them. Safety and soundness of the banking system must come before any one firm or group of firms. There are literally hundreds of banks that are perfectly sound. There are also a bunch of big campaign contributing banks that are bankrupt and have been for the last eighteen months. Americans know this - the secret is out and its time to quit LYING.
Send in the examiners. Yeah, I know, you're talking about "stress tests". Uh huh. Let's have those examinations now and forevermore in the future be public information. If a bank wants to operate under our laws and have the privilege of fractional reserve banking, they can open their books and examinations at all times to the public. Period.
No more conduits, no more SIVs, no more games. If your "assets" are worth 20 cents on the dollar today that is their price. If that makes you insolvent then you are - period. We have an FDIC and we have the authority to "cram down" failed institutions for a reason. Use it.
Send in the cops. The actions of major institutions up and down the line since this crisis began in mid 2007 and in the years leading up to it is at best grossly negligent and at worst felonious. We the people are done with being the patsies of a handful of thieves and frauds enabled by the 535 crooks in our Capitol. STOP IT NOW and start jailing the crooks or be judged as one of the felons. Your choice.
We are approaching yet another market implosion just like the one in September and October.

While it may come today or tomorrow, I wouldn't take that bet. In fact I expect that people will "rejoice" that you didn't wipe every common stockholder's equity stake in firms like Citibank, Bank America and Goldman Sachs - even though you should. Because I expected you to do the wrong thing, I actually bought some Citibank stock a short while ago. Were you to do the right thing my position would be worthless. It should be worthless. I'll bet its not - at least not immediately (and that I'll make a profit as a consequence of your idiocy.)

When and if this dislocation comes, however, it will destroy what is left of the American Banking System, it will expose that Bernanke has over one trillion dollars of garbage on The Fed's Balance Sheet, and that in turn will destroy the international market for United States Treasury Debt.

In the best case we wind up like Japan and have a bunch of zombies sucking up capital and doing nothing of value for our economy. In the worst case we get much higher yields in the bond market and the near-immediate bankruptcy of hundreds of midsize and larger firms, including virtually all financial firms in the S&P 500 and DOW, along with all major multinationals that have a captive financing function.

The Government cannot backstop it all. If you try the government fails outright. The market is bigger than you, it is bigger than The Fed, it is bigger than Treasury. You are subservient to The Market, not the other way around. Go ask Bill Clinton about The Bond Market when he tried to ramrod his Hillarycare plan through and what the reaction was. That's 1/100th of what you're about to experience.

If Bernanke tries to "cap" yields into such a dislocation (he has threatened to) he will cause everyone who owns Treasury debt to tender it to him with the consequence that he will be forced to print five trillion dollars in "new money". This will result in an eighty percent devaluation of the dollar almost instantaneously; gasoline will go to $10/gallon, Milk to $15/gallon, a loaf of bread to $10 and a hamburger at McDonalds will likewise be $10. Due to global wage arbitrage wages will not increase; this will as a consequence immediately render 50% or more of Americans homeless, hungry and jobless. What do you think happens next Mr. President?

The disease in our financial system is lying, too much leverage, outright fraud and hidden bankruptcy - all of it perpetrated through and with the explicit permission of government agencies including Congress, The Executive and The Fed. We have lived beyond our means through fraud for nearly 20 years and this is no longer possible. As a direct consequence trust has been destroyed and private capital has fled our credit markets and will not return so long as these diseases remain in the system.

Hiding the facts cannot cure the disease; the excessive debt must be defaulted; you cannot fix it by transferring where the leverage goes, such as to Treasury or The Fed. The liars and frauds must be exposed, charged and locked up, not protected and bailed out. Standards of living will contract and people must learn to live within their ability to earn, including the government, irrespective of politicians that think they can promise to borrow ever-increasing sums forever.

CONT.

[homedawg]

cont.

President Obama, this next crash in the markets, if it occurs, is your sole responsibility.

It will come as a consequence of your policies where you intend to try to shift the BANKRUPT institutions' losses to The Taxpayer - a debt that America cannot finance and which foreign governments and investors WILL NOT cover.

I'm well-aware of the Washington DC policy called "kick the can" but the can is now full of cement and if you think you'll get through your term before this all comes home to roost you are, to be polite, nuts.

You must stop the stupidity and you must stop it NOW.

The game of obfuscation and literally violating investors both foreign and domestic as a consequence of fraud countenanced by our government is over.

Both Americans and foreigners know about the lying and fraud; it is pointless to continue to dissemble and obfuscate as you are merely making a fool of yourself.

If you do not understand this and are being led by your "advisers", many of whom are the very people who advocated the changes in policy over the last 20 years that brought us here, you need new advisers, and you need them today.

By tomorrow it may not matter, and it will certainly be your fault

[homedawg]

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[manmythlegend]

not sure how you put the videos up here...but here is a pretty good video of Jim Rodgers talking about Tim Geithner's bailout plan

YouTube - Jim Rogers about Tim Geithner testiomony 2009.02.11

[homedawg]

not sure how you put the videos up here...but here is a pretty good video of Jim Rodgers talking about Tim Geithner's bailout plan

YouTube - Jim Rogers about Tim Geithner testiomony 2009.02.11

Good vid, thanks! :thumbs:

When you want to post the video, copy and paste the EMBED code (its on the right under URL)




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[homedawg]

The Daily Show: Clusterf#@k to the Poor House - The Stimulus Package


<style type='text/css'>.cc_box a:hover .cc_home{background:url('http://www.comedycentral.com/comedycentral/video/assets/syndicated-logo-over.png') !important;}.cc_links a{color:#b9b9b9;text-decoration:none;}.cc_show a{color:#707070;text-decoration:none;}.cc_title a{color:#868686;text-decoration:none;}.cc_links a:hover{color:#67bee2;text-decoration:underline;}</style><div class='cc_box' style='position:relative'><a href='http://www.comedycentral.com' target='_blank' style='display:inline; float:left; width:60px; height:31px;'><div class='cc_home' style='float:left; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-width:1px 0px 0px 1px; width:60px; height:31px; background:url("http://www.comedycentral.com/comedycentral/video/assets/syndicated-logo-out.png");'></div></a><div style='font:bold 10px Arial,Helvetica,Verdana,sans-serif; float:left; width:299px; height:31px; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-width:1px 1px 0px 0px; overflow:hidden; color:#707070; position:relative;'><div class='cc_show' style='position:relative; background-color:#e5e5e5;padding-left:3px; height:14px; padding-top:2px; overflow:hidden;'><a href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/' target='_blank'>The Daily Show With Jon Stewart</a><span style='position:absolute; top:2px; right:3px;'>M - Th 11p / 10c</span></div><div class='cc_title' style='font-size:11px; color:#868686; background-color:#f5f5f5; padding:3px; padding-top:1px; line-height:14px; height:21px; overflow:hidden;'><a href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=218356&title=clusterf#@k-to-the-poor-house' target='_blank'>Clusterf#@k to the Poor House - The Stimulus Package</a></div></div><embed style='float:left; clear:left;' src='http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:218356' width='500' height='400' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='window' allowFullscreen='true' flashvars='autoPlay=false' allowscriptaccess='always' allownetworking='all' bgcolor='#000000'></embed><div class='cc_links' style='float:left; clear:left; width:358px; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-top:0px; font:10px Arial,Helvetica,Verdana,sans-serif; color:#b9b9b9; background-color:#f5f5f5;'><div style='width:177px; float:left; padding-left:3px;'><a target='_blank' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/index.jhtml'>Daily Show Full Episodes</a><br /><a target='_blank' href='http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/important_things/index.jhtml'>Important Things With Demetri Martin</a></div><div style='width:177px; float:left;'><a target='_blank' href='http://www.indecisionforever.com'>Funny Political News</a><br /><a target='_blank' href='http://www.jokes.com'>Joke of the Day</a></div><div style='clear:both'></div></div><div style='clear:both'></div></div>