Who Says a Live of Crime Doesn't Pay?

As President Bush defends the US Treasury's decision to guarantee $306 billion of Citigroup's troubled mortgages and toxic assets, in addition to the $20 billion, which escalates the total cost of this "rescue" to $7.76 trillion, one has to wonder about the "reality" of the structure that underlies our monetary system. Does it even exist? Or, have the last few decades of "free market" and "dereg" politics wiped it out entirely, leaving only a verisimilitude of architecture in its place?

What can we do about it? How can we begin to figure out what needs to be done or what's going on, when most of us, afflicted by nausea and whiplash from the 401k roller coaster, must find the time to sort out information flying at us like a thousand bats straight out of hell? It's impossible. Nevertheless, as detrimental as this cyclone of fiscal "intelligence" is for us, it seems very convenient for the powers that be. After all, confusion, panic, and mayhem provide the perfect cover for all sorts of illicit activity...the kind of activity this administration thrives on to fulfill its agenda.

When you consider that the role of the Federal Reserve and the Treasury is to prevent panic, keep order, and instill calm into the markets, it's disturbing to to think back on Henry Paulson's frantic message. As Terry Gross asked one of her economist guests, "How did the situation go from the Secretary of the Treasury telling us everything is under control to...you have to pass this bill immediately, or else the whole system is going to crash, there is no time to think about it, there is no time to debate. Stop asking for changes. You've got to do it right now."

Paulson tells us that this is an investment, not expenditure, and that we the taxpayers should earn a rate of return eventually. However, we're investing our money in bankrupt institutions without any knowledge of the type of collateral that borrowing banks are offering, and the Federal Reserve will not disclose that information. Moreover, what about all the money the government is pledging? Take Citigroup. We are "loaning" $20 billion to this bank, but we're guaranteeing over $300 billion...so, which part of that money do we have the potential to earn a return?

The "banking system" as a whole is protected. What is not protected is the U.S. taxpayer, and the purchasing power of the dollar when the According to the Congressional Budget Office, the government's pledge will cost every man, woman and child in the country, $24,000. Do you think the banksters care?

Several of the highest-paid college presidents said that they would give back part of their pay or forgo their raises, meanwhile, back at bailout central, the bankers and CEOs...the ones who put our entire economy at risk and who will collect billions of our dollars, show no significant changes in how they pay top executives except Goldman Sachs. However, even Goldman Sachs still plans to pay its more than 400 partners bonuses averaging $4.5 million.

Breakdown of the U.S. government's rescue efforts.

Question to ponder:
How does the North American Union factor into this, if at all?

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Paulson and Bush Don't Want to Help We the People

With the bailout total at $3.8 trillion and the financial crisis tab totaling $4.28 trillion (according to CNBC) and counting, as this is far from over, it's important to note that most of this "bailout" money is targeted toward the financial sector...the bankers...the part of our economy that does not produce.

"That's $4,284,500,000,000 and more than what was spent on WW II, if adjusted for inflation, based on our computations from a variety of estimates and sources.*"

So, what about the auto industry? Well, some are saying let them go bankrupt and restructure under Chapter 11. However, while the big three undertake an impossible task, more than 2.5 million jobs could be effected - and that's the number estimated if one car company goes under - possibly throwing our economy into a depression.

"Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson can tap the financial industry bailout money to help auto companies, Reid said, but "he just doesn't want to do it." -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev

Why is it impossible for the auto industry to restructure under Chapter 11? According to Jeffrey Sachs:

"it would accelerate the collapse of consumer demand and the mass bankruptcy of parts manufacturers. Consumers choose vehicles in part on their expectation of the long-term health of the companies that make them, which they rely on for parts, service and resale values."

It seems more than a little suspicious that President Bush, with only two months left as President, who is no stranger to big spending, and who had little trouble pledging $1 trillion to bail out Wall Street, despite his "free market" rhetoric, has decided not to intervene on behalf of the people.

Under the present Federal Reserve and national banking system, there are no laws that specifically protect the American public's money. Paulson and Bush know this better than anyone.

After Wall St. Rescue, Bush Changes Course on Intervention

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Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow...

One of the hardest things to accept, and perhaps the most frustrating aspect of this crisis, is that what so many of us worked so hard to obtain, over years, decades and in some cases, a half-century, disappeared in a mater of days.

What's the point? Why did I "waste" my time? Why should I continue, "wasting" my time, if what I worked so hard for can evaporate before my very eyes?

And to make things worse, it's all due to the greedy decisions of a few "tax-payer-blood drenched" psychopaths seated on their waste-collecting, solid-gold thrones, embedded in their castles sculpted from the bones of hard-working, tax-paying, red-blooded (is there any other kind?) Americans.

John Bogle, founder of Vanguard, and inventor of the first mutual index fund in 1975, which introduced investing to the middle class is one of the good guys. He has predicted this all along. He refers to the daily moves of the stock market as "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

The basic lesson in all of this is that our financial system is based on nothing more than an illusion. However, the key line in the MacBeth's passage that John Bogle took that quote is "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow". Increasingly we have come to expect more and more and to pay for it later and later. This way of thinking has grown to epidemic proportions and unfortunately, the time has come to pay Peter Piper. Unfortunately, this crisis does not discriminate between the so-called "guilty" and "innocent" nor does it discriminate between those who have time to build up their retirement and those who are set to retire now.

MacBeth to messenger:
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

In the long run, this financial "crisis" may be a gift to American culture as it might provide those of us, or most of us - who bought into and consequently became addicted to consumerism - a way out, where they will not be alone. They will have the company of millions of other Americans breaking free of a culture saturated with consumer goods.

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Bush's 2009 Budget Proposal Speaks Volumes.

All future historians will have to do is read through President George W. Bush's 2009 budget proposal and they will know all about his presidency, what kind of man he is, what he values and most importantly, if this proposal goes through, why the United States of America is a third-world country.

At a time when the U.S. economy is lagging, job growth is at an all time low, and the housing industry is in freefall, President George W. Bush's $3.1 trillion budget for the 2009 federal fiscal year proposes to cut approx. $15 billion in federal program spending while making his tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans permanent, saving them approx. $51 billion, not to mention his three-quarters of a trillion dollar defense budget.

According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities if the President's budget goes through, taxpayers who make over $1 million, 0.3% of the population, will save $51 billion. In 2009 alone, 0.3% of the population will gain $12 billion more than the entire bottom 60 percent of the U.S. income distribution, households that make $50,000 a year or less.

In addition, according to the CBPP, the nation's most affluent 1 percent, households currently making over $450,000 a year, would save $1.1 trillion over the next decade, if the Bush tax rates remain in effect, over $180 billion more in tax savings than the savings that would go to America's entire bottom 80 percent combined.

151 federal programs would be eliminated or reduced. President Bush wants to cut spending on anti-poverty, housing and social service programs and federal health programs. He wants to cut funding for teaching hospitals and freeze medical research. 47 programs from the Department of Education would be eliminated and he would reduce anti-terrorism grants for states and cities. Medicare would be cut by $12.1 billion and public broadcasting would be cut by 50 percent.

The Department of Labor, the federal agency in charge of administering and enforcing wage and hour laws, health and safety regulations, pension plan oversight, unemployment benefits, and job training, along with many other programs says the 2009 Bush Budget would leave America's workers behind

His proposed budget cuts would be a disaster for HIV AIDS,

"This budget shows an irresponsible neglect of our burgeoning domestic epidemic" (AHF release, 2/4). Gene Copello, executive director of the AIDS Institute, said, "While the President's FY 2009 budget carries good news for addressing the global pandemic, it is terribly inadequate to address the epidemic in our own backyard. Following a trend now for several years, this budget will only further destabilize the prevention of HIV and the care and treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS in our own country" -- Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation

The National Priorities Project reveals critical dangers for state budgets and working families by offering a state-by-state breakdown of how Bush's proposed budget cuts would impact on the states.

Effects of the Bush Tax Cuts through 2006 by Income Group.

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Fiscal Wake-Up Tour

The national debt is expanding by about $1.4 billion a day or nearly $1 million a minute and currently stands at over $9.3 trillion. Interest payments, at $227 billion last year have already become the fifth largest item in the federal budget. The Bush administration will leave office with the national debt at over $10 trillion, up from $5.6 trillion when they took office.

The Fiscal Wake-Up Tour, a group of traveling economists, on the road since 2005, are sounding the alarm, hoping to shed light on the long-term federal budget and the fiscal problems we face in the future if we continue on the same path. Their goal is to inspire regular Americans to start thinking about our fiscal future hoping they will ask politicians to come up with a solution.

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Bush Proposes Steep Cuts to PBS Funding

This, from a President, that wants “No Child Left Behind” and strongly promotes cleaning up what children are exposed to in the media. "No Child Left Behind" will leave many less fortunate children behind, because it encourages teachers to "teach the test" instead of providing a dynamic learning environment for young minds to flourish and prepare them for the ever changing world in which we now live.

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