We are near the third stage of a classic ploy. The ploy is to create a crisis, wait for a reaction (or incite one, if necessary), and then introduce a pre-packaged solution. In the present case, the collapse of major financial institutions is the engineered crisis, the call for radical action to save the U.S. economy from destruction is the reaction, and the solution is to grant previously unthinkable authority to a select few to get us out the crisis. The specific form of the solution is found in the recent bill proposed by the Treasury Department. You can read it here.
Below I shall give the highlights of the bill and interpose some analysis and comments along the way.
The Solution
(1) Section 6 authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury (Secretary hereafter) to spend up to $700 billion on mortgages and mortgage-related assets. According to section 12(1), a “mortgage-related asset” is a “residential or commercial mortgages and any securities, obligations, or other instruments that are based on or related to such mortgages.” This means that the Secretary is authorized to not only buy the bad sub-prime mortgage packages that Fanny and Freddie bundled together and sold on open exchanges throughout the world, but he may also purchase credit default swaps and any other over-the-counter derivatives that are in any way related to mortgage assets.
The reason for this flexibility is obvious. The sub-prime mess is not the underlying problem. The real problem is the huge amount of money at risk in the over-the-counter derivatives market (particularly credit default swaps) that are connected to the bad loans. While the amount of the mortgage loans is over $7 trillion, the notional value of the credit default swaps is over $60 trillion. (To put this figure in perspective, it is roughly equivalent to the combined GNP of every nation in the world.) Defaults on sub-prime loans are merely the fuse that have set off the derivative bomb.
(2) Section 2(a) says the Secretary can spend this $700 billion at his own discretion.
(3) Section 2(b)(5) says that the Secretary will regulate himself.
(4) Section 8 states that of the Secretary’s action pursuit to the authority given to him in the bill may not be reviewed by any agency or court.
Taking (1)-(4) together, the proposed bill gives the Secretary a check for $700 billion to spend however he wishes within wide and vague parameters. The Secretary, moreover, has the authority regulate himself with no outside interference. And, to cap it all off, none of his actions are subject to lawsuits or outside review.
But this is not all.
(5) Section 2(b)(3) authorizes the Secretary to make private or corporate financial institutions agents of the government. The Secretary may, thus, at his own discretion, nationalize any or all banks, savings and loans, and other U.S. financial institutions.
(Think of the many implications of this. Here is one. Suppose your bank is taken over by the Department of the Treasury. Suppose further that the IRS, a bureau of Treasury, says you own $25,000 in Federal income tax. What is to stop Treasury from freezing your account or taking the $25,000 outright?)
(6) While the $700 billion figure is staggering, it is not the limit the Treasury may spend on mortgage-related instruments. Here is the language.
“The Secretary’s authority to purchase mortgage-related assets under this Act shall be limited to $700,000,000,000 outstanding at any one time”
Note the qualifier, “outstanding at any one time.” This means that the Treasury, at the direction of the Secretary, can buy up to $700 billion worth of over-the-counter derivatives from banks and other financial institutions, sell them off and then buy more of these assets.
This is how the scam works in simple terms. On Monday the Secretary goes all in and buys $700 billion worth of assets from at-risk banks and other financial institutions — paying, of course, full face-value price for instruments worth practically nothing. On Tuesday he sells these “assets” off for a penny to the dollar. (This assumes they will fetch anything; but no matter, if the garbage cannot be sold on the open market, it will be laundered through Goldman Sachs who will purchase it with money “lent” to it by the Fed.). The result is a $693 billion loss. You might deduce from this that the Treasury now has only $7 billion left to buy more assets. Simple math, right? Wrong. After clearing these “assets” from its books, the Treasury account now has, well, no assets. And if it has no assets, it has no money outstanding. Thus the Secretary is free to spend another $700 billion. This process can be repeated as many times as the Secretary deems necessary. And with trillions of dollars worth of garbage entered on the balance sheets of the financial institutions, he will go to the well as many times as necessary to restore confidence in the mortgage and credit default swap markets.
The language of this bill, in effect, gives the Secretary unlimited funds. He could literally buy up all of the mortgage-related assets in the United States.
(7) Since section 8 says that the Secretary’s actions are non-reviewable and no legal action may be taken against him, and since section 2(b)(3) says that the Secretary may designate private financial institutions as agents of the federal government, it follows that no legal actions may be taken against them either. In other words, if Goldman Sachs is designated an agent of the government, then it is immune from legal action as long as it can claim it was working on behalf of the Treasury.
Addenda
(8) The bill that I am commenting on was the one proposed on Friday. This week we learn that there have been a few changes over the weekend, specifically section 2(a). Below is the original wording:
“Authority to Purchase.– The Secretary is authorized to purchase, and to make and fund commitments to purchase, on such terms and conditions as determined by the Secretary, mortgage-related assets from any financial institution having its headquarters in the United States.”
(a) According to Henry Paulson, the revised proposal allows him, as Secretary of the Treasury, to purchase mortgage-related assets from financial institutions wherever it has its corporate headquarters. So the Secretary may buy up the non-performing assets of British (say Barclays), Swiss (say UBS), German (say Deutsche Bank) and Israeli (say the Bank of Israel) institutions. This implies that American taxpayers could possibly buy out all of the world’s bad mortgage-related securities.
(b) According to the Treasury Department’s Fact Sheet on the proposed bill published on Saturday (September 20), the Secretary has further powers:
“Treasury will have authority to issue up to $700 billion of Treasury securities to finance the purchase of troubled assets. The purchases are intended to be residential and commercial mortgage-related assets, which may include mortgage-backed securities and whole loans. The Secretary will have the discretion, in consultation with the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, to purchase other assets, as deemed necessary to effectively stabilize financial markets.”
Either the proposed bill has been amended since Friday or the Treasury department interprets “mortgage-related assets” (section 2(a)) so broadly that it includes any assets at all. Whatever the case, when the bill passes, the Secretary will have the authority to buy GM, Ford, Delta, Google, Microsoft, and Wal-Mart stocks. And more than this. He can, in principle, buy corn, lumber, rum, and the warehouses to store them in, if he deems it necessary. And remember, he needs nobody’s approval to purchase any of these things.
If (b) is combined with (a), the Secretary will have the authority purchase stocks, bonds, land, sugar, vodka and plastic toy soldiers from any country in the world.
(9) Congress this week has expressed some concern about section 8 (the section that turns the Secretary the dictator of the U.S. economy). This will probably be amended to allow for an oversight board to review the Secretary’s decision. Such a board will in actually do nothing proactive. Its only function will be to provide a platform for politicians to grandstand from when the dollar begins to melt away to nothing due to the massive deficits and monetary creation that will be caused by implementation of this bill.
Conclusion
This bill will pass. It may not pass in its present form, but any changes to it will be cosmetic. Do not bother to write your Senators and Representatives. There is nothing you can do about it. Remember, this is the pre-planned solution to the pre-planned crisis. Even if morons in Congress had the wit to understand the implications of this bill, they do not have the courage to stand against it.
But what you can do is prepare for bad economic times. The nation’s debt is already unpayable unless the dollar is inflated to oblivion. This bill ensures that the rate of inflation will accelerate. Foreign dollar-holders see the writing on the wall. Some have already begun to move away from the dollar. When China and Japan start to diversify out of the dollar, the game is over.
The dollar is going to tank. The only question is how fast. Your dollar-denominated assets will fall with the dollar. In order to protect yourself from this collapse, get out of the dollar. Remember, in a collapsing market, the suckers are always the last ones out. You can bet your last nickel that the big boys on Wall Street are taking their huge bonuses and buying non-dollar denominated assets. Do not be a sucker.
On last thing. When the dollar collapses, the economy will collapse. When the economy collapses, all the veneer of a free republican government will be peeled away. This will result first in social upheaval (the next crisis), then a call for the feds to protect us (the reaction) and then, obligingly, the feds will grant us social stability in the form of a police state and a new regional or international currency. Of course the U.S. is already a police state in theory, but after the economic fall, it will become one in practice. You would do well to prepare for this also.
Here is Edgar Steele’s take on the bailout.
I was wondering why it took so long for this article to be posted. Even to me, this buyout idea looks like a scam. I don’t go so far as to expect the dollar to collapse, but who knows.
I wonder if there is any hope within the Federal Government to essentially pull a Joseph and walk away from the mess with ownership of most of America.
I just finished watching an interview with Ron Paul on Fox Buisness where he was asked by one of the talking heads “Why shouldnt we take these guys at their word? Why shouldent we do what they are saying we must do? Why would they propose all this if it wasent sound and needed and wise etc.? How utterly foolish and absurd can men be? Watching all the glitz and self righteousness, the house built on the sand, wash away, is increadable – watching these morons with their flashy news programs, their love of self, and hatred of God’s law, their mindless sheeplike following of an utterly currupt system and the liers and manipulators that they lean upon has been quite the awakening. Either the whole thing has been orchestrated and engeniered, which seems to be the case, and for those who may find such a statement to be a load of tosh what can one do? the evidence is simply overwelming, or the folly of sinfull autonomy is reaping what it has sown and the vultures are circling ready to scrap all they can. These vultures are ever so cunning and their plan will work for now – their sheer will is alarming – while Christians remain programed and preocupied with drooling over Palin and Republican ra raing the cryptocracy is hard at work with an objective they dont waver from and have obviously spent time and enrgy thinking about – if only the Christians would spend as much time and energy studying and properly applying the Word of Truth as the crypt does serving their master.
Henry Paulson, to use the humorous metaphor of Max Keiser, is Colonel Kurtz, gone up-river. Strange times we live in, when we have to watch a journalist in Tehran interviewing an American expatriate in Paris to find out what is really going on in the land of the slaves and the home of the dupes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-F89sIDDVI
Of course there will be a bailout after the suitable period of political posturing, hand-wringing, and moralizing. Our “elected” leaders will be “forced” to do what they really don’t want to do…blah, blah, blah. This is another reason why everyone should read Griffin’s “The Creature from Jekyll Island.”
http://www.amazon.com/Creature-Jekyll-Island-Edward-Griffin/dp/0912986409
He recounts the entire history of bailouts. Have we forgotten Robert Rubin, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, former Secretary of the Treasury (does this sound familiar yet?) and his Mexican bailout. We were told in ominous tones of the consequences if we didn’t go along, how far worse off we would all be…blah, blah, blah. Remember, those Congressional votes are choreographed events. Everyone already knows how everyone else will vote, and just how many can remain on the moral high ground and still have the taxpayer impaled. Reading Griffin, you will quickly realize how many bailouts there have been(e.g. Chrysler, S&L ) which you either forgot about or were too young to remember, and then you will recognize the script they are currently working from. The bailouts enrich the banksters by enlisting another generation of greater fools:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory
The bailouts are baked into the cake of the fiat money, fractional reserve banking ponzi scheme.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/bush-mccain-blackmail-america-with-economic-terrorism.html
I thought the crisis caught everyone in New York and Washington by surprise. Why then was the Treasury proposal written months ago?
“[White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony] Fratto insisted that the plan was not slapped together and had been drawn up as a contingency over previous months and weeks by administration officials. He acknowledged lawmakers were getting only days to peruse it, but he said this should be enough.”
Source
I found this article from the Times interesting. Check the date.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE7DB153EF933A0575AC0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
This is an important article.
http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1222371331.php
Read all the links and you will understand how desperate the situation really is, particularly how vulnerable the US is to Asian countries dumping T-bonds. They all want to eventually, but its the prisoners dilema. Also at the end of the article evidence is presented that US troops are being repatriated as the first step to martial law.
If anyone doesn’t trust the link in the last article regarding Iraq-hardened veterans coming to the homeland to “help-out,” because the source was Cuban, here is the Army’s own website glorying in their new role. Don’t cry for me Posse Comitatus, the truth is we never loved you…
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/army_homeland_090708w/
Read these articles and watch the clips associated with them -
http://www.prisonplanet.com/congresswoman-criminal-insiders-behind-bailout-bill.html
http://www.prisonplanet.com/ron-paul-bailout-will-destroy-dollar-world-economy.html
Rep.Michael Burgess on The Alex Jones Show “Martial Law”1/3 – the rep from texas who made the martial law reference on the floor yesterday, see the above links, is today on the Jones show – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KGopDyE-ho
after watching the above clips if your interested in Jones’ entire Live show today it can be found here pt 1 (Bob Darcy on around pt 5 or 6 followed by Michael Burgess) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxh7dTQrTSs&feature=related
Below is a good article about financial planners. The bottom line is do not rely on them.
Look… Gold $1125 Per Ounce Now
Neil Charnock
http://www.goldoz.com.au
Sep 30, 2008
That is not a miss-quote it is the price of gold in Aussie dollars as I turn on my computer this morning. The worst of our fears have emerged for the financial system and it is too late for blame and I see no point in that anyway. It is not a constructive state of mind and more than ever people need to be constructive in this climate.
I managed to rescue my own father from the crisis only very recently – he refused to listen to me in years past but he did ask me to talk to his “Financial Advisor” to see if Charlie thought my thesis about gold and silver had merit. That was about 4 – 5 years ago. I will put Charlie’s reply politely – “time is money and you are wasting mine so go away and stop bothering me”.
I do not hold the whole profession responsible but it is interesting – I have come up with a correct term for the Profession of “Financial Advisor” and it is not really Charlie’s fault in a sense. It is a factor of his education and the role of the profession is to place people’s assets in mainstream structured financial vehicles.
Anyway my more correct term for that profession is: “Super Annuation & Tax Educated Capital Collection & Fee Based Cash Dispersal Agents”. I will put my analysis on this politely – they have no actual analysis to fall back on beyond their own meager understanding of the true nature of economic cycles and money. Instead they rely on general knowledge of investment vehicles and as I said; Super & Tax law. In good times this worked however that party was long over before that profession had any clue.
Sadly I had to say to my father that I had watched his losses grow to a point where he would be ready to listen to me at long last and he did. Charlie watched my father withdraw what is left of his capital in horror stating that it was crystal ball stuff and that he recommended my father not to take this course of action.
Was it really crystal ball analysis? I don’t think so and had told my father (structural engineer) that if he saw a bridge being constructed that was vastly under engineered – sub standard construction – then he would “predict” disaster at some point.
Why do I point this rather personal situation out here? Because I bet most of the readers of this article have tried to tell friends, family and associates about the impending crisis to no avail. Why do we bother? Because we care that people are going to suffer more than they are aware – they assigned their own financial well being to others and it was like assigning the job of shepherd to a pack of wolves. We instinctively want a pleasant society to live in and the building blocks of the society are the people so we try to assist those around us.
Like my father perhaps it is not too late – you can now try to talk to people again and they may have suffered enough pain to listen at long last. Once they have had their “financial reality” shattered they will be off balance and upset which is a great shame however at least they may now listen.
Anyone care to say what they think the Dow will go down to prior to it ever getting back to 14,000? I’ll go first. 7,000 to 8,000.
Ron
Secondly, why do the financial advisors, even after admitting that we won’t be out of this mess for at least six and probably not until 2010, announce that we should continue to remain in the market? Certainly I could understand their advise to tough it out if they thought that the market was merely reflecting a short-term correction. In other words, if this was a correction then it would be smarter to remain in the market because the capitulation would be right around the corner and nobody wants to miss the bounce, which too often looks like a sharp V. But if – as *they* say(!) – the turnaround is not going to be for at least six months, then why shouldn’t the advice be to stay out of the market for the next five months? And for those who say things aren’t going to turn around for a year, then why all the advice to stick it out?
One bit of advice from a guy who is not a trader but watches the market somewhat closely… First off, I’m out, not because I’m a tader but because I am an investor! Here’s my prophecy. Once there’s a washout, there will be a bounce – even a 20% bounce, but that won’t be the turnaround. I think it will go down again to at least the point where the bounce took off from. Here’s my rationale. I’m expecting the panic to set in way before the economy turns around. The panic will trigger high volume selling (the washout). The day after all that will be left are buyers who had been waiting for the washout. That’s where the pop will come from and it could last for two months. That’s one pop I’m not going to try to get in on, even though I suspect that it could last two months. The risk is too high for a bear market.
Back to preparing for SS and watching the Phils.
Ron
Regarding Financial Planners…
We aren’t all bad. Some of us read this blog and are praying that God’s word will wash away the secular baggage.
That process is starting to work into my day to day. I told a client the other day to pull all his market based assets and buy real estate. He has two thirty something sons and I told him that if they wanted an inheritance then they needed to be there to assist in the work it would take. I told him to take the remainder and buy gold.
The only thing is, I’m not real sure how I’m going to make a living given my new way of thinking. Perhaps I should go get a real estate license or begin giving seminars and charging a fee. It is an interesting time for me.
I’ve given a large part of my life to my career. I’ve got 14 years experience, three securities licenses and the CFP credential. All of which has been made worthless as I’ve experienced my personal reformation. I guess I shouldn’t say worthless, but certainly worth less given my new worldview.
Thoughts on where I go from here would be appreciated.
CAH,
I appreciate your candor and plight. Thank you.
Depending on where you live, your personality and contacts, real estate could be a fine option to position yourself within for the long term. The main problem with that career is that it would be hard to make a living, let alone be successful, without breaking the Sabbath. Have you thought of the insurance industry (not necessarily selling), if your bent runs toward financials? Or if you like statistics and risk management, actuaries work in all economic sectors and that seems like stimulating work.
May God bless you (and all of us) in these times ahead.
Ron
Take a look here my brother: http://www.beanactuary.org/
Ron
Thanks Ron,
CAH -
No, of course, not all financial planners have got the current “crisis” wrong; just 99.9% of them.
The dow is not the news. Nor is the collapse of the financial system. Nor even the coming melt-down of the dollar. The news is, for those who have not figured it out yet, is that we are on the verge of having the executive declare martial law.
I have made the case that the Military Commissions Act along with the “Patriot Acts” and executive orders have turned us effectively into a police state already. A police state de jure if not de facto. It will soon be de facto.
In case you have not heard, a Representative said last week on the floor on Congress that a number of his colleagues were told that martial law would be declared if the bail-out bill was not passed.
The economic “crisis” is getting worse. The consequences of it will go well beyond financial hardship. There is still time to prepare. Please use it.
Friends,
I walked out of the commercial banking industry in 1989. I was a former owner of a community bank and a M&A consultant during the troubled 1980s. (A few weeks later I found myself in the Fulton County, GA prison farm for a week-end arrested for blocking doors to an Atlanta abortion clinic and I’ve never looked back.) It is a fiat system, immoral from within and without. I have, since 1989, told friend, family and readers of my elist to liquidate all retirement funds, pay the penalties and taxes and invest the rest in gold and silver. Not one, to my knowledge, listened. Now my phone won’t stop ringing. I’m telling most now to read Rushdoony’s Larceny in the Heart.
MRB, you said:
“There is still time to prepare. Please use it.”
What are the best ways to prepare for this?
Since recently reading “Gulag Archipilego” I vividly remember the way ol’ Mr. Solzhenitsyn described the interrogation of Russian’s who decided to withold gold or silver bulion from the Government.
I’m wondering if books might be more valuable than gold or silver at this point? There are concepts that I desperately want to grasp and I’m afraid I’ll lose my chance in a “police state.”
You guys will have to pardon my sunny disposition though. (I attribute it to my Southern upbrining.) No tyrant can tax a sunset, and I’m devoted to seeking out and enjoying the small pleasures in life, no matter what my current situation may be.
Scott -
Well, you can’t eat concepts. But otherwise, your attitude is the right one.
Something is not connecting for me here. First, 7 Trillion is the mortgage number, but 60 Trillion is the CDS number. Just what risk was being layed off to the CDS writer? I mean, various CDS writers offered to accept risk from whom and for what? You can’t have 60 Trillion of risk from 7 Trillion of transactions. Obviously, I’m not understanding something here.
On another note, I looked at a CMO today which was sent to me by our bond desk. This piece of paper was selling for 41 cents on the dollar. The yield to maturity was 20% per year. Only 7% of mortgages in it were bad. Yet, it traded at 41 cents. In order for this paper to be worth that, 100% of the mortgages could fail and the underlying collateral could be cut in half and you would still make money! If 50% of the loans failed and the underlying property lost 100% of its value you would still make money!
I’m not advocating this stuff as an investment, but do you think it is possible that the inside money is buying this stuff only to profit from it later? To quote the immortal philosopher, Johnny Dangerously, “I smell a rat”!
Below is Karl Denninger’s prediction of what will be coming in the near future. (Denninger warned about the economic collapse over a year ago and so it behooves us to listen to him. At the beginning of his article, Denninger advises everyone to be prepared for six months to 2 years of unemployment.
The “no short” rule will ultimately be cited as the reason that the market crashed, being that there were no shorts to cover and thus hundreds of stocks, on that fateful day, went “no bid” and had their prices collapse to zero – all at once.
Oil will collapse in price to $20/bbl. Unfortunately nobody will have any money to buy gasoline, or a car, so it won’t matter. As in The Depression millions of automobiles will be scrapped after being abandoned by their owners for lack of insurance and registration fee money. Cheap scooters will become the dominant form of transportation for those with jobs, as they will be all most people can afford.
As credit collapses distribution of food and other essentials will break down. Unable to access credit, trucking companies will be unable to get goods to market. The current distribution system for food requires travel of over 500 miles from production to consumption; this is untenable in a market where stable credit is unavailable. Food distribution will be severely impacted and in some areas may break down below critical levels.
Unemployment will reach 25% within two years. Median income will fall by 30% nationally. Foreclosures will reach 20 million homes. The government will step in with HOLC-style remediation but it won’t matter – the unemployed won’t be able to pay irrespective of the price.
House prices will fall to well under $100,000 nationally on a median basis but with lending all but non-existent you’ll need 50% down. A few people will make out like bandits near the bottom, being able to buy up homes for $10,000 each in blocks of 10 at a time – for cash. 60% of America will be renters; nearly half of all homeowners will ultimately lose their homes to foreclosure.
Civil unrest will break out in major cities when incomes fall but the cost of food and essential services fail to come down materially, leaving millions of Americans hungry, broke and homeless. Unlike in the 1930s America will not quietly stand in soup lines – instead they will riot, loot and burn. The National Guard will be called up but will find it impossible to exert meaningful control without shutting down all commerce in the affected areas. The decision will be made to cordon off the cities and deny entry to anyone who does not live in that specific neighborhood, essentially shutting down commercial activity. GDP will fall by 30%.
The S&P 500 will fall to 150 and flatline, a 90% loss. CNBC and Bloomberg will cease broadcasting. Volume will fall to 10% of former levels.
Mike,
I’m not in a position to argue against KD’s prophecy. I do suppose though that Communism would be a proposed solution to such an America.
Ron
Getting back to financial advisers and mutual fund peddlers, here is an example of just how clueless they are:
“1. In laymen’s terms, what are the root causes of the collapse of Wall Street giants like Lehman Brothers and AIG?”
“You asked in specific terms, and I am going to answer specifically. The “root” causes are leverage and greed, but they are not exclusively the possession of Wall Street execs or anyone else a “laymen” might want to blame.
“The stupidity and greed of plenty of Wall Street “residents” is incontestable, but as a member of the faith-based free market community, I do prefer that Christian people have a deeper understanding of contemporary issues than the one the pop media provides. I think that greedy and covetous borrowers led to market-driven brokers and banks, which cumulatively led to an incomprehensible level of idiocy on Wall Street. No one disagrees with me. Some idiots like Rangel and Schumer want to deal with the second half of that sentence more than the first half. But this leveraged and capital-base fiasco is due to the unchecked greed and stupidity of Wall Street jerks, which obviously came from the incredible greed and covetousness of Main Street residents.”
Sure, greed is the root cause of our economic troubles, but that is like saying hatred is the root cause of war. While true, we hardly need a financial expert to tell us that. And as for leverage, that is just an outgrowth of deeper causes.
Notice what he does not say. He says nothing about fiat currency, nothing about the Fed, nothing about fractional reserve banking, nothing about GSE’s, nothing about market manipulation, nothing about the practical merger of Treasury, Wall Street (esp. Sachs and Morgan) and the SEC, nothing about credit bubbles, nothing about the boom-bust cycle. No. Greed and leverage are the root causes . . . and Democrats.
You say: and Democrats, yet McCain is incapable of articulating why this is the case. It’s pathetic. He couldn’t even explain on Tuesday night why raising taxes on small business will hurt the economy. Was it past his bedtime?
Ron
I just clicked on the link. Say it isn’t so…
Ron -
No, the expert quoted in #28 implicated Democrats.
As for the political blame game, it is unbearable to hear Roboblicans (hey, I like that; maybe it will stick) blame the Democrats. This is like the hooker who turned state witness against her pimp and feigned outrage that he was corrupting the youth of the city.
Let’s say you wanted to skip town before it hits the fan. What other country would you go to? Ireland was ranked best place to live by Economist Magazine (not sure if that means anything though), Australia supposedly has one of the most laissez-faire economies, and Japan has the second largest economy. But what about their morals? I heard recently that China has the fastest growing Christian population, though I don’t recall where I heard that.
Interesting Jonathan. On a plane trip the other day Hannity was told by McCain that as President he’d take Sean on his first trip, which was at that point to be to Ireland. I’m laissez-faire (Chicago School) so I guess Down Under looks good for me, though I prefer pubs to throwing boomerangs. With those essentials aside, I’m glad the thread is open again because I want to clarify a few things I said earlier. It’s not accurate enough to say it’s the Democrats who have caused the crisis. However, it’s inexorably tied to an ideology and practic that is socialistic, which I believe is more consistently maintained in the Democratic Party. My view, to quote Michael Corleone when talking to Senator Geary, is that both parties “are of the same hypocrisy”. Nonetheless, the Dems, I believe, are more self-consciously, or at the very least more consistently socialistic. I might say that they’re smarter in this regard because they are more in touch with their ideologies than the Robots (or however Mike put it), who are in a sense more confused as they remain halt between two opinions.
Back to the phils….
RD
p.s. I see a bottom in the making, but not *the* bottom. I think people are anxious to get back in as we saw in the last hour of trading today…
This is funny.
Foreclosures in So. Cal.