Re: SC76

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20802.htm

You've Been “Shafted” (Again)

............If you want to burden your head with the reasons as to how the U.S. got itself into this predicament, you would have to start with the Ronald Reagan economic policy that the U.S. does not have to generate wealth by making “things”. That led to the policy of off-shoring manufacturing facilities (and now includes the off-shoring of “back room” and support functions), and that led to the realization that the middle class was not required anymore, and that led to the realization that the middle class might as well be plundered (by the wealthy and super-wealthy) until it (along with the working class) had been beaten into working at a subsistence level (until there were no more middle and working class assets to be plundered). But, oops, tertiary businesses that served the manufacturing facilities also went offshore along with the manufacturing facilities, and profit went to the new owners of those manufacturing facilities (in other countries) – thereby creating a spiral of economic destruction for the U.S.

Even the neo-conservatives and the military-industrial complex are not helping. In fact, their humongous expenses and the blowback from their activities are making economic conditions worse. And, let’s not dwell on the destruction of a nation, over 1.2 million people killed (see Lancet Medical Journal poll and http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html ), over 2.4 million people displaced, and over 4,158 U.S. military killed (does not count those who died in Germany, right?).

For just a bit more, one has to realize who the person, next to Ronald Reagan, is most responsible for the economic disaster that has befallen America. And, that person’s name is Phil Gramm. It was Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX) who, along with James Leach (R-IA), authored the “Financial Services Modernization Act” (1999), which repealed significant parts of the Glass-Steagall Act (passed during the Depression to prevent Depression-era conditions from being repeated in the future). This new Act was designed to permit the combining of retail banks and S&Ls with investment (gambling) and insurance companies. Voila, institutions that for a long time made it absolutely safe for Americans to save and borrow, were now a thing of the past, and whatever the combined institutions wanted to do was fair game. Yes, predatory capitalism was made the law of the land.

Next, a year later, Phil Gramm, as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, introduced legislation that completely deregulated the stock market (allowed “dark markets”, as they say). This legislation was called the “Commodity Futures Modernization Act”, and to get it passed, Senator Gramm added it as a 262-page rider to the 11,000-page omnibus appropriations bill (and get this!) just as Congress was recessing for Christmas break! Obviously, there were no committee reviews, and no one knew what was in the rider. Pretty smooth!!! Its first production was to make the “Enron Loophole” possible! So, the Republicans got what they have dreamed of for years – a deregulated financial market without oversight. Sweet, sweet, sweet. Now, plunderers, under this new predatory capitalism mode, could go about doing their dirty work and, as a “thank you”, contribute over and over again to the Republican Party. It’s a win-win for the plunderers and the Republican Party, except they are now getting exposed destroying the U.S. economically. (As smart people have said, “the U.S. will not be destroyed from without; it will be destroyed from within”.) The plunderers get millions and millions (if not billions) of dollars, and the Republican Party gets humongous contributions. As I said, it is a win-win. Except for the American people, of course.

You know the rest of the story – the credit default swaps, OTC derivatives, etc., all made possible by Phil Gramm and his financial lobbyists (who wrote the rider). But don’t feel bad for Phil Gramm; after he left the Senate, he became vice chairman of UBS, the Swiss investment bank.

But, he’s back! Interestingly, Phil Gramm was senior economic advisor to John McCain in his presidential campaign, just before he recently resigned. As you may know, he resigned after he said “Americans were in a mental recession” and “America has become a nation of whiners”. But, don’t worry - Phil Gramm most likely will be tapped to be Secretary of the Treasury if McCain wins the election. So, predatory capitalism may be back again, this time with more verve.............

And if you thought the Federal Reserve, the vehicle of plunder for the super rich was done with their most recent run of frauds perpetrated on the american taxpayer, now they have pulled out a monsterously sized shaft to screw the US public with. Yes they will now create an entity to carry out the most astronomically large bailout in world history. Come one, come all ( american taxpayers not welcome ) to this extravaganza of fraud and corruption. Bring your money troubles all you crimminal bankers and super rich investors without a conscience along with your toxic and worthless debt instuments and we ( oops, I mean the american taxpayers ) will absolve you of all your sins ( oops again, the mass losses from your fraudulent practices ). No worries mate, the game has been reset, now lets get back to business doing what we ( the super rich elites and world class central bankers ) do best, that being doing everything we can think up to get the american middle class to take on as much debt as possible, so we can own them, control them ( oh yeah, and make billions in the mean time ). Why with this move, they ( the american taxpayers ) won't even notice this little extra load ( 2 trillion ) of debt put into the already huge bag of the same we have already blessed them with, since they will be distracted by trying to figure out how there going to make it with no job, empty bank accounts, no money to by food and gass for their cars etc. And if they ever start to wake up from their confused slumbering, The ultra rich and big bankers will cry their crocodile tears while they sit in their mansions, with all their billions socked away safely in offshore accouts. You realy gotta love the wonders of capitalism and free markets unfettered by cumbersome regulations!