Where's The Change?

Obama to Congress: Pass stimulus, don't play games
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama, urgently pressuring lawmakers to approve a massive economic recovery bill, turned his first news conference Monday night into a determined defense of his emergency plan and an offensive against Republicans who try to "play the usual political games."

He said the recession has left the nation so weak that only the federal government can "jolt our economy back to life." And he declared that failure to act swiftly and boldly "could turn a crisis into a catastrophe."

"The party now is over," he said.

"The plan is not perfect," the president said. "No plan is. I can't tell you for sure that everything in this plan will work exactly as we hope, but I can tell you with complete confidence that a failure to act will only deepen this crisis as well as the pain felt by millions of Americans."
http://biz.yahoo.com:80/ap/090209/obama.html


Rest assured this crisis WILL deepen, as will the pain of millions of Americans, whether this bill gets passed or not. Recall a similar threat if the now defiled TARP legislation was being rammed down the throats of Americans, and legislators on Capitol Hill. The crisis has certainly deepened since then. We were told that the Bear Stearns bail out was necessary to avert a further deepening of the banking/credit crisis. Well, things certainly haven't gotten any better, have they? What makes the President believe that this plan is better than all the busts that preceded it? Just because "The People" voted for change, does not mean anything is going to change. Folks have been coming to Washington for years with the idea that "they are gonna change things". Yeah, right. Nothing will ever change in Washington until the people force things to change. How do you spell revolution?

The Presidents "push" on this legislation is less about "avoiding" catastrophe, and more about creating a scenario where he can place the blame for the deepening of the crisis. The President talks about "playing games". He is as much playing political games as all the others.

The President's suggestion that "only the federal government can 'jolt our economy back to life' " is a slap in the face to EVERY working American and businessman. Isn't it starting to become clear that the government is trying to use the "crisis" to take control of the "free markets" that once made this country great and the envy of the world. We fought two World Wars and the Cold War to protect our "free markets" just so the government could steal them from us? Has any of these Capitol Hill legislators read the Constitution recently? I know Ron Paul has. And if people would start listening to this man instead of referring to him as a crackpot, maybe some real solutions to this financial clusterf**k would come forward. It takes brave men to lead others through crisis. There are no brave men in Washington, the President included. The town is full of cowards stitched to the status quo and addicted to the notion that the way to prosperity is by spending money. When will these knuckleheads quit simply throwing money at problems "to make them go away" and actually do something that will make a difference. Sadly, not until the American public demands that they do. Again I ask, how do you spell revolution?

“This year is going to be a difficult year,” Obama warned yesterday. He said he hopes businesses and consumers start spending again and “if we get things right, then, starting next year, we can start seeing significant improvement.”

LOL, where does he get the idea that a year from now there could even be the "possibility" of any improvement, let alone "significant" improvement. It could take an entire generation to recover from this fiasco before we see "significant" improvement. The cause of this fiscal folly didn't develop "overnight", and it's quite unlikely "the fix" will take place "overnight". Of course, we all join the President in hoping that this mess can be put behind us quickly, but it won't be. And it's VERY foolish to even "hope to return things to normal, the way they used to be". Never lose sight of the fact that it was "the way things used to be" that got us here in the first place. If ANYTHING in this country needs to be rebuilt, it's the banking system. And we should start by tearing down the Federal Reserve.

“We are going to have to work with the banks in an effective way to clean up their balance sheets so that some trust is restored within the marketplace,” Obama said in his first prime- time news briefing. At “any given bank they’re not sure what kinds of losses are there. We’ve got to open things up and restore some trust.”

Trust? Who is going to trust the greedy banks after all that they have done to lie and cheat not only the American public, but global investors as well. It is going to take far more than a clean balance sheet for investors to trust the banks again. What actions are going to be taken, what regulations are going to be put in place to GUARANTEE this sort of "financial wizardry" never takes place again? Let's not forget that it was the banking lobby, and a small group of greedy Capitol Hill Legislators that successfully had the Glass-Steagal act repealed and set this whole financial Armageddon in motion. Were it not for the repeal of this law, the nonsense at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, perpetrated during the Clinton Administration, would never have found financing, and the housing bubble inflated.

“We don’t know yet whether we’re going to need additional money or how much additional money we’ll need until we’ve seen how successful we are at restoring a sense of confidence in the marketplace,” Obama said in a news conference last night in Washington.

A "sense" of confidence"? Good freakin luck Mr. President. How many times have the American Public been told already that "this is the plan that will fix everything", "this is the plan that will avert a recession", "this is a plan that will stop home foreclosures", "this is a plan that will make things better by the 'second half' ", "this is a plan that will unlock the credit markets"? How many empty promises, how many TRILLIONS of dollars? Let's face it, the problem is TOO BIG to be fixed with more promises and money printed out of thin air. This problem can ONLY be fixed by going after the "root of the problem", the US FEDERAL RESERVE.

Actions taken to date have merely been attempts at life support for a terminally ill patient. It will take real bravery to step forward and recognize that the patient is doomed to death, and we better start planning now, how we are going to take care of the next generation of Americans before we doom them to financial death before they are even born.

"So my bottom line when it comes to the recovery package is: send me a bill that creates or saves 4 million jobs."

What a ridiculous suggestion. No bill, no matter how crafted, can guarantee the creation of 4 million jobs. No bill, no matter how many promises or guarantees come with it, can create 4 million jobs. Businesses create job, not Capitol Hill legislators. Presidents do not create jobs either. The President is again playing a game here. It's a psychological game with the American people. The goal of the game is to "restore confidence". Good luck Mr. president. As each day passes the American people become more aware of the game, and their distrust of the government and the banks continues to grow. How can you continue to ask the American people to give you their tax money, and then be asked to pay the banks to get it back, with a straight face? They wanted "change" Mr. President. Where's the change?

The Insolvency of the Fed [very insightful read]
Since August 15, 1971 the US dollar has been an irredeemable paper currency. Every irredeemable paper currency in history has failed. Yet, the experiment of the US dollar and the rest of the fiat paper world continues.

Since the crisis broke out, the Fed has continuously weakened the quality of the dollar by weakening its balance sheet. In fact, the assets the Federal Reserve holds have deteriorated tremendously. These assets back the liability side of the balance sheet, which mainly represents the monetary base of the dollar. The assets of the Fed, thereby, hold up the value of the dollar. At the end of the day, it is these assets that the Fed can use to defend the dollar's value externally and internally.

In the analysis of the Fed balance sheet and the condition of the dollar, another detail is extremely important. The equity ratio in the Fed balance has fallen from about 4.5 to 2%.

This figure implies an increase of the Fed's leverage from 22 to 50. As we have seen there are large new positions of dubious quality on the Federal Reserve balance sheet. More specifically, should only 2% of the Fed's assets go into default — or if there is a loss in value of 2% — the Fed becomes insolvent.

Only two things can save the Fed at this point. One is a bailout by the federal government. This recapitalization could be financed by taxes or by monetizing government debt in another blow to the value of the currency.

The other possibility is concealed in the hidden reserves of the Fed's gold position, which is only valued at $42.44 per troy ounce on the balance sheet. A revaluation of the gold reserves would boost the equity ratio of the Fed to 12.35%. [At a market value of $810 per troy ounce, January 15, 2009.]

It is ironic that in troubled times a revaluation of the "barbarous relic" could save the Fed from insolvency. Yet, this would only be an accounting measure and would not change the fundamental problems of the paper dollar. While shooting its last bullets and weakening the dollar, the Fed is outmaneuvering itself. The end of the experiment is getting closer.
http://mises.org/story/3281

Economic Fascism and the Bailout Economy [read it all, and weep]
These scholars agree: we are seeing the bankruptcy of every Western government that has made too many big promises to too many voters regarding free healthcare and guaranteed retirement. All of it will collapse. The tatters of the promises will point to the tatters of those who made the promises – politicians – and the tatters of the system that supposedly was going to guarantee delivery of the promises.

The academics still believe in the healing power of the State. The voters still believe this, too. But voters are catching on more rapidly than the academics that the State is running out of wiggle room. Millions of voters have figured out that they are going to get stiffed. They don't know what to do about it, but at least they understand that they really are going to get stiffed.

The academics say "no." They keep telling all of us that everything is okay, that a few more trillion-dollar deficits will solve the problem. The doubling of the monetary base in 2009 will have no more disruptive effects than the doubling of the monetary base did in the second half of 2008. They tell us all this, but the public is either oblivious, or else is growing suspicious.
http://news.goldseek.com/LewRockwell/1234116000.php