There Won't Be a Recovery

All of the glad-handing, back-slapping self-congratulatory accolades that the Obama administration and Wall Street are heaping upon themselves in the press is scant comfort for the vast majority of citizens now unemployed and of no fixed address. For them, this economic crisis isn’t so much a temporary crisis as a permanent redistribution of wealth and living standards representative of a downgrade in the quality of life.

A dispassionate eye, equitably minded, would regard the current gross imbalance among haves and have-nots as a simple case of injustice, easily rectified. Those traveling daily in jets and Escalades leveraged the savings and credit ratings of the common people to agglomerate assets onto their own balance sheets to satisfy a sense of entitlement derived from an overpriced education.

Simply go back into all the family trusts and holdings of the top 10% of the population, see who made what from which leveraged revenue scheme (or scam, as the case should be), and liquidate the assets of each to the benefit of every impoverished bank account until the distribution of wealth and purchasing power is restored to something approaching equilibrium.

I can hear the howls of protest from the neo-conservative right already, accusations of socialism and communism manifest in their strident shouts. But this nation must surely be growing tired of a financial elite who wave the democracy banner when their hand is in your pocket, and the socialist banner when their little game of marbles goes bust and they stand crying and wailing for government help. Let's reach up high into the financial food chain and pull down a little manna from heaven.

The feeble feints towards the regulation of derivatives is already transparently disingenuous in the preservation of non-standardized privately negotiated contracts from the balancing forces of clearing houses. These are the very contracts that represent the highest dollar figures in the hundreds of trillions of dollars worth of contracts leaning hard over the economy’s tattered remains still. Let's quit faking regulation, and either drop the charade or regulate everything equitably.

If I overuse the term “equitably” in this rant, please forgive me, but that is the commodity most impaired by the government-banking-media mafia’s perennial raids on the American pantry. Equity is the foundation of, if not the spirit, then at least the ideals behind the Constitution. There will be no recovery until that basic premise is liberated from the dungeon under the White House into which it disappeared decades ago.

The terms “equity”, “equitable”, and “equality”, though having different meanings under various subjective subsets, are all derived from a concept embracing fairness.

According to the definition at InvestorWords.com, equity is:

Definition 1
Ownership interest in a corporation in the form of common stock or preferred stock. It also refers to total assets minus total liabilities, in which case it is also referred to as shareholder's equity or net worth or book value. In real estate, it is the difference between what a property is worth and what the owner owes against that property (i.e. the difference between the house value and the remaining mortgage or loan payments on a house). In the context of a futures trading account, it is the value of the securities in the account, assuming that the account is liquidated at the going price. In the context of a brokerage account, it is the net value of the account, i.e. the value of securities in the account less any margin requirements.

Definition 2
Ownership interest in a corporation in the form of common stock or preferred stock.

Definition 3
Total assets minus total liabilities; here also called shareholder's equity or net worth or book value.

Definition 4
The value of a property minus the owner's outstanding mortgage balance.

Definition 5
Fairness in law.

Another decree from the dispassionate eye equitably minded would be to forbid the foreclosure upon any home by an institution who received a bailout under the TARP, TALF, or any other anagrammed government financial rescue program. That would be fair, and equitable. Which, unfortunately, considering the incarceration of those twin concepts, is almost guaranteed not to happen.

Is it coincidental that the “recovery” apparent in inexplicable stock index exuberance happened to coincide with the expiration of the majority of moratoriums on foreclosures? Was the happy countenance of a healthy economy required to distract the nation from the other face whose fangs are now rotating into full view?

The idea of revolution keeps popping up, albeit intermittently, in the fringe blogosphere. I wonder just how far the disconnect goes between what the government-banking-media mafia thinks the public will swallow without complaint, versus the grave and solemn outrage dangerously smoldering in the hearts and minds of its victims that is the reality that brings that idea closer to an explosive existence?

This is the real and stark potential future for the United States. With crime on the rise in virtually all sectors, and the population already armed to the teeth, there is a fine line on the horizon that this organized crime gang seems intent on crossing.

The basic requirement of all humanity is food, shelter, and gainful employment. Historically, armed revolutions are ignited when those basic elements disappear from the daily lives of a majority of the population, such that most have nothing better to do than steal, beg, or roll over and die. When enough of that despair permeates any portion of humanity, there is an organic, deeply-rooted fury that, expressed collectively, has never failed to topple governments and rewrite the world order.

Proponents of globalization point to the fact that there has never been a longer period in the history of the planet where more people have enjoyed a peaceful and prosperous existence.

That may be true, but one must question if that is because we have been living under a system that is for the most part fair and equitable, or have we just so thoroughly mastered the arts of manipulation and delusion through the offices of mass media that there has also never been a time where such astonishingly massive concentrations of personal wealth have accrued to such a proportionate few in the same time span?

The larger question in terms of a recovery is exactly what we must recover? The mafia most clearly wants us to believe that a return to over-leveraged and exuberant economic growth is the priority underlying the idea of recovery. I opine that there is something far more valuable that needs to be recovered, and issues economic are puny in comparison. For without the recovery of equity, there can be no recovery.

Comments

[lex:]

Agreed. Obama is a communist. He's only in power because he was at the right time at the right place. The stock market crash crystallized his path to power. He's engineered fake 2 month rally is coming to an end........lets rise against the communists..aka Obama and team.

May 17 05:39 AM

[abetterplace:]

Yea buddy. Just thinking of where all the happy, equal people are in the world after the upper echelon of citizens were robbed of their money for the benefit of the masses. UH. Uh. uh. Just give me a few minutes, I'm thinking.

May 17 07:49 AM

[russ:]

The author calls his column a 'rant' which is of course a more accurate description that 'well reasoned essay'. As for the comments by Lex as on Obama being a 'communist', where were you when the conservative Republicans were allowing the market and the economy to collapse? Sorry Lex, but you proved yourself to be an ideological 'squirrel,' more at home with your nuts.

May 17 09:33 AM

[No one:]

Right. Much better we should have done nothing, gone through a 24 year depression while those in the know get richer. Not this time... If it has to be Socialism, sobeit.

May 17 09:33 AM

[altaman:]

The options were: 1. do nothing to "fix" the economy meaning follow the laws and let institutions fail and go their bankruptcy; 2. Do things most likely to lead to a real recovery as some point such as lowering taxes across the board or 3. Do lots of radical things to the economy, including capriciously favoring unions over bond holders in bankrupcty, handing out money to politically favored banks, etc, run up gigantic deficits and print a mountain of money.

Obama choose door number 3 and turned a crisis into a catastrophy.

May 17 09:53 AM

[Jimbo:]

Unfortunately, our political system is profoundly broken. BOTH political parties have been corrupted by special interest money which is why the Banksters always seem to land on their feet, no matter what they have done to screw up. When Obama went back on his pledge to run his campaign on public money, I knew the fix was in . I keep harping on two "reforms": Absolute term limits on Congress(have you seen TV shots of Senator Byrd of West Virginia in a wheel chair , slobbering on himself?) a law prescribing a felony for any former member of congress to lobby congress. A very high proportion of senators are millionaires, they should have no need to lobby. They should go home and live under the laws they have created for the rest of us peasants.

May 17 10:43 AM

[schnickelfritz:]

Where were YOU when the marxist Democrats were mandating that common sense and the regulations be overridden and that mortgages via the Community Re-Investment Act, specifically changes made circa 1994 (Fannie, Freddie, Frank, Dodd, and ilk) be given to people who didn't have the means to repay those loans???


On May 17 09:33 AM russ wrote:

> The author calls his column a 'rant' which is of course a more accurate
> description that 'well reasoned essay'. As for the comments by Lex
> as on Obama being a 'communist', where were you when the conservative
> Republicans were allowing the market and the economy to collapse?
> Sorry Lex, but you proved yourself to be an ideological 'squirrel,'
> more at home with your nuts.

May 17 10:59 AM

[a. palmer jr.:]

I consider myself a conservative, however I think I understand the masses wanting to have their piece of the pie back from the people that stole it from them. I've watched undeserving people get ahead just because they were friends or relatives with the higher ups in business and politics. I'm sure after this depression is all said and done there will be even more people who have been stolen from so that someone can rake in millions that they don't need. I'm not sure I'll ever understand the human greed that says a billion dollars is not enough to retire on...we have to swindle the little guy out of even more so that we can have two billion in our account. I just can't make any sense out of it.

May 17 11:08 AM

[jtareen:]

I thought the rant was relevant. There is another term for societies without equity: Third World Countries. We are possibly headed there. May be that is the master plan. The institutions that shape world events and policies are all in the west and value western hegemony over the rest of the world as their only leverage. Instead of allowing third world countries to build capital, the strategy always has been to keep their economies depressed, their govts and citizens dependent on western aid. This strategy is the remnants of the colonial mindset that America inherited from Britain but candy coated it in the form of World Bank, IMF and United Nations. After all, if third world countries were allowed to build their own capital they wouldn't need western aid, therefore free to make their own political and economic decisions. This could possibly lead to an enormous wealth building in those countries resulting in a dramatic power shift away from the Western Hemisphere. To mitigate this there has to be a plan to control the world financial blood stream and that can only happen with a introducing a single world currency, but this would not be acceptable to the American public, for this will require relenting a large amount of say on the part of the American public regarding their own monetary policies and that is why my friends there must be inequity across the political and economic landscape of this nation. A precursor to finally stripping America from its freedom to modulate its own monetary policies. That's my rant and I am sticking to it.

May 17 11:29 AM

[SeekingTruth:]

Well, some people would complain if you hung'em with a new rope.

You have given voice and print that captures some of the dissatifaction and disgruntlement with what has transpired over the past 50 years or so, but it captures and hints at only a minuscule portion of what is driving us toward a diminished and lessened state of government, prosperity, quality of life, and a chance for improvement and progress.
The neocon wave that captured the congress in 1994, ran on the main theme of "term limits", and promised swift and effective action, but once in office , they refused to ever address the subject again, i.e. shoe was now on the other political foot, so no action, and no further discussion on this subject. In fact , once in office, they replaced this theme with the most aggressive gerrymandering effort and incumbent political office protection ever witnessed on this continent - the exact opposite of what they promised.
Most of the public didn't seem to notice and held no one accountable.
As long as public apathy and indifference prevails at past and current levels, the equity that you and I seek (or anything else worthwhile), is not going to happen.

May 17 11:31 AM

[mollytjm:]

very interesting article and, if you are a student of history, based on fact. It's a warning that should be heeded. When 'the right to bear arms' is interpreted to mean automatic weapons, missle launchers aren't far away. an enormous unemployed populace is not a good thing for the stability of any government. Unlike the poor and unemployed of countries like India, ours citizens are indeed armed to the teeth and in a culture that romanticizes the 'wild west' and 'conquering' of America it's not much of a stretch to say there's support out there for more.

I do believe that most people are willing to live on less... but they aren't willing to be unemployed or barely employed for a long period of time, especially after seeing unheard of amounts of $$$ practically thrown at the banks that robbed them, with loan shark interest rates the ignorant didn't understand, in the first place.

We do need an assessment of values in this country... but it's not what people usually think that means. We need people to understand that it's 'just stuff' and what's really important are the qualities that make humans better than most animals. Compassion for those less fortunate, caring for a decent quality of life for everyone, and forgoing the rewards of manipulative greed in favor of a fairer system are all part of the mix. I do hope it's not too late.

May 17 11:36 AM

[Vienna:]

Whats with you and your communists. You are all just a little pannicky folk. I think you all don't have the slightest blunt idea of communism, you have all just been brainwashed by your government.

As the author states:
"But this nation must surely be growing tired of a financial elite who wave the democracy banner when their hand is in your pocket, and the socialist banner when their little game of marbles goes bust and they stand crying and wailing for government help."


On May 17 05:39 AM lex wrote:

> Agreed. Obama is a communist. He's only in power because he was at
> the right time at the right place. The stock market crash crystallized
> his path to power. He's engineered fake 2 month rally is coming to
> an end........lets rise against the communists..aka Obama and team.

May 17 12:05 PM

[noob:]

Economically he choose the worse possible approach.
Politically he choose the best possible approach as this leads to stronger centralization of control and authority.

His actions were politically motivated as they always are for any politician. Bush did not choose the best course of action after 9/11 but he choose the best politically minded course of action resulting in more power and control by the central government at the expense of everything and everyone else.

In these terms, the D's and R's act the same. They will conduct themselves along any crisis (and they LOVE a good crisis) towards that solution which allows them to increase the centralization of power and authority.

Has anyone noticed that the 10th Amendment specifically states, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

On May 17 09:53 AM altaman wrote:

> The options were: 1. do nothing to "fix" the economy meaning follow
> the laws and let institutions fail and go their bankruptcy; 2. Do
> things most likely to lead to a real recovery as some point such
> as lowering taxes across the board or 3. Do lots of radical things
> to the economy, including capriciously favoring unions over bond
> holders in bankrupcty, handing out money to politically favored banks,
> etc, run up gigantic deficits and print a mountain of money.
>
> Obama choose door number 3 and turned a crisis into a catastrophy.

May 17 12:37 PM

[MudEngineer:]

I give high credit to Schnickelfritz for actually pointing out the basic foundation of sand that the housing boom was built on. The CRA and ACORN and the below named Democrats accelerated the demise of our great country by mandating that "everyone" should be able to own a home and then the banks created derivatives to be able to unload the obviously flawed loans on third parties. The derivatives were so incredibly complex that even the rating agencies could not understand them and pronounced these junk mortagage packages to be A+ rated or better making it very easy to sell the junk. The resultant mess is history that is still unfolding and now being compounded by a like thinker in the White House who is applying the same theory to everything along with a take from those who have and give to those that don't want to help themselves but just "want".

"Where were YOU when the marxist Democrats were mandating that common sense and the regulations be overridden and that mortgages via the Community Re-Investment Act, specifically changes made circa 1994 (Fannie, Freddie, Frank, Dodd, and ilk) be given to people who didn't have the means to repay those loans???"

May 17 01:03 PM

[Hillsfar:]

There are certain things I think we can agree on:
1. Stop giving money to banks and insurance companies and auto companies (GM and Chrysler aren't even going to repay any of it)! Take it back.
2. Greenspan and Bernanke and Paulson should be punished in some way so that future Fed Chairs and Treasury Secretaries will think twice before dumping trillions into the economy.
3. Bush and Cheney and their hack lawyers should be prosecuted under the law, for they did break the law.
4. Geithner must be removed.
5. Bring back Volcker.

May 17 01:03 PM

[DiracMan:]

"A dispassionate eye, equitably minded, would regard the current gross imbalance among haves and have-nots as a simple case of injustice, easily rectified. Those traveling daily in jets and Escalades leveraged the savings and credit ratings of the common people to agglomerate assets onto their own balance sheets to satisfy a sense of entitlement derived from an overpriced education."

BINGO.

I had one of those elite educations and I saw what was happening 40 years ago. The greatest way know in history to control a group of people is to make them think they are an elite. "The Marine Corps" technique. Once you have them thinking they are an "elite" with "special worth" you can send them to their death with impunity or you can destroy their souls with impunity. This is the Faustian bargain between Wall Street and the Ivy League Universities that has grown ever deeper since the end of the common military draft in 1973. After Vietnam the mantra of "other people's lives" expanded geometrically to "other people's money". This metastasized obscene meme of entitlement became a virus in the soul of our society that is now in the process of killing the host.

The known history of the entire world is the history of mind bending catastrophe caused by the unchecked power of criminal elites in every society. All such groups will turn into collective sociopaths with almost mathematical precision. It does not matter if it is "communist" or "capitalist" in label. The key is the depth psychology involved in the system of self definition entrenched in the ideology de jour.

A society like ours with supposed checks and balance in it's system of government designed to prevent this must take daily stock (pun intended) of the Faustian bargains at work in it's society at any given time and call them to account. Otherwise a system of entrenched predatory vampire replication will destroy everyone. That is clearly where we are now. Hold a mirror up to these souls and it will be empty. The same old, same old in human history. It all happened because of the massive failure of electorates decade after decade since WWII. The Military Industrial Complex and the now "too big to fail" New York Banks run the United States lock, stock, and barrel with total impunity.

Without the re-establishment of equity at every level of our society we are in very big trouble. Anyone who does not think push is now going to come to shove does not know history.

Always be aware of the Faustian bargains at work in your society at all times. This is one of my favorite Zoroastrian scenes in American film. Lifted right from St. Matthew! The screenwriters took the rest of the afternoon off that day.

www.youtube.com/watch?...

For a more personal system of insight, everyone here should know that this has ALREADY been done to you. You just don't fully know it yet.

www.youtube.com/watch?...

May 17 01:16 PM

[Vienna:]

I was in a what you call "socialist" state where we don't have this kind of mess, we don't get pannicky over things, we don't try to tell the world what to do, and know that not everybody can afford a house, that's why we have social housing plans. So no corporations that suck the dick out of poor people who can not afford it. The US, so great capatalistic system though they could achieve war on terrorist (fight yourselfs), outsourcing, reducing taxes and giving a house to everybody? No thats smart.
This has nothing to do with the SO feared communism, this was blunt, pure stupid greed, since you where all so warried about this communist thing, that just the slightest event completly messed up all your judgements after 9/11.
I live next to this thing, we where never worried, you have a ocean between it and seem to think that you will get attacked any time.
Come and visit a former communist country. Nice people, nice place, nice food.

"Where were YOU when the marxist Democrats were mandating that common sense and the regulations be overridden and that mortgages via the Community Re-Investment Act, specifically changes made circa 1994 (Fannie, Freddie, Frank, Dodd, and ilk) be given to people who didn't have the means to repay those loans???"

May 17 01:23 PM

[Vienna:]

and by the way, in a communist state absolutly nobody owned a house !!!!!!!!
Thats just the point I mean, you don't have a clue about communism in th US, you just get pannicky and start shouting "COMMUNISM"

May 17 01:26 PM

[DiracMan:]

This is now a very fashionable meme among the muddled ideologue Econ 101 "D" student right, but the facts do not bear this out at all. The majority of CRA loans were actually paid off! Google it. There are many links about this out there. People did not get a jumbo mortgage on a CRA program.

The mortgage component in all this was relatively contained. The true deuterium trigger in all this was the Credit Default Swaps that has now led to the full blown financial nuclear event. The CDS's were the fissionable multiplier. This is the simple fact.

www.rollingstone.com/p...
www.villagevoice.com/2.../
www.countercurrents.or...

At least have the decency to put down your photo of fellow class ideologue poster boy Joseph Cassano and just get a recent issue of Playboy.


On May 17 01:03 PM MudEngineer wrote:

> I give high credit to Schnickelfritz for actually pointing out the
> basic foundation of sand that the housing boom was built on. The
> CRA and ACORN and the below named Democrats accelerated the demise
> of our great country by mandating that "everyone" should be able
> to own a home and then the banks created derivatives to be able to
> unload the obviously flawed loans on third parties. The derivatives
> were so incredibly complex that even the rating agencies could not
> understand them and pronounced these junk mortagage packages to be
> A+ rated or better making it very easy to sell the junk. The resultant
> mess is history that is still unfolding and now being compounded
> by a like thinker in the White House who is applying the same theory
> to everything along with a take from those who have and give to those
> that don't want to help themselves but just "want".
>
> "Where were YOU when the marxist Democrats were mandating that common
> sense and the regulations be overridden and that mortgages via the
> Community Re-Investment Act, specifically changes made circa 1994
> (Fannie, Freddie, Frank, Dodd, and ilk) be given to people who didn't
> have the means to repay those loans???"

May 17 01:57 PM

[hpcooperjon:]

Your post is quite correct. But solutions are so complex as to be near impossible given the human condition.


On May 17 10:43 AM Jimbo wrote:

> Unfortunately, our political system is profoundly broken. BOTH political
> parties have been corrupted by special interest money which is why
> the Banksters always seem to land on their feet, no matter what they
> have done to screw up. When Obama went back on his pledge to run
> his campaign on public money, I knew the fix was in . I keep harping
> on two "reforms": Absolute term limits on Congress(have you seen
> TV shots of Senator Byrd of West Virginia in a wheel chair , slobbering
> on himself?) a law prescribing a felony for any former member of
> congress to lobby congress. A very high proportion of senators are
> millionaires, they should have no need to lobby. They should go home
> and live under the laws they have created for the rest of us peasants.

May 17 02:06 PM

[theobannion:]

The word gangster is fine, but you should be aware that "The Mafia" came into being as a secret society to protect Sicilians from their foreign conquerors - who came from east, west, north, and south over the past two thousand years. They were thus inherently anti-government, anti-expropriation, and yes anti-crime. Rape a Sicilian woman and the mafia would draw straws to see who would get the honor of slitting your throat. Failure to do your allotted task meant lifelong dishonor and probably your own death. To this day there are Sicilians who would go to the mafia before going to the police or the government. Sicilian culture is as different from that of mainland Italy as is Corsican culture from that of mainland France or Cretan culture from that of the rest of Greece. It's unfortunate that power leads to its abuse and ultimately to its demise. Witness the history of the United States.

Also unfortunate is that the media have invented Russian, Irish, Chinese, Lebanese, Mongol...etc. "mafias." It's the price we pay for being a nation that no longer reads.

To think of Paulson or his successor as "mafia" - which is tantamount to calling them revolutionaries or men who have any sense of honor whatever - tickles my funny bone. If Paulson is a revolutionary, then Thomas Paine was a fascist. These are the guys who wore the black hats and black leather vests in all those old Ronald Reagan movies. And he, the real-life "Greed is good!" Reagan, was the black-hattest of them all.

Best,
SOB.

May 17 02:35 PM

[Bruce Vande...:]

You make some good points, though I'm not sure I'm with you all the way. I DO, however, love your way with words. Example of where you are "right on":

"... this nation must surely be growing tired of a financial elite who wave the democracy banner when their hand is in your pocket, and the socialist banner when their little game of marbles goes bust and they stand crying and wailing for government help.... "

May 17 02:40 PM

[Hal:]

Well said. Social and economic justice disappeared in the US after Johnson. It's about time to resurrect it. I think a nice little dose of socialism would do the USA a world of good. Too bad the masses are so beaten down they don't seem able to rise up, at least not so far. A few riots (and beheadings?) might be refreshing.

May 17 02:41 PM

[xxxx:]

Is it difficult to understand why the established money making order would encourage the populace to hate a system that didin't result in their own material benefit.

I believe Jesus said tret everyone like your brother, in communism aren't all workers equal. would you nottret your brother like and equal and are the ideas so far apart. Take out god, something the established powers have used for centuries to opress people) and communism sounds a lot like the teachings of Jesus.

Note, most of the establshed order always transmutes what the writings say to suit their own interests. There are no inherent conflicts between democracy and communism. People have just used the frustrations of the capitalist system to seize power for themselves.

The Chinese have capitalism, but not democracy. You can just as easily have communism in a democracy.


On May 17 12:05 PM Vienna wrote:

> Whats with you and your communists. You are all just a little pannicky
> folk. I think you all don't have the slightest blunt idea of communism,
> you have all just been brainwashed by your government.
>
> As the author states:
> "But this nation must surely be growing tired of a financial elite
> who wave the democracy banner when their hand is in your pocket,
> and the socialist banner when their little game of marbles goes bust
> and they stand crying and wailing for government help."

May 17 02:41 PM

[xxxx:]

I think the point should be that whenever resource distribution gets too distorted the people will find a way to alter it. Hence our current system is unstable unless radical reforms are made. Our government is either unwilling, or unable to do so. Therefore, the current regime should be replaced in order to create a stable society.

May 17 02:45 PM

[Missing_Link:]

Mr. West, though I share your deep concern for the future of our country, simply targeting the bank accounts of the richest 10% and targeting anyone who did anything with leveraged assets seems highly counterproductive and entirely contrary to the principles upon which this great nation was founded.

You seem to wish to target the WEALTHY rather than the GUILTY.

I have no problem with bankrupting the subprime-scammers, derivatives-dealers, corrupt hedge-fund traders, credit-default-swapping bankers, and incompetent Federal Reserve managers who precipitated the crisis.

But what you seem to be saying sounds a lot more like "eat the rich."

If that happens, you'd better believe I'll move to China and take my money with me. The Chinese at least understand the consequences of "eat the rich," which is exactly what they did during the Cultural Revolution.

The subprime crisis (admittedly only one part of the economic crisis) was sparked by a high-minded social welfare program pushed onto Fannie and Freddie by the Democrats in Congress. Medicare and Social Security are also high-minded social welfare programs, and the costs of both have also contributed massively to the national debt.

We're not going to get out of this by initiating still more social welfare programs we cannot afford.

May 17 03:02 PM

[henarl:]

It's hard to decide which is worse, the arrogance, sense of superiority and belief in extreme entitlement of the upper few percent of overprivileged Americans or the victim mindset and entitlement mentality of the non productive, something for nothing, bottom few percent of our population.
Both ends of the economic scale are a huge drag on the resources and energy of the productive majority in the middle. Pure egalitarianism will never exist and is probably not even desireable but the upper and lower parts of society are increasing and the productive middle is decreasing. Not a good omen for our country.

May 17 03:03 PM

[Missing_Link:]

Wait, is the same Lyndon Johnson who started the Social Security and Medicare programs that have done so much to drive our country toward bankruptcy?

The same Lyndon Johnson who initiated his "Great Society" programs because Mr. "I Continued the Vietnam War for Year and then Lost It" apparently felt our society wasn't up to his standards?

For all the leftist whinging about the costs of the Iraq War, note how the actual federal budget makes it clear that our ENTIRE defense spending, despite being a substantial 21%, is still much less than the total cost of Social Security and Medicare at a combined 44%.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...)

On May 17 02:41 PM Hal wrote:

> Well said. Social and economic justice disappeared in the US after
> Johnson. It's about time to resurrect it. I think a nice little dose
> of socialism would do the USA a world of good. Too bad the masses
> are so beaten down they don't seem able to rise up, at least not
> so far. A few riots (and beheadings?) might be refreshing.

May 17 03:07 PM

[Missing_Link:]

I think you hit the nail on the head brilliantly, henarl.

I would have been much happier with this article if Mr. West had actually attempted to analyze the real causes of the problem and the workable solutions. As it is, the article boils down to "rich people caused the problem, so let's take their money."

I have no patience with that kind of mental midgetry.

If one good thing comes out of this crisis it may be the fact that we may all be forced to do things we couldn't have done otherwise -- relearn how to save money, live without government handouts, and put an end to failed and counterproductive entitlement programs for poor individuals and wealthy corporations, stop corrupt banking practices and the insane growth of derivatives and credit default swaps, and fix the incompetent Federal Reserve system.


On May 17 03:03 PM henarl wrote:

> It's hard to decide which is worse, the arrogance, sense of superiority
> and belief in extreme entitlement of the upper few percent of overprivileged
> Americans or the victim mindset and entitlement mentality of the
> non productive, something for nothing, bottom few percent of our
> population.
>
> Both ends of the economic scale are a huge drag on the resources
> and energy of the productive majority in the middle. Pure egalitarianism
> will never exist and is probably not even desireable but the upper
> and lower parts of society are increasing and the productive middle
> is decreasing. Not a good omen for our country.

May 17 03:27 PM

[Missing_Link:]

Wow. 233 years of American democracy and capitalism that have utterly transformed the world and you're willing to throw it away at the snap of a finger.


On May 17 09:33 AM No one wrote:

> Right. Much better we should have done nothing, gone through a 24
> year depression while those in the know get richer. Not this time...
> If it has to be Socialism, sobeit.

May 17 03:30 PM

[VALUEDIV:]

As Tolstoy said, to paraphrase: "We hold on to our lifetime accumulated beliefs even if proven incorrect...". This is what I see
in my America, John Wayne militarism, Greed of Robber Barons at the Top, Mendacity and non-speak with misinformation (BS),
the belief that Free Markets=Democracy, that America will ALWAYS be the strongest economically and the Best Nation (such humility, the Romans, Greeks, Persians, British ALL believed the same), and that wealth is about paper money rather than production and tangible assets. ALL WRONG. Wealth is about Hard Work that is rewarded (not cleverness). 1945-1975 clearly showed what wealth can only be created when you have education and job opportunities for families who BUY in turn. The creation of financial instruments such as derivatives and usury by banks only DEPLETE the TRUE WEALTH. Until we can get a majority consensus on ethics and admit that GREED is THEFT, we will never recover. It will be like warfare that goes on and on despite the blood of Billions of humans in the past 5000 years. WHEN WILL WE LEARN. The People know, but they do not share in the POWER of DEMOCRACY and our Republic is not REPRESENTATION of the ELECTORATE, but of the ELECTED.

We will come out of this when the Wealthy and the Powerful start to hurt. Our mass suffering is totally collateral damage to their greed for MONEY AND POWER. May God stand by the people!

Prof. Daniel P. Remy
Captain USAF/Veteran, IBM Business Executive
Professor of Economics & Finance, NYIT

May 17 03:42 PM

[Missing_Link:]

So, what you're saying is that you recommend the overthrow of the Federal Government and the principles enshrined in the Constitution. Am I reading that correctly?


On May 17 02:45 PM xxxx wrote:

> I think the point should be that whenever resource distribution gets
> too distorted the people will find a way to alter it. Hence our current
> system is unstable unless radical reforms are made. Our government
> is either unwilling, or unable to do so. Therefore, the current regime
> should be replaced in order to create a stable society.

May 17 03:50 PM

[Missing_Link:]

And you, too, equate money and power with guilt, and make no distinction whatsoever between the wealthy and the guilty.

If you really are a USAF veteran and an IBM business executive, I'd have expected better than this.

Would you really be so quick to throw a successful businessperson and investor who's never committed a crime, worked like a madman, and never looked down his nose at anyone in his life into the same category as Bernie Madoff, subprime mortgage pushers, corrupt hedge fund traders, and fraudulent and incompetent bankers?

On May 17 03:42 PM VALUEDIV wrote:
> We will come out of this when the Wealthy and the Powerful start
> to hurt. Our mass suffering is totally collateral damage to their
> greed for MONEY AND POWER. May God stand by the people!

May 17 03:55 PM

[henarl:]

Mud Engineer:
The rating agencies did not have to even try to understand the overly complex derivatives that they rated as investment grade. They were PAID to award those ratings. Such was the collusion between the varius players in the mortgage fiasco. Money talks!

May 17 05:00 PM

[Free Market...:]

The source of the recent housing bubble and financial crisis rests with the Federal Reserve and Congress (by way of their GSEs being Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae). They together with the other central banks around the world continue to intervene into the free markets and distort the system to the point of creating a disaster.

The Federal Reserve held interest rates down by going into the market and buying treasury bonds thereby flooding the market with surplus currency. By keeping the interest rates lower than the free market rate they distorted the market place. As a result more money was chasing the same level of housing and real estate. This creates a situation where entrepreneurs will make bad decisions and take irrational risks. There was an irrational belief that home prices would forever rise. This environment leads to a bubble that will grow to the point that when it eventually bursts the damage to the economy is great.

The Obama administration is on a course to make this recession longer and more damaging then if they would step aside and let the free market fix itself (meaning correct the damage done by the central government).

If we want to get back to a period of prosperity the recipe will include the following tasks: abolish the Federal Reserve, disband Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and stop the bail-outs. The market must unwind all of the bad decisions and reallocate the capital and resources to those parts of the economy that can make best use.

May 17 05:31 PM

[TinyTim:]

1- Term Limits Amendment to reduce career politicians
2-Stronger lobbying laws against ex-politicians & business interests
3-High marginal income tax rates for incomes over say $2M
4-One time tax on gross wealth to pay down deficit
5- AntiTrust- Break up business entities too big to fail
6-Balanced Budget amendment
7-Reduce the bureaucracy in government at all levels
8-Tax money should flow uphill from county to Fed instead of the other way

What'd I miss???

May 17 05:40 PM

[TinyTim:]

Oh yeah-

"it is my hypothesis that the utility of concentrated wealth is often diminished compared to distributed wealth. A thousand millionaires have much more economic potential than one billionaire."
J. Lounsbury

May 17 05:41 PM

[schminkie:]

should push come to shove come to anti-government violence, the problem of having no leadership from a political party and commensurate military will bring not revolution or even rebellion but anarchy and most likely fascism. i vote for the bunker in montana surrounded by land mines.

May 17 07:30 PM

[Clint007:]

I had a good laugh when I read the mention the Communist in US Government LOL!
It is the typical mentality in US in 1950, some post are old style and they must be grand-grand father by now.
The US is the most capitalist country in the entire world and still is.
But a little Socialism it is a positive look for outside people on the globe about the US. Also very positive for the average US citizen.
With the actual very bad economic and sick capitalism in US, I make some $$$ with my Gold investment :) Thanks to the Bush family.

May 17 07:44 PM

[Anthony B:]

I think the curtains are going to fall when a majority of the 'ivy leaguers' can't even build equity. I would argue that we're already there, otherwise very close.

May 17 09:21 PM

[Smarty_Pants:]

"So, what you're saying is that you recommend the overthrow of the Federal Government and the principles enshrined in the Constitution. Am I reading that correctly?" - Missing_Link

Consult the Founding Fathers. They had a thing or two to say on the matter:

'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.'

Declaration of Independence, unanimously adopted by Congress Assembled on 4 July, 1776.

Many would argue that such a course of action would be an effort to RESTORE the principles outlined by the Constitution. The form of governance we experience today certainly isn't what the Founders had in mind when they pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to throw off the yoke of British tyranny.

May 17 09:36 PM

[mrpitchfork:]

A fool and his money are soon parted..

Socialism doesn't work.. Ask England. I believe they are coming to the end of their "socialism".. Also, let's hear you say that once cap and trade gets passed and you start paying an extra $3,000 a yr for electricity for you home..


On May 17 09:33 AM No one wrote:

> Right. Much better we should have done nothing, gone through a 24
> year depression while those in the know get richer. Not this time...
> If it has to be Socialism, sobeit.

May 17 10:55 PM

[Sober Realist:]

I enjoyed the "rant." Lots of colorful language. Of course the illuminati are much more clever than the average "Joe Six-Pack" and are very adept at pissing down his back while making him believe it's raining. I know it's only semantics but the the best description for the kind of corrupt system we have is called STATIST CAPITALISM (AKA FASCISM OR CORPORATISM)--- where business and government conspire in ways that violate the rights of individuals both here and abroad. The bailouts, TARP, PPIP, etc are the instruments the financial oligarchs are using to transfer the wealth of this country into their pockets for their failures. It matters not whether the rulers call themselves capitalist or socialist, whether they plunder by concessions and taxation through crony firms or straight-out theft from nationalized industries; the results are the same --- the common man gets screwed.

"America’s greatest hope is hardly its political leaders. Rather it is those millions of Americans who still treasure liberty and have no intention of becoming comfortable serfs."
---- Samuel Gregg D.Phil

“The US government has thrown 29pc of GDP at this crisis compared to 8pc in the early 1930s. The Fed’s balance sheet has risen from $900bn to $2.7 trillion to bail out the system. America has to do it because the only way out is to debase the currency, but that is going to lead to some very high inflation three years down the road,” ---Mark Patterson of MatlinPatterson, 5-14-2009
theanalytic.com/2009/0...

May 17 11:03 PM

[lex:]

The Republicans never asked for Chrysler debt holders to "sacrifice" themselves....did they?


On May 17 09:33 AM russ wrote:

> The author calls his column a 'rant' which is of course a more accurate
> description that 'well reasoned essay'. As for the comments by Lex
> as on Obama being a 'communist', where were you when the conservative
> Republicans were allowing the market and the economy to collapse?
> Sorry Lex, but you proved yourself to be an ideological 'squirrel,'
> more at home with your nuts.

May 17 11:53 PM

[Did U Think...:]

No need for anyone to redistribute the wealth of the elite. The free market is causing it to happen as I type. These folks have gotten used to getting something for nothing on heavy leverage and they don't know how to stop. The markets will wipe them out in the deflationary crash that is coming and those that survive will get whacked in the ensuing bout of hyperinflation that is sure to follow.

May 18 04:40 AM

[maxiedog:]

Too many citizens of the US that comment upon the subject in shrill terms have never experienced what they perceive as Communism or Socialism. A basic tenet agreed by reasonable people is not to pronounce from a position of absolute ignorance. Have I been to; the Soviet Union ( yes ), post-SU Russia ( yes ), ByeloRussia ( yes - an eye-opener ), Eastern Europe ( yes ), the Eurozone ( yes ), UK ( yes ), Australasia ( yes ), South America ( yes ) and Asia ( very little ) ? The US ( yes ). One thing I have learned is that the US has a lot to learn from many societies - and, of course, vice-versa. Stop rabble rousing and start reading.... Or, even, get a passport and see how the rest of the world feels about the US. In the main - positive.

May 18 06:22 AM

[Missing_Link:]

You may be surprised to hear this, but I do actually agree with everything you just said. The comment by "xxxx" was that he felt the government wasn't doing a good enough job of redistributing wealth -- which provoked my comment in the first place, as I was responding to an apparently socialist comment in response to a socialist article.

On the other hand, if what you're arguing for is restoring the original values of the Founding Fathers and the Constitution, give me a call anytime and I'll grab my torch and pitchfork ...


On May 17 09:36 PM Smarty_Pants wrote:

> "So, what you're saying is that you recommend the overthrow of the
> Federal Government and the principles enshrined in the Constitution.
> Am I reading that correctly?" - Missing_Link
>
> Consult the Founding Fathers. They had a thing or two to say on
> the matter:
>
> 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
> equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
> rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
> That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men,
> deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That
> whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends,
> it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute
> new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing
> its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect
> their safety and happiness.'
>
> Declaration of Independence, unanimously adopted by Congress Assembled
> on 4 July, 1776.
>
> Many would argue that such a course of action would be an effort
> to RESTORE the principles outlined by the Constitution. The form
> of governance we experience today certainly isn't what the Founders
> had in mind when they pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor
> to throw off the yoke of British tyranny.

May 18 07:54 PM

[Benjamin Fr...:]

That's because we did get attacked you insensitive idiot. Lucky for you, your little socialist state has no significance, so you don't have to worry about anyone even considering wasting their time with your country. I've read your posts - every single one is anti-American. We don't need a lecture over here. We've built the wealthiest and most powerful nation on the planet and we'd like to protect it. Europe's a beautiful place, but I can't stand the arrogance and pure jealousy towards our successul nation.


On May 17 01:23 PM Vienna wrote:

> I was in a what you call "socialist" state where we don't have this
> kind of mess, we don't get pannicky over things, we don't try to
> tell the world what to do, and know that not everybody can afford
> a house, that's why we have social housing plans. So no corporations
> that suck the dick out of poor people who can not afford it. The
> US, so great capatalistic system though they could achieve war on
> terrorist (fight yourselfs), outsourcing, reducing taxes and giving
> a house to everybody? No thats smart.
> This has nothing to do with the SO feared communism, this was blunt,
> pure stupid greed, since you where all so warried about this communist
> thing, that just the slightest event completly messed up all your
> judgements after 9/11.
> I live next to this thing, we where never worried, you have a ocean
> between it and seem to think that you will get attacked any time.
>
> Come and visit a former communist country. Nice people, nice place,
> nice food.
>
> "Where were YOU when the marxist Democrats were mandating that common
> sense and the regulations be overridden and that mortgages via the
> Community Re-Investment Act, specifically changes made circa 1994
> (Fannie, Freddie, Frank, Dodd, and ilk) be given to people who didn't
> have the means to repay those loans???"

May 20 04:49 PM