Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Bernanke, Giethner, Obama

I haven't written in awhile because my anger had turned to malaise in watching all the speeches and interviews and actions that the economic leaders of our nation have been putting forth on our behalf. It has taken a long time to read the plans and watch the interviews and review the speech and I have finally started to boil again. My reaction has come down to a single question.

What is their objective?

Now, the answer to that may seem easy if you believe Obama last night. They are looking out for us, the American People. Obama clearly believes that the best thing for us is growth, and he intends use the predicted 2.2 or 2.6 percent growth to pay for not only all the debt we are adding to stimulate the growth, but also for all the new initiatives included in his plan (health care, renewable energy, etc.) which will aslo account for some or most of that growth.

But are they really looking out for us? From the actions, I am not so sure they are not just looking out for the banks. Weather they believe that the banks honestly need to be rescued at any cost, or if they believe armageddon will ensue, or if they are simply worried about losing the power they have attained, I don't know. But clearly their priority is saving the banks (including Wall Street), and the people are secondary.

I am one who believes that any President, be it Bush or Obama or Clinton or Reagan or Carter, genuinely has the best interests of the country at heart. I also believe Obama is a smart man. Last night he was asked about the stimulus and how we are really going to pay for all this. On 60 minutes he was asked if we have reached the limit on how much we can borrow to pay for it. Obama's dodge insisted healthcare reform and green energy will spur growth, but he flipped the question around claiming if we don't spend, we can't grow and the deficit will be even worse.

Huh? Less spending means a higher deficit? Does he REALLY believe that? What on earth are those meetings with Geithner like? Is Volcker in any of these meetings? Obama is a smart man, but if he really believes this, then I wonder what his priorities are.

And then there is AIG. All the outrage in the press, and from Congress, and from the President himself on the bonuses, when not only are the bonuses less than a fraction of a percent of what has been spent on AIG, but all the players have completely lost sight of what is really happening at AIG (or have they?). During all the bonus outrage, AIG also released the list of the top receivers of the payments made from the bailout money. And who were they? Goldman Sachs, Societe General, and all the banks. Bank after bank after bank. Turns out bailing out AIG is just another way to give money to the banks without saying we are giving money to the banks. Number one on the list was GS and ain't it funny how the first fed meeting back in September about what to do with AIG was attended by Paulsen, Giethner, a bunch of other government and Fed officials and one Private bank's CEO. Want to guess which company had a seat at this "governmental" meeting? Yes Goldman Sachs.

This stinks so bad.

It is obvious that Washington is made up of three kinds of people. Blind people, people who don't understand, and evil people. Unfortunately those are the only people who can get elected or appointed because they are the only ones the banks will give money to to run for office. I think Obama is blind. I think Barney Frank doesn't get it. I think Paulsen is/was evil. Ron Paul, who recently introduced a bill to abolish the Federal Reserve Bank may be the only one who managed to get elected despite his ability to see, understand, and care. Remember Ron Paul? The presidential cantidate who looked and sounded like a nut? The guy nobody gave a shot in the GOP race? He is getting more and more floor time lately in congress and it is no wonder. He is turning out to be right.

I can see a silver lining though. For all those who worry about the next generation having to pay for all this, I say no need to worry about that. The USA will have defaulted by then. And default means you don't have to pay back your debts because they have been written off. So as long and Ben and Tim and Barry try to avoid writing off all those bad loans by moving them to the taxpayer's balance sheet, that is how long it will be before the economic recovery will begin. And the more debt they try to pile on in avoidance of that, is how much longer it will take to recover. Welcome to the new Great Depression.