A couple of minor technical problems called “business” and “life” have now intruded on my increasingly bogged down publication schedule that, in the interest...
Read More »
I Stand With The Protesters
I stand with the protesters.
We as a society must stop pretending. Most of us think that we still have money in the bank to protect, so we go along with the game of extend and pretend. For some of us, the game has already ended. The rapacious zero interest rate policy that I call Bernankecide has already robbed millions of savers of their life savings. This is the reality that has yet to hit home for many Americans who are content to wallow in the status quo. Unfortunately, the longer it takes for them to wake up, the worse their, and our, fate will be.
My mother and millions of other senior citizens are among the victims of the game that policy makers and those who empower them are playing. Their life savings are gone because Bernankecide, the financial genocide of the elderly, forced them to spend their principal. Now the government is indirectly confiscating 8% of my income because I must support my mother. That percentage is likely to grow as her health deteriorates.
Millions of other boomers are in the same boat. They are forced to pay this immoral hidden tax because Ben Bernanke decided that the innocent must pay for the sins of the guilty. While Bernanke’s ZIRP goes on allowing the banksters to continue to collect their fat bonuses, it steals the savings of millions of Americans, eliminates their disposable income, and cuts the spending power of millions of others who must now support those rendered destitute. The guilty benefit, and the innocent are punished.
Bernanke knows that, yet he continues to side with the criminal bankers in support of the financial genocide of the super elderly, and their children, the baby boomers who must increasingly support them.
Among the OWS protesters are those calling for forgiveness of student loans. They may be acting in their own self interest, but it is a just cause, and must be a part of the cleansing of the system. The student loan thing is a long running racket that preys on the inexperience of children and young people just starting out in life. When I was 20 years old I trusted the system (wrongly). What did you know at age 18 or 20?
The fact is that the people’s “savings” that funded those loans, including the fake savings backed by phony assets that have yet to be written down, are already gone. These loans cannot be repaid. Bond holders must get wiped out. Then we’re all going to have to take a haircut. The student loans can’t be repaid because these kids either can’t get jobs at all or can’t get jobs with pay high enough to pay the loans. These loans never had any backing. They were fake from the moment they were issued. But the issuers didn’t care. They got their fees up front.
The student loans are the tip of the iceberg. Bankers have made and sold trillions of dollars worth of loans that they knew, or should have known, could not be repaid. That’s fraud. It must be prosecuted. Today, central bankers and governments are refunding those loans, knowing that a substantial portion of them cannot be repaid. Worse, they are buying them above par because of today’s fake low interest rates. Then they guarantee them by obligating us and future generations to repay them. This is criminal.
I figure that at least a third of our deposits are worthless because they have no assets behind them. Those running the scam know that. Those investing in the scam know it. But they don’t care because they get to collect their fees off the top. That is a system that institutionalizes theft. It must be changed to a performance based model. If you don’t earn a positive return, you don’t get paid. Instead, governments have taken over the scam while transferring wealth to and protecting the criminals who built the system.
If you are blaming the protesters, or are mystified by them, then you just don’t get it. Denial is part of the problem. Too many people have yet to wake up to the fact that they have already been victimized. They are playing along with the dishonest shell game of extend and pretend that the Fed and other central banks and governments are running. It’s time to get real, wake up, and face the music. The longer the game goes on, the worse the consequences for the 99%, and ultimately for the 1%, whose ranks will be decimated at some point, and probably not peacefully if this scam is allowed to continue for much longer.
As long as we continue to avoid cleansing the system of the fraud, as long as we refuse to put the fraudsters in jail, they will continue to bleed us dry. If those in charge of administering justice, like President See No Evil Obama and his worthless AG Eric Holder, refuse to do their jobs and seek to punish the guilty, our society and our culture could spiral into chaos and mob rule. Those in the top 1% who are responsible for this fraud, either directly by running it, or indirectly by supporting it financially, must ultimately be brought to justice or society will perish. There’s no way out other than reform, or revolution, or societal collapse. Those are the choices I see. We had better take the first one, and take it now.
So stop worrying about yourself, and start worrying about the future of your children and grandchildren. The government practice of constantly doubling down in support of the fraud is only digging a deeper and deeper hole. Demand reform of the system now. End the fraud now. Make the guilty pay. Instead of rewarding the bankers, prosecute them. They knew, or should have known, that the loans they were making and selling to others could never be repaid. But they did not care. They only cared that they got their fees up front, and their bonuses in the end.
It’s time to reset and start over. We will all pay a price in the short run, but the longer we wait, the steeper the price will become. Reform and reset now is the only way to begin a real recovery. Stop the fraud, return to the rule of law, prosecute the bankers, punish the guilty, figure out what our assets are really worth and pay us a fair return, and most importantly, return basic standards of fairness and ethical behavior, something that many in society must relearn. It must be done. There is no other way, no other reasonable choice. Failure to act now will consign us to a future in hell.
80 Responses to I Stand With The Protesters
Radio Free Wall Street
Most Recent Economic Charts
Wall Street Examiner Exclusives
-
Winter Covers Shorts; Maladjusted US Economy Seems Good Because of European Capital Influx- Free Podcast
-
Three Critical Industries Now in Serious Capital Destruction Mode
-
The Deeper Meaning of the Facebook Flop
-
Weakening Federal Withholding Tax Collections Do Note Bode Well For Employment
-
Unemployment Claims Like Barbecue- Lower But Slower
Wall Street Examiner Contributors
Lee Adler
Newswires
Aaron Krowne
AG's Nightmare
Belisarius
Bruce Krasting
Charles Hugh Smith
Consumer Metrics Institute, Inc.
David Zeiler
Diane Alter
Dr. Kent Moors
Dude
Economic Perspectives from Kansas City
Frederick J. Sheehan
Frederick Sheehan
Jaime Levine
Keith Fitz-Gerald
Mark McHugh
Martin Hutchinson
NY Fed | Permanent Open Market Operations
Pretzel Logic
Russ Winter
Shah Gilani
Steve Northwood
The Implode-o-Meter Blog
Treasury Auction Results
Treasury Offering Announcements
William Patalon III
RSS Feed
Copyright © 2012 The Wall Street Examiner. All Rights Reserved.
Magazine Premium created by Themes by bavotasan.com.
Magazine Premium created by Themes by bavotasan.com.
You are so on the $$ with the fraud being the root of the
Problem acrosss this nation. It seems to me ALEC is a great place to start with the conflict of intersts across the world. If we can identify the true roots of the fraudulent evil ones that would b a good start. Only if u have money in this country- you shall get to use the laws of the land. But even so, u r a mere sheep because the judges have been bought and paid for too. Our county records r laden with fraud the criminals of LPS put into all of our records. The hedge fund managers and wall street fraudulent evil doers laugh and congratulate one another on the profits they have stolen from all of us. Until the root is taken out the fraud will continue for decades to come. All the property titles will be clouded and no one will trust the title companies. They are bought and paid for too. Its not that hard there are scores of documents incrimidating enought to put them all in jail….so why are they NOT doing time?? The root of the evil will deteriorate america as we know it. Don’t u think its time to take America back before it is just an acidic abiss!? Debi 561-389-9339. Boynton Bch florida– hope of the fraud forget about the free part!!
Elizabeth Warren: ‘Wall Street Broke This Country — One Lousy Mortgage At A Time’
Asked about her position on the Occupy Wall Street protest at last week’s Massachusetts Senate debate, Warren said that people have to follow the law, then immediately launched into an invective against the banks.
“The people on Wall Street broke this country, and they did it one lousy mortgage at a time. It happened more than three years ago, and there has been no real accountability, and there has been no real effort to fix it. That’s why I want to run for the United States Senate.”
http://www.businessinsider.com/elizabeth-warren-wall-street-broke-this-country-one-lousy-mortgage-at-a-time-2011-10
I support the protesters too, but not those co-opting them.
I went down to the event on Friday in San Diego at the civic center. I was disappointed to see the same old OFA crowd.
These folks were smiling ear to ear – they’d finally found a way to get a protest movement against the Tea Party. These were the same folks who tried to put together the Coffee Party locally and didn’t see it get off the ground. The talk was about getting the “Jobs Bill” passed and getting the “Buffet Tax” in place. Majority of the faces were in the 45 to 65 set which was the core of OFA here back when protesting the wars was fashionable (it no longer is – wars are OK now, as are drone led assassinations of Americans).
This isn’t New York, and the things there look like the under 30s got things underway – good for them. But the movement to co-opt this into part of the retail political machinery is already underway. This is exactly the same thing that happened with the tea party protests which originally were conomic in nature but quickly got co-opted by the social conservatives of the right wing.
FWIW, the catalyst I see for reform is another market crash wherein the body politic refuses to bail out those who caused it. Since both political parties suck huge volumes of money out of Wall Street and compete for “reform opportunities” in which they can tweak the tax and regulatory regime once again to benefit their patrons, the impulse to bail out the thieves will be overwhelming. At that time I hope people of goodwill from both the TP and OWS movements join forces and march on Washington, making it clear to the House of representatives that the backlash for bailing out connected fraudsters yet again will result in severe and sharp consequences.
I know enough members of the house to know they are cowards – on both sides of the aisle. There are Republican and Democratic members who know the system is now hard wired to benefit the connected and it makes them sick. When they grumble about voting their conscience the leadership reacts harshly. Leadership is always intently focused on raising the money to win the next round so they curb any outbursts that threaten the concentrated contribution streams. They then devise ways to initiate “reforms” that get a contribution stream to defect from the other side. It is the American form of coalition government. Absent, of course, are the needs of those who don’t concentrate their efforts and money, although their demographic concentrations count for something every 10 years.
The leadership of both parties will therefore naturally gravitate towards co-opting these movements so as to contain them. As the GOP learned, there are existential risks involved that will end up moving your party towards its wing while doing deals with the “early movers” who were insiders able to get a position within said movements (Dick Armey / Michelle Bachmann). Same happening now as former WH Czars and Czarinas are scrambling to get media face time and internet organizing credit for OWS.
As Herbert Marcuse noted, the impulse to react becomes an accommodated force within the system and ultimately just reinforces the system. The only way out is outright negation. For me, negation of a parasitic system requires a death of the host such that the parasites starve.
Let the crash happen. Let the unforgiving and contribution-blind forces eviscerate the kleptocrats and crony capitalists so that the decks are cleared, the two party system abolished and hard working, free Americans rebuild with a trained, wary and suspicious eye. Where your representatives are kept on a short leash – unable to have their incompetence and cowardice hidden by party allegiances.
Will there be suffering? Yes. Will it affect the innocent? Yes. But the “solutions” so far have already inflicted great suffering on the most vulnerable and that suffering is becoming systemic. All, we are told, to preserve that which feeds us. It does not feed us – we feed it. Starve it.
Nice. The last two paragraphs in particular are pure poetry. Well said.
well said
I don’t have a clue what OFA means. Does anyone? Let’s try to stay away from acronyms, especially obscure ones.
As for “severe and sharp consequences?” Like what, not getting re-elected and getting a job as a lobbyist?
You will never eliminate lobbyists. They have existed in all forms of government in all periods of history. If you dismantle the two party system in the US (which has no place in our Constitution – they are simply cartels that have formed so that the President can be elected without risk of the House deciding on it) you will take away most of the institutional leverage they have. They’d have to work much harder and spread much money out much wider to get anything done.
At that point, the job doesn’t come down to who you know but more to how effectively you can argue and forge compromises among factions.
In such an environment Ethanol producers would not get a tax credit for production and another tax credit for consumption (two credits on the same unit each for the cost of the unit) nor would Hollywood producers be able to launder offshore profits through domestic productions (Google and Apple would be making movies except there is not enough demand for movies/TV to keep up with their offshore profit streams, so they are asking for tax holidays instead). There are thousands of giveaways in the tax code made possible by small amounts given to key individuals at key times wherein the entire party is commanded to vote with the lobbyist.
I always google everything OFA is “Obama for America” in this Instance, I’m sure. I did brain surgery on my mnother in law by Goodling it.
Sorry for being obscure.
OFA – Organizing For America. Was Obama For America. The genesis organization for modern “Astroturfing” and now pretty much an arm of the Democratic National Committee.
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/mar2008/db20080314_121054.htm
The New Republic has made similar observations on OWS moving down the track of being coopted
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/95753/occupy-wall-street-left-tea-party-dionne
None of this makes me happy, and I don’t have any horses in any political races (I have done work for candidates in both parties). I maintain some friendships with representatives in both parties and am fortunate to have candid conversations with them because I am discreet, but I don’t participate in helping anyone get elected anymore.
I think there are a lot of impassioned citizens in both parties who would simply get up and leave if they allowed themselves to see the machinery as it works. They have common cause and actually differ on very few things which, at the end of the day, are minor. the two parties are like Burger King and McDonalds – serving up the same food while having convinced loyal customers they are different in important ways.
I agree that many would leave if they saw the cogs and gears behind the machinery.
My father was the head of Gary Johnson’s campaign both times he ran, and won, governorship of New Mexico. (Interstingly, my dad declined to be involved in Gary’s bid for President — he feels Gary’s gotten too off-track, plus dad just turned 79.)
Agree or disagree with Gary Johnson, the man is basically honest, and has strong principles. Once Gary became front-runner for his first term, and the insider circles began to open up, both he and my father were quite literally shocked by the sheer amount of corruption rampant in the system. The amount of money (should we call it bribes?) available to a candidate willing to “play ball” is staggering. It’s amazing the system has retained any semblance of order at all.
Until the corruption is dealt with, its all down hill.
Reform must start with the Supreme Court. The Court has robbed individuals of their rights and turned them over to corporations who achieve their aims through the time tested tactics of Goebellsian propaganda, and buying politicians.
Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Alito, and Kennedy have entrenched the rule of money over the rule of fairness and common sense, under the ideal that money is speech. The rule of money has been codified as the rule of law.
If money is speech, it is dirty speech. It is lies, propaganda, and corruption of public morals. It is the end of the line for American civilization because of the evil that these 5 madmen have forced upon us.
Not sure there is any way to undo the Citizen’s United decision in any short time frame. Supreme Court members take a long time to die off.
If you accept that the money is going to flow then finding ways to force them to spend far more of it will make them less effective.
I harp on the two party system because it gives the big contributors much more bang for the buck. Each party is now just a stable coalition of lobbying interests and they use the parties as a fulcrum to get the most out of their $$$.
Simple, achievable reforms that will reduce the buying power and leverage of lobbyists:
1) Eliminate the Electoral College – an archaic institution no longer needed with modern communications technology. Elect the president by popular vote: 50% +1. Runoff the top two in 2 weeks if first vote can’t get a winner.
2) 1 representative per 100,000 people.
3) Hold Congress in a convention format. Each time they meet it is in a different city with sufficient convention facilities. Hold Congress to vote on matters that committees have prepared. Meet for a week at a time, one meeting every 6 weeks or so.
4) Committee and subcommittee meetings occur online. Committee members attend by video conference from their district offices.
Place these reforms into the Constitution (or better ones with the same idea of spreading out the representative among those they serve) and the cost of lobbying goes up exponentially. Further, your representative will deal with people in your community far more often than those in Washington (which will exist for ceremonies, the White House, the Supreme Court and the Senate) and far less subject to the edicts of party leadership.
Informed, sane and clear-thinking observers like you and Lee and others really should be having a dialogue, and before a much broader audience … of millions. IF this could happen and IF a critical mass of reasonable rational people were listening, we might have a shot at avoiding some of the worse case scenarios that are keeping me up at night.
Sorry – The 4 of the 5 justices you named are more on the side of Constitution than the other 4 (and Kennedy is one who seems to be iffy – the squishy swing vote – sometimes with the Constitution, sometimes against the Constitution.)
Citizens United was a organization that put together a video that was “anti-Hillary” – and according to the “law” passed by Congress – was illegal. But what part of the freedom of speech (especially political speech) “SHALL NOT BE ABRIDGED” do you not understand!!
Compare the liberal 4 (+ Kennedy) – voting to eviscerate the 5th Amendment (nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.) – when they allowed New London to confiscate Kelo’s property for a private firm.
The corrupt law that was overturned by the 5 you disparage was because they recognized that corporations (and people owning corporations) had their speech muzzled, while labor unions, political activist groups and others had no restrictions. (Animal Farm – some are “more equal than others”.) They recognized that free speech means SOMETHING ….but apparently you don’t like that.
What an unmitigated load of crap. Go back to your corporate stink pipe, you piece of shit.
Your original post was good material. This comment was ad hominem tripe. I find it surprising how after effectively pointing out that the political categories (Conservative vs. Liberal) are bankrupt and meaningless, you so quickly turned to reinforce those categories with reference to the Supreme Court. In my view, all 9 justices are part of the problem. Too focused on special cases, and any one of them can be convinced to go against the clear literal intent in favor of their ideology.
I never said anything about conservative and liberal. I said we have to stop the fraud, stop ripping off the innocent, prosecute wrongdoing, return respect for the rule of law, ethics and fairness, and wipe the bad debt off the books, and that we’d all suffer in the short run, but it’s the only way to start rebuilding. Read the article again.
As I said, your original post was good material. I agree with everything in your response except the first sentence, because the logic of it is unimpeachable.
But the first sentence isn’t true. You said: “Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Alito, and Kennedy”, a grouping which inherently reinforces the dichotomous thinking of American politics. And you said it as though the four justices were somehow more faithful to the constitution, which they aren’t. While it is true that there are basically two main ideologies represented on court, it’s also true that Kennedy doesn’t really fit in either of them. And Scalia and Robert even have very different judicial philosophies when you look at the details (as do e.g. Sotomayor and Kagan).
My problem is that I agree with the “conservative” wing of the court on some things and the “liberal” wing on others. So I can’t just thunder down on one side or other, like four of them white knights and the other four are evil traitors. The real situation is much too complicated to be dealt with in such a simplistic fashion.
Stop putting words in my mouth. They enshrined in the Constitution the principle that money talks. Individual speech pales by comparison.
Very nasty response without a single effort to refute my FACTS!
This tells me you are more a “Populist” and the words of the Constitution don’t mean a thing to you!!
What you called me – is projection of what you and your (lack of) thinking IS!!
this is ridiculous. who and how do you support this website and youre day to day functions? oh I remember now…MONEY. You say you dont want this system yet you have clothes on your back from china, money printed by nobama, and a website saying that the american dream turned from best man for the job and the best succeed to oh now that theyve succeeded, give me their money because im illegal or too lazy to quit collecting welfare. Im sick of people leeching from this government and success stories. Its disgusting what this nation has become. And its the people at the bottom who are to blame not the top. Because the bottom dwellers quit trying to enhance their state of being and life but instead just want bentleys and spinning rims given to them by john taxpayer. shutup go find a job or go make one. innovate, do some good. quit glorifying drug use and sale in the cities. This is getting ridiculous.
Here we have an example of the brainwashed, incoherent, raging supporters of the status quo, incapable of forming complete sentences, or separate paragraphs, let alone addressing the basic question of what to do about the bank fraud.
This is what the propaganda has bought, a nation of unthinking, brain dead, braying jackasses, joining forces with the criminals, while blaming the victims. This is what they’ve been taught. They are carrying out their function for their controllers.
It’s an open thread. Get ready for more of this swill.
This rant is so incoherent and off-topic to the article, it almost seems like it was cut-and-pasted from something else. Maybe it was cut and pasted from the “Cliff Notes Web Series: Poorly-Written Invective Indicating You Strongly Disagree, But Vague About Why or What You Actually Disagree With.”
Talk about ridiculous…
Let’s not forget that one of the biggest beneficiaries of the low interest rates is the Federal budget, bankers were not the only beneficiary. Your mom cannot achieve an income on her savings, while the Federal government does not have to pay the interest it otherwise would. It is a wealth transfer from the elderly, a hidden tax.
Absolutely. It’s something I’ve been writing about for several years.
I am also a senior who was forced to spend retirement savings capital down to zero because of low low interest rates and devaluation of mutual funds due to the collapse of 2008. It isn’t possible to live on $900mo social security without a lot of subsidization. Now I have had to apply for a patchwork of government programs so I can eat and live indoors. Don’t get me wrong…if they weren’t there I would probably die but I hate having to end my life on the dole always worrying about what essential service they will cut next.
Mary Ann- You are not alone. You are one of millions of innocent victims. I stand for you.
Thats why we rise Mary Anne