Snake Oil Salesmen

[nattyreb]

Asante sana for breaking it down like only you can, Bro., your scholarship is invaluable!
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From the Ramparts

Junious Ricardo Stanton

Snake Oil Salesmen


“In addition to the decline in real earnings there was also a consistent decline the savings of Americans and an increase in consumer debt. Americans were not earning more, they were just spending more. If Americans could be labeled as being better off they owed it to their credit cards more than to their employers or the strength the labor market. Furthermore, 77% of consumer net worth gain that Gingrich touted was related to real estate. Most of the balance was tied to stock value increases. In other words, personal assets grew not because earnings increased, but because of speculation. The collapse of the real estate and stock market erased all the gains and essentially discredited what was left of the “new model.” In 2009 the Cox-Aim book would be more aptly titled “Why We’re Worse off Than We Think.” The ‘new model’ was simply a mirage and the proponents who thought they were smarter than everyone else turned out to be just fast-talking snake oil salesmen.” Solving the Current Economic Problems Requires Identifying the Real Cause by Edmund Ross, PhD

The US and global economies are in free fall. The corporatist media doesn’t report the bad news overseas because they don’t want to start a panic in the US and get folks upset. They don’t want us to know what is happening in Europe. That’s why they are not reporting on the government insolvencies, the massive protests and riots there. They don’t want to ruin the fairy tale they’ve concocted about Barack Obama turning things around and magically rescuing the US economy. I call it a fairy tale because that narrative has absolutely no basis in fact. The recently passed “stimulus package” was a stop gap measure to prevent the bottom from falling totally out, just enough to last until he comes begging for another bailout in a few months or a year from now.

The truth is, most economists honestly can’t tell you when things will bottom out. In fact most economists these days have been exposed as charlatans and con men at best, at worst shills and sock puppets for the international bankers who put us in this mess. Common sense should have told us you can’t spend more than you earn and not fall into a financial hole. But that’s exactly what people were told, “spend spend and spend some more, put everything on your credit card, buy a house you can’t afford with no money down and live the AmeriKKKan dream”. They were told the value of their house would escalate indefinitely despite the fact they had no real equity in it. Now the “fantasy” is turning to dust.

The ruling elites collaborated to bamboozle and dupe us into debt peonage, wage servitude and tax bondage, a modern version of medieval Europe. The main culprits were: the Federal Reserve Bank, the giant Wall Street investment houses, the mortgage and insurance companies, the bond rating agencies, George W Bu$h, Congress and the media. In addition to the traditional financial system the Shadow Financial System, a maze of unregulated Hedge Funds, investment groups, venture capitalists, schemers and con men, made fools and suckers out of countless folks who bought their okey-doke hook line and sinker. This cabal exacerbated the insanity by creating exotic sounding entities such as; mortgaged backed securities and collateralized debt obligations and leveraging them ten to thirty times over thus creating an inverted pyramid based solely on debt. They took the notion of a Ponzi scheme to a whole new level. And like all Ponzi schemes which eventually topple from the weight of greed and impracticality (everyone can’t possibly get rich from the scheme) , the Shadow Financial System’s shenanigans are behind the implosion of the traditional/conventional financial system too. But the corporatist media won’t provide the sordid details. I did see something on CNBC recently that gave some insight into the current meltdown but for the most part the mainstream media has been missing in action. The media (for the most part) has been cheerleading Obama despite the fact he has stocked his cabinet with some of the same Goldman Sachs ideologues who created the crisis in the first place. Their agenda is obviously self-serving and class based. “Tuesday’s $2.5 trillion Financial Stabilization Plan to re-inflate the Bubble Economy is basically an extension of the Bush-Paulson giveaway – yet more Rubinomics for financial insiders in the emerging Wall Street trusts. The financial system is to be concentrated into a cartel of just a few giant conglomerates to act as the economy’s central planners and resource allocators. This makes banks the big winners in the game of ‘chicken’ they’ve been playing with Washington, a shakedown holding the economy hostage. ‘Give us what we want or we’ll plunge the economy into financial crisis.’ Washington has given them $9 trillion so far, with promises now of another $2 trillion– and still counting. A true reform – one designed to undo the systemic market distortions that led to the real estate bubble – would have set out to reverse the Clinton-Rubin repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act so as to prevent the corrupting conflicts of interest that have resulted in vertical trusts such as Citibank and Bank of America/Countrywide/Merrill Lynch” Bubble Economy 2.0: The Financial Recovery Plan from Hell by Michael Hudson Bubble Economy 2.0: The Financial Recovery Plan from Hell

The banking lobbyists and the millions of campaign funds they shoveled into Obama’s coffers is paying off handsomely as Obama rewards them with taxpayer backed hand outs and “rescue packages” that can not solve the systemic problem of over leveraging. The fact of the matter is, the debt and toxic “assets” are actually greater than the whole gross domestic product of Western capitalism ! “None of this can solve today’s financial problem. The debt overhead far exceeds the economy’s ability to pay. If the banks would indeed do what Pres. Obama’s appointees are begging them to do and lend more, the debt burden would become even heavier and buying access to housing even more costly. When the banks look back fondly on what Alan Greenspan called ‘wealth creation,’ we can see today that the less euphemistic terminology would be ‘debt creation.’ This is the objective of the new bank giveaway. It threatens to spread the distortions that the large banks have introduced until the entire system presumably looks like Citibank, long the number-one offender of ‘stretching the envelope,’ its euphemism for breaking the law bit by bit and daring government regulators and prosecutors to try and stop it and thereby plunging the U.S. financial system into crisis. This is the shakedown that is being played out this week. And the Obama administration blinked – as these same regulators did when they were in charge of the Clinton administration’s bank policy. So much for the promised change!” ibid

The Obama administration and Congressional leaders especially Barny Frank in the House and Chris Dodd in the Senate are sock puppets for Wall Street. They are all snake oil salesmen running a con game on the people, selling bogus medicine claiming to cure the US economy. Very rarely does a snake oil salesman sell real medicine. For example, the Republicans after eight years or fiscal insanity, irresponsibility and recklessness via massive tax cuts, the invasions and occupations of two countries and expanded government spending now want to pretend they are concerned about deficits. Their hypocrisy is mind boggling. Everywhere you turn there are lies and disinformation. We need to wake up, Karma is no joke. You reap what you sow. We are about to reap the whirlwind of greed, corruption, criminality and immorality.

-30-

[Insatiable]

Originally Posted by nattyreb

The banking lobbyists and the millions of campaign funds they shoveled into Obama’s coffers is paying off handsomely as Obama rewards them with taxpayer backed hand outs and “rescue packages” that can not solve the systemic problem of over leveraging.

It was the ultimate hedge by the folks on Wall Street.

Any person with a brain could have tracked the money and determined his future loyalties.

[JRSWRITER]

Thinking folks understand what you are saying but the comatose masses don't. The corporate mind control apparatus told the the masses Obama raised money from small individual donors which he did but nowhere near the mad money he raised from Wall Street, the Bankers, trial lawyers and othre special interest groups. We have been tricked and bamboozled again.
JRS

[Langalibalele]

Thank you, JRS, for filling in the blanks!! What you say validates what I have been putting down. The essence of it all is that the bankers had dried up liquidity (cash, which they say is "KING") as they concentrated ever more of it in their hands since the voodoo economics introduced in the 80s.

Originally Posted by nattyreb

... “In addition to the decline in real earnings there was also a consistent decline the savings of Americans and an increase in consumer debt. Americans were not earning more, they were just spending more. If Americans could be labeled as being better off they owed it to their credit cards more than to their employers or the strength the labor market. Furthermore, 77% of consumer net worth gain that Gingrich touted was related to real estate. Most of the balance was tied to stock value increases. In other words, personal assets grew not because earnings increased, but because of speculation. The collapse of the real estate and stock market erased all the gains and essentially discredited what was left of the “new model.”

Real wages fell after figuring in for inflation, and the anti-labor rightists had convinced/duped white workers into deserting the unions (which became entrenched corporatist entities, anyway) out of fear that their J-O-Bs would migrate off shore like the steel industry had. In the speculation market, whether housing or futures or stocks, millions of small investors can never keep pace with a handful (ten thousand?) deep pocket players. I live at the YMCA on a $1000/month fixed income. There are about 100 men who live here, prolly 95% working class and a smidgen of "stock owners with portfolio" lol. Yet the amazing part is the right-leaning crackers who think socialism is bad. Guys who work two jobs TWO JOBS just to live at the Y with no car, no woman and no real life to speak of.

Originally Posted by nattyreb

...The truth is, most economists honestly can’t tell you when things will bottom out. In fact most economists these days have been exposed as charlatans and con men at best, at worst shills and sock puppets for the international bankers who put us in this mess. Common sense should have told us you can’t spend more than you earn and not fall into a financial hole. But that’s exactly what people were told, “spend spend and spend some more, put everything on your credit card, buy a house you can’t afford with no money down and live the AmeriKKKan dream”. They were told the value of their house would escalate indefinitely despite the fact they had no real equity in it. Now the “fantasy” is turning to dust.

Since the ruling class dried up liquidity, they implemented a credit regime which stampeded Americans towards credit purchasing to make up for the deficit already showing up in their wallets, since the ruling class had dictated that wages would not keep up with inflation. This intensified consumer debit culture had the bankers licking their chops. It remains linked to paying for everything from rent and utilities to vacation spending, buying creature comforts and toys, to big ticket items like autos and homes. The gas prices were the first test of the consumer response to a "market correction". It doesn't take a PhD in economics to figure it out!!

Originally Posted by nattyreb

The ruling elites collaborated to bamboozle and dupe us into debt peonage, wage servitude and tax bondage, a modern version of medieval Europe. ... They took the notion of a Ponzi scheme to a whole new level. ... “Tuesday’s $2.5 trillion Financial Stabilization Plan to re-inflate the Bubble Economy is basically an extension of the Bush-Paulson giveaway – yet more Rubinomics for financial insiders in the emerging Wall Street trusts. The financial system is to be concentrated into a cartel of just a few giant conglomerates to act as the economy’s central planners and resource allocators. This makes banks the big winners in the game of ‘chicken’ they’ve been playing with Washington, a shakedown holding the economy hostage.

Thanx again for crushing it out of the park, JRS! We need to sharpen not only our analysis but our agitational points on this, and get it into the churches, the community centers, the barbershops, the schools, the workplace and everywhere else our people congregate! When people get armed with the right knowledge they can decide how to act. Check out the piece from South Africa's Communist Youth League on the present crisis and the role of the Left: Mbantunyankompong.

ONE BANKER ONE BULLET!!

A Luta Continua!

[JRSWRITER]

You are on target Good Brother. The ruling elites have dried up liquidity, credit (debt) and have increased the money supply (inflation) exponentially so we are faced with a new era "depression" deliberately caused created and manipulated by the elites. Their template was the "Roaring Twenties model" which led to the crash of '29 and the Fed's actions which brought on the Great Depression which lasted for over ten years. They also added the S&L scandal to the mix as well as Enron type rip offs. These were their road maps to get us where we are now.
War was the only thing that brought the US out of the Depression (using Keynesian theories of deficit spending). 9-11 was a replay of Pearl Habor (inside job allowing it to happen) to get the ball rolling in 2001. Obama like Bu$h/Cheney is a tool/puppet of the bankers, the military industrial complex, pharma and big oil. His latest move was merely a stop gap measure to cool things out so the riots and rebellion don't happen before they have the detention and labor camps ready for dissidents and free thinkers like us. They will soon implement a military draft and mandatory community service policy to keep the young folks doing something as the global economy continues to implode. Stay strong, keep studying keep an open mind and don't fall for the okey-doke.
JRS