Who do you blame for the financial crisis?

It's all the speculation spending on oil that started this whole ball of wax rolling. Now I'm no rocket scientist but it is quite simple to go back to Katrina and follow our decline from that point. That's when gas all of a sudden started skyrocketing. It was said to happen due to an interruption in some of the refineries. Then why 4 years later are we just now seeing gas go down (well it did for a while anyway) and at the same time the oil companies are posting record profits???

Again, I'm no rocket scientist but it just seems to easy to find the trigger point. Katrina hit and the speculation spending that increases/decreases stock prices began hard and heavy in regards to oil. Well with a rise in gas prices, then there was a rise in transportation costs to get goods to the store, which meant a rise in consumer costs at the store, which led to less spending, etc, etc.

Now here we are in a hole we can't get out of due to the digging that started a few years back. Foreclosures are happening because people were forced to choose between driving to their job so they can feed their family or using their gas money to pay their mortgage. Most anyone would choose to do what they had to do to make some money. I know our family of 5 was hit hard with gas prices last year. We spent nearly $200 a week just on gas to get back and forth to work. Needless to say we weren't running out to buy new bedspreads, or eating out, etc. We didn't have any money left to do any of that. Or if we did we had to pull out the plastic and now we owe more than we have ever before. But what do you do? Who wants to work 40-50 hours a week and never be able to reward themselves every once in a while even if it is just an ice cream at Sonic...

The Financial Crisis is the fault of each presidential administration since Ronald Reagan because every president beginning with Reagan has promoted the unfettered laissez-faire, totally free trade, totally deregulated economic policies that have led us to ruin. They did so in order to favor the tiny oligarchy (1% of our population) and give them a free hand to line their pockets at the expense of the other 99% of our people. Their self-serving, greedy policies demonstrate that they owe no loyalty to this country or the rest of its citizens. They have sold us out to foreign interests. They have outsourced the jobs to foreign corporations and countries, particularly to the Chinese. Many of the highest officials who have served in the Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton and George W. Bush Administrations have gone to work for the foreign interests once they have left office. They lobby Congress to change laws to favor the foreign corporations and governments at the expense of the American taxpayer, especially of the middle and working class citizen. The current Bush Administration wants to privatize all of our public assets and services, such as Walter Reed Army Hospital, the Interstate Highway System and other federal and state roads. They are willing to sell out these assets, which have been paid for and have been owned by the U.S. taxpayer, to foreign corporations to repair and maintain at whatever the free market will bear. This is being done on a piecemeal basis. Once such case is the sell off for the sum of $3.8 billion of the Indiana Turnpike to an Australian-Spanish consortium to administer for seventy-five years for net profit to those foreign firms of at least $121 billion. The same attempt is being made in Texas under Gov. Perry, who was George Bush's lieutenant-governor when he was governor of Texas. Please do read Pat Choate's latest book Dangerous Business: The Risks of Globalization for America, Knopf, 2008. The reader will see clearly how this oligarchy has betrayed the American People and this nation big time. Choate is an economist and Ross Perot's second vice-presidential running mate. Wake up America! Sons and Daughters of Liberty take back your country! John McSame and Railin' Palin are not the hope for change in these misguided policies. They are in bed with the people who have hoodwinked the hard-working decent citizens of this nation and foisted one bad decision after another during their years of misrule of the United States of America.

The Federal Reserve: The Greatest Scam In History?
13th August 2007

The Federal Reserve was created in 1913-1914 in order to bring stability to the economy and yet almost every major crash, including the great depression, can be attributed to the Federal Reserve.

We are going to take a look at the history of the Fed and what prominent historical figures have said about the organisation.

Firstly, from 1837-1862 there was a system of national banks in the USA but then in 1913-1914 a consortium of 12 privately held banks got together and formed the Federal Reserve Bank, an entity that is not part of the US government. These banks then purchased notes from the US Mint for printing costs and lent them out through member banks charging interest.

The Federal Reserve came into being after its supporters paid for the Presidential campaign of US President Woodrow Wilson. Wilson signed the bill that transferred the US currency to twelve regional private banks Wilson regretted his decision later saying:

“I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world. No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.”

In 1933 President Roosevelt confiscated citizens gold and handed it to the Federal Reserve. At the very moment when Americans have needed to protect their wealth the most, the best store of wealth ever created, gold, was confiscated from American citizens and given to a un-elected conglomerate of private banks.

When the bill for the Federal Reserve was being considered, some brave politicians spoke out against its creation calling it “the strangest, most dangerous advantage ever placed in the hands of a special privilege class by any Government that ever existed” and Congressman Victor Murdock said, “I do not blind myself to the fact that this measure will not be effectual as a remedy for a great national evil – the concentrated control of credit.”

It even appears that one of the most important and most respected figures in American history disagrees with the Federal Reserve saying, “If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

Jefferson also said, “I sincerely believe the banking institutions having the issuing power of money are more dangerous to liberty than standing armies”
“Paper is poverty… it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself.”

The Federal Reserve make no secret about the scam they are running as the Boston section of the Federal Reserve Bank said:
“When you or I write a check there must be sufficient funds in our account to cover the cheque, but when the Federal Reserve writes a check there is no bank deposit on which that cheque is drawn. When the Federal Reserve writes a cheque, it is creating money.”

Perhaps the Fed can create money, but we strongly believe that wealth cannot be created. Wealth is simply transferred, it is not created and we challenge anyone to prove otherwise. The only time wealth was created was when the world was created, with all its resources, true wealth. So why hasn’t the Federal Reserve been disbanded?

Well as the Rothschild Brothers of London said in 1863; “The few who understand the system, will either be so interested from it’s profits or so dependant on it’s favours, that there will be no opposition from that class.”

The great Henry Ford once said “It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”

The problem is, very few people understand the system at all. It is not taught in schools and even some of the most prominent financial analysts and fund managers really have no idea how the system works. They tend to define inflation as rising prices when in fact inflation occurs because of the expansion of the money supply. Or even link inflation with the economy doing well, saying, “we should raise interest rates as the economy did extremely well this month and we don’t want inflation getting out of hand”, or words to that effect.

What all people, not just investors, need to understand is that paper money is worthless. Gold and precious metals are the real money, the real wealth that cannot be created like its paper ghost.

Wall Street and Congress are to blame. Reality is we are in a stinky mess and someone's going to have to pay the price to bring back confidence into the markets....and we, the U.S. (inidviduals, even corporations much to our displeasure since they are the job creators for our country) will probably take the lions share since we are the biggest stakeholder and the richest country in the world. Although some European countries are doing the same...the numbers all point to us making the biggest impact - not them.

Some of these folks that put us there should be treated no different than the Mafia...there assets should be frozen and taken from them, their golden parachutes should go to general treasury..and then we should be jailed.

Some businesses do not need to be regulated...some do...and I think it has been proven over and over and over again that the financial services industry does.

Guy named Hyman Minsky professes checks and balances to prevent times like these...problem is, he's pulled out of the drawer, dusted off, and used as an answer of last resort...exactly what he says not to do...

He rated 2 pages in a 700 page textbook back during the .com bubble...he was relegated to the backburner of all economic thought because times were good - Adam Smith and Milton Friedman ruled the day. I totally disregarded him during my Master's program - I was a Milton Friedman groupie...but I remembered him being briefly discussed back in the day...

I dusted him off, even though I previously dismissed him, because I think that there is some merit to his thought. Everyone should read his Financial Instability Hypothesis. The crisis we are currently in is a textbook case!! He realizes that checks and balances need to be put in place to prevent these types of problems from occuring...for example understanding complex derivatives, CDO's, CMOs, etc..before institutionalizing them. Even Warren Buffett takes issues w/ these complex instruments..

On a positive note...we'll eventually get out of this mess...just need another innovation that's adaptable to the average citizen..hopefully we don't screw it up..but if history bears out - we will (screw it up that is)...just hope I pull my money out this time before the bust occurs.

Cauldron of Corruption
September 19th, 2008 SP Editor Posted in American News |

We have already discussed, on the last few days, how this entire financial mess in which we find ourselves in was primarily brought upon by the corruption within Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (and in the general mortgage industry). We have already discussed that the issue of “deregulation” was primarily troubling when it was specifically directed at this industry, since it got a lot of people involved with loans the could have never afforded them in the first place.
This drive to “open up the system” was specifically advocated and championed by the Liberal Democrats (and some Liberal Republicans) inside congress, who felt it was their “duty” to make many of these loans available to low income and “minority” families, all to the peril of our economic stability (and the low income families themselves).
This type of “market socialism” and cultural advocacy with tax payers money, which Barack Obama and his friends have advocated throughout all their years in politics more than likely be the forefather of our complete economic and social collapse. Below, you will hear the head of Fannie Mae (in 2005) singing the praises of the Congressional Black Caucus (and the Dems) for their help in allowing them to “roam free” to making these types of loans available.
It is crucial to point out that during this same year, 2005, John McCain was vocally advocating to put a stop to this practice, even calling into question the ethical conduct of these institutions (read our piece two days ago). It is also important to point out that out of more than 300 lawmakers in Washington, and out of the span of more than 9 years, Barack Obama was the SECOND highest recipient of money from this same institution, even surpassing member who have been there for more than three decades (Obama achieved this being there a mere three years).
As it will become quite apparent from watching the following video, Barack Obama and his Democratic friends have A LOT of blood on their hands:
Of course, the McCain campaign had to FINALLY hit Obama hard on his complicity with our current economic situation with the following ad. Obama’s complicity lies squarely within the passive but corrupt styling of a money hungry opportunist and his lack of judgment resides in his constant tendency to surround himself with the worst people in America (from Wright to Ayers).

Of course, the primary problematic with Barack Obama is his horrid judgment in almost every matter, from the choice of his personal friends, to his political allies. The following ad clearly highlights this situation and question the listener to highly consider what it means to have a candidate for President with such bad associations inside the White House, specially at a time when our financial problems have been primarily caused by CORRUPTION and horrible appointments.

In other news, for a person that constantly complains about being “lied about” in ads, Obama is all too willing to not only do some deceiving of his own, but is even willing to instill racial hatred and division to get some votes.
In the following ad (in Spanish), Barack Obama places multiple quotes from right wing commentator Rush Limbaugh, which appear to degrade and racially insult Latin American immigrants, even though many fact check organizations have already pointed out that they were severly taken out of context.
The ad proceeds to describe these attacks as “Republican smears” against Latino workers. Then the ad begins to connect Limbaugh and these racially charged comments to John McCain, even placing a newspaper quote that reads: “They even stopped immigration reform,” right next to the Senator’s photograph.
The advertisement’s clear aim is to instill racial distrust for the “Republicans”, a code word in the Latino community for “WHITE”, and to thus motivate them to “unite with Obama”, who claims to be a minority and “one of their own”.
This play of the race card is despicable and an insult to ALL Latin American people of this Nation.
Of course, the ad doesn’t tell the audience that it was John McCain who actually advocated for immigration reform, and was only the Bush Administration (and other Republicans) who stopped it. This fact is so well known that it actually underscores the fact that it is for this same reason (and many others) that McCain has been despised by Rush Limbaugh and others.
Ironically, if the facts behind this ad are sufficiently ventilated, it would prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that John McCain does NOT follow the party line in every instance and has a well established record of bipartisanship, something that Obama clearly DOES NOT. (watch the ad below)

But, as most of you already know, Obama is all about TALK and NOTHING about action. He has public trust by flipping on campaign promises, from accepting Public financing, to participating in open town hall meetings with John McCain. He at first advocated for a “quick withdrawal” from Iraq (when he was facing Clinton), and then said he would have to “listen to his commanders” (after he “won” the nomination). He said publicly that Jerusalem should be partitioned among Jews and Palestinians, and then told a group of Jewish fundraisers that Jerusalem “will never be partitioned” under his watch. He has told the gay community countless times that he would repeal the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy of the military, and just today came out saying that he would have to “discuss it” with his commanders “and see”.
The list of Obama’s countless flip flops could LITERALLY fill an entire book.
The basic point of this entire post is that Barack Obama cannot be trusted to keep any of his campaign promises or to fulfill any of his pledges. He will say whatever is expedient to get elected, and once in office, he will do whatever his puppet masters and financiers tell him to do.
If you hear him say that he will “not raise taxes on 95% of the population” (an impossibility when you look at his immense spending proposals), you can bet hard earned cash that he will NOT follow through. Not only has he voted more than 4 times for TAX INCREASES on the middle class, but he continuously moves the bar on what “rich” means to him. Originally, he claimed he would raise it only to people making $250,000 “individually”, then he moved it to $250,000 per “household”, and more recently, many of his surrogates are starting to concertedly spread the number $150,000 per “household”. As you can see, the income bracket continues to shift up and (mostly) down, depending on the current political atmosphere.
The “household” term is also quite revealing, since that would mean that a house in which both parents work as teachers (or police officers, etc) would fill the standard of “rich” when their incomes are joined for tax purposes.
Of course, thanks to Barack Obama and his friends, many of these families are already up to their necks in debt, and all thanks to the “open” policies of his corrupt friends at Freddie and Fannie. If he gets elected, all of that cash from these “rich” families will not only go to the banks, it will “patriotically” also go to Uncle Sam.
Let’s look at how the McCain campaign is cleverly mocking Joe Biden’s assertion that paying taxes is somehow “patriotic”:

Don’t be fooled.
Say NO to corruption. Say NO to racialism. Say NO to socialism. Say NO to taxes. Say NO to Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.
©2008 SAVAGEPOLITICS.com. All Rights Reserved.