Two disturbing developments about the officials in the Obama Administration who are responsible to getting the country out of the financial crisis. First, it was disclosed that Larry Summers was paid $5 MILLION in 2008, largely from Hedge Funds and outrageous speaker fees from financial institutions. These payments are for influence and they are corrupt. Further, the Obama Administration is helping bailout firms get around the pay restrictions because they don’t think firms will participate in the government giveaway programs. So, they have concluded to continue the greed and excess that have caused the problems. These developments are very discouraging and represent more data that America is doomed.
Obama’s heart may be in the right place but he has hired people who want to continue all the past corruption. He needs to fire both Summers and Geithner immediately. He needs to make it clear that this behavior is going to stop, and stop it now. Unfortunately, I doubt if Obama will do anything; however, doing nothing will be rightly viewed as complicit agreement. In the process, Obama will become a one term President and people like me will never vote for him again — and probably not vote for anybody.
America is doomed.
Get use to stories like today’s where laid off workers take their rage into their own hands. Such people will get smarter and head straight to the people who fired them. The dirty little secret about America is that without income, you are nothing. If you can’t support yourself you are considered a deadbeat. You are despised by society. It doesn’t matter if you have skills, college degrees, or hard working. The only thing that matters is if you can support yourself.
So, when people lose jobs they lose their worth, their homes, their families, and have little to live for. No wonder that some will take out the rage on the people who they believe did it to them. In this case — IBM. IBM is the company that has been outsourcing jobs for years. In fact, they recently applied for a patent on how to make outsourcing more efficient. They even help other companies outsource work. IBM has no problems with that. IBM is the same company who literally helped Hitler figure out the list of Jews to be executed. IBM sent their little minons to the concentration camp to keep the computer equipment of that day in good working order so that the Nazis could be really good at killing Jews. Everybody knows that the Nazis were very good at it. Now everybody knows that IBM can be thanked for that.
Well, years have passed but IBM is still developing technology to kill people — one layoff at a time. IBM is a disgusting company.
America is doomed.
Reading the news everyday is overwhelming. Ted Stevens is being vindicated even though everybody knows that he took money from contractors to fix up his house in exchange for political favors. Stevens has been on the take for decades. Rich people frequently escape the law — so, it is no surprise that Stevens is getting off. Corruption is everywhere. One politician after another declares that they “made mistakes” on their taxes, just before they have to go in front of a Senate confirmation hearing. Maybe everybody should review their taxes now and fix them now. The accounting rules were changed to water down the mark-to-market rules so that the stock market can inflate. I could go on and on with one story about corruption and greed after another.
Instead, I am just looking forward to the revolution when the playing field is made level. Yes, there is going to be blood in the streets of America. When it happens people will be screaming about the lawlessness of ordinary citizens; however, nobody hears these cries now as the power in the country is corrupt. People are always surprised when the revolution comes. When the gates are stormed and when the politicians and corrupt business leaders are killed. When oppressed people rise up and rebel and take matters into their hands it is never pretty or even fair — lots of innocent people get slaughtered as well. However, from the remains a new beginning emerges.
It is not a question of if there will be a revolution, it is only a question of when. Tomorrow, there will be another disastrous unemployment report released. There is an excellent chance that the stock market will shrug it off and go higher. Everybody is expecting that lots more people will be unemployed in this report. But, it doesn’t really matter for the people in power. Their stocks will go higher, at least for now, as the entire corrupt system is manipulated for the few. Meanwhile, ordinary Americans will lose jobs, lose houses, and not be able to support themselves. Some will commit suicide and some will even kill other members of their families because the pain is too much. However, some will just get mad. As time goes on they will get madder. Eventually, it will explode and their will be blood everywhere.
The government will react and put down the insurrection. There will be more blood. The insurrection will never go away until the entire system is destroyed.
America is doomed.
Fed’s Pianalto is out today saying that the economy will begin to recover in 2010. The stock market loved the comment and rallied a bit, but such comments mean nothing. First, Pianalto has no idea if the economy will begin to recover in 2010 — it likely will not. People have been predicting the economy would begin to recover at the end of 2009. Second, even if the economy stops failing, it says nothing about it beginning to improve. It says nothing about jobs being created and unemployment going down. Third, long term employment is the only thing that matters and this must be accompanied by living wage salaries. Once demand is created at the bottom then the economy will recover. However, little is being done to increase employment and even less is being done to increase wages. It is going to take years, probably decades, and a new macro economic model.
Meanwhile, job destruction continues and it just doesn’t matter what the stock market does. The government will keep pumping in money to banks, buying toxic assets, changing accounting rules, and maybe the banks’ balance sheets improve. However, that doesn’t result in increased employment with living wage salaries. In fact, there is a trend for banks to just consolidate and lay off their way to improved balance sheets by cutting costs.
America is in so much trouble and there is not enough emphasis on creating new jobs and new industries. Everybody is focused on the greed and excess of CEOs which is, indeed, a crisis. However, it is not the crisis like the person who loses a job, a home, and a family. That person is a potential very angry person who just might want to retaliate against a system that has screwed him over. Don’t worry about Al-Qaeda — worry about Al-Unemployed.
America is doomed.
ADP announced that another 750k people lost jobs in March. The Labor Department’s official report comes out on Friday. Meanwhile, the European are protesting, breaking windows, and rioting in London at the G-20 meeting. The protesters are even holding signs that “CAPITALISM DOESN’T WORK”. Sounds like America Doomed.
Meanwhile, the Financial Accounting Board is expected to water down the mark-to-market accounting rules. This will result in banks valuing assets at any old value they want. So, expect to see big profits from the banks as a result of this accounting rule; however, it will be fake, just like all of their earnings have been for years. Changing mark-to-market is permission to cheat again. I guess cheating is all they can think of because the truth is all big banks are insolvent. They are just plain broke. So, lie about the values of your assets. How is that different that people lying about their assets or their income? There’s no difference.
There are no jobs but there are incidents all over the country when people lose jobs. Men fighting in Michigan when they lose their jobs because they will lose their house and family as well. Families being killed when jobs are lost and there appears to be no hope. Tent cities everywhere. Yet, the media only reports few of the tragedies that are happening every day. Republicans still don’t get it and want tax cuts to help the rich and their silly, stupid alternative budget. Republicans should plan on building lots more prisons because previously law abiding people will take to the streets and destroy stuff, just like they are doing in London today.
This country is so completely and utterly destined for increased unemployment, riots, and more destruction. Sadly, this is no April Fools.
America is doomed.
