Great catch on “Good Fellas.” LMAO.

Thanks for sharing, Jane. Too bad that the Obama administration do not take lessons from economists like Stiglitz, Dean Baker and Paul Krugman. Stiglitz identifies a well-known propaganda tactic to call something by any name that you want others to think it to be. Such a strategy obviously deflects the attention away from the true target or rightful recipient of the criticism. LewisCarroll called it gobbledegook. Orwell called it newspeak. I call it lying.

Another sleight of hand that the Congressional Wall Street sock monkeys pull is to say that they are allocating money to nations–for example Egypt.

What many do not realize is that the money has a string attached to it that connects it to war profiteers such as General Electric or Lockheed Martin. Egypt must use that money purchase war equipment from war profiteers such as Lockheed Martin. It is not the people who benefit from these deals. It is a back door gift to the pals of our elected officials.

And Stiglitz is right. The global leaders (G8 in particular) treating poorer countries like Greece and Portugal just like the too-big-to fail banks treat American citizens on an individual basis. They are putting the burden on these small poor nations who can least afford it and not allowing them to restructure their loans. On the other hand, larger nations like Germany get a free ride and they do not want to share a penny of their wealth.

We live in an upside down world and no part of it is more upside down than the world of finance.

It is the poor who can least afford it who need a hand up with the interest rates. Many of them would not be belly up today if they had decent interest rates for their loans. Yet it is the rich who do not need it who get the best rates–not the poor.

It is the rich who can most afford to pay the 35% income tax rate who instead pay an average of 17% while the majority of Americans who can least afford it pay between 25 and 30%.

Six banks – Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley together paid income tax at an approximate rate of 11% of their pre-tax US earnings in 2009 and 2010. Had they paid at 35%, what they are legally mandated to pay, the federal government would have received an additional $13 billion in tax revenue. This would cover more than two years of salaries for the 132,000 teacher jobs lost since the economic crisis began in 2008.

Way to Go, Joe.

“Our elected officials have basically set up a political system that legalizes and facilitates bribery. And our failure to deal with that has created the most successful business model of the late 20th and early 21st centuries:”

The model takes many different names such as “shared sacrifice”, “austerity measures”, and “deficit reduction”

hahaha… I couldn’t even hear youtube, but of course that particular scene is probably etched in the minds of millions of Americans anyway. SOOO true!

The sad thing is Obomba had the political capital to change things. Instead, he sided with The Banksters. In fairness to him though, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was September 2008 when he first heard phrases, such as “monetary policy,” “securitized mortgages” and “Office of Thrift and Supervision.” But therein lies the reason I voted for Nader.

When McCain “suspended his campaign” and Obomba asked us to “quiet down and listen to the adults,” it was quite obvious to me that neither of them had any sort of governing philosophy regarding money and banking. For that alone, neither deserved a single vote. I mean, I didn’t expect much. But if you’re running for POTUS, you should be able to muster two or three sentences on something as big as The Bailout.

Simply stunning.

Egypt must use that money purchase war equipment from war profiteers such as Lockheed Martin. It is not the people who benefit from these deals. It is a back door gift to the pals of our elected officials.

Yep. I’m reading Stiglitz’s “Three Trillion Dollar War” right now.

He knows the racket. Well, they all do. At least I always assume they do. How could you consistently steal all that money by accident?

That was fascinating. Thanks for bringing it to our attention Jane.

Let’s not forget my favorite: “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”

Bah! Forgot to h/t you, Boo. Fixed it.

Thanks! Great catch.

Jamie Dimon says default would be a “moral disaster.” I say raising the debt ceiling and repaying the Federal Reserve’s Primary Dealers would be a “moral disaster.”

I wish you could get an interview with the Bankster with the supposed “good reputation.” (Thank you Fareed Zakaria for boosting a Bankster!)

It’d be interesting to see if Dimon is smart enough to know you hit him with real questions that he wouldn’t want to answer… or if he’s so arrogant, he wouldn’t know that he’d met his match… unlike most of the MSM who prefer access over answers.

I recall Joe Stiglitz making the rounds on serveral talk shows (Bloomberg cspan) just after Obama was elected and it was obvious that Joe thought he was going to have a big role with Obama….when Obama named Summers and not Stiglitz and got a bad feeling about where we were headed…notice Stiglitz is never on TV? Dean gets on once in awhile for a short segment..if Obama followed Joe/Dean economic plans we would be in a much better place right now! How can we get Joe/Dean or Simon Johnson on TV more?

This entire country is being run like a bustout operation, especially the previous criminal enterprise that occupied the White House.

This entire country is being run like a bustout operation, especially the previous and current criminal enterprises that occupied/occupy the White House.

Fixed it for you.

“As a result of war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed.”

blushing

The GOP calls it Reaganomics or “supply side” and the Democrats call it Rubinomics or “third way” but no matter what you call it it’s the SHARED economic voodoo of BOTH our corrupt political parties and it is designed, in order to protect the wealthy from their foolish and unregulated speculations, to enslave the working and middle classes with the debt of our too-big-to-fail criminal Wall Street institutions.

Concentration of wealth and power leads to distorted and flawed world view and values, hence policy and results. Change the myth, change the paradigm; connect with the source, see the light.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_rNYWTs9_Q
http://www.buffysainte-marie.com/albums.php?song_id=210&album_id=16&

has anyone knowledgeable written about what the consequences would have been if the big bail out had not been done?

And do people like Mr. stiglitz think there will be another failure/bailout? if so, when?

Last night Dylan Ratigan was on Bill Maher and referred to the Republican strategy as void of mathematics and facts. I think that the messages to the public and through the media regarding finance have the same characteristic. No math, no facts. Its the perfect irony that the bible clearly states that ” God is truth” and that the bible tempers are the ones most “allergic” to math and facts. We can’t have educated people in our country because if we did they might call for math and facts.they might notice when the argument at hand lacks them. The sad thing is that Obama too frequently plays this game in the finance arena. Fairy dust, what have you. No math, no facts. We still have yet to heat number regarding people who lost their homes to fraud. We don’t have numbers for the total loss of life associated with our wars in the middle east. So mny numbers missing from public discourse.

You’re absolutely right. Obama’s economic advisory appointments was my first inkling that Obama would not carry out his campaign promises, although I’ve since learned that many other people knew during the 2008 casmpaign that Obama would turn out to be a fraud. Escalation of the war in Afghanistan was the second nail in Obama’s coffin for me.

I think both Stiglitz and Krugman do think a hard fall is coming sooner than later. The financial reform bill was too weak to begin with and the TeaBaggers in the House are defunding it so nothing is being watched or enforced.