Must read analysis of Greenspan and the credit bubble form "Mr Moto" at the Pru Bear chat site.
We're not in Kansas anymore Mr. Moto 3/12/2005 12:42:24 AM
There have been so many executive orders, judgements and legislative actions expanding the powers of the Treasury that it's difficult to know them completely.
When financial and non-financial U.S. corporate conglomerates demand such a large presence on the international scene, they also require more of our money to facilitate the achievement; and a lot of that money has been washed down the rat hole of irresponsible financial conduct. And they dare to force the issue of personal bankruptcy reform!
Not only are they consuming a significant amount of the rest of the world's savings, they are consuming ours as well. They never get enough; not ever. The attempt to make popular the theme of personal financial responsibility is a bad joke, a part in a repeat circuit of political deceit. There is barely a waking hour when they are not by some means (e.g. print and broadcast advertisement) attempting to have Americnas spend more.
What does that have to do with Treasury?
Who is it that benefits by our public borrowing? It's a meandering stream of money and credit that runs always to the corporate mouth. Whether direct from federal and state contracts and subsidies or through our personal expenditures, they intend and arrange to have it all. If they are not stopped, it will all end very badly.
This economic system, in and of its normal processes, will make them stop. But this is where we have Fed Chairman Greenspan, who, by his policy actions, desires that there never be an end to any of it, and makes every attempt to ensure there is not. And the borrowing continues. And the drain continues.
You are right, of course. The intent of Section 355 of the Federal Reserve Act is to deny the political administration (not the government, but the political administration) on-demand access to the central bank's checkbook money; funds that would otherwise be available merely for the asking. This is a part to our government system of checks and balances; and that anyone attempts to circumvent the system should be a warning signal.
But I see in Treasury's statements they do list the $14 billion in "public debt transactions" and as "debt subject to limit." Now they do. Not sure about then. And they get a little testy when you begin questioning them on their official statements.
First we had the Clintonistas. Now we have the Busheviks. How much more assault from within can this country withstand?
I let loose a sufficient number of remarks critical of the Clinton Administration, here and in my own publication, and I do not view Bush in any better light. He's being used to facilitate the aspirations of a comparative few, to transport them to the power required to achieve their selfish aims. But they know opportunity when they see it, the agents of ruin. Congress is a gift horse for those who desire to make our country over in their image of what should be; rather than that which is constitutionally intended for us.
Anyone with half a mind can see it would not take much in a public session to shove Bush beyond the narrow hold he has on his temper. And there is little if anything he attempts that is not also a financial windfall for special interests. That's his personal constitution. That's been his life. Now he's imposing on us. It's not a wonder it's reproted they are so comfortable in the company of one another, Bush and Clinton
RE: A Moto Classic. Must read. Thomas
3/12/2005 7:54:32 AM
Paraphrasing Hayek, "It is so much a problem with monopolies per se, but rather when they commandeer the machinery of government."
Now let's talk about the banking system...
RE: A Moto Classic. Must read. tom smith
3/12/2005 9:35:29 AM
Banco-military complex fails when the world community refuses fiat for the ultimate planetary commodity, human labor.
RE: Ultimate planetary commodity ginger
3/12/2005 11:03:15 AM
Tom Smith, I agree. In my opinion we are being harvested. We choose not to look up from the nice, green grass someone has thoughtfully provided for us. But it is a choice; it's voluntary.
You might enjoy this book as a further extension of that thinking about labour as a commodity: hopspress.com by a guy who decided before he left school that he wasn't going to "graze".
RE: Ultimate planetary commodity Mr. Moto
3/12/2005 6:02:57 PM
I suppose we've all heard it said: "What this country needs is a good depression."
Yes, good depression.
I'm aware that many are hurt by economic setbacks. They are, however, a necessary feature of the system. People knew better at one time how to weather that sort of circumstance; so it may be a more critical encounter than once was. Yet it is probable we would also arise from a period of negative economic growth with an amount of political and financial mischief dashed to pieces, the instigators of subversive deeds made to start over or forego their plans entirely. Certainly, the economic cycle must be a frustration for them. And, after all, our recent history does not for example include monarchy that refuses to understand the social and economic needs of its people -- rulers of regimes destined to crumble; and so we are not so exposed to the intrigue that creates risk for those nations constantly teetering on the edge of dissolution. Great men in our past, knowledgeable of what transpired for others, provided the structure of government and pattern of public service and leadership to which we should largely abide. I know they were not perfect men; but they spoke so clearly and emphatically of what we should be as a nation that many of their advisements will be a long time fading from the world's memory of what once happened here.
Oh, I don't intend that we descend economically to the point where living near the rail tracks meant visits from wayward men in need of enough sustenance (sandwich and coffee) to get them a little further on their way; only that certain dangers develop when the electorate is sated by false promises that arise out of crooked collaborations planted and financed to monopolize and command a future tailored to the furtherance of rule and profit by a comparative few, and that we might slow the pace of our existence enough to provide a more thorough examination of all that is destined to affect each of us greatly.
I am also conscious of what conflicts can grow from economic upheaval. I'm aware of the great wars of the past century and the concerns they created. The major European powers could not or would not discover an end to their battles. They seemed endlessly at arms against one another. There was the "War to end all wars" and its devastating scale of destruction. But there arose yet another world war; and surely, it was felt, that we might not -- any of us -- survive the next.
So it was that sane men decided there must be an end to all of it. We must gather the world together, they knew, and make a different course. What we now see in the way of global trade and interdependent nations acting in concert for peaceful resolution emanated from those concerns. But the enterprises of avarice and greed are everpresent, and the complexion of all that might have been is turned once more to advantage the few.
So I don't intend a collapse sufficient to put nations at war. But, I do wish for the creation of conditions that may force a comprehensive reconsideration of our policies.
It was at one time not deemed so extraordinary that the Federal Reserve would discuss forcing the U.S. economy into recession. Policy-makers had confidence we would not be greatly harmed. The resilient nature of the American economy would see that we survived, meanwhile the harmful imbalances and inefficiencies developed within a period of high economic growth would either lessen or vanish.
The argument sometimes offered, today, against permitting economic recession is it tends to make opportunity for political despots in other countries that have little choice but to follow us into the downturn. But perhaps it is also an occasion for America to do what it sometimes did better than anyone else, and set a good example for the rest of the world.
And so is dependable leadership required to get us through the occasional time of trouble. We could not tolerate the tools of malevolent purposes in the seats of American power. People would learn to demand better. Somehow, we need better.
I suppose anyone could go on and on with the topic of why the occasional economic relapse does not mean the end of us. Surely, today's globalists don't desire that their collaborations be put off. It may be possible, too, that the capabilities introduced by the advent of high technology and all it has meant for managing risk and constructing complex underwriting and other financial schemes was itself poorly managed. Maybe it all deserved greater oversight than many powerful people preferred, resulting in an unbridled expansion of money and credit, Mr. Greenspan's imperative deepening of the capital markets, that now presents a significant threat to the political and commercial viability of the very ones who supported the construction of such a top heavy edifice.
Had we pursued the expansion of our economic resources more wisely, with more capable guidance, there may not exist such an incessant need to manage economic information and manipulate markets. We all see it. But everyone is always in such a hurry. The competition is always gaining on us. Or, someone else may do it first. Well, contrary to what some may believe, others have done plenty [I[first.
In Paul Newman's film potrayal of the half-indian, half white, loner John Russell, he is suddenly stranded in a Western desert with a party of several other travelers after being robbed of nearly all their belongings. Certain that he would do well enough on his own, he sets out fast, with the rest trying frantically to catch up. After a time, a woman in the group, tired from the pace and irritated by his apparent disconcern, demands emphatically, "Why do we keep following you?" Russell stops, turns, then replies with a piercing glare, "Lady, because I can cut it."
I think Americans can cut it. But like John Russell, we need a chance to discover where we are and the confidence of knowing where we are headed. I hope we soon, somehow, have that opportunity. |
