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Strategies & Market Trends : The coming US dollar crisis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: carranza2 who wrote (24766)	11/24/2009 2:01:36 PM
From: Real Man	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71463

It was mostly done by Hank in 2008 during the robbery of outgoing Shrub last Fall, but I agree with you. Obama continued the TARP package. He just made it impossible for them to take, by severely restricting the use of these funds on looting - err - bonuses. Then most repaid it. TARP will now pay our country's debt. He designed a second stimulus, still running - road construction, education, tax cuts, etc., but no banks. Banks called it "socialist", cause they didn't get nothing. He is trying to reform medicare. I don't pretend to understand what will come out of it, but the need is clear. There is also quite a bit more accountability with the second stimulus package, available on recovery.gov, as opposed to one by W., which had none at all. Accountability drive is proper, and quite a bit non-Banana, even if not everything is reported right, and things are made look prettier than they actually are. That's normal. Things still suck. Did I miss something? -g-

To: carranza2 who wrote (24766)	11/24/2009 9:44:36 PM
From: axial	2 Recommendations Respond to of 71463

Many of the critical problems hit while he was still campaigning, and some of the "solutions" were baked-in before he took office. On the economic front, many believe he's been getting bad advice from Summers and Geithner, whose views reflect Wall Street capture. The belief that Summers and Geithner were bad choices is widespread, as is the feeling that Obama is getting bad advice, and worse, that reforms have been watered down in favor of financial elites. [It's worth noting that stories saying Volcker's input is being ignored just won't die.]* Many were hoping for a repeat of Roosevelt/Pecora; it didn't happen. The sense I get is that many feel that this time, Wall Street got away with it. The most consistent call has been for reinstatement of Glass-Steagall, or creation of a modern equivalent. There seems to be wide-ranging disgust that financial elites were largely unpunished, unjustly rewarded, and especially, emerged relatively unchanged in a position to do the same things again. Of course, legislators deserve blame too. It's always fascinated me that at the height of the crisis, they passed legislation that was against the law, contained carefully-hidden provisions, and even in an emergency, was still laden with pork. Maybe it will turn out all right; maybe we're being too pessimistic. There's no doubt that irreversible changes will result. We've already seen geopolitical instability, USD decline, rise of new factions in a multipolar world, and definitely, loss of former respect for US savoir-faire in things economic and financial. Maybe it takes more time than we think. In 1939 Roosevelt had accomplished much, but not enough: "When the Gallup poll in 1939 asked, 'Do you think the attitude of the Roosevelt administration toward business is delaying business recovery?' the American people responded 'yes' by a margin of more than two-to-one. The business community felt even more strongly so. Treasury Secretary, Henry Morgenthau, angry at the Keynesian spenders, confided to his diary May 1939: "We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and now if I am wrong somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosper. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises. I say after eight years of this administration, we have just as much unemployment as when we started. And enormous debt to boot." en.wikipedia.org In some ways, this crisis is far worse than Roosevelt's. As they say, it's uncharted territory. Jim