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OBAMA’S SPEECH RAISES ISSUE HE DOESN’T REALLY ADDRESS:
Has The Economy Been Pulled Back From The Brink? Who Is Recovering?
By Danny Schechter l Blogger in chief, Mediachannel.org
President Obama’s highly anticipated health care speech started on a totally different subject: The economy.
Has The Economy Been Pulled Back From The Brink? Who Is Recovering?
By Danny Schechter l Blogger in chief, Mediachannel.org
President Obama’s highly anticipated health care speech started on a totally different subject: The economy.
“When I spoke here last winter, this nation was facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, he told Congress and the peole at home. “We were losing an average of 700,000 jobs per month. Credit was frozen. And our financial system was on the verge of collapse.”
But,” he went on, “thanks to the bold and decisive action we have taken since January, I can stand here with confidence and say that we have pulled this economy back from the brink.”
Applause. Applause. Applause.
Are we back from the brink? And what brink is that? On Labor Day night, HBO featured a powerful documentary about a GM Plant in Ohio that was shutting down. It showed the workers, teary eyed and forlorn, making the last truck on “their” assembly line. Their faces told the rest of the story as they asked themselves and each other, ‘what do I do now? What happens to my family and my life?”
They had no answers, and neither, alas, does Barack Obama.
A “jobless recovery” will not give these workers the money to buy into even the cheapest health care option, public option or not.
Look around Mr. Obama: the unemployment rate in real terms is over 16%. The consumer economy is shattered. The commercial real estate market is imploding, and, yes, more foreclosures are on the way according to the Washington Post:
“A new report foresees another wave of foreclosures, as option adjustable-rate mortgages—an entire class of specialized home loans—will soon reset to higher payments. Estimated to jump by 63 percent on average, the higher rates will likely push many of the already-strained loan recipients over the brink. The loans, also called pick-a-pay loans, are a prime example of the risky lending techniques that created the housing crisis: Borrowers were allowed to pay back the loan with as little as they wanted each month, though that meant many paid less than the interest due…the report says the fallout from the loans could be felt for years, especially in states already hit hard by foreclosures.
Just who is back from the brink?
If you listen to the Fed, the glass is more than half full; if you listen to economists like Simon Johnson, it’s way more than half empty, as he wrote on Baseline Scenario:
“In the absence of effective financial regulation – i.e., both during the 1920s and again since 1990 – the Fed has operated in a manner that encourages the formation of sequential bubbles.† This destabilization of our financial system is not a minor matter; the damage caused – human, financial, social – is already enormous."
“And we are very far from being done.
“Don’t take my word for it. Lou Jiwei, the chairman of China’s sovereign wealth fund said recently, “It will not be too bad this year. Both China and America are addressing bubbles by creating more bubbles and we’re just taking advantage of that. So we can’t lose.”
Yes, We Can ---lose, that is, Mr. Lou. And Yes We Are, Mr. Obama. The problem is that we are still in some Bernanke fantasyland, thinking that if we keep saying everything is ok, it will be.
Here’s Washington’s blog on real unemployment as opposed to what the Bureau of Labor Statistics is saying:
“… Paul Craig Roberts - former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and former editor of the Wall Street Journal - and economist John Williams both said in December 2008 that - if the unemployment rate was calculated as it was during the Great Depression - the December 2008 unemployment figure would actually have been 17.5%.
Williams says that unemployment figures for July 2009 rose to 20.6% According to an article summarizing the projections of former International Monetary Fund Chief Economist and Harvard University Economics Professor Kenneth Rogoff and University of Maryland Economics Professor Carmen Reinhart, … unemployment could rise to 22% within the next 4 years or so.”
Hello, Mr. President? Why can’t you bring to the discussion of the economy the same passion and fact-based arguments that you brought to the health care debate?
Why can’t you propose serious reforms on the financial sector? Why can’t we jail the financial criminals?
The answer seems to be that Wall Street will be a far more tenacious and resourceful enemy than the health care industry perhaps because they already own much of the Congress.
Remember Senator Dick Durbin’s comment, ‘the bankers run the place.”
Alan Blinder a former vice-chairman of the Fed fears that pressure for financial reform is losing steam in part because of the power of what he calls “The Mother Of All Lobbies.” He writes, “in the case of financial reform, the money at stake is mind-boggling amd one financial industry after another will go to the mat to fight any provision that might hurt it.”
Obama acknowledged we are not out of the woods yet. (What woods?) But what are the likely consequences? How long can people live without anything coming in? How long can we live on upbeat projections?
“There is no doubt class antagonism is stewing,” says the editor of the blog Naked Captalism. He expressed a fear of a reaction that will go way beyond flag-waving tea parties.
“… I am concerned this behavior is setting the stage for another sort of extra-legal measure: violence. I have been amazed at the vitriol directed at the banking classes. Suggestions for punishment have included the guillotine (frequent), hanging, pitchforks, even burning at the stake. Tar and feathering appears inadequate, and stoning hasn’t yet surfaced as an idea. And mind you, my readership is educated, older, typically well-off (even if less so than three years ago). The fuse has to be shorter where the suffering is more acute.”
One is reminded of the title of that movie, “There will be blood.” Rather than show contrition or compassion for its own victims, Wall Street is hoping to jack up its salaries and bonuses to pre-2007 levels. The men at the top are oblivious to the pain they helped cause. They are getting away with the crime of our time.
And the people—THE PEOPLE—who potentially can challenge all this by action on the ground are being mesmerized by the false hope that recovery is here or right around the corner. How long before they realize you can’t eat optimistic speeches?
Mediachannel’s News Dissector Danny Schechter’s new book and film on Wall Street’s “Crime of Our Time” is coming soon. See Newsdissector.com/plunder. Comments to dissector@mediachannel.org
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written by Boxed Inn, September 10, 2009
written by Gerald V. Casale, September 10, 2009
"The men at the top are oblivious to the pain they helped cause."
i think they are aware of the pain they helped cause, it's just that they don't care.
nice article.
i think they are aware of the pain they helped cause, it's just that they don't care.
nice article.
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written by CATHERINE, September 10, 2009
THIS GUY IS A LIAR, HE HAS ONLY HUNG WITH ANTI-AMERICAN PEOPLE ALL HIS LIFE, HE BOWS TO TERRORISTS WHILE PUTTING RETURNING VETERANS ON THE TERRORIST LIST, JUST ASK HIS JANET RENO TYPE HOMELAND SECURITY BABE..........SO IT IS NO SURPRISE THAT IN LESS THAN 9 MONTHS HE HAS PUSHED A NATION ON THE SKIDS RIGHT OVER........HE STEALS PRIVATE COMPANIES AND HANDS THEM OFF TO THE UNIONS, HE SPENT 1 TRILLION DOLLARS IN THE FIRST 4 MONTHS..........HE DOES THE LARGEST SPENDING BILL IN HISTORY AND NONE OF IT USED TO CREATE JOBS.............HE HATES AMERICA AND ITS EVIL CAPITALISM AND HE AND HIS CZARS WILL DETAIL JUST HOW MUCH THEY HATE IT.............AND THE CULT OF LOVERS OF THE SWEET TALKING LAWYER LAP IT UP DAILY...........I DON'T THINK THEY HATE AMERICA TOO BUT THEY JUST JUMPED ON BOARD HIS HOPE AND CHANGE MESSAGE......(HITLER USED CHANGE IN HIS MESSAGE TOOOOO) AND DIDN'T REALIZE IT MEANT THAT HE WAS GOING TO "CHANGE" AMERICA FROM A FREE COUNTRY TO A FORCED SHARE THE WEALTH COUNTY..................AND HE "HOPES" YOU WON'T NOTICE..........
THAT IS WHY HE TELLS LIES LIKE THE ECONOMIC PROBLEMS ARE OVER TO OUR FACES AND BRAGS THAT HE FIXED IT
OR THAT HIS HEALTHCARE ISN'T FOR ILLEGALS WHICH THE DEMOCRATS FOUGHT FOR THE ILLEGALS RIGHTS
IT IS A GREAT LIAR AND IT GOT HIM IN THE WHITE HOUSE............WHY WOULD HE START TRUTHING NOW
HE KNOWS THE DEMOCRATS WON'T QUESTION HIS LIES..........JUST GO DOWN THE ROAD UNTIL THEY HAVE NOTHING.........
[Try turning off your CAPS LOCK, dear. Are you guys down south that fucked up? I oppose Obama's policies because they are identical to the Georges Bush, Clinton, Reagan, and the rest. America seems to believe it is its inherent right to go over the world slaughtering people for its "interests." Call it fascist, call it totalitarian (I think that's what you may mean, rather than communist). But you "normal" working Americans are sucked in by FOX NEWS, etc. Pitiful. I read today of one of those wacky Town Hall meeting interruption operations where some of the supporters of public health care (ooh a big commie plot) fought back. The right wing-nut instigator got a good shit kicking and ended up in hospital. Guess what? No health care. Dumb asses one and all. You get the government you deserve, I suppose. Lastly; which "illegals" are you talking about CATHERINE? Would they be the ones that lived on the land taken by the Anglo invaders and occupiers? Why don't you move to Israel? They encourage white people to murder brown "illegals" and they'll give you a piece of plundered land for your devotion too. -ed]
THAT IS WHY HE TELLS LIES LIKE THE ECONOMIC PROBLEMS ARE OVER TO OUR FACES AND BRAGS THAT HE FIXED IT
OR THAT HIS HEALTHCARE ISN'T FOR ILLEGALS WHICH THE DEMOCRATS FOUGHT FOR THE ILLEGALS RIGHTS
IT IS A GREAT LIAR AND IT GOT HIM IN THE WHITE HOUSE............WHY WOULD HE START TRUTHING NOW
HE KNOWS THE DEMOCRATS WON'T QUESTION HIS LIES..........JUST GO DOWN THE ROAD UNTIL THEY HAVE NOTHING.........
[Try turning off your CAPS LOCK, dear. Are you guys down south that fucked up? I oppose Obama's policies because they are identical to the Georges Bush, Clinton, Reagan, and the rest. America seems to believe it is its inherent right to go over the world slaughtering people for its "interests." Call it fascist, call it totalitarian (I think that's what you may mean, rather than communist). But you "normal" working Americans are sucked in by FOX NEWS, etc. Pitiful. I read today of one of those wacky Town Hall meeting interruption operations where some of the supporters of public health care (ooh a big commie plot) fought back. The right wing-nut instigator got a good shit kicking and ended up in hospital. Guess what? No health care. Dumb asses one and all. You get the government you deserve, I suppose. Lastly; which "illegals" are you talking about CATHERINE? Would they be the ones that lived on the land taken by the Anglo invaders and occupiers? Why don't you move to Israel? They encourage white people to murder brown "illegals" and they'll give you a piece of plundered land for your devotion too. -ed]
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written by Angie Fran, September 16, 2009
For exactly what are you suggesting THE PEOPLE take action on the ground, Mr. Schechter? You want the people to take action seeking regulation and reform of an inherently diseased economic system? You want us to take to the streets to force jail time for just the current crop of bad and greedy guys? What we really need rather than mere punishment and reform/regulation is an economic system with rationality and logic - like a Resource Based Economy rather than this system where the profit motive poisons everything, and the incredible technologies and resources we have - sufficient for all to have an abundant life - are not put to the service of humanity. (For an introduction into a rational Resource Based Economy where our resources and technology can actually serve humanity, all of it, see the free movie on the Internet called “Zeitgeist Addendum” at http://video.google.com/videop...695921912# .) Mr. Schechter, you ask Obama:
“Why can't you propose serious reforms on the financial sector? Why can't we jail the financial criminals?”
I ask why can’t the left realize they aren’t asking for anything important enough to bring masses of people aboard their train? You think jailing the current crop of baddies is going to change people’s quality of life? You think “serious reforms of the financial sector” will do likewise? The people know better than you that this system is set up always, serious reforms or not, for the top tiny elite to own & control while the bottom millions suffer.
And technology can now take over the drudgery of much work leading to technological unemployment. The left ignores this quandary while merely complaining of unemployment and begging for jobs. Learn about a resource based economy where technology *can work for humanity*, for all of it, and not against it.
You ask “How long before they realize you can't eat optimistic speeches?”
I ask “How long before the left realizes that we can’t eat its hollow, insignificant and superficial proposals like yours?
How long?
Angie
Angie@WhatNewsShouldBe.org
P.S. When you ask Obama “Why can't you bring to the discussion of the economy the same passion and fact-based arguments that you brought to the health care debate?”, I ask you what planet are you on to think that Obama has brought fact-based arguments into the health care debate when he makes deals with the health care insurance industry, leaving this useless and parasitic industry still in the picture, instead of getting the country to adopt a single payer plan (Medicare for all, even the young), which is where any honest review of the facts would lead anyone? What planet?
“Why can't you propose serious reforms on the financial sector? Why can't we jail the financial criminals?”
I ask why can’t the left realize they aren’t asking for anything important enough to bring masses of people aboard their train? You think jailing the current crop of baddies is going to change people’s quality of life? You think “serious reforms of the financial sector” will do likewise? The people know better than you that this system is set up always, serious reforms or not, for the top tiny elite to own & control while the bottom millions suffer.
And technology can now take over the drudgery of much work leading to technological unemployment. The left ignores this quandary while merely complaining of unemployment and begging for jobs. Learn about a resource based economy where technology *can work for humanity*, for all of it, and not against it.
You ask “How long before they realize you can't eat optimistic speeches?”
I ask “How long before the left realizes that we can’t eat its hollow, insignificant and superficial proposals like yours?
How long?
Angie
Angie@WhatNewsShouldBe.org
P.S. When you ask Obama “Why can't you bring to the discussion of the economy the same passion and fact-based arguments that you brought to the health care debate?”, I ask you what planet are you on to think that Obama has brought fact-based arguments into the health care debate when he makes deals with the health care insurance industry, leaving this useless and parasitic industry still in the picture, instead of getting the country to adopt a single payer plan (Medicare for all, even the young), which is where any honest review of the facts would lead anyone? What planet?
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This will assure passivity in the bulk of the citizenry as the real looting gets under way. How can we sidestep this trap?