12 responses so far ↓

• Mep

  Mar 30, 2009 at 7:33 am

  

  Good one, Max.

  Obama has likened the banksters to suicide bombers publicly, but seems to be using such rhetoric to make himself look like someone who ultimately has no control over whether those banksters detonate their bombs. In time, the public will become less and less sympathetic to such rhetoric. There is no doubt that he is caught between a rock and a hard place–the public realizes that and is willing to be patient–but for him to suggest that the only way to proceed is to turn the FDIC into a giant hedge fund and allow the criminals to gather 'round the ol' casino table again–risk-free–is ludicrous.

  On the topic of looting pension funds, I just learned tonight that in February of 2008, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation altered its investment policy, and jacked up its investment in the stock market and real estate from 15-20% of its fund to 55%! The PBGC board consists of the Secretary of Treasury, Sec. of Labor, and Sec. of Commerce, so again, we have Paulson to thank for putting tens of millions of US pensions at risk.

  Link to Boston Globe article about the PBGC: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/arti...

  I read that and almost threw up.

  Simon Johnson is right: it's uncomfortable for Americans to realize that our system is in many ways no different than an emerging market economy. Obama must change course and break the power of the oligarchs.
• aura

  Mar 30, 2009 at 8:32 am

  

  Bravo Max. Thanks for having the courage to tell it like it is. Your piece was hard hitting, comical and tragic all at once. Is it true that Obama referred to carpet stains when scolding these criminal bankers (who control him)? If so he is a sad caricature of the man he projected himself to be and I fail to see how he can live with himself. Obama is the ultimate sell out, an uabashed whore and completely disgrace. During the campaign, when he ran to the defense of Henry Paulson, I knew he was bad news and would never vote for him. The people must wake up from their harried self induced stupors long enough to find a way to reclaim their government from these hoodlums in the treasury that have successfully undertaken a financial Coup d'état right under their yuppie noses.
• Danny

  Mar 30, 2009 at 9:26 am

  

  List of Obama's top contributors during his election campaign.
  http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cyc...

  I was waiting for Max to pass judgement on Obama– i know he said he wanted to wait a couple of months– so here it is. Obama is complicit in my opinion. He's Goldman Sachs' man. He's Wall Streets man. Remember Obama got 3 times the amount of contributions from Wall Street than McCain. This is unprecendeted for a one term senator. Why else was he given the support of these crooks– BECAUSE HE'S THEIR MAN IN THE WHITE HOUSE!! Just look at the cabinet- the same ol' crooks from the Clinton era, Bob Rubinites and Goldman cronies. Change? what change!? ……thats just my opinion.
• Mike

  Mar 30, 2009 at 11:19 am

  

  Mep, aura, danny –

  leave comments at huffington post too!
• Robert L.

  Mar 30, 2009 at 1:22 pm

  

  The problem in the U.S, unlike emerging markets, is the utter complacency of the population. We have been so poisoned by American Idol, Twitter, and TMZ, that we are unable to actually form anything close to a rational opinion or a cogent argument, for fear of being exposed for the rubes we are. Then you have the odd dichotomy of the population, with the Red State "Red necks" the only ones capable of actually combating the current "Police State". However, they live in such a blinding nationalistic bubble as to never even contemplate it. Meanwhile, the hippie left, wants to ban electricity, save the whales, and find a way to utilize bong resin as currency. The closest these wimps will ever come to revolution is buying an apple computer. Now the best part, 80% of our population belongs to one form of "doomsday cult" or another, how do you expect anything to ever change when their answer is closing there eyes, looking at the ceiling, and taking to themselves? It is almost 2010 for Christ's, oops, sakes!!! After watching a few "are people smarter than yeast" youtube clips, I can say unequivocally, MAYBE…
• Mep

  Mar 31, 2009 at 6:43 am

  

  Just did. Mine's just a little shout out to Max about how Goldman Sach's rocked out on the last OCC report.
• geopol

  Apr 1, 2009 at 12:29 am

  

  With a deeper well of evidence to draw upon. Obama’s first appointments have confirmed the grimmest suspicions about the new regime. The naming of the vicious thug Rahm Emanuel as the new Martin Bormann of the regime has caused much consternation, even among the netroots or nutroots crowd over at the Daily Kos. Rahm is a former member of the Israeli Defense Force whose ruling passion is that he is a warmonger. In 2006, when Rahm ran the Democratic congressional money machine, he made sure that only warmongers committed to the open-ended prosecution of the Afghan and Iraq wars could get any Democratic Party financing for their races. Many contests were lost as a result. A tragic case was that of grass-roots antiwar activist Christine Cegelis of Ohio, who was defeated in the Democratic primary by Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran who advocated endless hostilities there. Duckworth lost to the Republican by several points. If the
  $300,000 Rahm gave Duckworth had been shared with anti-war candidate Bob Bowmen in Florida, a Democratic seat could easily have been added. Rahm is also a product of the filthy and corrupt Illinois bipartisan Combine, which I have described in my books.A co-chair of the transition team is Valerie Jarrett, who served as Barky’s travelling schoolmarm during the campaign. Jarrett also comes from the Daley wing of the Illinois
  combine. She has provided graft and related support for Michelle Obama’s foundation-funded operations. Jarrett is also an integral part of the Chicago housing graft community, a region also inhabited by Barky’s original godfather, the convicted felon and thief Tony Rezko. Jarrett is discussed in detail in my Obama biography. She is joined on the transition team by John Podesta, a Clinton-era retread who worked for Sen. Tom
  Daschle, the senator from Citibank, the biggest employer in South Dakota. Podesta also worked for Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, a close personal friend of Weatherman terrorist bombers Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.
• geopol

  Apr 1, 2009 at 12:31 am

  

  Pt 2

  Another Daschle-Citibank retread is transition co-chair Tom Rouse, who was the chief of staff for Daschle when he was the weakest Democratic majority leader in recent memory, surrendering to Bush on point after point. Chief strategist remains David Axelrod of the corrupt Illinois Combine, who was taught his mindbending skills in the infamous “1313” Rockefeller-funded think tank at the University of Chicago.

  BANKERS ONLY: NO VOICE FOR LABOR, RETIREES, SMALL BUSINESS,
  WOMEN

  Obama’s transitional council of economic advisers is also notable. The dominant figures here are all Wall Street derivatives merchants and their quackademic apologists and politician clients. The key people here are plutocrat Warren Buffet, Obama moneybags and Hyatt heiress Penny Pritzker, Goldman Sachs-Citibank alum Robert Rubin, woman-hating thug and failed Harvard president Larry Summers, Google spook Eric Schmidt,
  and Roger Ferguson, the former vice president of the Federal Reserve board.
• geopol

  Apr 1, 2009 at 12:32 am

  

  Pt 3

  The most obscene is Trilateral Commission bigwig Paul Adolf Volcker, the bringer of the 22%
  prime rate of 1981 and the destroyer of the US industrial base. What is truly notable
  about this list is that there is not one single labor leader. No Sweeney of the AFL-CIO, no
  Hoffa of the Teamsters, no UAW, not even the unsavory Andy Stern of the SIEU. Note
  the difference to the New Deal, when labor reps were indispensable. With Barky, only
  derivatives monsters need apply. Also notable by their absence are leaders of women’s
  groups, small business associations, the congressional black caucus, retirees groups like
  the AARP – there is not even a token face representing any of these groups, all of which
  have a vital interest in economic policy. Read the ill omens if you have eyes to see. The
  Obama regime is shaping up as of the bankers, by the bankers, for the bankers. This is not
  the FDR New Deal – this is the Mussolini fascist corporate state.
• geopol

  Apr 1, 2009 at 12:34 am

  

  Pt4

  WASHINGTON ECONOMIC CONFERENCE: THE DERIVATIVES BLOC VS. THE
  ANTI-DERIVATIVES BLOC

  We are also told that Barky has been on the phone to foreign leaders about matters of
  economic. Let us read the tea leaves: whom did Barky call? Here is the list: Australia, the
  British, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Mexico, and South Korea.
  Notice now who is NOT on the list. Start with the great world powers who have been
  snubbed: Russia and China, both of whom are bigger holders of US Treasury bonds than
  most of those who are on the list. Saudi Arabia, who might have needed reassurance that
  Barky is not a commie, are also snubbed. Forget ideology, and behold the ineptitude.
  Most glaring of all is the lack of any phone call to a leading third world or developing
  sector country, other than Mexico, which is a branch of NAFTA. No calls were made to
  Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, India or a long list of other leading
  states. Nobody in Africa, nobody in south Asia, and nobody in South America got a call.
  Not even those who will be coming to the pseudo-Bretton Woods conference set for
  Washington later this month. The best we can hope for regarding that conference is that it
  end in a stalemate, dividing the world between a US-UK dominated derivatives bloc and
  a Brazil-India-Russia-China-South Africa anti-derivatives bloc interested in real physical
  commodity production, not fictitious capital.
• geopol

  Apr 1, 2009 at 12:34 am

  

  Pt 5

  Obama, in summation, is acting just like the abject puppet of the Wall Street derivatives
  merchants and warmongers which we have argued him to be.
• Gina

  Apr 5, 2009 at 7:56 pm

  

  Here’s the skinny as I see it Max & Stacey. They have hung us out to dry for years. With a partially sleeping public it was easy to orchestrate. Distracted by foolishness Americans have missed the whole ball game. Upon a larger mass awakening I can only say “watch out ” ! I am starting to smell intelligence and revolt ! Keep up the luscious spewing, I love it !!