Is Paul Volcker Looking For a Job?

I know Ben Benanke has already been confirmed as fed chief again, but when I read Paul Volcker's article in The New York Times, he really dances around the concept of "too big to fail". He really doesn't, in my estimation, make a good case for bailing out banks, or any other private entity. Just that "Aggressive action by governments and central banks — really unprecedented in both magnitude and scope — has been necessary to revive and maintain market functions." He really doesn't disagree with Obama much, and doesn't really offer a solution other than "protection against the outliers".  While we should limit the possible effect hedge markets have on banking, I do not see the need to bail the banks out in the future. They will have learned nothing from this experience. May be banking and hedge funds need to be separate entities, and have rules about what can be invested in hedge funds along with how and who. The hedge funds inversely leveraged the debt to the point of it being toxic to everyone. It's like turning a stick of dynamite into a 50 megaton bomb.


What is missing here is a solution that the banks should have come up with as opposed to having their hand out. It wasn't forthcoming. Volcker either is pitching for a future seat as chairman of the fed when Bernanke get the bus backed over him, or he's trying to stay on the inside with Obama. Nothing really changes in either case. It's more of the Wesley Mouch big government largesse to banks at our expense and detriment. We do not exist because of banks, but the reverse, and the same can be said of the government. It's about time corporations and government recognize the proper relationship and realize they serve us, not themselves. We also have to take responsibility for voting in self-absorbed, self-agrandizing, and selfish politicians that pass acts like the CRA, and go after corporations because they will not operate outside of good business practices. Lest's be clear here: The government enable people at large to borrow money they knew they could not pay back, and live beyond their means for a short while. The banks followed suit because of fear of being litigated against or in violation or the CRA. On top of this we had government lending institutions like freddie and fannie leading the way with bad lending practices, and then when the shit hit the fan, the bad loans were securitized into instruments the hedge funds tried to bury, there you have the stick of dynamite transmogrified into tsar bomba. To add to it, politicians like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd to mention only two, benefited with special preferential loans fro lending institutions. The only people left out in the cold to clean up afterwards were the american people not caught up in the mortgage bubble mania.

We don't don't need Paul Volcker or Ben Bernanke. We certainly don't need Alan Greenspan. If Milton Friedman was alive, I'd say give him a shot, but he's dead. If it were up to me, I'd have a sit down with Dr. Thomas Sowell and ask him what he thought. Too bad it isn't up to me, because now we'll have the FDR II show for the next 3 years. We remember how that went.

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The Bailout: Extortion

It becomes apparent rather quickly that the bailout was extortion and a con job by the banks with the politicians as willing marks and the citizens as unwilling ones. The market dumped and lost 40% in a child like temper-tantrum, not satisfied with getting the bailout passed, they weren't happy until Bush got the checkbook out. Now we see the NYSE market soar over 900 points in a day, and other markets follow suit. It's all smoke and mirrors. These mountebanks that run wall street and the banks have conned us out of our money. If things were so dire, I do not think the market would be so volatile. What we are seeing is a manipulation based on fear and the desire of these charlatans to get what they want. At some point someone has to be the adult and administer discipline. Unfortunately, with Obama, we will have a co-dependent president check writer that will promulgate this sort of behavior for years to come. Get ready for the government teat. 

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Son of the Sfacime Promulgates Affirmative Action in Lending

Andrew, ascendeme, tu sei provono sfacime! And he is!

Disenfranchisement

Well, now it stands and the bailout bill has passed. The fall of 2008 has demonstrated at last that the American people are disenfranchised. We are disenfranchised, and have been, because our elected officials pass legislation that is against what we want and/or against what is in our best interests. They created this monster with the CRA, Freddie and Fannie, and now they ask us to not only bailout Wall Street, but give them political cover as well. The arrogance of these plutocrats and aristocrats knows no bounds, and if that wasn't insult enough, the MSM has been part and parcel of a PR firm that is supporting any candidate that suits their political ideology, which is to the left of center. They have played favorites and it will haunt them in the future, as it has become quite the joke, almost a caricature of themselves. So en toto, we have been played like Pinocchio, puppets on a string for those that uscerp power and like to see the puppet dance. In essence, we have no vote, our influence is almost meaningless to the extent it only matters if it can be manipulated to and for the advantages of those that manipulate us. The difference between the two entities is that the MSM gets a kick out of it, as it is their bread and circus. Politicians are true gangsters and it really doesn't matter. They will sell their own flesh and blood down the river and we are mere acquaintances. Where is our Samuel Adams, Thomas Paine, and James Otis? We are a sorry lot indeed. 

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The Nobility of Victimization: Extortion and Tribute as a Way of Life

I should really try to blame Steve Deace for this post, but I won't. This bailout rings of the nobility of victimization. What I mean is that today, to be a victim bestows nobility. The banks were a victim, the recipients of the loans they never deserved are victims, and even politicians are victims. The banks are victims of the CRA, and so are those people that got in over their heads. Politicians are victims because they are forced to take a stand on this bill and actually do something...or not. To understand the audacity involved, Barack Hussein Obama postulates that the people that acquired those loans were somehow tricked into it. He said they were tricked into buying houses. I will say it... that is total F@#$ing bullshit, in my totally authentic NY accent. And somehow this makes all the players in this play noble. Noble as in having or showing fine personal qualities or high moral principles and ideals. Somehow we owe them, it's our fault, not theirs, we have to bail them out. This is furthest from the truth. When people screw up, particularly with their own finances, They are responsible for it. There's nothing of high moral ideals or fine personal qualities in it and there isn't any of those qualities in those that stick up tax payers to pay the bill for it. To add insult to injury, these bad players are threatening us, yes threatening us with financial harm if we do not pay their extortion, pay the tribute in order to avoid mayhem. Unfortunately for them, instead of grabbing my ankles as they would like, it makes me get my back up. Blame it on my Neapolitan heritage. I won't do it. Today's world is getting away from me and the more I know, the less I understand. It reminds me of the American Revolution when Lord Cornwallis lost at Yorktown and surrendered to Washington. The British military band played "The World Turned Upside down".

If buttercups buzz'd after the bee
If boats were on land, churches on sea
If ponies rode men and if grass ate the cows
And cats should be chased into holes by the mouse
If the mamas sold their babies
To the Gypsies for half a crown
If summer were spring
And the other way 'round
Then all the world would be upside down!

Thank you to Steve Deace for pushing my buttons and thank you for reading this blog.

IotW Update

Added to the list for Idiot of the Week is Barack Hussein Obama for his comment that people were tricked into buying homes. This is the same Barack H. Obama that represented people in a class action lawsuit against Citibank for redlining, which of course led to the CRA, but I digress. How do you trick people into buying a house, particularly if standard banking practices were applied, shouldn't qualify for it? The truth is, they thought they were getting over in getting a mortgage, and knew damn well that the CRA was doing it's magic. O'Stymie is either a hypocrite or an Idiot, and this week he is nominated as an Idiot. Lucky for him, the week is still young. 

Update: Added to the list is John McCain and Co. for not realizing that Ifil is coming out with a pro O'Stymie book in January vis a vis Ifil being a moderator in the VP debate. 

IotW list:

David T. Meyers

Barack Hussein Obama

John McCain & Co.

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Bush the Globalist?

In today's press conference, Bush uttered words that seemed prescient to his world view. When he addressed us, not only did he say citizens of America, but "citizens around the world". Does Bush envision himself as president of the world, or is it that he sees the context of this bailout beyond the US? This problem was created by politicians trying to seem as though they were doing something, something that felt good, which was affirmative action in lending. Intentions mean everything to these people. For the purpose of intellectual honesty, if the CRA had never happened, we would not be in the mess we are now. Bush's appeal to citizen's around the world almost seems like a freudian slip. I can't help but wonder what he and his democrat cronies will try next. By the way, Paulson is a democrat. What do you think?

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