The Big Con

Lining up at Midnight at Wal-Mart to buy Food

Philip Palij — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 09:57:04 -0800

"On the one hand, you have the financial sector swimming in their bailout-induced profits like a modern day Scrooge Mcduck. In their circles, it appears as if the recession is over. On the other hand, you have average Americans seeing access to credit cards shut down, equity in their homes vanishing"

Nouriel Roubini, One on One: More Doom and Gloom

Philip Palij — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:32:33 -0700

"...Dr. Roubini will be the keynote speaker at IndexUniverse’s upcoming “Inside Commodities” conference on Nov. 4 at the New York Stock Exchange. We sat down with Dr. Roubini ahead of the conference to take his temperature on global markets..."

Hisssss (Citibank Overpressure Warning?)

Philip Palij — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:59:19 -0700

"...Standard "purchase" interest rate is going to 29.99%...".

Huge numbers of small business owners - especially sole proprietors - use these cards as a means of financing operations. They relied on that 10 or 12% interest rate, and most of them have huge balances outstanding.

Fannie and Freddie: Worthless?

Philip Palij — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:41:03 -0700

Don't get to cosy with the rising Dow Jones; There is still a bumpy ride ahead for the US economy. There is still a lot of damage undealt with.

This article summarizes where the government is with the bailout and what may come. Remember there are other basket cases out there, many more...... who need feeding.

Companies Like Monsanto and Dupont Practically Own the Meal on Your Plate

Philip Palij — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:38:02 -0700

Monsanto and its competitors want to own and take a percentage from every seed humans cultivate to eat. Eliminating nature's seed and substituting their own.

A frightening survey, menacing, evil consequences for us all. A corporate takeover of mother nature. They are inside us. They want to own us too.

Worship your corporate Gods.

When War becomes Peace, When the Lie becomes the Truth‏

Philip Palij — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 12:40:42 -0700

Mr Chossudovsky rightly questions the logic behind the President Obama's Nobel peace prize. Something is wrong here.

"At this critical juncture in our history, the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to President and Commander in Chief Barack Obama constitutes an unmitigated tool of propaganda and distortion..."

The Cult of GDP

Philip Palij — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:28:15 -0700

Bigger, better, faster, more.... of everything... This is how success is measured.

The interest based economies of the world need growth even if it is inflation maintaining the illusion. The need for growth keeps people working and in harness for the good of who exactly?

This article commits the heresy of at least questioning capitalism

Congress Pushing for Federal Reserve Audit

Philip Palij — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:12:23 -0700

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is "not revealing what they did with the two trillion dollars they created on their books. It was loans to banks for sure. There have been several actions under the Freedom of Information Act to get them to say who they were to and what the terms were, but they won't do it,"

Right Wingers Flail As Their World Collapses

Bernie Horn — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:15:07 -0700

We are like astronomers watching a black hole collapsing inward. But it’s the conservative movement we’re viewing. Lacking a Republican president to hold it in place, the powerful gravity of extremist ideology is crushing its adherents. At least, that’s how it looks through the lens of recent public opinion polls.

Americans are very happy with President Barack Obama. The President is wildly popular among both Democrats and Independents. Republicans don’t like him but that is neither unexpected nor particularly important.

On the other hand, no one on the Republican side is well-liked. Mitch McConnell (21 percent favorable, 62 percent unfavorable), John Boehner (14 percent favorable, 64 percent unfavorable), the Republican Party (20 percent favorable, 72 percent unfavorable), and congressional Republicans (11 percent favorable, 73 percent unfavorable) are dramatically unpopular. Only 42 percent of Republicans have a favorable opinion of Republicans in Congress.

Now a new Gallup Poll shows that Republicans are leaderless. It found that most Americans cannot even identify “the main person” who speaks for Republicans today. Here are the results:

Rush Limbaugh—13 percent
Dick Cheney—10 percent
John McCain—6 percent
Newt Gingrich—6 percent
George W. Bush—3 percent
Michael Steele—1 percent
John Boehner—1 percent
Mitt Romney—1 percent
Other—9 percent

Could not name any main person—52 percent

There is a reason for this leaderless unpopularity. The Bush Administration was an enormous failure. And Americans understand that this was not just a matter of incompetence—Bush failed because conservatism failed to live up to its promise.

The only sensible thing for Republicans to do at this time is to reject at least some of the right wing ideology. If they don’t become at least somewhat more moderate, they can’t deliver a credible message to Independent voters.

But they’re doing the opposite!

Yesterday it was disclosed that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will launch a $100 million campaign to defend their extreme right wing agenda. Chamber President Tom Donohue calls this effort the “Campaign for Free Enterprise.” He declared:

We have got to go out in a big-time way and remind all Americans that it was a free enterprise system based on the values of individual initiative, hard work, risk innovation and profit which built our great country.

According to the newspaper Politico:

Donohue will begin raising money for the project this summer and roll it out in stages. As envisioned, the campaign will include a grass-roots lobbying component that will tap the strength of the Chamber’s network of small businesses and business and trade associations. A public education ad buy defending the free enterprise system is in the works, as well as an issue advocacy program tied to the 2010 midterm elections.

In the middle of the worst recession since the Great Depression, that plan is downright crazy. And what about Republicans in Congress? According to the New York Times, they’re launching a new energy proposal:

[The plan] leans heavily on nuclear power, setting a goal of building 100 reactors over the next 20 years. No new nuclear plants have been ordered in the United States since 1978 because of the high cost of construction and uncertainty about regulatory approval.

Nuclear power is the least popular of all proposals to deal with America’s dependence on foreign oil. That’s consistent with congressional Republican plans on health care (force everyone to buy insurance from the unpopular private health insurance companies) and taxes (make the unpopular Bush tax cuts permanent and implement a range of new tax breaks for the rich).

While President Obama has Democrats fairly well-organized and energized—pushing for health care reform, energy independence, and greater support for education—the conservatives are totally disorganized, demoralized and unpopular. At least they are right now.

We progressives have to make the most of this rare opportunity. Because we’re not really looking through a telescope at a black hole in space. We’re gazing out of the deep, dark hole that George W. Bush and his conservative cronies dug for our country. It will take all of our strength to lift our fellow Americans into the light.

The writer is a Senior Fellow at Campaign for America’s Future and author of the book, “Framing the Future: How Progressive Values Can Win Elections and Influence People”.

Financial Inquiries and the Pecora Legacy

Philip Palij — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 01:37:58 -0700

With the House on Wednesday joining the Senate in seeking an ambitious inquiry into the financial underpinnings that caused the nation’s economic downturn, the name Ferdinand Pecora may well become as familiar as it was during the 1930s.