Thursday, July 16, 2009

One Year Ago

"Adequately capitalized” and “in no danger of failing.”

-Ben Bernanke on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in front of the House Financial Services Committee, July 16, 2008.

Why is there even any discussion about giving him another four-year term?

8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I was sitting about 15 feet from Bernanke/Paulson during this hearing. Similarly, Paulson said in his opening statement confidence was returning to the capital markets as both FNM and FRE plunged by 50% as he spoke.

7/16/2009 10:19 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Does this qualify for Andrew Sullivan's Von Hoffmann Award given for stunningly wrong political, social and cultural predictions or should you develop an award for stunningly wrong economic predictions?

7/16/2009 10:53 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Why is there even any discussion about giving him another four-year term?"

Cuz the alternative might be Summers?
-- sglover

7/16/2009 11:21 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Because he has been a loyal and effective soldier for the Empire.

-Unmitigated Audacity

7/16/2009 2:20 PM  
Anonymous goldhorder said...

He has done his job. Speak mindless dribble to the masses while Goldman Sachs devours what is left of America's wealth. It is really that simple.

7/17/2009 1:32 PM  
Anonymous goldhorder said...

I think I posted this before...but again...Matt Taibbi is a leftist and I don't see eye to eye with him on many things but this is an excellent piece of journalism. The only way you could ever poke through the smog of PR generated by Goldman Sachs is to not hold back and try and smack people in the face with a bit of reality. Taibbi is just the guy to do it.


http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/28816321/the_great_american_bubble_machine#

7/17/2009 1:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Taibbi piece IS great. The guy can really write. He is circling in on how the empire works. However, Goldman is not the center of it, just a cog. The empire is the Int'l Monetary System, the post '71, post Bretton Woods floating exchange rate, deregulated mess that has evolved since Nixon. At the center of the empire is the City of London, Wall Street, the central banks and bankers (which hold hostage the national govts they "serve") and the IMF/World Bank apparatus. The thrust of the imperial policy is to de-industrialize the US and Europe, destroy a thriving working and middle class, destroy the idea of progress, of sovereignty of nations, all the while enriching the financial oligarchy, using that "blood funnel" Matt talks about to suck the life out of the real physical economy and into the nether world of the casino economy. The end game is massive depopulation, the end of the Westphalian nation-state system and new neo-feudal world order. Neither Bush nor Obama nor most retail politicians understand this stuff, but they are working for this oligarchy nonetheless. They have managed to buy some time with the massive bailout infusions of trillions of $, but the system is so far bankrupt that you cannot save it or reform it. It must be replaced with a Hamiltonian credit system now, or the world is faced with a total civilizational collapse into a dark age.

-Unmitigated Audacity

7/17/2009 2:39 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Have you been reading Matt Taibbi's articles on Golden Sachs, The Great American Bubble Machine.

When I think of the likes of Summers, Geithner, Paulson, Bernanke, Wall Street thugs, having the ear of President Obama, it reminds me of a Time magazine article about the buildup to the Iraq war. The article said Colin Powell tried to talk and reason to then President Bush, but Cheney had gotten his ear, and that was that.

I like Obama, but I fear Wall Street and it's toadies have created an environment they control for their pleasure. They have made us the US of WS. :-(

7/19/2009 4:22 PM  

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