Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Fault Line

Yesterday I received a short email from an apparent Senate staffer. I don't know if the email is legit. It came from a personal account, but contained enough detail for me to judge the substance worthy of at least passing along. The emailer said that his office has been pressured to oppose the Fed audit to a degree that his boss considers unprecedented and highly inappropriate. I'll see if I can get more details and/or permission to repost the email. I know this blog has a good number of congressional staffers as readers, so maybe there are others with similar experiences to report. But the question is unavoidable now: why the frantic desperation about a bit of important but otherwise arcane, innocuous GAO oversight? What must be concealed at all costs?

One of the reasons the proposed audit is so interesting is the overt reaction it has prompted from some powerful interests that have always preferred the shadows and depended on secrecy. These interests have long been able to count on proxies in Washington to keep them in those shadows and to perpetuate that secrecy. As an indication of their reach, they have now flipped and co-opted a president who was elected after famously proclaiming, "In just 15 days, you and I can begin to bring some badly needed sunshine to Washington, D.C. Power concedes nothing without a fight."

The audit is a fault line, the ultimate battleground between that entrenched power and new post-crash political exigencies. The events and revelations of the past two years ruptured and rendered untenable a tacit dynamic that, except for brief periods like the early 1930's, had been in place for a large part of this country's history. Which politicians still don't fully understand that, or can be counted on or sufficiently intimidated to ignore it? Who will flout public outrage and risk electoral consequences by doing so? This is part of what makes this issue so fascinating and important.

9 Comments:

Anonymous Goldhorder said...

Lol@tcr... They didn't flip him. That is how they barter in politics. The president threatened them to get something from them. Don't know what kind of shady deal it was but i look into my chrystal ball and I see inflation on the horizon

5/05/2010 12:03 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If the audit passes the senate and the house, would there still be a way for the administation to stop it?

5/05/2010 8:09 PM  
Anonymous KAIMU said...

ALOHA!!

First off I doubt that whatever passes has any real teeth. Congress is up for re-election and these people will do or say anything to get elected. After all their number one expertise is "getting elected". I need only submit the Congressional record of my two Senators from Hawaii, both over 85 years old, one in Congress for 50 years the other for 21.

Let me submit why the US Congress is in bed with the US FED and in truth has no intention of ever voluntarily offering real CHANGE.

I refer to a single line item on the US TREASURY STATEMENTS entitled "Net Public Debt Outstanding". This line item tallies the gross ISSUED DEBT for the FY YTD(Year-To-Date) against the gross REDEMPTIONS. This shows the rate at which the PUBLIC DEBT is increasing. If more debt is issued than redeemed then the PUBLIC DEBT grows. What is interesting is the huge rate of increase. Look what happens after Bush invades Iraq in FY 2003 and look what happens when Hank Paulson gets TARP passed after 2008 in FY 2009.

I will stay as close to May 4th for each Fiscal Year(FY) as possible, but some days I have to use the 3rd or the 5th. May 4th falls in the third quarter of the US TREASURY fiscal year(FY).

FY
1998 - $64.1BIL
2000 - $5.3BIL
2002 - $159.4BIL
2003 - $232.2BIL
2005 - $381.1BIL
2006 - $422.5BIL
2007 - $362.8BIL
2008 - $344.7BIL
WHAMMMM the LIABILITY BUBBLE!!!
2009 - $1.2TRIL
2010 - $1.03TRIL

On May 4th 1998 total US PUBLIC DEBT stood at $5.9TRIL and on May 4th 2010 it is at $12.9TRIL, a 220% increase over twelve years.

Without an "accommodating" US FED the current crop of leaders now infesting Washington DC could not retain power. Without the ability to spend using unlimited debt the entire DC monopoly would collapse. What good, I ask, is US Income Tax against ZERO government cost cuts combined with gigantic debt increases? The good people in Athens are rioting right now over a lot less!

5/06/2010 4:35 AM  
Anonymous KAIMU said...

ALOHA!!

By the way when I say this ... "the current crop of leaders now infesting Washington DC could not retain power." ... I mean REPS and DEMS. Both parties love debt and will not hesitate to spend to the hilt!

Now the REPS want back in. They feel they deserve your vote now that Obama has capitulated to the monied interests. Well look who ran up the tab for two terms prior to Obama. Conservative? When it comes to spending and debt the REPS made the DEMS look like misers.

I just got a letter from Daddy Bush asking me to contribute to his Presidential Library. Unreal ... How did he get my address? The last time I voted for a REP was Reagan's first term. Since then I have not touched either party.

November is coming on fast!!! Instead of being conned into voting for the "lesser evil" ... don't!

5/06/2010 4:53 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

My hope is that when Congress kills the bill to audit the Fed, an insider realizes that he/she can no longer sit in silent complicity -- and we get a financial version of the Pentagon Papers, a massive leak of internal documents that gives the whole game away.

Hey, a man can dream.

5/06/2010 1:14 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sanders speaking now, Senate vote about to happen.

5/06/2010 3:45 PM  
Anonymous hair loss pills said...

I think one and all must read it.

5/19/2011 3:18 PM  
Anonymous metal building USA said...

Well, I do not actually believe it is likely to work.

5/19/2011 3:18 PM  
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