Hapless Harry Reid will play bumper cars again today with Mitch "Froggy the Gremlin" McConnell on the financial reform bill. Reid promises a procedural vote everyday until the Republicans or just one of them caves. The Republicans scored the headlines around the country as the party blocking reform, while yesterday's poll showed over 2/3rds of Americans want reform.
The big enchalida here is the regulation of the $430 trillion derivatives market. Warren Buffet called them "weapons of mass financial destruction" and naturally his Berkshire-Hathaway holds $30 billion worth. The derivatives market is one of the last totally unregulated areas of the economy and given how well deregulation has worked elsewhere this is a major disaster just waiting to happen. To give you some idea, the GNP of all Planet Earth is $54 trillion. Derivatives are the huge black hole of finance. We saw the consequences of its wake in the sub-prime mortgage scandal, where non-performing mortages were scissored up and sold in the derivative market. The collapse of our state and muncipal governments is directly linked to the manipulation of the bond markets by the very people who peddle derivatives.
President Obama promised to veto any bill that didn't regulate derivatives. This, despite former Obama backer Warren Buffet's plea not to. Bill Nelson's vote yesterday--the only Democrat--against cloture is directly linked to Buffet's Omaha business. The de-regulation of derivatives came in the Clinton Administration after Republicans Phil Gramm and Jim Leach pushed for the repeal of the Seagall-Glass act created during the Depression to prevent another financial metldown. Egged on by Richard Rubin and Larry Sumners, Clinton signed the bill. Only Democratic Senator Dorgan went at great length to alert the public of the dangers here. Interestingly enough, given Progressives' attacks on her, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas has written a tough amendment to regulate derivatives.
Since there is now overwhelming support for financial reform, this seems like a win-win situation for Democrats, even if the Republicans managed to hold the fort. But Senator Bernie Sanders warns the public that President Obama, even with polls showing he is more trusted than the Republicans on this issue, is now going up against "the most powerful people in the world." The financial industry is going to throw everything they can at stopping this reform and we're in for some wild arguments against the measures.
There have been some tentative arguments put forth. Rachel Maddow quoted the first statements by the Tea Party Nation against the reform because "it would penalize advertising companies for false advertising." By this morning, I have read that it will end PayPal, regulate EBay, and hurt mainstreet because the banks will be reluctant to loan to small businesses. By the end of the day, there will be even more. Let's face it folks, these people own the United States and dictate what our economics is.
On Too Big Too Fail, don't worry about it. The United States Government will bail out the banks again if a crisis reoccurs--both parties know this. What the Obama Administration is trying to formalize is a rational way to dismantle a failing institution and to get the industry to pay for it. The lobbyists for both the derivative traders and the banks are fighting tooth and nail over provisions which would require more actual money being put up as insurance for the next time everything collapses. Here, the argument is that this will affect jobs--like the collapse of the system didn't.
The more the whole issue is discussed, it's quite clear that economists haven't really accounted for the effects of a situation that wasn't a recession or a depression brought on by natural financial cycles but a near Depression brought on by systematic criminal activity. Almost all elements of the 2008 crisis were the natural results of fraud being committed by all our financial institutions because of personal greed. And this fraud is central to understanding the devastating effects on society. And you can bet that there will be no RICO acts being invoked against Wall Street.
I think there is a similarity between the financial world's arguments against reform and the Vatican's statements yesterday that they worry parishioners might drop their pledges to the Church because of the pedophile scandals. Maybe Wall Street and the Vatican should hire the same P.R. firm.
Showing posts with label Phil Gramm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Phil Gramm. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
Friday Coffee--Zimbabwe
It may be the day Curtis Le May cried. The United States and Russia reached their first major arms deal in 20 years. They announced 1/3rd cuts in nuclear arsenals, leaving each side with 1,550--still enough to blow up the world several times. President Obama and Medevev will sign the treaty in Prague and I am sure it will not be passed by the Senate.
Bin Laden released one of his lamest radio tapes yet. He warned the United States he would kill any American Al Qaeda captures if any of the 9/11 plotters are executed. At the present, he doesn't have any Americans in captivity. Gone are the old days of promising Armageddon but maybe he's also aware of Tan Man Boehner and can't think to top that rhetoric. I take his message as a sign his gang is seriously depleted.
Bibi didn't make out so well on his trip to Washington. Yes, he received a standing ovation at AIPAC but he was told by Obama "here's your hat, what's your hurry." as the President opted for dinner with his wife and children rather than to hear Bibi stonewall him. Apparently, Bibi didn't bring the promised concessions and only wanted bunker-buster bombs to drop on Iran. He also reiterated in his meetings here his commitment to building more Levittowns in Jerusalem. He is doing this for the big bankroller of the Likud Party, Miami-based billionaire Irving Moskowitz. He and Mr. Edelman, the billionaire casino ower in Las Vegas, are the two encouraging new settlements from the outside.
The issue here is actually serious. The Arab League is meeting and the pro-American Arab states are being confronted by the pro-Tehran countries on the issue of Iran's nuclear facilities. The lack of progress on the Middle East Peace Talks isn't helping the pro-American states on the issue of further sanctions.
David Frum's wife has weighed in on the AEI firing saying that the conservative movement has become like the doctrinaire Left it used to mock. The intolerance of dissent has been dubbed "the closing of the conservative mind".
As a way of apology for cancelling his Indonesian trip until June, President Obama gave an interview with an Indonesian journalist, where he reminisced about his childhood experiences there. He admitted to breaking a boy's arm in a bicycle accident. He said he didn't tell a teacher he wanted to be president, instead he wanted to be a fireman. I'm sure conservatives can make hay out of the interview because he spoke Indonesian and even admitted he once had been fluent.
Bill Clinton was wrong. He said that Obama's ratings would jump 10% with the passage of health care. According to RS2000, they only jumped 5 points and his negatives fell. The same poll saw the enthusiasm gap narrow between Democrats and Republicans. 55% of Dems are enthusiastic about going to the polls; 62% of Republicans.
In a piece I posted last week, I noted that teabaggers e-mailed the home address of Virginia congressman Tom Perriello, who voted for healthcare. And they got it wrong. But what has transpired is that the address was his brother's who found that his propane gas lines had been cut. The FBI is investgating as a serious attempt to kill the congressman. Two more members of Congress have also reported death threats today.
The next big item to solve is social security. It appears that with so many taking early retirement because of the recession social security will now run out of funds in 2016. Given my financial situation, this is just my luck. As I have said too many times, the solution to this is rather easy if people get over their tax phobia. President Obama is supposed to receive the recommendations on this matter from his debt commission in early December. Erskine Bowles, one of the Democrats on the commission, told a North Carolina business meeting that the commission will recommend cuts in Medicare and Social Security.
If Congress begged off any more serious reforms this year, who could blame them? Having been in session for much of the year and meeting around the clock, there is a high burnout rate among the staff. But look for bank reform to be debated after the break and the first run made at immigration reform. Republicans would rather opt for naming more people to appear on postage stamps.
Whenever the world seems to be turning elsewhere, the North Koreans always make a play for attention. Today it looks like they torpedoed a South Korean naval vessel with 100 aboard. It seems they used up all their rockets for another test to see whether they can reach Hawaii.
The King of Derivatives, former Senator Phil Gramm, writing in the Wall Street Journal, says that the healthcare debate is not over yet, by any means. Senator Gramm was the one who said during the collapse of the economy in the fall of 2008 that Americans were just whiners. Speaking of the Wall Street Journal, they are going to charge for reading them on line. So now they become like the Financial Times, another newspaper I no longer read.
Working on something work related, I was reviewing a list of projects being conducted by USAID in various countries abroad. All worthwhile. But in looking them over, an awful thought occurred to me-- virtually none of these programs would be allowed by the New Republican Party as government programs in the United States. The commonsense consensus that has been created over the years about development and democracy would not be tolerated by the new authoritarians. And many of these programs were initiated by the last administration.
Bin Laden released one of his lamest radio tapes yet. He warned the United States he would kill any American Al Qaeda captures if any of the 9/11 plotters are executed. At the present, he doesn't have any Americans in captivity. Gone are the old days of promising Armageddon but maybe he's also aware of Tan Man Boehner and can't think to top that rhetoric. I take his message as a sign his gang is seriously depleted.
Bibi didn't make out so well on his trip to Washington. Yes, he received a standing ovation at AIPAC but he was told by Obama "here's your hat, what's your hurry." as the President opted for dinner with his wife and children rather than to hear Bibi stonewall him. Apparently, Bibi didn't bring the promised concessions and only wanted bunker-buster bombs to drop on Iran. He also reiterated in his meetings here his commitment to building more Levittowns in Jerusalem. He is doing this for the big bankroller of the Likud Party, Miami-based billionaire Irving Moskowitz. He and Mr. Edelman, the billionaire casino ower in Las Vegas, are the two encouraging new settlements from the outside.
The issue here is actually serious. The Arab League is meeting and the pro-American Arab states are being confronted by the pro-Tehran countries on the issue of Iran's nuclear facilities. The lack of progress on the Middle East Peace Talks isn't helping the pro-American states on the issue of further sanctions.
David Frum's wife has weighed in on the AEI firing saying that the conservative movement has become like the doctrinaire Left it used to mock. The intolerance of dissent has been dubbed "the closing of the conservative mind".
As a way of apology for cancelling his Indonesian trip until June, President Obama gave an interview with an Indonesian journalist, where he reminisced about his childhood experiences there. He admitted to breaking a boy's arm in a bicycle accident. He said he didn't tell a teacher he wanted to be president, instead he wanted to be a fireman. I'm sure conservatives can make hay out of the interview because he spoke Indonesian and even admitted he once had been fluent.
Bill Clinton was wrong. He said that Obama's ratings would jump 10% with the passage of health care. According to RS2000, they only jumped 5 points and his negatives fell. The same poll saw the enthusiasm gap narrow between Democrats and Republicans. 55% of Dems are enthusiastic about going to the polls; 62% of Republicans.
In a piece I posted last week, I noted that teabaggers e-mailed the home address of Virginia congressman Tom Perriello, who voted for healthcare. And they got it wrong. But what has transpired is that the address was his brother's who found that his propane gas lines had been cut. The FBI is investgating as a serious attempt to kill the congressman. Two more members of Congress have also reported death threats today.
The next big item to solve is social security. It appears that with so many taking early retirement because of the recession social security will now run out of funds in 2016. Given my financial situation, this is just my luck. As I have said too many times, the solution to this is rather easy if people get over their tax phobia. President Obama is supposed to receive the recommendations on this matter from his debt commission in early December. Erskine Bowles, one of the Democrats on the commission, told a North Carolina business meeting that the commission will recommend cuts in Medicare and Social Security.
If Congress begged off any more serious reforms this year, who could blame them? Having been in session for much of the year and meeting around the clock, there is a high burnout rate among the staff. But look for bank reform to be debated after the break and the first run made at immigration reform. Republicans would rather opt for naming more people to appear on postage stamps.
Whenever the world seems to be turning elsewhere, the North Koreans always make a play for attention. Today it looks like they torpedoed a South Korean naval vessel with 100 aboard. It seems they used up all their rockets for another test to see whether they can reach Hawaii.
The King of Derivatives, former Senator Phil Gramm, writing in the Wall Street Journal, says that the healthcare debate is not over yet, by any means. Senator Gramm was the one who said during the collapse of the economy in the fall of 2008 that Americans were just whiners. Speaking of the Wall Street Journal, they are going to charge for reading them on line. So now they become like the Financial Times, another newspaper I no longer read.
Working on something work related, I was reviewing a list of projects being conducted by USAID in various countries abroad. All worthwhile. But in looking them over, an awful thought occurred to me-- virtually none of these programs would be allowed by the New Republican Party as government programs in the United States. The commonsense consensus that has been created over the years about development and democracy would not be tolerated by the new authoritarians. And many of these programs were initiated by the last administration.
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