The Stimulus Race Against Time

It's time to call out the Democrats (including the President) who continually attempt to blame the Bush Administration and Republicans in general for the lovely global economic disaster in which we now find ourselves. Neither party has a leg to stand on in this matter, much less moral high ground, as we will see below:

Let me break this down for you:

1. Community Reinvestment Act - Democrat Carter Administration - set up regulations for poor homebuyers to be recipients of mortgage loans with risks of default.
2. Via Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, risky mortgage loans were guaranteed by the government.
3. Community organizations such as ACORN lead protests in bank boardrooms and set the stage for additional lending to more at-risk lenders.
4. Demand for homes rise, as do housing values.
5. Banks and mortgage lenders engage in subprime mortage lending with ARMs, very little background checks including no tax returns or employment verification so that they can meet government lending quotas for poor homebuyers
6. Brilliant geniuses such as Democrat Bob Rubin opposed regulation of derivatives and help drive opposition to Glass-Steagall which was introduced by another not-so-bright genius Republican Phil Gramm in 1999 Democrat Clinton Administration.
7. The repeal of the Glass Steagall Act led by Robert Rubin and others of the CFR, has produced our current investment dilemma of the breakdown of the residential mortgage sector and created financialization -- a relatively new term used to discuss the emergence of a new form of capitalism in which financial markets dominate over the traditional industrial economy.
8. Now banks can merge with insurance underwriters, and those who grant credit and invest credit can exist within the same corporation.  Risky home mortgages are bundled in exciting new financial "instruments" which can now be traded, swapped, hedged and leveraged
9. Corporations (Enron comes to mind immediately) downgrade their debt - in fact Rubin begged the Treasury Department to convince bond trading agencies NOT to downgrade their debt specifically so they could be restructured, as Rubin had now become a bailout expert after helping solve the global financial crises of the 1990's.
10. Through incredible mismanagement, Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac are exposed as no longer being able to guarantee mortgage loan defaults and are subsequently bailed out by the Republican Bush Administration. 
11. The SEC is an overlawyered group of luddites with a total deficit of economic analysts and no IT system to track fraud (Tim Geithner testified they were receiving trade information such as Madoff's via handwritten notes, faxes and telephone calls).
12. Welcome to Bailout Country courtesy of the Republican Bush Administration
13. Welcome to Keynesian Spendthrift Country courtesy of the Democratic House and Senate with the blessing of President Obama

There's so much more, but I think of these steps as the basic gist of the transgressions which more or less led us here today.  This disaster was perpetrated by a long line of bipartisan stupidity, arrogance, greed and downright mismanagement by participants in both Democrat and Republican administrations.

The repeal of Glass-Steagall was the foundation, that is the keystone, that provided for non-transparent financial manipulation and use of leverage to revolutionize the activities of investment beginning in 1999, to amass huge fortunes for the investment bankers who designed, marketed and oversaw the use of leveraged investments, and to generate awesomely speculative endeavors at hedge funds, which have gone unregulated by government oversight.  The SEC has been a technologically backward agency throughout every single administration, even Clinton's - who specifically fostered technology in the global markets.

Let's move on from this same old business-as-usual partisan meme, shall we?  And if you actually paid attention to history, you'd know that the one savior of economic crises brought about by Keynesian central planning failures are the free market principles and tax incentives espoused by libertarians and, yes, Republicans.  Obviously the markets need regulation,  but should still be as free as possible - and so should the taxpayers to invest as we choose, not as the government decides. 

makes them a little anxious.

I continue to be concerned by the fact that the former president insisted that he kept any terrorist attacks off american soil after 9-11. If that WASN'T terrorism, why the hell would some governmental agency be targeting the democrats in congress?

worldwide depression has already started. global trade is off 45%, and only to get worse. (the last depression saw global trade down 60%, but that was from a lower proportion of goods and services)

the military has been positively burnt by bush, and needs to be regrown. but the brass is resilient (particularly the non-yes men, people who aren't ambitious shmucks named Clarke or Petraeus).

Positive budget would be fantastic if it happened. In 2018, we may still be in this depression...

your reports and mine are at variance with each other. the contagion has already spread, and we are waiting for the backlash.

But by all means, INVEST! I'll be glad to take your money, same as anyone elses!

(if you are investing -- putting your MONEY where your mouth is. what are you investing in?)

the smart people expected that tick up. it's called jan 1st, return day and gift card week.

Take the distortion argument to CBS, who wrote this:

Slightly more than half the country approves of President Obama's $800 billion-plus stimulus package, a new CBS News poll finds. But support for the bill has fallen 12 points since January, and nearly half of those surveyed do not believe it will shorten the recession. Fifty-one percent of those surveyed support the stimulus package, while 39 percent do not. An additional 10 percent don't know. Last month, 63 percent supported the package and just 24 percent opposed it. Americans believe the president is following through on his promise to establish greater bipartisanship in Washington: The public overwhelmingly thinks Obama is reaching out to Congressional Republicans, with 81 percent saying he is doing so. Americans do not believe that Congressional Democrats and Republicans are following suit, however: Only 49 percent believe that Congressional Democrats are striving for bipartisanship, and just 41 percent say Congressional Republicans are seeking bipartisanship. The different perceptions are reflected in the various parties' approval ratings: President Obama's approval rating stands at 62 percent, while the overall approval rating of Congress is 26 percent.

CNN reported that the USA Today and CBS numbers were identical.  Then there's the Rasmussen Poll:

Support for the economic recovery plan working its way through Congress has fallen again this week. For the first time, a plurality of voters nationwide oppose the $800-billion-plus plan.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 37% favor the legislation, 43% are opposed, and 20% are not sure.

Two weeks ago, 45% supported the plan. Last week, 42% supported it.

Opposition has grown from 34% two weeks ago to 39% last week and 43% today.

Sixty-four percent (64%) of Democrats still support the plan. That figure is down from 74% a week ago. Just 13% of Republicans and 27% of those not affiliated with either major party agree.

Seventy-two percent (72%) of Republicans oppose the plan along with 50% of unaffiliated voters and 16% of Democrats.

Nuff said.