We're all fucked...that's right, all of us.
I watched the Oct 20 edition of FRONTLINE on PBS, which talked about the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, an independent government agency here in the U.S. Never heard of it? Neither did I, until Tuesday night. It's a small watchdog agency that was (in layman's terms) responsible for monitoring and litigating trade fraud. The documentary explained how its director in the 90's, Brooksley Born, wanted more involvement and oversight in the going-ons of Wall Street. This desire put her at odds with the Clinton "financial woks", who did everything in their power to talk her out of such a "radical" agenda. However, it wasn't the Clinton admins' fault. At least, it wasn't only their fault. It actually goes back to the 80's, when the Reagan revolution altered Ayn Rand's views of laissez-faire capitalism into extremely perverted proportions. The Republicans - who controlled Congress for much of the 90's - perpetrated the Reagan philosophy and in 1998, stripped the CFTC of all the powers that would have made it an effective agency. Born (who obviously had a lot of pride in herself) immediately resigned.
I'm all for a free market. I think most government social programs are wasteful, many are aimed at people who mooch, and that taxes should be as low as possible, thus weakening vitality of such programs. However, the U.S. conservative agenda wasn't about that. If you really want to know what the conservative agenda is, it's NOT about eliminating taxes, outlawing abortion, disallowing gays to wed, or limiting gun control. If that's the case, why are taxes very high (including here in the GOP-dom'd State of AZ), why is abortion legal, why do many States now allow gays to marry, and why do many States have background checks/waiting periods on firearm sales? All of these Glenn Beck disciple/Dittohead retards have time to Obama-bash, but no time to stop and wonder whether their preachers and national/local politicians flat out lied to them - for years - about campaign promises.
This also changes the 2 views about whether a.) the 90's was the era of "Clinton prosperity", or b.) the Republican claim that Clinton inherited a surplus put in place by Reagan policies. Technically, the Republican version of events was more correct, except the "surplus" wasn't a surplus, it was merely a bubble of fraudulent securities schemes; Ponzi scams, insider trading and investments in toxic assets. Democratic policy merely sustained it. Does anyone honestly believe both political parties didn't know what was going on, or were at least skeptical? Didn't think so.
Back to the documentary: one of the closing statements was that the CFTC is in the same position today as it was circa 1998.
Some people often criticize me because - ever since I've been old enough to vote - I had never voted for ANY national candidate of ANY political party. I wonder if these same people would criticize me now.
We're all fucked. Investing what little money we have in Chinese companies is probably the best bet at this point (they're going to have a field day in "rejuvenating" the American economy, if that even happens at all...)
I'm all for a free market. I think most government social programs are wasteful, many are aimed at people who mooch, and that taxes should be as low as possible, thus weakening vitality of such programs. However, the U.S. conservative agenda wasn't about that. If you really want to know what the conservative agenda is, it's NOT about eliminating taxes, outlawing abortion, disallowing gays to wed, or limiting gun control. If that's the case, why are taxes very high (including here in the GOP-dom'd State of AZ), why is abortion legal, why do many States now allow gays to marry, and why do many States have background checks/waiting periods on firearm sales? All of these Glenn Beck disciple/Dittohead retards have time to Obama-bash, but no time to stop and wonder whether their preachers and national/local politicians flat out lied to them - for years - about campaign promises.
This also changes the 2 views about whether a.) the 90's was the era of "Clinton prosperity", or b.) the Republican claim that Clinton inherited a surplus put in place by Reagan policies. Technically, the Republican version of events was more correct, except the "surplus" wasn't a surplus, it was merely a bubble of fraudulent securities schemes; Ponzi scams, insider trading and investments in toxic assets. Democratic policy merely sustained it. Does anyone honestly believe both political parties didn't know what was going on, or were at least skeptical? Didn't think so.
Back to the documentary: one of the closing statements was that the CFTC is in the same position today as it was circa 1998.
Some people often criticize me because - ever since I've been old enough to vote - I had never voted for ANY national candidate of ANY political party. I wonder if these same people would criticize me now.
We're all fucked. Investing what little money we have in Chinese companies is probably the best bet at this point (they're going to have a field day in "rejuvenating" the American economy, if that even happens at all...)