Current Article

Sensationalized News and the Death of Capitalism

By SeattleMoss on March 2, 2009 at 4:00 AM in Current Affairs

About a year ago people like myself began talking about the Obama collapse. I’m not blaming Obama for the sub-prime mortgage crisis which was caused by Democrats in congress resisting regulations nor will I blame him for the incompetence inherited by the Bush administration. However, Obama ran on retreat and defeat — namely the Iraq war, and he built his entire platform based on a roaring economy where you can easily tax the wealthy and businesses to help the disenfranchised and build government works programs. Those are all noble goals in a good economy, but as we have painfully seen, events haven’t turned out the way Obama would have liked. Surprisingly the Iraq war has turned into a success while the economy has sunk into near depression.

Obama may be the worst person for this crisis. Running on defeat as Obama and his minions have done has given them the mindset that America did wrong and needs punishing. Instead of boosting the markets Obama and his supporters have talked incessantly about economic collapse and class warfare. Is there any doubt that part of the reason the market lost 50% of its value since May was because the market knew Obama could win.

The market is a good indicator of how business views a president. Up to 75% of business owners voted against Obama on the fear that he is bad for business and we have seen as a result $30 trillion in equities leave the markets. Was it the constant threats of capital gains tax increases, payroll tax increases, increased regulations, carbon taxes, health care punishment taxes and fiddling with NAFTA that has also contributed to tanking this market and putting the global economy in free fall???

Now there is a chorus of doubters saying the same phrase that I have been saying for a year.

Self-Fulfilling Prophesy!

Bill Clinton said recently that Obama should be more hopeful and less gloomy.

Mike Huckabee said, “Obama’s early job performance is ’cause for alarm’,” and warns his penchant for talking down the economy is “the worst possible direction he could take.”

Obama’s dark portrayal of the U.S. economy — apparently intended to lower the high expectations stoked by his rhetoric during the campaign — is on the verge of becoming a “self-fulfilling prophecy.”

From the coyote…

“Obama and Pelosi — what is the minimum size of pork-spending bill you will accept so we can just go ahead and pay the money and get you and your cohorts to shut the hell up on trying to convince everyone we are in the Great Depression. Because, to some extent, such statements can be a self-fulfilling prophesy. Seriously, the biggest stimulative effect of passing this stimulus bill will be, almost without doubt, that it will end the felt need for Washington weenies to create an atmosphere of panic.I strongly believe that public pronouncements of doom, starting last October with Henry Paulson and continuing now to almost daily excess by Obama (today’s statement: the economy is in a “virtual free fall”) have measurably contributed to job losses in this country.”

Constantly suggesting, “If the stimulus doesn’t work, there’s more to come,” only destroys confidence. Investors and consumers are encouraged to hold off, to see if a better deal materializes down the road. (CNN)

Today Ben Bernanke came out and said in response to the doubters that perhaps the recession would turn around by the end of the year..As a result of positive spin the markets went up.

The class warfare has gone much farther than Obama, Pelosi and their minions casting the rich and productive class as the new villains.The MSM has done everything in their power to assist in this class warfare and tear down the concept of striving to prosper, to be successful, to reach for the top and be payed what your worth based on performance.

Let us not forget that we had two worlds. The one before Sept 15th and the one after Lehman Bros collapsed ending the economy as we know it.

Three examples of sensationalized news….

The auto execs flying private planes to Washington.

The attacks on the auto execs were the most despicable I have ever seen and bordered on willful National Suicide.

So what if they flew in on their jets the same as all executives in their position. Also the hypocrites in congress use private jets. The point is that they were scapegoated and blamed when it now shows that All auto companies are equally in big trouble along with every other manufacturing concern.

Private jets are manufactured by workers who take pride in their work and are sold by salespeople that also take pride and all have families to support..I guess no more private jets!

The Postmaster General making $264,000.

What’s wrong with that? Should I make the same as a postal carrier in order to run the entire postal system? Again this salary represents the economy before September. An economy where I would compete to make that kind of money and position.Today the position is held in scorn by the class warfare media.

Salaries on Wall Street.

I’m the first to acknowledge that bonuses were obscene but do we really want to go down the slippery slope to wage controls for all execs like Barney Frank would like to see? Without good people, New York is finished as the center of finance and will have a crushing implosion if there is no incentive to make money. The new financial center will probably be Dubai or Hong Kong.

Every night more sensationalized news.

Is it a wonder that Capitalism is dying.

Now Obama wants to raise taxes on the wealthy and business at the very time that they need tax relief.

Update.

This thread was written before Obama’s speech to congress. I tuned in to see if Obama would be positive towards business. Although I found much in the speech regarding works programs and building new industries, I also found a disturbing lack of focus on business currently in operation or traditional industries. What I saw was further taxes and regulations at the very time when business needs to be freed to compete.
In fact Obama’s experimental carbon tax plan will further destroy business and will add a level of bureaucracy which will punish business and cause America to further lose its competitive edge. Threats of carbon taxes will cause utilities to raise their rates causing more pain to regular Americans.

My question to you all…Is Obama just ignoring reality by stubbornly sticking to his pre Sept 15th plans or does he not care if Capitalism dies and ends up in the dumpster.

Do the democrats want a collapse so that they can socially engineer the future?

What are your thoughts..Is Obama bad for business?

andrew191

SM, this post reveals the culmination of the type of thought process that will hopefully become the pattern for a mental pathway that can lead Americans back to the fact that private enterprise provides the best solution to economic problems, and that government policies usually make things worse.

I do agree that the current administration may be crafting a semi-controlled intentional collapse of our current system. it is a distinct possibility, it’s the Cloward-Pivens, Alinsky approach to a complete re-engineering of the government and cultural minset, with the intent of replacing our “old” ways of doing things with “progressive” approaches. I use the word “old” as a euphemism for tried and true, and “progressive” as a euphemism for fascism.

Seattle Moss

Andrew,

it is a distinct possibility, it’s the Cloward-Pivens, Alinsky approach to a complete re-engineering of the government and cultural minset, with the intent of replacing our “old” ways iof doing things with “progressive” approaches. I use the word “old” as a euphemism for tried and true, and “progressive” as a euphemism for fascism.

You should really consider writing some threads and e-mail them to Susan on these and other topics
commonsense247

I’m afraid you may be absolutely correct. All the while, Obama will continue to claim bipartisanship, full disclosure, transparency, and any other boot-licking to keep the smokescreen in play.

Beal

Is there anything that Obama has done or said the past few months that makes sense? What we all should have learned by now is that he does not mean what he says and his actions cannot be predicted.

I go back through what I know and what I don’t know about this man and all the parts of his life that have been witheld from public knowledge. And I wonder about what he was doing during those “undocumented” lapses – who he associated with, how he happened to end up in New York and Chicago and how he came to know the people he associated with (at least the ones that we know about).

The early years of his life are pretty much a blank page. There is really no one or no thing to give us a hint of the influences which formed his values and beliefs as a youngster and as a young man.

I’ve been hearing so many varying opinions about the day to day occurences that it makes my head swim. But, this is what I know for sure. Nothing he does makes sense. There is no logic to his pattern of behavior, at least not if you expect him to act in a logical manner according to the circumstances.

If anyone needs a bit of proof, answer this: It was thought that 2000+ charities were going to close down due to the economy. Knowing that, why has Obama proposed a vast reduction in allowable charitable donation deductions? I can see that it “punishes” the rich and increases the tax revenue, but it also will decrease the money given to charity and will force even more to close their doors. And most importantly, it hurts a growing segment who needs charity help more than ever. Obama said that people would give anyway. But, why would he want to take that risk when so many people -as he often says – “are hurting?”

It isn’t logical but his actions seem to follow a path of punishing those in the middle and upper “classes” and making the poor and/or unemployed more dependent on the government for help. All the while he is spreading fear and panic and driving a wedge as wide as he can between the rich and the not rich. The final nail in our coffin is his spending.

There was so little in the stimulus bill that stimulus wasn’t even part of the bill’s name. Yet it will end up costing way over a trillion $$ That is on top of the first TARP, other bailouts, money the fed has dumped into the system, and all the additional TARP and bailouts to come. Then, he proposes this budget which is beyond exorbitant. Who in their right mind would do so much to slow the economy and then spend us into oblivion at the same time? People keep saying that our children and grandchildren will be stuck paying for it. But, that is a fallacy. With the layers of govenment programs and entitlements piling on year after year, we will never get out from under this. At some point, no one will buy any of our debt. At some point, our debt will come due. At that point, our dollars will be abundant but not worth anything.

Maybe we need to start teaching all our kids to speak Chinese.

bill

Perhaps to concentrate more power in a central government that controls what charities are appropriate. On the other hand, my daughter who is an accountant for a housing ministry points out that, like the Admin says, most donations come from the middle class. The very wealthy run their donations through their businesses or foundations created for charity.
Seattle Moss

Beal

And I wonder about what he was doing during those “undocumented” lapses

My belief is that Obama’s writings promoted the Black Panthers and sounded very much like the Rev Wright.
I’m willing to bet that he also knows verbatim the rules for radicals

Not knowing what he believed is the greatest cover up in American history and amounts to treason by the media

Qualeville

SM,
Lucid article from a man with “skin in the game”. The class warfare strategy has certainly taken root. I had always thought the mantra “no tax cuts for the rich” would ring hollow for Americans, but much political hay has been cultivated from it. Parallels the strategy to Harold Wilson of jolly old England during the 1960′s. Problem is, it seems to have stuck there, where successful people are looked down upon, due to a false premise that they only became successful by taking “advantage” of their workers.
I am buoyed by your writing, and the responses posted here. Cheers!

http://www.marklevinshow.com Seattle Moss

Hey Qualye
Just happened to be lurking so thanks for the accolades.
I have always related more to Edward Heath.
He was all business who became a leader of his party and cared about capitalism.
Since this article several weeks ago Congress has gone on a witch hunt against the banking industry.
The congress have used McCarthy style mob tactics to punish certain employees
The death of America as the financial center of the world looks more the reality as Obama presses to punish all those in wealth creating industries.

One test of whether we are witnessing the end of America is how many more times Americans put up with congressional show trials of individual business people and their employees, slandering and vilifying them for their actions and motives. And for how long will they tolerate a President who berates business and corporations as dens of crime and malfeasance? If the majority of Americans come to accept the caricatures of business as true, then America is closer to the end of its life as a global leader, as a champion of markets and individualism.

commonsense247

My initial thought is that cutting down charitable contributions will further place the federal gov in the position of grantor of aid and wealth redistributor – assuring that people will become more reliant upon the government as their primary source of aid.

http://syd4.blogspot.com Stray Yellar Dawg

Yes. Obama is “bad for business” but, only becasue “business is bad for business.” Capitalists have got to stop shooting themselves in the foot.

Someone came over to my blog, and posted this:

http://republicansforsinglepayer.com/

And, I say it’s about time!

The rise of socialism in this country is the fault of capitalists who have, heretofore, rejected any attempt at dealing with serious problems … like healthcare.

I don’t know if this Mr. Swan can gather any Republican steam behind him… but I encourage you to take a look at what he is trying to do. He seems to know what he’s talking about.

If capitalists will get their fricking heads out of the sand…. on important issues like this one… we wouldn’t need a “savior” like Obama to pipe his pie and lead us all off a cliff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhXA3fXpCFk Woman Voter

Wow, I will join, because the biggest cost on business is health care and the biggest concern is all the extra we pay for double, triple and quadruple coverage: Health insurance, workers comp (because not everyone provides health insurance), liability, liability to ensure people on the premises (because they too often don’t have insurance), car medical insurance (because they too don’t have insurance in large numbers) and every extra added on thing they can get.

The one thing that would have provided a stimulus would have been to implement Universal Health Coverage, even John McCain and Palin understood that and maybe that is why the likes of Rush didn’t support them and actually was working against them.

Thanks for the website, I will go check it out. One parting thing, I would like to say is that the Democrats need to stop making small business people out to be evil while they are busy giving the cashola of the stimulus BILLIONS to the big companies. The ‘New Democrats’ don’t know that the small business is the engine of the economy and that they are only lubricating the big guys, that don’t care and took their million dollar bonuses and could care less, while small business was left high and dry.

Thanks, I needed to vent!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhXA3fXpCFk Woman Voter

Republicans for Single-Payer
Universal Healthcare with Informed Choice
http://republicansforsinglepayer.com/
…….

Thanks, I just joined even though I am not a Republican, but I will support any effort to bring Universal Healthcare to ALL AMERICANS! American workers have been over looked, asked to sacrifice and still remain citizens of one of the last Western Country without Universal Healthcare, while we give aid to countries that do.
NoBamaNoWay

correct; if capitalism is in danger (which i highly doubt), it is because of the actions of the robber barons, i mean capitalists, themselves.

C.S.

Is Obama just ignoring reality by stubbornly sticking to his pre Sept 15th plans or does he not care if Capitalism dies and ends up in the dumpster.

Both. The primaries showed exactly how he would “lead”; he never once deviated from his goal and he sent his minions out to beat us over the head until he got his way. And how can he care about capitalism when everything he has was not earned but given to him – from the house he lived in to the fat salary his wife took home while he dabbled in politics?

Anyone who thought he would magically change the “content of his character” should remember his extravagant coronation to celebrate himself while our nation was stumbling under the heavy load of debt left from the previous narcissistic administration. And although “hopefully, you get what you pay for, because you always pay for what you get.” don’t forget that politician called Obama came with a huge price tag.
Evolve and Learn

My question to you all…Is Obama just ignoring reality by stubbornly sticking to his pre Sept 15th plans or does he not care if Capitalism dies and ends up in the dumpster.

The latter. I point to Obama plans for nationalize health care. First I am for nationalized health care BUT not NOW! If your house was on fire, you would sit down and go over your plans for an additional to your house. The first priority must be to put the fire out.

The Stimulus bill (now the recovery and investment act) has over $2 billion on additional spending in Health care centers. That will include renovating exist health centers to accomodate more people. This will assist in people losing or reduced health insurance if they lose their jobs. Why does the 2010 budget include $650 billion for nationalized health insurance now? It does’nt make logical sense!

Every penny we spend is BORROWED money. Why are we borrowing money for projects that can wait until the economy is recovering and we can experience some sort of surplus or at a minimum significant reduced levels of deficit?

Obama was born to a mother and father who did not share a love for the american way of life. Obama formable years were spent in Indoseian. As far as my research goes when he got back to the states at age 10 or 11 he lived with his grandparents. His grandparents were borderline socialists. I grow up saying the pledge of allegience everyday going to church were america was praised (we had a american flag in the church) and going to 4th of july parades.

Obama does not have that kind of connection in his soul to American. An American president should have that.

graceinpa

And that is exactly the reason he absolutely should not have been elected. Thank the idiotic democrats in the DNC for a job well done. If he gets his way, we can kiss the America we all know and love good-bye.
http://wiskeytangofoxtrotoscar.blogspot.com/ James

It is formative not formidable.

It takes a special type of cowardice to smear the lives of people who can no longer defend themselves. Barack’s mom, grandfather and grandmother are no longer with us. Thus one can accuse them, smear them and insult them with impunity. They were all from Kansas, which is American as one can get. To smear these people, to insult their memory does not score any points; it only shows how shabby your “research” is and what a vituperative little gutter-snipe you have allowed yourself to become.

JulieD

Great Post Seattle Moss! PEBO = The Wrong Dude Causing The Wrong Time

PEBO’s “Chicken Little” Presidency was contrived to get a trillion to grease The Machine.

Now, PEBO’s going to be all sunshine on our trillion. That is until he needs another trillion, like a crack addict, who can’t quit spending our cash.

Where’s the leadership in bankrupting the US? And why bother to work when everything is provided just by sitting on your ass? Work is for suckers!

It’s the small business owners and Dudley Do Rights who are going to suffer.

Won’t we all be happy in one big PEBO’s Chi-town neighborhood – where kiddies are killed on the way to school and he takes loans from the local slumlord?

Heat?! We don’t need no stinking heat! We’ll burn stimulus checks and worthless dollar bills.
The Real HC

Most Americans dont seem to like capitalism. What they dont know, but will learn, is that the alternatives are even less palatable.

Much like Democracy for governments, free markets really shine when compared to the other available economic systems.

andrew191

Most Americans don’t like capitalism because they don’t understand it and have finally bought into the Marxist propaganda that has distorted and maligned the true ideals of pure capitalism.

We don’t have a pure capitalist driven economy, it is a mixed economy, one with greater and greater government involvement. Unfortuately, most of the major problems in the economy have been caused by that government intrusion, yet liberals reflexively blame capitalism.

The liberal saturated public education system has finally destroyed enough minds of voting age that we now have a pro-Marxist president, and they are hypnotically seduced as if by Sirens to ride the ship of state onto the rocks.

commonsense247

…and this was the goal of the pro-marxist professors and ideologues who came to the US from Europe – to infiltrate and brainwash from within our own universities and colleges.

NoBamaNoWay

Who doesn’t like capitalism, fer christ’s sake?? i think we all support capitalism, but i think that even the most rabid anti-worker capitalists recognize that some sensible regulation is necessary.

devildog666

Barometer. Gold $1,000 per ounce. Many investors betting it will hit $8,000 per ounce. Not good.

Linda C.

Is that similar to the huge increase in the DOW some people were proclaiming 2 years ago?

devildog666

The predictions on the DOW were optimistic on the future of the economy; the predictions on gold indicate the lack of confidence in the viability of the dollar and the country.

Linda C.

at $8000.00 an ounce sounds about as wildly pessimistic and those wild DOW optimist.

devildog666

Hopefully that’s the case, but looking at the DOW today I’m not sure.

cynic

Yet people are so willing to trade their gold for your cash that they’re spending a fortune advertising their willingness on television.

We should consider the possibility that bubbles can also be gold plated. When the economy turns–and that’s a when, not an if–the bubble will suddenly pop. Gold prices are a measure of anxiety.

Linda C.

I disagree with some of the assertions here. The economic news has been bleak for awhile. Americans went into negative net worth several years ago and the stock market didn’t even blink. Wages have been stagnant for how many years and the stock market didn’t blink. More people were getting into more debt with more mortgages, inflated real estate values, and stagnant wages and no one wanted to put the dots together. We have been running this country via consumption funded primarily with debt for awhile. It was destined to come crashing down. It was the Bush cheer leading that gave people a false sense of security. Of course Bush was a cheer leader so that makes sense.

We are not killing “Capitalism” but entering the full era of Corporatism. We are shooting the government wad to keep CITI, and AIG around bleeding us dry and sucking up the money. IBM has laid off 4 thousand American and Canadian workers. IBM is willing to send the most productive of these workers to their facilities in third world countries for third world pay. This is capitalism at its finest folks.
Tricia Spiegel

You nailed it, Seattle Moss!
mountainaires

Well, it doesn’t look good to me…I think Obama’s gloomy language was likely just reflecting the fear he has about what’s really happening. And, I am so gloomy about what’s going on, that I actually appreciate more truth from Obama; people don’t actually find it very credible for a president to say “the fundamentals of our economy are strong” [look how stupid that sounded coming from McCain during the campaign] when the news is really, truly, alarmingly BAD. So, in that sense, I think Clinton’s advice to talk nice was just pathetic.

So, end of capitalism or not, things are bad–incredibly bad, and increasingly bad. The truth is necessary for people to protect themselves. Saying “subprime is contained,” is what kept people in the market when they should have escaped with their lives.

http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/beginning-now-the-panic-phase-of-the-collapse-29932

Linda C.

I wouldn’t doubt those who said “sub prime” was contained were pulling out to save their own skin.

Seattle Moss

I have done some investigating in order to support my hypothesis that when it was known that Obama could win was the beginning of the end of the markets and our economy.
May 19th 2008 the Dow was above 13000 since then it has steadily eroded to 7000 today

May 19th 2008 was also the date that Obama pulled ahead of Hillary for the last time.

http://media.gallup.com/poll/graphs/20080520DailyUpdateGraph1_bnghtyr.gif

http://online.wsj.com/mdc/public/npage/2_3051.html?mod=2_3002&sid=1643&page=us
Seattle Moss

A few days after I wrote this piece Morris and Kudlow both came out with essentially the same argument
For the record I want to include their analysis of Obama spooking the markets and being
Bad For Business

http://www.newsmax.com/morris/obama_panic/2009/02/27/186340.html

http://www.cnbc.com/id/29434104

Linda C.

I hate to burst their bubble, but I disagree. The markets are bad period. They want government handouts that started before Obama even took office.

I started to move our pension investments around in 2007 because I knew this was going to happen. We made money in 2007 and 2008. I looked at the numbers coming out and not the hype from the talking heads. They can blame Obama all they want. It is unfortunate that they still want to live in their delusion and blame others when reality sinks in.

How business has been conducting itself is what has been bad for business. How the banks have been conducting business has been bad for the banking business. It doesn’t matter what Obama says or doesn’t say. The CDS and other “new fangled” crap on speculation without production is still out there. Just because the talking heads think investors are sheep doesn’t make it so.

lark

Brownie, you are doing a hell of a job! And you got the moves on Wednesday’s White House hip hop parties.
http://BREAKINGNEWS.COM Oisafraud

The problem with our economy is that Barack Obama reminds me of Bernie Bernbaum in the movie, Miller’s Crossing (1990). Obama is bad for business. Remember when Johnny Caspar said: “It’s gettin’ so a businessman can’t expect no return from a fixed fight. Now, if you can’t trust a fix, what can you trust? For a good return, you gotta go bettin’ on chance – and then you’re back with anarchy, right back in the jungle”.
I’m a Linda too

isn’t if funny that the only decision of pre Sept 15 he is keeping is the bad one.

…he has ditched all the other promises that people supported.

What a loser.
CG

Because of the severity of economic disaster, will the next phase of our history be: world war, civil disorder or — living locally, working hard at things that matter, and preserving civilized culture?

“Consumerism” Is Dead — Can Obama Lead Us to a Downscaled Lifestyle?
By James Howard Kunstler

Dear Mr. President, your assignment is to handle our economic decline in such a way as to avoid wars, civil disorder or both.
The public perception of the ongoing fiasco in governance has moved from sheer, mute incomprehension to goggle-eyed panic as the scrims of unreality peel away revealing something like a national death-watch scene in history’s intensive care unit. Is the USA in recession, depression, or collapse? People are at least beginning to ask. Nature’s way of hinting that something truly creepy may be up is when both Paul Volcker and George Soros both declare on the same day that the economic landscape is looking darker than the Great Depression.

Those tuned into the media-waves were enchanted, in a related instance, by Rick Santelli’s grand moment of theater in the Chicago trader’s pit when he seemed to ignite the first spark of revolution by demonstrating that bail-out fatigue had morphed into high emotion — and that the emotion could be marshaled against public policy. The traders in the pit on-screen seemed to color up and buzz loudly, like ordinary grasshoppers turning into angry locusts preparing to ravage a waiting valley. “Are you listening, President Obama?” Mr. Santelli asked portentously.

In the broad blogging margins of the web that orbit the mainstream media like the rings of Saturn, an awful lot of reasonable people have begun to ask whether President Obama is a stooge of whatever remains of Wall Street, with Citigroup and Goldman Sachs’s puppeteer, Robert Rubin, pulling strings behind an arras in the Oval Office. Personally, I doubt it, but it is still a little hard to understand what the President is up to. For one thing, the stimulus package, so-called, looks more and more like national sub-prime mortgage itself, a bad bargain made under less-than-realistic terms, with future obligations fobbed onto whoever inhabits this corner of the world for the next seven hundred years — and all to pay for a bunch of granite counter-tops and flat-screen TVs.

I suppose Mr. Obama is burdened with the knowledge that the economic truth is so much worse than he imagined back in November that there is simply nothing to do at this point except pretend to serve up a “tasting menu” of rescue plans in the hope that markets and mechanisms might be conned back into compliance with our wish keep getting something-for-nothing forever. FDR already used the fear of fear itself trope, so Mr. O is left with little more than displaying pluck and confidence in the face of overwhelming bad news.

The sad truth is that banking has become a Chinese fire drill — a frantic act of futility — as insolvent companies persist in covering up their losses in order to avoid the counter-party hell of credit default swaps that would ring the world’s “game over” bell. This can only go on so long. All the chatter about “nationalizing” the banks really boils down to what kind of bankruptcy work-out will they be put through, how destructive will the process be, and how much of the pain can be shoved forward in time to people now in diapers and their descendants.

Among the questions that disturb the sleep of many casual observers is how come Mr. O doesn’t get that the conventional process of economic growth — based, as it was, on industrial expansion via revolving credit in a cheap-energy-resource era — is over, and why does he keep invoking it at the podium? Dear Mr. President, you are presiding over an epochal contraction, not a pause in the growth epic. Your assignment is to manage that contraction in a way that does not lead to world war, civil disorder or both. Among other things, contraction means that all the activities of everyday life need to be downscaled including standards of living, ranges of commerce, and levels of governance. “Consumerism” is dead. Revolving credit is dead — at least at the scale that became normal the last thirty years. The wealth of several future generations has already been spent and there is no equity left there to re-finance.

If contraction and downscaling are indeed the case, then the better question is: why don’t we get started on it right away instead of flogging rescue plans to restart something that is DOA? Downscaling the price of over-priced houses would be a good place to start. This gets to the heart of Rick Santelli’s crowd-stirring moment. Let the chumps and weasels who over-reached take their lumps and move into rentals. Let the bankers who parlayed these fraudulent mortgages into investment swindles lose their jobs, surrender their perks, and maybe even go to jail (if attorney general Eric Holder can be induced to investigate their deeds). No good will come of propping up the false values of mis-priced things.

No good, in fact, will come of a campaign to sustain the unsustainable, which is exactly what the Obama program is starting to look like. In the folder marked “unsustainable” you can file most of the artifacts, usufructs, habits, and expectations of recent American life: suburban living, credit-card spending, Happy Motoring, vacations in Las Vegas, college education for the masses, and cheap food among them. All these things are over. The public may suspect as much, but they can’t admit it to themselves, and political leadership has so far declined to speak the truth about it for them — in short, to form a useful consensus that will allow us to move forward effectively. One of the sad paradoxes of politics is that democracies do not seem very good at disciplining their citizens’ behavior. The wish to please voters and the influence of campaign money overwhelm even leaders with mature instincts. In America’s case, this could lead to what I like to call corn-pone Nazism a few years down the road. Someone will design snazzy uniforms and get us all marching around to “God Bless America.” At the point of a gun.

It’s not too late for President Obama to start uttering these truths so that we can avoid a turn to fascism and get on with the real business of America’s next phase of history — living locally, working hard at things that matter, and preserving civilized culture. What a lot of us can see now staring out of the abyss is a new dark age. I don’t think it’s necessarily our destiny to end up that way, but these days we’re not doing much to avoid it.
lark

Obama gave us another glimpse of our present crisis by saying essentially that we as a country have been immoral up until he came in to change it. He is doing more in a months than it has been done in 10 years. 126 new neighborhood clinics for black neighborhoods that will add thousands of jobs. great.

After Wednesday’s party at the WH they will have on Thursday an idea bash on health care. Come with an empty stomach for the bash and suits full of pockets to take extra helpings. The best idea will win 20 first prize gifts, and one of those may include a 5 million dollar grant.

Yippie!
Texas Rose

Wonderful post, Seattle. You are right on, as usual.
I really believe Obama is a plant who has set out to destroy our monetary system and once we are all on our knees, the Islamic radicals will move in and rule us, the peasants.

Seattle Moss

Texas,
The proof was when Obama was tired and showed his hand…
The 57 States of Islam…

How can anyone running for president not know how many states there are in the union

Texas Rose

Seattle, No one in the media cared about BO’s slip of the tongue, because he was making tingles go up and down their legs.

Seattle Moss

Texas, LOL
I think it was BO’s slippery tongue that was giving them tingles up their legs…

Baba Rum Raisin

>>> The new financial center will probably be Dubai or Hong Kong.

Likely back in London.

>>> Is Obama bad for business?

Does the Pope wear Prada?

Linda C.

Things in Dubai and Hong Kong are worse than here.

obamastolemyboyfriend

somewhat off topic,

CNN is just disgusting:

Obama speeches like sex!

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2009/03/01/sotu.obama.speech.cnn
cynic

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, knowing I’ll be instantly dismissed as a bot for doing so: Obama didn’t conjure a market crash out of the blue using bad mojo. What we’re witnessing is the sudden evaporation of purely illusionary value that had come to permeate the entire financial system. Irresponsibly easy credit, a total disregard for debt, and irrational exuberance at the wonderous expansion of the resultant value bubble were the stuff that dream was made on.

All it took to end the dream was the realization that some part of it was an illusion. That realization began when we noticed the absurdity of housing prices, and then the instability of the loans that depended on them. There followed a quick chain-reaction, with each link turning into the next falling domino: If the loans were bad, what about the institutions that held the loans? Who the hell were they? And what the hell were these trillions-worth of incomprehensible financial instruments built on the loans? Who the hell had those?

The results of snapping out of it were entirely predictable–including the fact that the economy would be in a state of shock afterward. A substantial part of what we thought had worth is permanently gone, and we’re not getting the illusionary portion back. Ashes really are ashes.

What the markets seem to be missing at this point is that what was actually real remains real. We still have all of the things that make a strong economy go: the stores, factories, willing workers, creativity, resources, capital, and investors are all still there. Capitalism isn’t dead. It’s just getting over a prolonged binge. During that binge it lost sight of what was real.

To my way of thinking, the negativity isn’t coming from Obama. What we’ve had from Obama has only been a realistic appraisal of ungoing events. The real negativity is coming from people who are keeping up an incessant media mantra that Obama’s response is doomed to total failure. They desire that failure–they sometimes openly admit that–as a means to regaining political ascendency. They’re methodically working on the national psychology to encourage it. And prolonging the decline of American business in the process.

Karma

Obama did sue banks to make those type of loans….but nevermind right?

cynic

That’s the spin, not the facts of the situation:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/loans.asp

Docelder

Snopes notwithstanding… Obama did represent ACORN. ACORN has made their way in this world gaming lenders. Our government makes all home lenders make all their lender data public. The data is sent via HMDA reporting annually. ACORN gets this data, crunches the numbers looking for statistical data to support racial lending bias. The one thing I know about statistics is you can just about assert anything by the way you interpret the data. Nonetheless, whenever banks merge… ACORN knows that a pending federal lawsuit will mess up the merger. They zero in on that bank that wants or needs to merge and finds something statistically suspect. They then flaunt the possibility of a federal suit to the execs… who know the drill. They donate to ACORN and all is well and the merger can go on. There is a similar arrangement in Mexico… they are called “Federales”. hey stop you allege something you did and demand whatever they thing you can afford. Same thing really.

Seattle Moss

Hey Docelder,

I’m not blaming Obama for the sub-prime mortgage crisis which was caused by Democrats in congress resisting regulations

In my original piece I included Acorn as being a major contributor to the mortgage meltdown with their thugs storming the banks demanding loans for people.
Acorn as you know is also responsible for allowing Milhouse O to game the system.

Mortgage financial meltdown and a rookie that doesn’t have a clue what to do..
Acorn needs to be washed out like a bad tide.

barb

All you say is true, except Obama is bad for business.

cynic

Is he worse for business than the people who are constantly telling America that the economy is doomed, that it’s all the fault of democrats, and that their efforts to turn things around are worse than useless?

JulieD

Yes!

lark

The real negativity is coming from people who are keeping up an incessant media mantra that Obama’s response is doomed to total failure.

From those who love American children yet unborn.

Because for those like you and Obama who know only the love of the America they see in front of their eyes and their pets and have no (zero) love for children and the future generations, those have positive feelings about the generational theft that is occurring today.

Obama is about screwing the future for American children in order to boost their present level of acceptance and narcissism.

cynic

All I know is that republican presidents ran skyrocketing deficits for 20 of the last 28 years during relatively good times, but few in their ranks seemed seriously concerned until a democratic president came along who reluctantly recognized a need for deficit spending during what is essentially a national economic emergency.

Deficit spending has always been borrowing in the name of future generations. The republicans did it to give wealthy people tax cuts. Is that somehow a more worthy rationalization?

lark

If that is the case then why was Clinton able to run surpluses? It was because Regan, Bush and Clinton loved children and loved what they were giving to future generations. Obama thinks children are punishments.

NoBamaNoWay

now that’s a a stretch. no way do i believe that the good economic times under clinton were actually the result of reaganomics coming to fruition. please. i’m not saying that whatever worked then will work now, but please, let’s give clinton some credit.

Seattle Moss

The credit Clinton gets is for being a pragmatist who learned how to work with republicans who were the majority party in congress.
Reaganomics took years to come into fruition after the stagflation and record interest rates that first had to be eradicated after Carter.
Only after 1984 was it morning in America again which started the boom which lasted until the dot com meltdown.

NoBamaNoWay

well, i’ll give the repug congress some credit, and you’re right, clinton was a pragmatist who knew how to work with what he had and make it succeed. neither part of that equation is in place right now, i’m afraid.

Seattle Moss

NBNW..We can agree…Amazing huh!

The problem is that everything is so interconnected.
I understand your disdain for those robber barons but unfortunately we are all effected enormously and have no choice but to hope that the autos are saved as well as financials like AIG.

The alternative is trillions lost in these companies and a complete collapse of ALL business world wide with the possibility of civil strife and world wars.

and

What evidence has ever been offered that Obama even wants America to succeed? Based on what?

cynic

The burdon of proof belongs to anyone who makes such a preposterous assertion.

and

Notice the question marks?

What evidence?

Based on what?

Is that clearer for you?

cynic

Yep, I noticed them. What I pointed out was that the question you’ve posed is an example of a Burden of Proof Fallacy.

http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/burden-of-proof.html

and

There must be a position taken.

commonsense247

he clearly doesn’t want it to succeed in it’s current form – he claims the mantle and mandate of bringing CHANGE, using that to justify and authorize any and all actions and means in order to fundamentally change the system of government and principles upon which this nation was founded.

mountainaires

This is bleak:

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/03/the-us-deficit-in-global-perspective/

cynic

Yes, it’s very alarming to look at the position of the U.S. government on that chart.

Consider, however, the position of the United States as a nation. Our 2009 deficit is the lowest percentage of all nations shown, when compared with the GDP.

Linda C.

I agree with you cynic. Obama didn’t do this. Whatever he does business is going to scream because their party is over and unfortunately we get the bill.

My biggest problem is Obama saving the banks and not the system. It is money being poured down a bottomless pit. This administrations is so afraid of “offending share holders” that he is is not acting properly. There will always be share holders if you create a stable environment for investing to happen. Right now every one is in freeze frame.

We have had a paper tiger economy for years and people are just waking up. They have cooked the books and cooked the numbers. If they didn’t like the numbers they changed the formula.

NoBamaNoWay

SM, when i read your posts, i often think of that new (country) song by John Rich – “Shuttin’ Detroit Down.” Have you heard it? “Pardon me if i don’t shed a tear…” (for the zillionaires losing billions who want US to bail them out.)

Seattle Moss

NBNW…You’re too consumed with the uber rich

Why don’t you start caring about the rest of us that have businesses and employ people.

Pardon me if i don’t shed a tear

Your statement sounds a little insensitive

NoBamaNoWay

i am consumed with the uber-rich because as a working person i have seen my wages stay virtually stagnant (certainly relative to inflation) for 20+ years, while the companies i work for do everything imaginable to increase their own profits at the expense of their employees and customers. Now, if you don’t operate your company that way, that’s great; we need more companies like that, but i’m talking about the general rule.

and in general, corporate profits and CEO pay have been going up for decades, while worker salaries remain stagnant. that makes me think, hmmmm, that’s where (what should be) my salary is going.

as far as my insensitive comment, well, you have to hear the song; it’s pretty good. but seriously, do you think that the people at the top shed a tear when they screw their workers and customers (and taxpayers sometimes) over and over again? i doubt it.

Seattle Moss

NBNW…As you know I make a product essential for all other businesses to operate. We are not a big company on the scale of things as are all the companies that we do business with.
In fact most everyone I sell to are hard working sweat owners that have high costs and reinvest in their companies and care about their employees.
I don’t even deal with the uber rich since most of what I make goes to manufacturers similar to myself.
However, many of my customers manufacture products for the uber rich and without their business they are finished as companies.
You need to consider that when you want to punish the auto execs you are actually punishing 3 million other hard working people.
These are new times and those that screwed us over are getting what’s coming to them
My concern is throwing out the baby with the bath water and ending up with only ditch digging jobs and bread lines.

Qualeville

Moss, you speaketh much truth!

Seattle Moss

Hey Qualye
That’s because I learned from the best!

JustMe

Good post…..

cynic

For what it’s worth, Seattle Moss, I totally get what you’re saying, and have nothing but respect for it.

MBC

Yeah, I work for one of those big bad businesses. It pays me well, provides me with decent healthcare, contributes to my 401K, gives me bonuses and stock options, matches my charitable contributions to the charity of my choice, provides a pension, a clean safe work environment, and gives me paid time off if I am sick or just need a mental health day. I am getting a little sick of people beating up on business (including Barack Obama), how the heck can we help those who can’t help themselves if we are struggling ourselves?
TeakwoodKite

Obama only knows pay to play, it is in his blood.

As we witnessed in the fall of the Soviet Union this country was talking of a peace dividend.

The capital flight that takes place in the 4th quarter prior to a new administration is a swing from one side of Kst to the other. In BO’s case?

That circus just added another tent for his economic freak show in prime-time.

Specifically, if hope and dreams were the Dow and NASDAQ, we be at 20,000. What more proof is needed to prove they are not and can never be?

Some will argue that “new models” of capitalism will emerge. Why then does this look and feel like more of the same?

To BO it is nothing more than a shakedown.

Good Read, Seattle Moss.
I have been meaning to ask if your company makes those shrink wrap covers for boats?
More of them are getting dry docked, left high and dry like the rest of us.

Seattle Moss

Teak,
We do make lots of shrink but the type that you are talking about is a special resin formula made exclusively by AEP which is a billion dollar company.

Did you ever follow up with East Teak?

TeakwoodKite

I looked at their stuff, drooling at the craftsmanship. Not in the budget at this time, unfortunately.

Seattle Moss

Obama is the enemy of prosperity.
The depression will be Obama’s and the republicans will take back congress in 2010
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/dick_morris_prosperity/2009/03/02/187522.html
Anita Cuillerier

Death of capitalism? Perhaps capitalism has a limited lifespan and the end-game is that all the wealth is in the hands of a minority. Just like the game of Monopoly, where everyone is sitting around the table watching the two last players to see who will be the “world leader”.
Sarah Mcnulty

Great analogy Anita. Even as a lifelong Democrat I’m totally apalled at Baracks policies, but I don’t think they’re his policies alone. There is a larger force at hand. We can all agree, no matter what our partisan affiliations are, something here is NOT RIGHT. It appears both our financial system and our environment are both becoming unsustainable at the same time. And people tell me I’m “paranoid” and negative.

When will they wake up. The irony is we’re just going on with our lives and blogging about this impending collapse instead of preparing for it. I for one am too broke to prepare for it.

“Who is John Galt?”
IndianaDem

Governmental mechanisms for the redistribution of wealth start to sound better to regular people when 95% of the total has already been concentrated into the hands of 5% of the population, and the trend appears to be continuing.

To remain healthy, capitalism has to be something that anyone who is willing to work, save, and invest can participate in. Capitalism needs some moral principles.

Consider the current situation: Millions who are willing to work can’t find jobs at all, or only jobs that don’t pay enough to cover the bills; when you work and save, you receive pitifully small interest for allowing “capitalists” the use of your money, while you watch your real accumulated wealth errode as the value of the dollar drops; if you’re a little guy who wants to invest and take reasonable risks, you can lose your shirt while watching the people gambling your invested dollars line their pockets no matter how their bets turn out.

I don’t want the government to rule the economy. On the other hand, I don’t want it controlled by greedy, self-serving SOBs who use capitalism and free market rhetoric as a cover for piracy and looting, either.