"the federal government does not have control over of money and credit and does not have control of corporations. It is therefore not really sovereign. And it is not really responsible, because it is now controlled by these two groups, corporations, and those who control the flows of money."
It is scary to see how modern mega companies are turning out. They are preaching freedom and profitablility without an accompany sense of responsibility and self-censorship on greed.
Thnks for the info.
John McCain & Barack Obama both have advisers tied to Wall Street mess
John McCain and Barack Obama both pledged to rein in Wall Street abuses Tuesday, but their campaign rosters include top advisers and moneymen with key roles in making the mess possible....
http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2008/09/16/2008-09-16
...When the business interests, led by William C. Whitney, pushed through the first installment of civil service reform in 1883, they expected that they would be able to control both political parties equally.
Indeed, some of them intended to contribute to both and to allow an alternation of the two parties in public office in order to conceal their own influence, inhibit any exhibition of independence by politicians, and allow the electorate to believe that they were exercising their own free choice.
Such an alternation of the parties on the Federal scene occurred in the period 1880-1896, with business influence (or at least Morgan's influence) as great in Democratic as in Republican administrations. But in 1896 came a shocking experience. The business interests discovered that they could control the Republican Party to a large degree but could not be nearly so confident of controlling the Democratic Party...
... The inability of plutocracy to control the Democratic Party as it had demonstrated it could control the Republican Party, made it advisable for them to adopt a one-party outlook on political affairs, although they continued to contribute to some extent to both parties and did not cease their efforts to control both. In fact on two occasions, in 1904 and in 1924, J. P. Morgan was able to sit back with a feeling of satisfaction to watch a presidential election in which the candidates of both parties were in his sphere of influence.
In 1924 the Democratic candidate was one of his chief lawyers, while the Republican candidate was the classmate and handpicked choice of his partner, Dwight Morrow. Usually, Morgan had to share this political influence with other sectors of the business oligarchy, especially with the Rockefeller interest (as was done, for example, by dividing the ticket between them in 1900 and in 1920)...
... In these terms the political struggle in the United States has shifted in two ways, or even three. This struggle, in the minds of the ill informed, had always been viewed as a struggle between Republicans and Democrats at the ballot box in November. Wall Street, long ago, however, had seen that the real struggle was in the nominating conventions the preceding summer. This realization was forced upon the petty-bourgeois supporters of Republican candidates by their antipathy for Willkie, Dewey, Eisenhower, and other Wall Street interventionists and their inability to nominate their congressional favorites, like Senators Knowland, Bricker, and Taft, at national party conventions...
Two-party 'charade' must end, Ron Paul says
It is an open secret that private funds have been the driving forces behind US political party's fund.
Of course, John McCain and Barack Obama have to say something tough to calm nerves.
But given the
a) nature of private funding behind the political parties,
b) say-this-during election but do-that-after election nature of US politics,
c) rotating power of partisant politics of the US,
I have the feeling that this storm will last for years.
US Seizes Control of AIG with $85 Billion Bailout
The US government has seized control of insurance giant American International Group in an unprecedented $85 billion bailout. The Federal Reserve made the deal on Tuesday to save AIG from collapse in what the New York Times describes as “the most radical intervention in private business in the central bank’s history.” The move comes as a series of financial crises has altered the landscape of Wall Street.
We speak with investment banker turned journalist, Nomi Prins, and Michael Hudson, president of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends...
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/17/us_seizes_control_of_aig_with
Billionaire George Soros' $20 billion hedge fund, Soros Fund Management, may have lost at least $120 million with its stake in Lehman Brothers as the bank suffered its worst quarterly result.
According to reports, losses could increase to $380 million depending on the time he bought the shares and if the fund still owns the shares. The 9.5 million shares, or 1.4 percent of Lehman, held by Soros were purchased some time between March 31 and June 30.
Reports said if Soros acquired the shares at its highest price, he invested $450 million; if the deal was struck at its lowest value, the cost was estimated at $188 million.
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7012275640
Key Republicans on Capitol Hill blasted the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve on Wednesday for orchestrating an $85 billion bailout of insurance giant American International Group, and the White House for not informing them of the plan.
"Once again the Fed has put the taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars to bail out an institution that put greed ahead of responsibility and used their good name to take risky bets that did not pay off," said Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Kentucky, a member of the Senate Banking Committee.
A spokesman for Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the committee, said the senator "profoundly disagrees with the decision to use taxpayer dollars to bail out a private company" and is upset the government has sent an inconsistent message to the markets by bailing out AIG after it just refused to save investment bank Lehman Brothers from bankruptcy.
"The American taxpayer should not be asked to unwillingly assume the inordinate risks that financial experts knowingly undertook, particularly when taxpayer exposure is increased by the ad hoc manner in which these bailouts have been engineered," said Shelby's aide, Jonathan Graffeo.
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/17/aig.bailout.congress/index.html