- Bad policies assure bad results. Destructive ones assure
calamities. Well before Obama took office, bipartisan initiatives plotted
a course for disaster.
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- Bush accelerated it. Obama much more, so today America
hangs on the precipice of what a previous article called the banana republicanization
of America - a kleptocracy run by corrupt politicians and corporate crooks,
scamming the public with austerity, debt peonage, and banker occupation,
heading them toward mass impoverishment, misery and neo-serfdom.
-
- Washington's current debt ceiling/budget debate centers
around slashing entitlements and other social benefits to avoid a manufactured
looming crisis. Off the table, however, are:
-
- -- cutting military expenditures minimally in half, ideally
much more, including closing overseas bases, reducing force levels, ending
foreign occupations, and renouncing imperial wars;
- -- taxing speculators and the rich;
-
- -- making corporations pay their fair share;
-
- -- strengthening America's social contract, not destroying
it;
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- -- stopping the offshoring of high-paying manufacturing
and professional jobs plus many others;
-
- -- real regulatory reform with teeth;
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- -- abolishing monopoly and oligopoly power;
-
- -- returning money creation power to Congress as the
Constitution demands; and
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- -- investing the nation's capital in productive growth,
not handouts to Wall Street and other corporate favorites, as well as permanent
imperial wars, turning America into a corrupted, fascist, lawless sinkhole
not fit to live in, except for the elite few pulling the strings.
-
- At the same time, political theater, malfeasance and
machinations come at the time the economy is heading south. The latest
Commerce Department data showed it stalled so far in 2011. In fact, conditions
are much worse based on economist John Williams' calculations.
-
- His Shadowstats Government Statistics (SGS) analysis
"reflects the inflation-adjusted, or real, year-to-year GDP change,
adjusted for distortions in government inflation usage and methodological
changes that have resulted in a built-in upside bias (aka cooking the books)
to official reporting."
-
- As a result, his annual growth calculation bottomed out
in early 2009 at minus 6% GDP, elevated to over minus 1% in early 2011,
and now has it at over minus 2% heading south. In other words, the true
state of economic America is bad, getting worse.
-
- In response to it, Obama-headed political Washington
plans forced austerity at a time massive stimulus is needed - for productive
economic growth and job creation to get America healthy again.
-
- Once accomplished, tackling out-of-control debt should
be done responsibly, not on the backs of working households, giving corporate
crooks and super-rich parasites a pass, people who made their money the
old-fashioned way. They stole it.
-
- On July 29, trends analyst Gerald Celente told Russia
Today viewers to believe nothing politicians say. "Deal or no deal,"
America's debt problem is real, getting worse. Washington's "economic
policy is a total failure."
-
- Bush's policies didn't work. "Obama's stimulus didn't
work. The (Fed's) backdoor loans and QE I and II didn't work. The Republican
program is not going to work. The country is going bankrupt."
-
- "The (policies and) numbers don't lie. The politicians
lie. (Moreover), they're devaluating the dollar," reflected in rising
gold prices, real value, not fiat paper losing it because privatized money
power debases it.
-
- The problem is "we don't have a representative form
of government. That's only for little kiddies to believe. We have a government
that only represents the very powerful and very rich, and that's all this
is about - letting them keep their perks."
-
- And look at what passes for government in Washington.
"It's like looking at the three stooges and waiting for an intelligent
answer to come from Larry, Moe or Curly, or Boehner, Reid or Polosi....Politics
is nothing more than show business for ugly people."
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- "They're incapable. They're inept, and the same
people who caused the problem. We're now looking for them to solve it.
That's a definition of insanity (or better still stupidity)."
-
- "They'll pay the debt. I don't see a default coming,
but the collapse is coming regardless. Let's look at the real numbers."
They're bad and getting worse. The solution is "let the people vote
on these issues," not corrupt politicians only "representing
the rich and powerful."
-
- Congress operates like Mafia "mob rule, the Bonannos
and Gambinos. Just put a different name on it. The Republicans and Democrats....At
least if we the people vote, we'll get the future we deserve, not the one
being foisted on us."
-
- In his straight-talk analysis, Celente pulls no punches.
Neither does Progressive Radio News Hour regular, economist Jack Rasmus.
His latest economic analysis explains a "double dip recession on the
horizon."
-
- In fact, Obama's "recovery" was due "to
what economists call inventory adjustment and export-driven manufacturing.
But both are now slowing sharply." With the global economy decelerating,
export sales "hit a wall."
-
- Moreover, consumption is also slowing, except for "the
wealthiest 10 percent." At the same time, "(r)eal weekly earnings
continue to fall, meaning less real consumption spending as prices for
gasoline, food, health care, education and local taxes continue to soar."
-
- In addition, inventory accumulation ran its course. Housing
is in depression. Job prospects are bad and heading south. John Williams
calculates real unemployment at 22.7%. Expect it to rise as conditions
weaken.
-
- In 2011 Q I, 400,000 discouraged workers left the labor
force. From December 2010 - May 2011, only 14,000 full time jobs were created.
Most private sector ones are low pay, low or no benefit part time or temp
ones.
-
- Now, recent National Association of Independent Business
surveys show small firms (responsible for creating half of all jobs) plan
cutting back. So are larger companies. At the same time, state and local
governments are slashing payrolls at a rate of about 25,000 a month.
-
- Later in 2011 and next year, Washington plans the same.
Meanwhile, corporate America is sitting on over $2 trillion in cash and
liquid assets, "refus(ing) to invest in the US to create jobs"
because profit potential is poor.
-
- Overall, public and private sector cost-cutting is de
rigueur across the board, making a bad situation worse. As a result, "there
is little if anything on the economic horizon to suggest....renewed economic
growth and recovery." Conditions are bad, getting worse, and planned
budget cuts will be disastrous for working Americans.
-
- On the July 30 edition of the Progressive Radio News
Hour, Rasmus discussed "Teapublicans" v. "Timidcrats"
theater. He also said pay more attention to August 6 than August 2 when
the new July employment numbers are released.
-
- Comparing the US economy to a "punched-out fighter
in the 8th round," job creation from July through September may prove
a knock out blow. "That's called a double dip recession."
-
- And with planned budget cuts hammering most Americans,
it's called Depression. Working households have experienced it since 2008
because political Washington abandoned them when they needed help, and
now plans to hit them harder.
-
- No wonder Gallup's latest July 26 - 28 daily tracking
poll showed Obama's approval rating hit a new low at 40%. Earlier in July,
Congress scored an abysmal 18%.
-
- Expect political Washington's approval to head further
south once Americans learn how an Obama-led bipartisan conspiracy scammed
them by stealing their welfare and futures. Hopefully they'll get mad enough
to react. It's their only chance.
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- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
-
- Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive
Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central
time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy
listening.
-
- http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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