Friday 29th of March 2024

and now for the universe .....

and now for the universe .....

Bush has bankrupted America... financially and morally. And he seems proud of it... 

His private record, and that of his family, is also abominable. Profoundly dismal. How come the Americans have let some one so ruthlessly and hugely inept rule their affairs for so long? He should have been impeached and send to the gallows. Can the US allow this crappy-record breaking president in his lame duck year still carry on poopoo-ing on everything, everywhere he goes?...  

He stuffed the pockets of many other countries with so many IOUs that the said countries — mind you, countries that were stupid enough, or at gun point, to accept — would go bankrupt should they try to cash in their notes.

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from wikipedia ….. 

Debtor is one of the account balances in financial statements. Usually it is presented as one of current assets. 

In writing ledger accounts, a debtor's amount is written on the debit (Dr) side, as the name suggests. Debtor as it appears in balance sheet connotes same meaning as the accounts receivable (USA accountancy). In other words, a Debtor is someone who owes you money. It is the opposite of a Creditor who is someone to whom you owe money. 

In economics a debtor (or a borrower) owes money to a creditor. If the money owed becomes beyond the possibility of repayment, the debtor faces insolvency or bankruptcy; in the United Kingdom and some states of the United States until the mid-19th century, debtors could be imprisoned in debtor's prisons.

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Bush, Oil – and Moral Bankruptcy …..

It is an exceedingly dangerous time. Vice President Dick Cheney and his hard-core "neoconservative" protégés in the administration and Congress are pushing harder and harder for President George W. Bush, isolated from reality, to honor the promise he made to Israel to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. 

On Sept. 23, former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski warned pointedly: 

"If we escalate tensions, if we succumb to hysteria, if we start making threats, we are likely to stampede ourselves into a war [with Iran], which most reasonable people agree would be a disaster for us...I think the administration, the president and the vice president particularly, are trying to hype the atmosphere, and that is reminiscent of what preceded the war in Iraq." 

So why the pressure for a wider war in which any victory will be Pyrrhic – for Israel and for the U.S.? The short answer is arrogant stupidity; the longer answer – what the Chinese used to call "great power chauvinism" – and oil. 

Bush, Oil – and Moral Bankruptcy 

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Bush and his history of losing money on behalf of others while lining his own pocket...

George W. Bush's Resume

George W. Bush (Dubya)

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave.,

NWWashington, D.C. 20500 

Past Work Experience 

·                     Ran for congress and lost.

·                     Produced a Hollywood slasher B movie.

·                     Bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas; company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.

·                     Bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money. Biggest move: Traded Sammy Sosa to the Chicago White Sox.

·                     With father's help (and his name) was elected Governor of Texas. 

Accomplishments in Previous Positions 

·                     Changed pollution laws for power and oil companies and made Texas the most polluted state in the Union.

·                     Replaced Los Angeles with Houston as the most smog-ridden city in America.

·                     Cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas government to the tune of billions in borrowed money.

·                     Set record for most executions by any governor in American history. 

·                     Became president after losing the popular vote by over 500,000 votes, with the help of my father's appointments to the Supreme Court. 

Accomplishments as President 

·                     Attacked and took over two countries.

·                     Spent the surplus and bankrupted the treasury.

·                     Shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history.

·                     Set economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period.

·                     Set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market.

·                     First president in decades to execute a federal prisoner.

·                     First president in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record.

·                     First year in office set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in U.S. history.

·                     After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history.

·                     Set the record for most campaign fundraising trips than any other president in U.S. history.

·                     In my first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their job.

·                     Cut unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any president in U.S. history.

·                     Set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.

·                     Appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in U.S. history.

·                     Set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television.

·                     Signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution than any president in U.S. history.

·                     Presided over the biggest energy crises in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed.

·                     Presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history and refused to use the national reserves as past presidents have etc.... 

George W. Bush's Resume 

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The Return of the King …..

In aristocratic regimes, monarchs personify the apex of power and prestige. While this may do wonders for the ego, such pre-eminent visibility can also produce grave public relations problems. Revered as monarchs may be, they represent unequivocal reminders of where the buck stops. As a result of their stature, in good times monarchs reap all the glory, however during dark days they embody a focus for dissent. Heightened visibility has lead to violent regime change for more than one luckless monarch (Hibbert, 1981). Indeed, it was just such discontent that led to the termination of King George III’s dominion in America. 

While the publicly stated goal of regime change in the US was to implement a government of, by, and for the people, the USA’s restricted version of democracy reconsolidated power among a privileged minority. Nonetheless, having constituted itself on a refutation of aristocratic self-interest, any official recognition of biased, limited, or elite (Domhoff, 2002) political control could well create the pretext for another popular uprising. 

Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed - that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government (Declaration of Independence, 1776).  

Thus, the trick to consolidating enormous power within a political system esteeming democratic principles is to maintain a low profile. In the US, class distinctions are often characterized as either non-existent or irrelevant (Kingston, 2000) largely because the upper class strategically eschews visible markers of distinction, ie: titles, crowns, and other aristocratic pomp, (Domhoff, 2002). 

The Return Of The W: King George XLIII And The Bankruptcy Of Democracy

He's must have the flu and should stay in bed...

BERNANKE SNEEZES

Global investors have been glued to their screens for months for any sign that the U.S. economic malaise is spreading around the world, with a falling dollar undermining Asia's exports and pushing prices for dollar-denominated commodities ever higher.

Last week's testimony by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, in which he warned some small U.S. banks could fail and signaled more rate cuts might be needed, cemented the view the world's top economy is heading for a recession.

The latest round of weak U.S. economic data added to those fears on Friday, while a record loss at insurer American International Group Inc <AIG.N> fuelled worries that there are more writedowns to come.

Bernanke is due to speak again on Tuesday and analysts assume he will reiterate his willingness to cut rates even in the face of rising inflation.

cartel, monopoly, handsome ransom, Bushit, oil, your car...

OPEC set to snub Bush call for more crude

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which produces 40 per cent of the world's oil, appears set to ignore US President George W Bush's 11th-hour demand that the cartel increase oil output at its ministerial meeting.

Mr Bush, whose nation is the world's biggest energy consumer, said it would be a "mistake" by OPEC not to hike production to help bring down record-high oil prices of above $US100 when the organisation meets in Vienna on Wednesday.

But OPEC ministers, as well as an influential committee that advises the 13-member oil-producing club, said they were in favour of keeping output on hold ahead of an expected drop in crude demand during the second quarter.

Some hardline OPEC members have even called for a cut in production.

printing money, furiously

Fed slashes key interest rates

The US Federal Reserve has slashed key interest rates by 0.75 per cent, bringing the federal funds rate to 2.25 per cent, to fight a mushrooming credit crisis.

The central bank also trimmed its discount rate for direct loans to banks, and now available to some securities firms, by a similar amount, bringing the rate to 2.50 per cent. The vote was 8-2 by the Federal Open Market Committee.

The moves marked the latest effort by the Fed, headed by chairman Ben Bernanke, to revive a sluggish US economy and fight a global credit crunch that threatens to freeze the banking system.

The statement indicated that the Fed is ready to act further if needed to help stabilise a fragile economy.

"Recent information indicates that the outlook for economic activity has weakened further," the statement said.

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Gus: more slosh funds to dilute the mid-strength beer with water... Not a good taste... Better help those with subprime mortgages pay for them, let the banks swallow their inflated pride and regulate the scrooges and con-artists with iron shackles. And ban "innovation" in the money syphoning market — this euphemism for sheer robbery. See toon at top.

new energy from the rich...

"The U.S. financial system is in a mess. The global marketplace is in the same disarray ... What the hell is going on? Can we get out of this mess, and how? And will our children be living in caves?"

New Yorker staff writer Nick Paumgarten posed those distressingly pertinent questions to Michael Novogratz, president of the Fortress Investment Group and the 317th-richest person in America, yesterday at the New Yorker Stories From the Near Future conference.

Much to the relief of everybody who doesn't want to spend their retirement fending off water bandits, Novogratz was optimistic. Our current economic woes, he said, are analogous to the dot-com bubble burst.

The internet's turn-of-the-millennium troubles were solved by the rise of second-generation web services. Globalization 1.0, as Novogratz called it, stalled after an initial purchasing power burst among the developing world's newly-arrived middle classes, but will be saved by globalization 2.0. All will be well.

There's only one catch: We need another wealth-generating economic bubble. And that, said Novogratz, must come -- can only come -- from new energy sources and green technology.

"As the price of oil goes up, there's got to be a green revolution. I think of what will be the next driver of the American economy, and it's green energy. That's a huge growth opportunity. It's not about the pollution. It's about the energy. Gas will go to $10 a gallon," he said.

waking up to the unregulated trickster, slowly

Meeting of the Minds On Regulatory Revamp

By Neil Irwin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 11, 2008; D01

The nation's top economic policymakers took their campaign to rework financial regulation to Capitol Hill yesterday, urging Congress to make major changes in the oversight of Wall Street firms and other financial institutions.

Calls by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke for legislation intended to prevent a financial crisis like the one of the past year received a warm reception from the House Financial Services Committee. Most questions from lawmakers were about when and how to overhaul the system, not whether to do so.

The hearing marked a transition in the debate that has followed the recent financial problems and the near-collapse of investment bank Bear Stearns in March. Paulson, Bernanke and many others have offered ideas for changing the regulatory system to avoid a repeat of these events. That discussion is moving to Congress and closer to a debate over specific legislation, though Paulson and Bernanke both acknowledged that major changes are unlikely to be enacted this year because the task is sufficiently complicated.

"We have the power to respond if there are crises," Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), the committee's chairman, said at the hearing. "What we are looking for are rules that will make the crises less likely."

"We will begin working on this," he said, "And I hope that early next year we will be able to complete it."

A recurring theme at the hearing was that sweeping change will be a slow and difficult effort, given the sheer complexity. For example, the Treasury Department worked on its proposal for more than a year before releasing it in March.

Frank endorsed one proposal, advocated by Paulson, to give the Fed explicit responsibility and new powers to ensure the stability of the financial system, and asked if it was sufficiently urgent to enact it this summer. "That will clearly take some time to consider and to get the legislation through," Paulson said.

Paulson said there is greater urgency to create a new system to dispose of the assets of a failing financial firm in a way that would not cause broad economic distress. He acknowledged that too will take time.

"I gather what you're saying is, it is better, in this very complex and very important set of issues, that we do it right than that we do it very quickly?" Frank asked. Paulson and Bernanke agreed.

"We both would like additional tools," Paulson said. "We're not saying take forever, but we recognize the fact that the regulatory structure hasn't been changed in a long time and . . . that it's not going to be easy."

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Gus: the money market has some necessary "restrictions" but far too many loopholes. These have allowed tricksters to take advantage of other participants, eventually creating the mess the stock market is in now. It's a bit like giving the key of your own home to a stranger you know is going to rob you. No good. And some of these tricksters are also President and their acolytes allowing the printing of illusionary moneys to bridge gaps in their pitful economies.

See how things fan out....

the poms do it to...

The Bank of England is to pump out 75 billion pounds sterling ($163.43 billion) of newly-printed money after slashing interest rates to a record-low 0.5% in a twin-pronged attack on the global credit crunch.

In an extraordinary bid to free Britain from its first recession in 18 years, the BoE said it would issue the equivalent of $US106 billion or 84 billion euros via so-called "quantitative easing" measures.

The Bank of England plans to buy government bonds from commercial banks in the hope that the institutions will again lend in vast quantities to businesses and individuals after sitting tight since the credit crisis erupted in 2007.

see toon at top.