The biggest one day point drop on the NYSE happened today, and yet all we are hearing from the McCain Camp is: “The fundamentals of our economy are strong.” The President said, “We can deal with these adjustments…” ADJUSTMENTS? STRONG ECONOMIC FUNDAMENTALS? WTF are these guys smoking, and how long have they been smoking it? As a recovering alcoholic, I can usually tell you when someone’s had way too much to drink. These two clowns are totally WASTED. I have never, ever seen such callous disregard for compassion for the American people, let alone our intelligence. Well, Johnny Boy and Chief Idiot, let me explain some basic economics to the two of you, OK?
The first lesson is this: housing drives the economy. People build more houses; the industries that provide the materials for the houses contribute to the economy; the home buyer purchases long and short term durable goods and services; and banks and financial institutions are happy because all of this is due to a mortgage and a nice tidy little credit line they provide for their customers. The same thing happens when you purchase an older home, only you put more of those construction guys to work on home repairs. This is how it is supposed to work; this is something that is taught to you on the very first day of College Economics 101. I remember it well, because it was one of the courses that were required of me to fulfill my Degree in Journalism. Yes, even journalists are supposed to know something about the economy.
Another thing I always knew was that in order to get a loan, you had to have not only good credit, BUT A JOB to go with that. You see? That makes the American Dream come true for people: a job, a home they can own, and a sound economy. So what did we get? An Economy run amok by pure SPECULATION on how well the Housing Market would do. Institutions bundled these mortgages into nice, little bundles and sold them off to investors. One problem folks: a lot of those people who own those very same homes NEVER HAD A JOB OR AN INCOME OR GOOD CREDIT at the time they got those Mortgages because the Banks and Mortgage Brokers ALLOWED them to. So did the Federal Government by deregulation of a good deal of the financial sector.
The Chief Idiot is supposed to have a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School. HARVARD. I guess he really put that degree to good use when he ran a number of businesses into the ground in Texas. I guess he really reached back into that vast cavernous echo chamber known as his brain, and pulled out some of that wisdom and applied it to the American Economy. Johnny Boy has already said he doesn’t know much about Economics. And today, after 500 points were lost on the NYSE; Lehman Brothers went belly-up and took with it who knows how many jobs; and Merrill Lynch was bought out by Bank Of America…the self- described non-Economist is just about even in the polls with Barack Obama. Well, Johnny Boy…I hate to break it to you but you and your Frozen Phony Sidekick are in for a wake up call. You better make sure you got this election fixed nice and tight Johnny Boy, because after today, your lead in the polls is gonna plummet.
I don’t want to hear the “change” mantra from you Johnny Boy, just like you were spewing out all day today saying how you’ll take on the Wall Street crowd and the Washington establishment and get it all fixed just fine. The only “change” I think you can do with any appreciable skill is removing one Depends and putting on another. The only “change” The Ice Princess knows is choosing a new pair of pumps or a handbag, all the while muttering under her breath “Bush Doctrine…gotta remember…Bush Doctrine…”.
For the past eight years, this Administration has done nothing but run up a defect to an all time high, the way I used to run up bar tabs. Hell, at least I paid my bar tabs. The biggest Pork Barrel project going right now is the Iraq War, at a cost to the American taxpayer of $10 BILLION a month. Want change, Johnny Boy? Let’s start there, because that’s one earmark that 4,000 families could have been better off having been removed by your big campaign trail Sharpie 5 years ago. Want change Johnny Boy? How about all those chances you had to say “no” to deregulation of the financial services sector? How about all those tax cuts that you opposed on the basis of not being worthwhile unless you cut spending. What happened to THAT John McCain, Johnny Boy? The one who occasionally made sense…the one who didn’t side with the Chief Idiot 10 percent of the time. I guess THAT John McCain has died a premature death because he sold his soul to the Right Wing of his Party. He has been reincarnated as Herbert Hoover.
The true danger to the Republic is not only John McCain and the rest of the Republican Establishment who are CLEARLY responsible for this mess, it is also the Democrats in Congress who went along with the deregulation. In fact, the entire Congress (mostly under Republican control from 2001-2006) has been too busy running a war we never should have gotten into in the first place, it ignored the economic warning signs over the past several years in the hope that the Market would “straighten itself out”. It allowed Phil Graham to run rampant deregulating to the point that the protections that we once had in place since the Great Depression were gone. Try that imaginary Recession on for size, Phil…and yes, I’m whining. Just like millions of other Americans who are sick and tired of no one running an economy that needs to compete in the modern world.
Face it, we no longer control the world’s economy…the world controls US. We are the biggest consumers and the biggest debtors. We outsource our jobs to other countries taking away jobs from Americans. Hell, we even outsourced the damned war by letting companies like Halliburton do everything…right down to cleaning the toilets. (And no, the Virgin Mary would not be proud to…well, you know…). Now, we have our major financial institutions going the way of the Dodo. The fundamentals of this economy are not sound, Johnny Boy. They might be for you and your 12 houses and your wife’s beer distributorship (which is no longer parented by an American Company; Annheiser-Busch is owned by a Dutch company). The danger to the Republic is Congress’ ignorance of an economic meltdown and the American Public’s willingness to re-elect the very same people who got us into the mess in the first place. The danger is electing a man who has NO CLUE on how to run an economy. Yes, from the same Party who gave you the greatest crisis since the Great Depression comes…more of the same disasterous policies. The greedy investors and corporations which tried go make a quick fortune got to dance for a while. My father had a saying, “If you want to dance, you gotta pay the fiddler”.
Well, break out the fiddles folks, because Rome is burning.
“In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.” – John Adams
TOMORROW: The Unheralded Paragons
Intersections In Real Time 