Which Side Are You On?

[georgephillip]

There is a profound difference between giving a person a Hand up from a Hand out. Nobody has a problem giving a person a hand up there is however a problem giving them a hand out.

In the struggle between Corporate America vs. We the People, which side are you on?

There is no war between corporate america and the people. It's a figment of the imagination of class envy types like yourself.

Here's a figment from October 2009

"Are you furious?

"If not, you should be.

"The giant financial institutions that make up Wall Street have been bailed out, thanks to trillions of dollars of our money, and are on track to hand out record-breaking multibillion-dollar bonuses while millions of regular folks are hurting.

"Even outside the gilded halls of Wall Street, there's no shortage of good cheer: many economists say the Great Recession has ended, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke keeps seeing 'green shoots' in the economy.

"But the only green shoots that many non–Wall Street types have seen lately are the weeds sprouting in the parking lots of abandoned malls.

"Unemployment is marching toward 10%, and house foreclosures are still rising.

"If you're a day late with your credit-card payment or overdrawn by a few bucks on your ATM card, the bank (which your tax money helped bail out) is still sticking you with obscene fees and charges.

"Hence the question that so many of us are asking: Where's my bailout?

Outrage at Wall Street: After Bailout, Bonuses Rise - TIME

Why do you instinctively support the richest 1% of humanity?
Do you expect to join them one day?
Wall Street or Main Street...
Which side are you on?

 

[eflatminor]

Because the financial industry buys and sells the idiots in Washington the same way you and I buy newspapers.

EXACTLY! So why do you continue to vote for the very politicians that are so eager to write those regulatory protections for corporations??? One would think you would support those politicians that promote less regulations, no bailouts, etc. I suspect you vote for just opposite. Why?

Except for a couple of local and state races I haven't voted for a Republican OR a Democrat in decades.

Both parties derive most of their campaign funds from the richest 1% of the population.
The richest 1% depend heavily on FIRE sector investments.

I would suspect most politicians calling for less regulations on the FIRE sector without bail outs when the inevitable crash occurs are disingenuous, at best, and probably firmly committed to enhancing corporate control over society.

Personally, I think we would all be much freer if Republicans AND Democrats were FLUSHED by the hundreds from DC starting in 2012.

I stand corrected. Sounds like you might like Ron Paul, who is anything but an establishment Republican and who has proven his willingness to vote against corporatism time and time again. There are only a few others who have yet to really prove themselves but the numbers are growing. And, I agree, those that say one thing but act disingenuously will be flushed right out of office. We'll get there.

 

[georgephillip]

EXACTLY! So why do you continue to vote for the very politicians that are so eager to write those regulatory protections for corporations??? One would think you would support those politicians that promote less regulations, no bailouts, etc. I suspect you vote for just opposite. Why?

Except for a couple of local and state races I haven't voted for a Republican OR a Democrat in decades.

Both parties derive most of their campaign funds from the richest 1% of the population.
The richest 1% depend heavily on FIRE sector investments.

I would suspect most politicians calling for less regulations on the FIRE sector without bail outs when the inevitable crash occurs are disingenuous, at best, and probably firmly committed to enhancing corporate control over society.

Personally, I think we would all be much freer if Republicans AND Democrats were FLUSHED by the hundreds from DC starting in 2012.

I stand corrected. Sounds like you might like Ron Paul, who is anything but an establishment Republican and who has proven his willingness to vote against corporatism time and time again. There are only a few others who have yet to really prove themselves but the numbers are growing. And, I agree, those that say one thing but act disingenuously will be flushed right out of office. We'll get there.

I hope so.

My choice for the frontrunners in the 2012 race for the White House would be Ron Paul vs Ralph Nader with the loser serving as VP.

Not a snow ball's chance in Death Valley at the moment, but maybe the corruption in both major parties will convince millions of voters (particularly those who don't usually bother casting their ballots) to turn out and FLUSH all incumbents from DC.

 

[Bern80]

In the struggle between Corporate America vs. We the People, which side are you on?

There is no war between corporate america and the people. It's a figment of the imagination of class envy types like yourself.

Here's a figment from October 2009

"Are you furious?

"If not, you should be.

"The giant financial institutions that make up Wall Street have been bailed out, thanks to trillions of dollars of our money, and are on track to hand out record-breaking multibillion-dollar bonuses while millions of regular folks are hurting.

"Even outside the gilded halls of Wall Street, there's no shortage of good cheer: many economists say the Great Recession has ended, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke keeps seeing 'green shoots' in the economy.

"But the only green shoots that many non–Wall Street types have seen lately are the weeds sprouting in the parking lots of abandoned malls.

"Unemployment is marching toward 10%, and house foreclosures are still rising.

"If you're a day late with your credit-card payment or overdrawn by a few bucks on your ATM card, the bank (which your tax money helped bail out) is still sticking you with obscene fees and charges.

"Hence the question that so many of us are asking: Where's my bailout?

Outrage at Wall Street: After Bailout, Bonuses Rise - TIME

Why do you instinctively support the richest 1% of humanity?
Do you expect to join them one day?
Wall Street or Main Street...
Which side are you on?

This isn't evidence of shit. If you're gonna get pissed at least get pissed at the party to blame; GOVERNMENT, not corp. america. Government is the one that ponied up the money to bail these people out. Stop sucking the government teet for a while and take an objective look at who did what. Wall street didn't hold a gun government up at gun point. It's government vs. the people you moron. Not wall st. or corp. america.

 

[georgephillip]

Is the New York Fed a part of government or Wall Street?

How about Government Sachs?

"Wall Street didn't hold a gun..." What sort of martial law was Hank Paulson referring to when he demanded that blank check without any questions?

Was Timothy Geithner functioning as a banker or government employee in 2008 when he was president of the New York Fed and arranged for a secret $30 billion loan (at .01% interest) to his and Paulson's former employer Goldman Sachs?

"Geithner’s priorities were all too obvious from his days in the Clinton administration’s Treasury Department when he worked first under former Goldman honcho Robert Rubin and then Lawrence Summers, who took six-figure speaking fees from Goldman and other banks while he was an adviser to candidate Obama.

"It was the recommendation of Rubin and Summers that landed Geithner the job as president of the New York Fed, where he faithfully followed the policy lead of Goldman-CEO-turned-Treasury-Secretary Henry Paulson."

Robert Scheer: Geithner and Goldman, Thick as Thieves - Robert Scheer's Columns - Truthdig

It's obvious to anyone not wearing ideological blinders how the richest 1% of Americans privatize profit by blurring the line between "Government" and "Sachs."

It's rich people and their control of government against productive people.

 

[sparky]

as an aside >

The bill that ultimately repealed the Act was introduced in the Senate by Phil Gramm (Republican of Texas) and in the House of Representatives by Jim Leach (R-Iowa) in 1999. The bills were passed by a Republican majority, basically following party lines by a 54–44 vote in the Senate[19] and by a bi-partisan 343–86 vote in the House of Representatives.[20] After passing both the Senate and House the bill was moved to a conference committee to work out the differences between the Senate and House versions. The final bill resolving the differences was passed in the Senate 90–8 (one not voting) and in the House: 362–57 (15 not voting). The legislation was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on November 12, 1999.[21]


<snip>

Events following repeal
The repeal enabled commercial lenders such as Citigroup, which was in 1999 the largest U.S. bank by assets, to underwrite and trade instruments such as mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations and establish so-called structured investment vehicles, or SIVs, that bought those securities.[22] Elizabeth Warren,[23] author and one of the five outside experts who constitute the Congressional Oversight Panel of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, has said that the repeal of this act contributed to the Global financial crisis of 2008–2009

The year before the repeal, sub-prime loans were just five percent of all mortgage lending.[citation needed] By the time the credit crisis peaked in 2008, they were approaching 30 percent.[citation needed] This correlation is not necessarily an indication of causation however, as there are several other significant events that have impacted the sub-prime market during that time. These include the adoption of mark-to-market accounting, implementation of the Basel Accords and the rise of adjustable rate mortgages.[30]


Glass

 

[georgephillip]

Goldman (Government) Sach's swindle is world wide.

"It was back then and is now accurate to speak, as a New York Times headline once put it, of U.S. politics dominated by 'The Guys From &#8216;Government Sachs&#8217; &#8212;but on an international scale.

"From the crisis in Greece, where Goldman manufactured toxic tax-based derivatives with abandon, to its betting against the success of the mortgage-based derivatives that Goldman designed and sold to others, the company was nothing short of a massive wrecking ball in the international economy."

Robert Scheer: Geithner and Goldman, Thick as Thieves - Robert Scheer's Columns - Truthdig

Someone will find a way to connect these dots in the popular imagination in such a way as to turn "celebrity" into a "kiss of death."

Good riddance.