Corporate Greed

Politics Summaries

The late, great United States democracy is no more. It has been destroyed by money. Money controls all.


Ever since corporations were given the "rights" of "person hood", our democracy has continued to be slowly destroyed from within. David Walker is the ONLY person of sufficient courage to state the TRUTH about the coming financial collapse. And, he is (was) THE AUTHORITY; the Comptroller General of the United States.

New commentary begins here.

Aug. 13, 2007
Financial Times

Learn From the Fall of Rome, the US Warned

Aug. 14, 2007
Antiwar.com

Decline and Fall

Aug. 18, 2007
Roanoke Times

Could America Be the Next Rome?

Aug. 23, 2007
Online Journal

Financial Bankruptcy, the US Dollar and the Real Economy

". . the biggest deficit in America is the leadership deficit".
". . burning platform of unsustainable policies with fiscal deficits ."
Source: David Walker, the Comptroller General of the U.S.

Who Agrees? Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal reserve, for one, and Senator Fred Thompson, for another. Nobody else is talking. It is the most controversial political subject there is.

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Latest News from David Walker

David Walker, CEO, Peter G. Peterson Foundation
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CORRUPTION - DESTROYED BY GREED

Lobbyists

There are 24,000 corporate lobbyists in Washington, DC, whose sole function is to bribe congressmen - give them millions of dollars, to get their way. IN EVERY CASE, this activity is detrimental to US citizens.

Congress Whores

All congressmen are rich. You don't become a congressman unless you are rich. This country of the rich, is controlled by the rich, for the rich.
Forget about "Mr. Deeds Goes to Washington." It was pure fantasy, and will not happen in your lifetime. Pie-in-the-sky optimism. Naive idealism.

Moral Decay

The country is UTTERLY LACKING in leadership. Self-gratification rules all, so-called popular music has become vile filth, and sex and drugs are the primary pursuit of many of the populace. Self-restraint is untaught and unknown. Our schools are failing miserably. US prison population rates are the highest in the world, per capita. Most offenses are related to drugs.

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AMERICA SOLD OUT

Media Monopolies

There is no more independent journalism. You don't get published unless you espouse the corporate line. "Investigative journalism" no longer exists. Truth can only be found on the Internet, and you must look hard to find it.

Manipulated Population

We are all bombarded with corporate propaganda daily. Election issues are muddied by organizations who sound like they are for something, when in fact, they are totally against it. Deception abounds. To make an informed decision, Americans must study each issue in minute detail, if they are not to be deceived. Precious few have the time to do this. Even fewer, the inclination. So they vote for slogans, which are totally misleading, and are meant to be. They identify with a group, and do what they are told. How could George Bush possibly have been elected twice? Unfathomable.

Unchecked Immigration

Illegal immigrants are pouring into this country, and taking the jobs of US citizens. Don't listen to the lie that "They are only taking the jobs that Americans don't want." This is the propaganda of corporate interests, so that they can become richer. Jobs that used to pay $15 per hour now pay $5 per hour. THAT'S the reason that Americans "don't want the jobs."

Free Trade

Jobs are shipped offshore, with reckless abandon.
So that corporations can achieve cheaper labor.
Foreign sweatshops abound. American workers don't count anymore. Only corporations.

Elections

With the use of "voting machines", falsifying election results has become far easier. The election of 2004 confirmed this in Ohio and Florida, in spades. Expect more of the same, only worse. Neocon manipulators now determine elections, not the people. How could George Bush possibly have been elected twice? He wasn't.

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The Underlying Problems:
The folly of insupportable foreign wars
The folly of runaway deficit spending
The plethora of interest-only mortgages
The peaking of the national debt held by China and Japan
The executive branch run amok - Congress impotent.

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THE ORDER OF EVENTS - COLLAPSE TIMETABLE
(I have no idea how this will actually play out, but I thought that I would take a shot at trying to predict the sequence and timing of the collapse, just for drill.)

2007

The Dow Jones Industrial Average Hits 14,000.
     July 19, 2007 - It will never be that high again.
The vaporization of foreign lenders
     China Dumping Treasuries?
Collapse of the dollar
     Dollar Hits New Low
The steadily rising price of gold
     Gold Hits 16-month High
The only tool US leaders have is distraction.
     The Upcoming Bombing of Iran

2008

Collapse of the Real Estate Market
     Runaway Mortgage Defaults
     Home prices continuing to drop
Runaway Oil Prices
Runaway Food Prices - Food Riots
Airline Bankruptcies - reduced routes, higher prices
Collapse of Financial Institutions -
-- Collapse of Bear Stearns - Government bailout March 2008 - $29 B
-- GM Hits 53-Year Low - June 26, 2008
-- Collapse of IndyMac Bancorp - Government bailout July 2008 - $9 B
     Consumed 1/5 of the total insurance fund! ("100 more coming")
     WaMu and National City next?
-- Failure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - Government bailout July 2008
     "$200 B" is bull - it is much closer to $1 Trillion
-- 10th Bank Failure of 2008 - Aug. 2008
-- Lehman Bros. failure - 158 years old - Fed refuses rescue - Sept. 14
-- Merrill Lynch - 94 years old - 48 hour sale - Sept. 15
-- Dow Drops 500 points - Sept. 15
-- AIG Insurance - Government bailout - Sept. 17 - $85B
-- Goldman Sachs - Government bailout - Sept. 22
-- Morgan Stanley - Government bailout - Sept. 22
-- Washington Mutual seized - firesale to J.P. Morgan - Sept. 25 - $1.9 B
Sept. 29, 2008 - Black Monday
-- Four European bank failures - Sept. 29
-- Wachovia firesale to Citibank - Sept. 29 - $2.1 B
-- Congress fails to pass bailout
-- Dow Jones Crash - biggest drop in history - Sept. 29 -777 points
-- Wells Fargo ups Ante for Wachovia to $15.1 B - Oct. 3, 2008
-- Dow Drops 800 in one day - Oct. 6, 2008
-- AIG Gets $37.9 B MORE - Oct. 8, 2008 - Another party next week
-- Dow Closes Down 679 - Oct. 9, 2008
-- Wells Fargo Wins Wachovia for $11.7 B in stock - Oct. 9, 2008
.. "unmerciful disaster, followed fast and followed faster" . . .
. . . . . The Raven, Edgar Allen Poe
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Later,
Failure of XYZ, who'll be next?
More robber barons WALK WITH THE MONEY - YOU PAY!
Wall Street consists of 100% crooks.
Socialism for the rich - NONE for you! YOU PAY for their greed!
THIS COUNTRY IS RUN BY THIEVES! Your kids don't have a chance!
Continuing housing collapse

Entire financial system is a sham.
Distraction is the only remaining tool
Another 911 planned by the Neocons to assure Carte Blanche.
Israel attacks Iran - Russia will come to the aid of Iran.
Collapse of the bond market
Collapse of the stock market
Collapse of the treasuries market
The suspension of the Constitution, with martial law imposed.
The peaking of consumer debt
--- Mass Debt Default
Recession
Depression

2009

Crude oil continuing to rise due to world demand
Severely reduced airline routes, 55 MPH speed imposed
Runaway Inflation - the dollar continues to drop.
Runaway Unemployment - many no longer looking
Collapse of International Trade
World economic depression
Collapse of the airlines and trucking - no fuel

2010

Gold will reach $8,000 an ounce. And beyond.
People will be defending their foreclosed homes with firearms - the government will not be able to do anything about it - possession will determine ownership. Well-armed rural residents will be defending themselves from hordes of city-dwellers seeking food.

2011

The rise of a barter economy
Difficulty getting food
No gasoline available - Electric vehicles and horses only

2012

Will the end of the "long count" of the Mayan calendar (December 21, 2012), result in the end of civilization, through a major catastrophe? Will the sun come up tomorrow? Probably. But, who knows?

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REVOLUTION

Revolution?

Nah. The guys calling the shots need that
corporate payola.

The Declaration of Independence clearly states, and I quote, "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."

THESE ARE THE WORDS OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS.
But who is going to do this? Certainly not the congressmen, whose very existence is based upon sucking at the corporate lobbyist teats.

How can we change the current state of affairs? I don't think we can. We are all doomed to corporate servitude. There is nothing we can do, although some try, such as Ralph Nader.

Are we truly in the "last days", described by the prophets of the new testament? Is our destruction immanent? The US Comptroller General says that the collapse of the American financial system is inevitable, and in the near future. The COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE U.S.! WHO IS MORE QUALIFIED to make such a statement?

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WHY REVOLUTION WON'T HAPPEN

We are truly a nation of sheep.
Americans are too self-consumed, undereducated, under-informed, and under-motivated to do anything about the crisis. The system will collapse long before Americans will do anything about it, or even realize it's happening. We cannot "spend our way" out of this one. Even the rich are doomed. There is no escape.

Eat, drink, and be merry. Take on more debt. You will be able to pay it off with cheaper dollars. Except you won't be able to get enough cheaper dollars.

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WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT THE FISCAL CRISIS?

Nothing. We are doomed.
We have already gone too far with unsecured debt.
We just don't know it yet. It cannot be reversed.
Everyone in the US will be deeply affected.
There is no solution. There is no escape.
The financial pessimist point of view. Realistic? Absolutely.

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WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING?

Nothing. We are doomed.
We have already gone too far with carbon emissions.
We just don't know it yet. It cannot be reversed.
Everyone in the WORLD will be deeply affected.
There is no solution. There is no escape.

. . . The environmental pessimist point of view. Realistic? Possibly.

Empire

Greece

Persia

Rome

Ottoman

Spain

Britain

United States - not so long, by comparison,
but we live in a highly accelerated age.

ALL great civilizations of the past have fallen.
Why do you think that the US is any different? Your patriotic ego?
That won't help. It will only hasten the fall, by keeping you in dreamland.


Quoting David Walker - The undeniable, inescapable truth is -
We are repeating the identical 3 sins that doomed the Roman Empire -

1. "declining moral values and political civility at home",
     (hedonism, entertainment culture, consumption culture, corporate greed, government by lobbyist, impotent Congress, leadership failure, Bush the destroyer, mad dog McCain)

2. "an overconfident and overextended military in foreign lands"
     (false pretenses Iraq war, Afghanistan war, war privatization (Blackwater), talk of bombing Iran, thousands of new terrorists, war at any cost) and

3. "fiscal irresponsibility by the central government"
     (tax cuts, deficit spending, insupportable social programs, foreign debt).

150

100

300

The top 20% of the world's nations consume 80% of the world's resources.
The United States is 5% of world population, but we consume 25% of the world's oil.
Not any more. Competition for scarce resources is rapidly growing.

Basically, the biggest problem facing the world is exploding population.
It is the root cause of global warming, and will continue to be.

What have been the solutions to overpopulation historically?
War, disease, and famine. Pick one. Or two. Or three.

Which will come first?
1. WAR - Greed for oil will continue to result in unending war (exploding oil demand from China and India).
2. GENOCIDE - African genocide is in full swing.
3. DISEASE - A mutant virus will create an unstoppable disease (bird flu H5N1? MRSA?).
4. FAMINE - Global warming will create widespread famine. (heartland flooding, reduced production)


Am I a fun guy, or what? Facts is facts, ma'am.






Disclaimer: Take this page with a grain of salt. I have no idea what will happen.
But I thought that it would be interesting to speculate.
I write about many things - why not a doomsday scenario?
What is your opinion of our rapidly expanding financial crisis?
What are YOU going to do about it?
Burying shekels in the back yard may not cut it, this time.