So here it is, the end of a very interesting and turbulent year. The stories and hardships of so many were overshadowed by the powerful elite. Bonuses, profits and bailouts seemed to occupy most of the major media and Goldman Sachs took up much of the space.
Now that we are just a few short hours away from the year 2010 many of us wonder what is in store for us. Will the economy begin to recover? Will the millions of unemployed find work? Will the rate of foreclosures decrease? We can only wonder, wait and see.
Will the mega "too big to fail" begin to respond and invest in America with all the record profits they have made? Will our government begin to address the needs of the people?
So many questions which only time can answer. But knowing all of this - or not knowing, as the case maybe - we should all take some time tonight to welcome in the New Year as it can be filled with hope. I see more and more each day, through all of my research, that Americans are beginning to wake up, splintered as they may be. There is emerging a "voice" of the people as we see from the many different sources we post links to every day. Bloggers, like us, as well as some major media are reporting the truth and the facts as they are. This information is shared by many - as we do - which slowly well begin to unify the "voice".
Our system may appear to be broken - and it is - but "we" have the power to fix it. After all, it is still "We The People" who own our flag.
May you all have a Happy, Safe and Prosperous New Year,
See you all next year. We thank all of you for visiting our site and hope you will continue to do so.
Larry Rubinoff
Editor/Publisher
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What a lost concept:
ReplyDeleteWednesday - December 30
Christmas and New Years Hope for a Global Present: Principles
http://www.deanlebaron.com/index.html
William K. Black's Theory of Corporate Fraud
ReplyDeleteWilliam K. Black is a former senior deputy chief counsel at the federal Office of Thrift Supervision. During the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s Black investigated accounting fraud. He spoke with Huffington Post Senior Reporter, David Heath, about how fraud can infiltrate entire corporations.
http://tinyurl.com/y89tewt
HAMP=SHAM
ReplyDeleteBAILOUT FOR BANKS= CAPITALISTIC
LOWERING RATES/EXTENGING MATURITIES=SOCIALISTIC
JOKES ON US
U.S. Loan Effort Is Seen as Adding to Housing Woes
The Treasury Department publicly maintains that its program is on track. “The program is meeting its intended goal of providing immediate relief to homeowners across the country,” a department spokeswoman, Meg Reilly, wrote in an e-mail message.
But behind the scenes, Treasury officials appear to have concluded that growing numbers of delinquent borrowers simply lack enough income to afford their homes and must be eased out.
http://tinyurl.com/yg73hpl
Looks like we really did get Bush3...same cronyism, same profiteering....anyone who voted for obama really got duped...
ReplyDeleteKBR must have 4 civilians for every military member. There are a few American contractors but most seem to be Foreign nationals. Philippine nationals are everywhere. I'm sure they get paid peanuts so the KBR shareholders get their return.
http://tinyurl.com/yalug48
Why doesn't someone at the WH read this:
ReplyDeleteNew York Times Takes Aim at Treasury Mortgage Mod Program
While no one has said as much, Home Affordable Modification Program, like the Paulson Hope Alliance Now, looks designed to work very narrowly within existing securitization rules to so as to minimize the odds that any mortgages modifications under the program could be challenged in court. However, the resulting program is an abortion. It gives little in the way of real benefits to borrowers. So called “permanent mods” are in fact only a five year payment reduction, which makes sense only if the borrower believes both his income will improve markedly between now and then (given stagnant worker incomes since 1973 and deflationary pressures, that is unlikely to apply for most people) and that the value of his house will appreciate considerably over that timeframe as well. Of course, Treasury may harbor fantasies like that, which might explain why they thought this dubious program was viable.
January 2, 2010 at 6:50 am
This still seems more optimistic regarding Treasury’s motives than I’m willing to be.
It seems clear that the mod program was never meant to solve the problem, namely to keep people in their homes.
Rather, facing the prospect of more and more people being willing to stand up for themselves and walk away, this program was a scam meant to induce people to keep paying, dangling the fraudulent promise of a permanent mod (which, as this piece demonstrates once again, was always a chimera). Meanwhile Treasury itself wrote into the agreements how once you enter the program you waive all rights to further negotiations or even notifications.
So once they lured somebody in with these lies, the banks could then keep extracting until they foreclosed at a time of their convenience.
Once again we see the joint crime of the banksters and this administration.
In light of that and of everything else, it’s overwhelmingly clear that where it comes to a rogue, criminal system and a rigged, corrupt “legal” system,, there are no longer any “contracts”.
The banks are not citizens. They’re simply gutter criminals, and no reasonable person thinks a contract with a common criminal is binding, morally or legally.
So I’d suggest that decent Americans stop trying to rationally argue with the “sanctity of contracts crowd” and instead demonize and villify them as the scum they are. It’s clear by now that such perps are not willing to be part of the solution, but only to be part of the crime.
http://tinyurl.com/yjedrgx
As the middle class gets blamed for all their problems and gutted, these scumbags keep creating fast money...everything is a complete game to this administration:
ReplyDeleteState records show Walmart paid $22.6 million in cash last year for the right to claim $33.6 million in energy tax credits. The cash went to seven projects, including two eastern Oregon wind farms and SolarWorld's manufacturing plant in Hillsboro. In return, Walmart profits $11 million on the deal because that's the difference between what it paid for the tax credit and the amount of its tax reduction.
The loser in the transaction is Oregon's general fund -- which pays for public schools, prisons and health care programs -- because the state is out the full $33.6 million in tax revenues.
Walmart isn't alone. An analysis by The Oregonian shows Costco and U.S. Bank, which also rank among the nation's top 200 wealthiest businesses, have made millions by buying up energy tax credits to cut their Oregon tax bills. Dozens of other companies and hundreds of individual Oregon taxpayers also have cut their tax bills by buying up the tax credits.
http://tinyurl.com/ygu6oxd
You know, I’ve really been trying not to write an article every other week about all the things I don’t like about Barack Obama.
ReplyDeleteLike any good progressive, I’ve gone from admiration to hope to disappointment to anger when it comes to this president. Now I’m fast getting to rage.
How much rage? I find myself thinking that the thing I want most from the 2010 elections is for his party to get absolutely clobbered, even if that means a repeat of 1994. And that what I most want from 2012 is for him to be utterly humiliated, even if that means President Palin at the helm. That much rage.
Did this clown really say on national television that “I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of you know, fat cat bankers on Wall Street”?!?!
http://tinyurl.com/yjtyeqg
"HAFA" - Foreclosure Warning Dead Ahead!
ReplyDeleteHowever, I must object to how Treasury has gone about this. Rather than being an advocate for the people of this nation Treasury has instead intentionally designed these programs and withheld critical information from the public with regard to their full intentions with the purpose and effect of inducing consumers to enter into transactions that are severely to their disadvantage - all to create yet another rip-off of the public for the benefit of the big banks.
http://tinyurl.com/yl553ym
Can't verify this but heard every banker has one of these in their office:
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/y8ewp73
Class Warfare American Style
ReplyDeleteAt turning points such as these, when the time is right, a 'great man' will stand up and many will follow. Who will it be, and what principals and principles will they represent?
Obama was such a one, but he is obviously like the character of Robert the Bruce in the movie Braveheart, or perhaps the Bruce's father, who chooses practically and cynically to support the nobles. He is finished; no one will follow him as his betrayal becomes too painfully obvious.
Will it be the banal fascist with the easy answers, the vile leftist with retribution to offer, or a 'braveheart' who has nothing to offer but hardship, and freedom?
America is not alone in this. The UK is further along the path. We may see the first expression of the future of the West in London than in Washington. Only the future will tell.
"There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning." Warren Buffett New York Times, November 26, 2006.
"The class warfare is over -- we lost. I want to make that announcement today. Working people lost. The middle class lost." Dennis Kucinich, 18 December 2009
http://tinyurl.com/yhko6xm