Tuesday, November 11, 2008

OBAMA'S GREATEST CHALLENGE GlobalResearch: "The October 2008 financial meltdown is not the result of a cyclical economic phenomenon. It is the deliberate result of US government policy instrumented through the Treasury and the US Federal Reserve Board. This is the most serious economic crisis in World history. The 'bailout' proposed by the US Treasury does not constitute a solution to the crisis. In fact quite the opposite: it is the cause of further collapse. It triggers an unprecedented concentration of wealth, which in turn contributes to widening economic and social inequalities both within and between nations. The levels of indebtedness have skyrocketed. Industrial corporations are driven into bankruptcy, taken over by the global financial institutions. Credit, namely the supply of loanable funds, which constitutes the lifeline of production and investment, is controlled by a handful of financial conglomerates. With the bailout, the public debt has spiraled. America is the most indebted country on earth. Prior to the bailout, the US public debt was of the order of 10 trillion dollars. This US dollar denominated debt is composed of outstanding treasury bills and government bonds held by individuals, foreign governments, corporations and financial institutions. Ironically, the Wall Street banks - which are the recipients of the bailout money - are also the brokers and underwriters of the US public debt. Although the banks hold only a portion of the public debt, they transact and trade in US dollar denominated public debt instruments Worldwide. In a bitter twist, the banks are the recipients of a 700+ billion dollar handout and at the same time they act as creditors of the US government. We are dealing with an absurd circular relationship: To finance the bailout, Washington must borrow from the banks, which are the recipients of the bailout. The US administration is financing its own indebtedness. Federal, State and municipal governments are increasingly in a straightjacket, under the tight control of the global financial conglomerates. Increasingly, the creditors call the shots on government reform. The bailout is conducive to the consolidation and centralization of banking power, which in turn backlashes on real economic activity, leading to a string of bankruptcies and mass unemployment. Ironically, it was under the Clinton administration that these policies of 'greed and irresponsibility' were adopted. In a bitter irony, the engineers of financial disaster are now being considered by President-Elect Barack Obama's Transition Team for the position Treasury Secretary: - Lawrence Summers played a key role in lobbying Congress for the repeal of the Glass Steagall Act. His timely appointment by President Clinton in 1999 as Treasury Secretary spearheaded the adoption of the Financial Services Modernization Act in November 1999. Upon completing his mandate at the helm of the US Treasury, he became president of Harvard University (2001- 2006). - Paul Volker was chairman of the Federal Reserve Board in the l980s during the Reagan era. He played a central role in implementing the first stage of financial deregulation, which was conducive to mass bankruptcies, mergers and acquisitions, leading up to the 1987 financial crisis. - Timothy Geithner is CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which is the most powerful private financial institution in America. He was also a former Clinton administration Treasury official. He has worked for Kissinger Associates and has also held a senior position at the IMF. The FRBNY plays a behind the scenes role in shaping financial policy. Geithner acts on behalf of powerful financiers, who are behind the FRBNY. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) - Jon Corzine is currently governor of New Jersey, former CEO of Goldman Sachs. The substance of these reforms including the bailout of America's largest financial institutions ultimately destroys the real economy, while spearheading entire areas of manufacturing and the services economy into bankruptcy." See also Bloomberg. 11:14:57 AM

THE CHANGE NEEDED ENS: "President-elect Barack Obama and his transition team are already reviewing all of President Bush's executive orders, considering which will be allowed to stand and which will be overturned, the head of his transition team, John Podesta said on Sunday. Obama's decisions could invalidate environmentally damaging orders issued by the current president." Boston: "A senior Pentagon advisory group, in a series of bluntly worded briefings, is warning President-elect Barack Obama that the Defense Department's current budget is 'not sustainable', and he must scale back or eliminate some of the military's most prized weapons programs." 11:06:32 AM

POLISH HYPOCRISY RIAN: "The Russian president's remarks concerning the possible deployment of tactical missiles near Poland are an 'unfriendly act', the Polish foreign minister said on Thursday. Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday that Russia would deploy precision-guided short-range Iskander missile systems in its westernmost Kaliningrad exclave 'to neutralize, if necessary, the anti-ballistic missile system in Europe'. Kaliningrad borders Poland and Lithuania, both NATO member states." Of course Poland never considered the deployment of a US missile shield in Poland as an 'unfriendly act' towards Russia. Space4Peace: "The BBC reported on November 8 that Polish President Lech Kaczynski said in a statement published on his website that during a phone call with Mr. Obama the president-elect had 'emphasised the importance of the strategic partnership of Poland and the U.S. and expressed hope in the continuation of political and military co-operation between our countries'. 'He also said that the missile defence project [Bush's plan to deploy U.S. interceptor missiles in Poland] would continue,' the statement added. During his campaign Obama had said otherwise. Then, the same day, the BBC published a second article quoting an Obama spokesperson saying, 'U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has not given a commitment to go ahead with plans to build part of a U.S. missile defence system in Poland'. 'His position is as it was throughout the campaign, that he supports deploying a missile defence system when the technology is proved to be workable,' Mr. McDonough said." I think Poland is doing 'a Saakashvili', i.e. lying and implying the cooperation of other nations. 11:02:31 AM

ROGUE STATE US NYTimes: "The United States military since 2004 has used broad, secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, according to senior American officials." ChinaMatters: "In the United States, there is a powerful compulsion to shoehorn warmaking into the ranks of admirable activities conducted by good people with fine minds. General Petraeus fulfills an important need, especially for the responsible-liberal quadrant of the commentariat and the incoming Obama administration which, I imagine, will be staffed by Ivy League intellectuals and not be chock-a-block with blood and thunder military types. For the United States to put up with occupations and COIN/pacification operations in Iraq and Afghanistan that may go on for more than a decade, the public needs to believe that the occupation is some kind of combination of FDR's New Deal and the superhero Justice League, using American know-how and values to continually improve the economic and security well-being of the peoples in our care. However, in real life, occupation and counter-insurgency are a nasty, degrading, and bloody business. Commanders in a hostile land far from home, intent on protecting their own forces, aren't always using a surgical scalpel to extract the tumor of insurgency. Sometimes the meat axe is swung indiscriminately, slaughtering patient and bystanders alike. And the proper description of 'targeted kinetic activity' is, perhaps, 'death squad'." NYTimes: "In the first of an expected avalanche of post-election regulations, the Bush administration on Friday narrowed the scope of services that can be provided to poor people under Medicaid's outpatient hospital benefit." Bloomberg: "The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral." Daylight robbery is the correct term for it. 10:50:11 AM

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