*quality

Political cartoon in my paper today:
http://blogs.ajc.com/mike-luckovich/2011/10/03/104-mike-luckovich-cartoon-wall-street-protests/

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by Boise_Lib.

What a scumbag. Helps create the economic crisis then claims he's dissatisfied with it.

@NetRunner

So you're sayin' Bernanke had nothing [less to do] with this whole mess?

He talks like the economy is an entity unto itself. Like there is no one at the reins and nothing can be done. No one is to blame and no wrong-doing has occurred.

In fact there are so many to blame and and a lot of corruption that is being swept under the rug. A lot of policy has been made by bankers, corporations and the people running the show that got everyone into this mess. They skirted and changed laws, they broke laws, they dismantled safety nets and then robbed as many people and institutions as they could until meltdown. Then they stand there and say, "Wow, I don't like it either, but whatcha gonna do? What's done is done."

Does he even know what people are protesting? I think not!

Just so people aren't confused, Fiscal policy ≠ Monetary policy.

Fiscal policy = Congress = taxation, spending, and regulation.
Monetary policy = Federal Reserve = interest rates and credit availability.

He's the figurehead they put up to put a friendly face on evil. Same as Mervin King, governor of the Bank of England.

I feel better already.

>> ^GenjiKilpatrick:

So you're sayin' Bernanke had nothing [less to do] with this whole mess?


Bernanke became Fed chairman in 2006. The housing bubble was already in full effect, and about to burst.

To say he "created" the 9% unemployment rate is flat out delusional.

I'd accept "He could've done more" or even "I think he's done the wrong thing in response", but accusing him of intentionally initiating the whole thing? Wholesale insanity.

@NetRunner, @GenjiKilpatrick, It is unfair to blame any single person in recent memory. Not Bernake, not Greenspan. They were making the best choices they knew to make given the system they have inherited.

The people at fault are no longer alive today. I'm sure I don't know American history as well as Americans, but I know that similar issues are being faced by pretty much every country that has left the management of the nation's money supply in the hands of private interests. For myself, in Canada, I'm pretty worried.

"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes it's laws" — Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild

“Once a nation parts with the control of its currency and credit, it matters not who makes that nation's laws. Usury, once in control, will wreck any nation. Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognized as its most conspicuous and sacred responsibility, all talk of the sovereignty of Parliament and of democracy is idle and futile.”

-William Lyon Mackenzie King, former Prime Minister of Canada.

>> ^notarobot:

@NetRunner, @GenjiKilpatrick, It is unfair to blame any single person in recent memory. Not Bernake, not Greenspan. They were making the best choices they knew to make given the system they have inherited.
The people at fault are no longer alive today. I'm sure I don't know American history as well as Americans, but I know that similar issues are being faced by pretty much every country that has left the management of the nation's money supply in the hands of private interests. For myself, in Canada, I'm pretty worried.
"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes it's laws" — Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild
“Once a nation parts with the control of its currency and credit, it matters not who makes that nation's laws. Usury, once in control, will wreck any nation. Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognized as its most conspicuous and sacred responsibility, all talk of the sovereignty of Parliament and of democracy is idle and futile.”
-William Lyon Mackenzie King, former Prime Minister of Canada.


The people at fault are very much alive because they could've done something to prevent it years ago. They're in Obamas cabinet now.

In other words, the protests will be as effective as the general anti-globalization protests throughout the 2000s (no significant influence on policy, but tens of billions of dollars lost on security expenses etc.).

>> ^Yogi:

The people at fault are very much alive because they could've done something to prevent it years ago. They're in Obamas cabinet now.


@NetRunner

One word. Geithner.

>> ^GenjiKilpatrick:

>> ^Yogi:
The people at fault are very much alive because they could've done something to prevent it years ago. They're in Obamas cabinet now.

@NetRunner
One word. Geithner.


I have less kind things to say about Geithner than I do Bernanke, but let me use my comment above as a template for Geithner:

Geithner became Treasury Secretary in 2009. The housing bubble had already burst, and the bank collapses had already begun.

To say he "created" the 9% unemployment rate is flat out delusional.

I'd accept "He could've done more" or even "I think he's done the wrong thing in response", but accusing him of intentionally initiating the whole thing? Wholesale insanity.

@NetRunner

" Sure Hitler was awful. But to be fair, that was already growing antisemitism for several decades before he came to power"

Had Bernanke and Geithner been decent people, the crisis/meltdown would have been much less than it is right now. No two ways about it.


Bubbles burst all the time and there's a formula to deal with the damage from them.

Bernanke and Geithner did nothing but make the problems larger than they had to be [for the average american] so that their banker friends could shovel more money into their private accounts before more shit hit the fan.

Why give either of them any slack at all?

I think I may not have been clear about what I meant in my statement. I believe we're talking about two different segments of the same problem.

I absolutely agree with you that there has been very poor management of the U.S. debt over the past few years, especially in over the financial bail out/sub-prime mortgage/housing bubble fiasco. And yes, some (many?) of those individuals culpable are working with the current cabinet.

However, my thoughts were more to the fact that 1/2 the American national debt (some $5+ Trillion) is interest. I see this as a crime no single individual could commit over night. Yes, the last few years have had fuck-ups and thefts of the common purse on a colossal scale, but the majority of the (compound) interest on the the U.S. debt was accumulated before the bank bail out. I see those responsible as being the people who permitted the system with a privatized central bank. Money is now created by private companies through debt which the taxpayer is charged compound interest on.

NEW YORK -- Here's a new way to think about the U.S. government's epic borrowing: More than half of the $9 trillion in debt that Uncle Sam is expected to build up over the next decade will be interest.

More than half. In fact, $4.8 trillion.

If that's hard to grasp, here's another way to look at why that's a problem.

In 2015 alone, the estimated interest due - $533 billion - is equal to a third of the federal income taxes expected to be paid that year. /CNN, 2009.

>> ^GenjiKilpatrick:

" Sure Hitler was awful. But to be fair, that was already growing antisemitism for several decades before he came to power"
Had Bernanke and Geithner been decent people, the crisis/meltdown would have been much less than it is right now. No two ways about it.

The right Hitler analogy to describe what you're talking about would be:

"Sure Hitler was awful. But to be fair, Neville Chamberlain could've done more to stop him, so isn't the Holocaust really all his fault?"

>> ^GenjiKilpatrick:
Bernanke and Geithner did nothing but make the problems larger than they had to be [for the average american] so that their banker friends could shovel more money into their private accounts before more shit hit the fan.
Why give either of them any slack at all?


Because Bernanke has actually done a lot to try to make the situation better. He could've done more, but not a tremendous amount more. Geithner fits your description a lot more closely, but again, I dispute that Geithner made the problems worse, and I definitely dispute that he intentionally made things worse for his own gain.

I sorta don't get what your point is in arguing all this. Do you really think single individuals in any position anywhere deserve all the blame for the economic crisis? Do you really think the people most culpable are all government employees?