Bush Offers Little More Than GasX For Gas Woes

With price of crude oil hitting the $90 a barrel mark, one would think that the President of the country that uses the most petroleum would be a little concerned. However, true to his natural lack of concern for anything not related to the wealthy, Mr. Bush came out with the following forceful statement in defense of the middle-class. The stock market tanked on the news, so it appears that investors considered it a bit more significant than the White House. There are millions of Americans who are suffering under the stress of high energy costs and with winter around the corner there will be millions more. The rise in crude oil prices will fuel the rise in many other products forcing many families to have to make some tough choices this winter.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- With crude oil prices crossing $90 a barrel, the White House said Friday that President Bush would like to see prices lower.

At the same time, the White House played down the $90 mark. ''There's no magic to any particular number like $90 a barrel, but obviously we would prefer oil prices lower,'' said deputy press secretary Tony Fratto.

''The president certainly would like to see the price of oil lower and would like to see us rely less on foreign sources of oil and reduce our dependence on all forms of oil,'' Fratto said. He called on Congress to enact Bush's program to expand the use of alternative fuels and cut gasoline use by 20 percent in 10 years.[1]

The problem I have with this White House, Republicans, and George Bush in particular is their dismissive attitude towards the general public. It’s as if they are saying, “We know what is going on and you don’t, so don’t ask us any questions or question any of our policies”. They continue to live in their own false reality to where crude oil prices reaching new highs means nothing, because they say it means nothing. Who are you going to believe this administration or your freezing kids? This of course is in keeping with his forceful remarks on the mortgage crisis.

We need a President who is willing to lead in times of crisis, a President who is willing to do more than lead us into war. We need a President who will provide direction and leadership and not just the same old rhetoric. Mr. Bush is showing every day that he is in fact irrelevant despite his calls to the opposite. Rather than using his remaining time in office to provide leadership in a worsening economic crisis, he chooses to desert the average American and continue to stand firm with his wealthy friends.

Ninety dollars a barrel may not be a magic number for this administration, but it is a magic number for the majority of Americans who have to buy gas and fuel oil this winter. We need more than a President who wants to placate us, we need one who will do more than say he would like to see lower prices. Hell, I would like to see a bigger paycheck, but saying it won’t make it so. This President needs to do more to help the average American during these economic times. The economy currently is only benefiting those wealthy few who have already received the tax-cut give-away that was suppose to stimulate the economy. It turns out it was just another transfer of wealth from the middle income Americans to the wealthiest. When will Americans realize that giving money to the wealthy will never result in economic success for them, all it does is give more wealth to the wealthy at tax payer expense.

The income to the government must be paid and if the wealthiest are getting tax-cuts, who do you think is paying for it. So rather than being able to provide health care for our poor children, or mortgage relief to average Americans, or fuel relief, we have a public treasury that has been bankrupted by the wealthy looters. It is going to be a long cold winter for Middle America. After struggling through the high fuel prices of summer, it will be more of the same for winter.

Have these guys gotten anything right on Iraq? Where is the lower fuel prices we were suppose to see in exchange for our securing their freedom? Along with all the other Iraqi scenarios, this one proves to be just as false. So let’s break out the GasX, because I have a feeling we are going to need it.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Bush-Oil.html

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Shall We Dance?

It seems that after every financial fiasco, the heads of government departments dealing with the financial markets parade in front of Congress with the same ole song and dance. Yes, there needs to more oversight, but no we should not create any new legislation.

The current mortgage fiasco is the latest in a long list of financial malfeasance by corporate America that will be swept under the rug with little more than an asterisk. The average American will once again be made the scapegoat for the greed and excesses of capitalism gone wild. Why is it that only after the raiders have made their money we recognize there is a problem?

Robert Steel Treasury's undersecretary of domestic finance in written testimony stated the following:

"The regulatory structure that we have, through our view, could use a fresh re-look. And that's what we at Treasury plan to do," Steel said. "I can't tell you where that will go. Let's do the work before we have the conclusions."

Steel added that innovation has outpaced regulation, meaning current regulation "is just not attuned as it should be."

Regulation is at the heart of today's financial turmoil. Despite a wide array of federal bank regulators, the standards used by mortgage lenders weakened considerably after 2004. For example, New Century Financial Corp., which wasn't federally regulated and is now bankrupt, underwrote millions of dubious home loans, many with adjustable-rate mortgages to so-called subprime borrowers — those with the weakest credit histories.[1]

Is it just me or are these guys the masters of the obvious? Why do we believe that the greediest people will do the greediest of things to help the most people, it is illogical. We allow these corporations to go unchecked with the false belief that given the opportunity they will do the right thing and every time they prove that they will not. The pie must begin to be shared on a more equitable basis. The American worker must be allowed to organize to offset the growing influence of corporations on our economy and our politics.

The people entrusted to oversee the corporations are many times former members of the very companies they are regulating. There is a revolving door between government and corporations that must be closed. We can no longer afford to have our laws written by the people they are supposed to control. Thanks in large part to the Republicans, we barely have any regulatory powers as it is now and if we allow the few we have to be controlled by the corporations this is a recipe for the types of disasters we are seeing with China and other loosely regulated industries.

The old lie that the marketplace will be the final arbitrator rings hollow when there is not a level playing field. As long as we have the industries writing the regulations that govern the industries we will continue to have economic and political injustice. The economic fallout from the mortgage crisis will be small in comparison, as more and more corporations cut corners in an effort to maximize profits. There are those who argue since the industry insiders know the industries best they should be allowed to write the regulations. This is foolishness, just because the burglar knows how to break into my house doesn’t mean I am going to let him write the code for protecting my house. I believe that there are many conscientious federal employees who want to do a good job, but are not being allowed to do so by corporate interference and political cronyism.

It is time for the politicians to step up to the plate and begin to put some teeth in legislation and regulations that will protect not only our physical wellbeing, but our economic wellbeing as well. It is an abdication of their responsibility as fiduciary agents to continue to sign off on industry written regulations or industry assurances that they will perform better in the future. No longer can we afford to let the financial markets dance without paying the band.

[1] http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/19484.html

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Let Them Eat Cake

For his part, Mr. Bush, in a verbal tour of the current economic scene, was eager both to calm the markets and knock down the Democratic calls for the administration to intervene, predicting that the turmoil in the housing sector would end with a “soft landing” and would not damage the larger economy.

“I believe that markets ultimately look at the fundamentals of any economy,” Mr. Bush said. “And the fundamentals of our economy are strong. Inflation is down. Real wages are increasing. The job market is a strong job market. People are working. Small businesses are flourishing.”[1]

With more and more Americans facing the real possibility of losing their homes our President decided to give some verbal comfort to those who may soon be homeless. The President wants you to know that the hedge fund crowd will not be damaged by your misfortune so keep your chin up. You won’t have to worry the Wall Streeters will not be inconvenienced by your misfortune; just keep packing there is no need for panic.

So, as this crisis continues to force people from their homes this administration has decided that the most prudent thing to do is nothing. So long as it is not affecting the big money boys, let the poor and middle-class fend for themselves. According to Mr. Bush the problem is too much loose money, we have been giving too many loans for homes to “marginal” borrowers. Of course it has nothing to do with the money made off of all that loose loan money by his hedge fund cronies. No, once again it is the poor and middle-class that don’t know how to manage their money. So, I guess when it is just a bunch of average Americans losing homes its ok, nothing to be alarmed about folks.

The real message that Mr. Bush was sending was not to the general public, it was to the bankers and large investors and the message was don’t worry we are not going to try and leverage these loses. In other words what happens when a home is foreclosed? Usually it goes up for auction at a discount, well if the majority of Americans are just making ends meet who will have the money to purchase these homes? So not only do we have the profit from the original loan, but now we have a discounted property and a new loan, everybody wins. Everybody of course, except the poor families that have lost their homes, they won’t be winning. But not to worry they will be fine, because the President says, “…real wages are up”. I don’t know where he is getting his information, but from everything I read and see they are down for the average wage earner. Oh, I’m sorry real wages are up for CEO’s, Congress, and the hedge fund managers, forgive me what was I thinking.

Sometimes I wonder how these guys can say the things they say with a straight face, but that’s why they get paid the big bucks. I couldn’t do it. How can you screw so many of your fellow citizens and have it not bother you? The “soft landing” that the President is talking about, try telling that to the family that just lost their home. Every year foreclosures continue to rise and yet this is not newsworthy, because for the most part we don’t want to know how precarious our positions really are. It’s like the woman juror who has to believe that the rape victim did something to bring about her rape, because she does not want to accept that any woman, at anytime can be the victim of such a heinous crime.

Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York who is chairman of the housing subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee, said that if these agencies did not act, it would lead to a collapse of the market for sound mortgages, not just the deeply troubled subprime loans that were sold to new homebuyers and people with less-than-sterling credit.

“We need to allow Fannie and Freddie to put more credit into prime lending,” Mr. Schumer said. “This is favored by most Democrats and a good number of Republicans.”

But Mr. Bush appeared to resist that idea, saying that the agencies needed to overhaul their own practices after experiencing accounting scandals before jumping into the current crisis. “Let’s get them reformed first,” he said.[2]

There is an assault on the working class people of this country and if we don’t begin to strike back this country will begin to resemble those “banana republic’s” we were so good at creating. You know the ones where you have two types of people, the very rich and the poor. The assault is to keep us so afraid of losing what little we have that we accept anything that the corporations do, because after all we are lucky to even have jobs. So long as we continue to be herded along by fear and divisiveness, the wealthy will continue to say, “Let them eat cake”.

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[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/09/business/09econ.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1186670540-W5RLYmSO/E22xr4auvgxYQ

[2] Ibid.

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