LOAN SHARK IN CHIEF

How does the mob (as in mafia) get hold of business? Loans, that's how. That is not to say that banks are loan sharks, but I am saying that the game of finance today is being directed by the government....and that banks have been sucked into it because bankers have been controlled by government regulations that have caused the banks to lose solvency. If you want to see how the government creates a weak financial sector there are many examples from which to choose.

The United States was not created to be a bank. The United States government has no business whatsoever granting loans, i.e. student loans, mortgage loans, business loans, etc. Using our tax dollars to prop up certain universities, housing areas, or particular businesses is corrupt. First of all it is being done without the consent of the taxpayers. Secondly it skews the market and inhibits property ownership. Thirdly, it gives government control where there should be none. The entire premise of the government being used as a tool of finance is corrupt. It picks winners and losers depending on the administration in power at the moment. And when defaults on loans occurs, the government steps in and grabs ownership of what used to be privately owned property. This is to the advantage of the government bureaucrats and to the disadvantage of the economic well-being of the people, however it weakens both government and economic prosperity for the people in the process. Instead of "spreading the wealth around," it spreads risk and poverty around.

I say this applies to local governments as well. We have a perfect example here in our county. An entrepreneur comes up with a commercial enterprise, in our case; an Olympic Whitewater Center. The OWC is presented as an opportunity for Olympic atheletes to train and a recreational outlet for people who want to go rafting in a controlled environment. All well and good, but the entrepreneur can't get enough private financial backing to get the rafts in the water. In steps the local area governments to say they will use taxpayer money to back the construction and operation of this enterprise. The excuse is that the OWC will bring tourism and create a healthful recreation activity for all. (Nevermind that "all" do not have rafting on their list of preferred activities.) "All" will pay to get it up and running and the local governments will heavily back this for several years they say, until it becomes financially viable on its own. In the meantime, banks have also backed this operation to the tune of 12 million dollars. I am guessing that the banks were getting some preferential tax reductions in order to back this operation, but I have no evidence to prove that.

Time tells the story. After three or four years, the OWC has not turned a profit, is operating in the red and cannot pay back the loans. As usual with government bureaucrats running the show, everybody loses and nobody wins. The announcement has come recently that the banks are forgiving the 12 million in loans to the OWC. How interesting and convenient. What back door negotiation figured that one out? I honestly don't have all of the particulars in the financial maze set up for the OWC, but me thinks there are some rotten smelling fish in that White Water. The government is still on the hook. Or should I say the taxpayers are still on the hook, but now the taxpayers don't have to pay back the 12 million. Rejoice everyone. We only have to pay back the government backing, not the private bank backing? Hmmmmm....how does that work?

Well, I would think the banks have to make up that 12 million somewhere. Who can just swallow a 12 million dollar loss? Some things have to happen. The banks have to increase their fees and charge more to their customers to make up that kind of a loss. The banks have to get some tax exempt status to help them cover the loss, which in turn the taxpayers end up covering. The government, which takes over the remainder of the OWC costs, now has to charge the taxpayers more to cover the rest of the expenses of the OWC and to make up the difference for the tax exempt part the banks are getting. The local government, for all intents and purposes, either now owns or will end up owning the commercial enterprise that originally was supposed to be a private enterprise, unless they can find a sugar daddy private buyer to take on a failed enterprise.

Again, government is not supposed to be in the business of financing private enterprises. And when it does, it is usually for someone's pet project that isn't even close to necessary infrastructure like roads and bridges.

Moving on to the Loan Shark in Chief: On the Federal level we have seen this government loan situation turn into rotten fish on several stages. One of them is Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act which raped the public of billions in government backed loans that defaulted. The government ended up owning "toxic assets," i.e. lots of housing. And the banks ended up owning "toxic assets," i.e. lots of bad paper loans. Obama sees the banks are failing due to the government mandated CRA loans they made and subsequent derivatives they created to get themselves out from under the bad loans, so he puts the banks on the dole of the taxpayers. Now he is talking about loaning taxpayer money to private power companies to construct nuclear power plants. That way, the government will eventually own the energy from those plants and the taxpayers will pay twice; first for the energy and second for the loans from the government. Barack Obama loves government ownership of all things, so what does he do? He takes advantage of failing car industries and puts them on the dole of the taxpayers. He sees government usurpation in health care, energy, housing, education, all an opportunity to increase the power of the federal government. Who benefits from that? It certainly isn't the private enterprise sector. It isn't individual businesses, as they are paying through the nose to prop up the public sector. Like a parasite feeding off the host, Obama's policies will eventually kill the host, i.e. the private enterprise sector of the U.S. His loan operation is forcefully sucking the breath out of the country he needs for support.

I don't care if you call this socialism, communism, fascism or downright stupidity, all of it is unconstitutional. The United States government, nor the local governments were supposed to become banking institutions, operators of car companies and White Water Centers, or mortgage companies. It just isn't the function of government to do these things. And for those of you who think "a little European socialism" is such a great thing, you should take a good hard look at Europe right now and notice how bankrupt and desperate the EU is becoming. Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain are all under water and failing due to socialist EU policies. We had a revolution in the 1700's to rid ourselves of financial tyranny by government and to separate ourselves from the oppressive policies of Europe. Why now would anyone think that following the irresponsible financial policies of European socialism would be a sane path to take? Watch out for those government loans and subsidies, folks. You may find yourself with a loan shark in chief at your door.

You Thought You Knew The News?

Vociferous voices on the left over the last several years have ranted and raved about the so-called corruption of profit making capitalistic ventures, as if the idea of making a living from a profitable business is evil consort with the devil. Those "evil profiteers" are just the scourge of the earth, as portrayed by such people as the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, who recently proclaimed the insurance companies as "evil" for making profits. (Her family net worth is somewhere between $15 and $55 million USD. and she owns shares in energy co's. which will gain "profits" under the Cap & Trade bill.) How many times over the past several years have you heard the main stream media and congress bash the oil companies for making "profits?" (Fact you should know: Oil companies make .13 per gallon while government makes .58 per gallon in California. In other words, government is making 16% profit with no investment, while oil companies are making 3.7% profit and making all of the investment.)

The voices on the left want you to think that they are taking the "profits" out of government and decimating those dastardly special interest groups who "profit" from government. They want you to think they are doing this for your benefit. This is a blatant lie and I blame journalists for throwing away their ethical obligation to bring you unbiased news reporting. But journalists have been bought out. In fact, the whole category of main stream journalism has been completely usurped by leftist profiteers and their message has become so corrupt that the public is sitting there in the dark, not knowing whom to believe.

So who is corrupting journalism while making profits from news which lies to the public? I would point to the most obvious perpetrator, GE, who owns MSNBC. By lying to the public to get Obama elected, GE is getting government contracts and various other gratuities to build green energy facilities and make huge profits from the government. Great, you say, because that must be better than Haliburton making money from wars. If you say this, you are missing the point. The point is, you were lied to in order to insure another segment of government is playing the corporate corruption game. On the one hand, Haliburton was outsourced by the U.S. to defend the nation. On the other hand, GE is outsourced using public money to make your energy prices higher and higher. You may not care about defending the nation, but do you care if you are lied to in order to enrich a corporation to make your energy prices unaffordable? The Cap and Trade energy policy, benefiting GE, will just make life harder for everyone, including the poorest among us who won't be able to pay the higher energy prices. Your high and mighty environmentalist arrogance just made poor people even poorer. And you just made a corrupt deal with the devil, journalists on the take, who lied to you. Did MSNBC explain that to you?

Yet another example of who is behind this journalistic bombast of lies is a profiteer couple named Herbert and Marion Sandler. You may not have heard of them because they are part of the "behind the scenes" funding operation behind the Democrat / Socialist Party. The Sandlers are former CEO's of Golden West which they sold to Wachovia for $26 billion USD. They personally made around $2.4 billion from the deal. The subsequent near failure of Wachovia is blamed by analysts on the Sandlers mortgage policies which mirrored the failed policies of the CRA (Credit Reinvestment Act). The Sandlers made their billions from the Fannie and Freddie government policies constructed by the left with your tax dollars. Recently the Sandlers have donated to and operate a non-profit journalistic venture called ProPublica, supposedly an investigative journalism organization. They have committed $10 million USD to ProPublica and Mr. Sandler serves as chairman. The Sandlers are major donors to the Democratic Party and are top funders of ACORN, MoveOne.org, the American Civil Liberties Union and other far-leftist groups like Human Rights Watch. Along with George Soros, they are among the top three contributors to the Democrat Party.

So what, you ask? The Associated Press has announced that it is allowing its subscribers to publish, free of charge, work by ProPublica and three other leftist organizations. 1500 American newspapers are subscribers to AP. Folks, AP used to be a respected news source. Now AP has decided to give you more left-wing bias and more unethically bent reporting by people who are Socialists. Why would you believe anything you read in any AP report from this day forward? You know from the outset that it is coming from the Democrat Party, Soros & Co., John Podesta, MoveOn.org., ACORN, and others who have no interest in ethical reporting in journalism in America. Their interest is in twisting the truth to make you believe their lies. Their interest is in eliminating the United States Constitution and national sovereignty, replacing it with global interests and your taxes going into their pet projects from which they make "obscene" profits from our government policies.

Oh, and that sweet fella, Al Gore? He is just saving the planet for you and your children, right? He left the congress with under $1 million USD in 2000. He is now worth in excess of $120 million USD , thanks to MoveOn.org (brought to you by George Soros and the Sandlers) and the media reporting his lies on Global Climate Change, formerly known as Global Warming, formerly (way before that) as Global Cooling. His connections to MoveOn.org are common knowledge. Now do you see who is "profiteering" from our government and your taxes? Now do you see who is lying to you to further their own selfish agenda? And do you really think this is some altruistic, utopian, Democrat Party who is just doing such great things for you and your life? Can you believe AP? Hmmmmm....I don't think so.

So while you are wondering why the media is attacking Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh, ask yourself why? An uninformed and misinformed public is the best friend of the left. Live it, love it, eat it for breakfast with your morning newspaper. Read Marx's "Communist Manifesto" for lunch. And read Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" for dinner. Read George Orwell and Ayn Rand before bedtime. Keep the U.S. Constitution with you at all times. You will see things a lot clearer. Unless you are lazy and you really don't care what disasters are lying ahead for your children.

Lament for the Uneducated Minds

This link is a pre-election You Tube video and now the vote is irrelevant, however, this video explains how the government screwed up the economy for the entire country. It has fun music, too! Just for fun...Go Here!
(caveat: I am not a big McCain fan at all...but this video does show that he and President Bush did try to stop this crisis from happening.)

I am dedicating this one to a close friend who just can't figure things out. I preface this with the fact that she has no computer and doesn't want one, hardly reads the newspapers, and only listens to MSNBC. She'll never see this post. She is shaking her head in disbelief and repeating the mainstream media mantras about how bad corporations and greedy capitalists are to blame for all of our woes. She wonders how did our dear devoted politicians let this happen. To her, politicians are the nanny she relies on to take care of everything. "They" are supposed to be benefactors, protectors, Santa Claus, and everything else warm and fuzzy. Need I tell you she voted for Obama? Need I tell you she thinks public / government schools are the answer to everything?

I used to tolerate this thinking as misguided and sad. I am not so tolerant these days. In fact, I am really angry that she represents a larger quantity of uneducated and thoughtless populous who want "the government" to do everything for them. Ignorance is bliss, as the saying goes. I guess it is bliss if you don't realize how that ignorance is taking down an entire country.

I have to give this example of her thinking to illustrate the point: One day she called me up to tell me about the disastrous plight of some wild horses that were being rounded up to be sent to the far east for horse meat. She knew I would be sympathetic to this because I am an animal lover. "Oh, something must be done," she implored. "This is horrible!" The ASPCA was involved in trying to save these American animals and needed money, she related to me. So I jumped on the internet, found out where to send money, and got back to her on where to send money to help the animals whose cause she was so desparately pleading. I called her with the information and boy, did I get an earful! "Oh," she said, " I didn't mean I was going to give any of my money to help them." "I meant I wanted the goverment to save them." "I can't give my own money to such things!" "The government should stop them!"

Further conversation revealed more of her thinking. She informed me that she doesn't find it necessary or compelling to give to charities because she pays taxes. Taxes, she says, are the charity of her choice. To her, "the government" is her charity organization. She believes that if "the government" will do the work, then there is no need for "charity."

Marx is dancing in his element at this moment! "From each according to his ability,to each according to his need." Force. Government force. She votes for it every time. What she really wants is the government to steal your money by force to do what she wants the government to do.

So let's say "Jimmy" wants to make himself look like a hero. Jimmy decides he wants all poor people to own houses. There's a champion idea! Well, I guess Jimmy cannot personally buy houses for all of the poor people in the country, so instead, Jimmy will create a "government" entity that will facilitate poor people to own houses. You vote for Jimmy and he will see to it that all of those poor people will be home owners! Yea!! Boy can Jimmy pat himself on the back for this one! He's a hero!!!! Oh, but wait, I forgot to tell you that Jimmy was going to take, by force, your money to buy those houses. Furthermore, Jimmy can take taxes and litigate lawsuits against those bad greedy corporations to pay for this. More of a hero!!! Wow, Jimmy is on a roll!! They'll give him a Nobel Prize for this!! He'll be the winner of accolades all over the country and the world!!

Funny how no one calls him a thief or a scam artist. Funny how the mainstream media doesn't call him what he really is, a destructive, lying, stealing, Marxist, cheat. Nevermind that the entire country is now full of bankrupt persons and businesses, thanks to Jimmy. He's a hero! He is.... Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and other democrat socialists.

And people just like the "friend" described above, voted for Jimmy and his chums, the socialist democrats (thieves) time and time again. And the really funny thing is...she just continues to shake her head and blame the bad greedy corporations and business executives. It's all their fault according to her.


I (the blogger) am in search of new friends, who, like me are going to speak up and stop this madness. And I (the blogger) hope to set some minds straight, so please pass this blog on to all who need to hear the truth. Maybe together we can start to turn the boat around and get back on track..if only we can educate some people.

Good Intentions Pave the Road to Hell

I'm not quite through with Jimmy Carter....here are some more of my thoughts on this former President....

It's all very well to wish for a perfect world where everyone has exactly everything everyone else has...if you look at that as perfect. I don't ascribe to that theory, which brings to mind Mao pajamas and Communist gulags. If I were to give Jimmy Carter any benefit of the doubt, I could say that because he came from the South and wanted to compensate for injustices of the past, he decided to make reparations to the poor by manipulating the banking industry in favor of the poor and blacks (African Americans). That sounds so Christian and noble, doesn't it?? I suspect he thought he was climbing the stairway to heaven and the Community Reinvestment Act was a big step on that stairway.

Ironically, Mr. Carter can now be known as the father of the banking crisis that has taken down the mortgage industry, the banking industry, the middle class, businesses all over the country, and....most ironic of all...causing people to lose their homes all over the country. One man's convoluted sense of good intentions has paved the road to hell for a whole lot of Americans.

If I don't give him the benefit of the doubt, I go to another possibility..that it was merely a political scheme to get votes from minorities of the day. If I were guessing, I'd say it was a combination of both, 10% nobility, 90% political motivation.

Below are some quotes grabbed from other internet sources on the subject. You can research this yourself by doing a google search on Jimmy Carter Community Reinvestment Act. There is so much more to it...adding in Bill Clinton who walked in and strengthened the government's force on the banking industry, which put the pedal to the metal and sped up the process to hell. You can also find out how Acorn...Obama's favorite Community Organization Group is tied to this diabolical scheme that has bankrupted our country.

from: Jeffrey Kempe
"Born under Jimmy Carter in 1977, [Wikipedia here]< the intent was to end the practice of redlining, in which banks allegedly were not lending in certain neighborhoods. It was revised in 1995 under Bill Clinton, with provisions added that would force banks to meet certain goals of low-income lending. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were required to meet goals of their own in buying the high risk paper – less of a risk to the executives of those companies since their bonus was predicated on the profit that high risk brings - while the burden of any loss would be borne by the: taxpayer.

In 2004/2005 Republicans in the Congress saw red flags, and tried to apply stricter oversight to both Fannie and Freddie. Democrats objected, and nothing was ever done."

from:Yaron Brook at Forbes.com: (tried to create a link, but couldn't)

"There has been no free market in housing or finance. Government has long exercised massive control over the housing and financial markets--including its creation of Fannie Mae (nyse: FNM - news - people ) and Freddie Mac (nyse: FRE - news - people ) (which have now amassed $5 trillion in liabilities)--leading to many of the problems being blamed on the free market today.

Consider the low lending standards that were a significant component of the mortgage crisis. Lenders made millions of loans to borrowers who, under normal market conditions, weren't able to pay them off. These decisions have cost lenders, especially leading financial institutions, tens of billions of dollars.

The government has promoted bad loans not just through the stick of the CRA but through the carrot of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which purchase, securitize and guarantee loans made by lenders and whose debt is itself implicitly guaranteed by the federal government.

That's you and me, folks....the government...us...our money guaranteeing Jimmy Carter's road to hell....or was it heaven....or was it his heaven and our hell?? As I write this today, Jimmy Carter is in Communist China. Wonder what he's doing there.....hmmmmm..