US International Power Continues To Collapse Rapidly

October 5, 2008

Elaine Meinel Supkis

Every day is Groundhog Day in the US military/industrial sphere. We make the same monotonous mistakes over and over again. Unlike in the movie where the main character slowly works his way out of the loop by being nicer, the US is working its way out of this moronic loop by being nastier. So it doesn't get out of the loop, of course. Now, the US has entered a much more dangerous loop: trying to out-militarize China and Russia by arming their neighbors and feeding insurrections in both of these nuclear-armed empires. And we also are bombing Pakistan which also has nuclear bombs, driving Pakistan into China and Russia's orbit.

US urged to bolster missile, space defenses against China: paper

A draft report recommends that the United States build new missile, sea-based and space-based defenses to deal with China's growing nuclear and conventional forces, a newspaper said Tuesday.

The draft by a State Department advisory board said China aims to build forces that are not just capable of retaking Taiwan but also of projecting power beyond east Asia, The Washington Times reported.

China's "major objective is to counter US presence and US military capabilities in East Asia through the acquisition of offensive capacities in critical functional areas that systematically exploit US vulnerabilities," it quoted the report as saying.

China is developing capabilities for "asymmetric warfare," such as space and computer weapons, that could help it defeat stronger US armed forces, according to a copy of the draft the daily said it had obtained.

Well, China may be capable of doing 'asymmetric warfare' but not by gumming up our computers or dropping bombs on us! It is obvious to anyone commenting on financial matters that China's chief nuclear bomb is financial. Namely, they withhold credit from us or strengthen the yen of Japan and thus, prevent the Japanese carry trade and we go 'boom.' The US is busy taking on epic amounts of debt right now and we plan to get the credit for all this by selling Treasury bonds. These have been selling like hot cakes because of frantic bankers using it as a bomb shelter.

This is not a good thing because the bankers doing this are bankrupt. They are pulling this scam whereby they 'sell' really trashy CDO, CDX and other garbage to the US Federal Reserve which then translates the paper value of these worthless things into Treasuries. So it looks like the US government has infinite credit at virtually 0% interest thanks to this obvious circular scam.

But the whole world knows that banks need real savings and real capitalist profits to survive. And this is what the US system lacks which is why it is collapsing. Generally speaking, when a military empire is collapsing due to lack of looting profits coupled with a failure to fund wild spending at the capital, they usually lash out and attack neighbors in a last-ditch effort at looting and enslavement.

When Nazi Germany and Warlord Japan did this as their solution to the Great Depression, this caused WWII. This was a very massive and very destructive war that raged in Europe, Africa Asia and the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The US still pretends to be backing the 'free trade' flat world system so beloved by the New York Times and the Washington Post but in reality, we are in a 'free fall' flat world system where the US is being tempted with the notion that we can flatten everything in our path via our ability to murder civilians.

The Taliban are decimating, literally, UK troops:

It was not supposed to be that way. Unlike 16 Air Assault Brigade’s first tour in Helmand two years ago, when the then defence secretary John Reid declared that he hoped not a single shot would be fired, they were well prepared this time.

They had almost twice as many men — 7,800 troops and four combat battalions, consisting of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions the Parachute Regiment and two battalions of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. Their commander, Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, declared them “the best equipped force the British Army has ever sent”.

But the Taliban have also changed tactics, increasingly using improvised explosive devices (IEDs), hiring foreign fighters from Chechnya and Uzbekistan as well as from Pakistan, and even managing to lure defectors from the Afghan national army who had been trained by British and American forces by offering to double their £90-a-month combat pay.

10% of the British combat brigade in Helmland has been killed so far. This is better than their first invasion of this region that had a 99% death rate. But then, back in the 19th century, the technology gap between the tribes and the British imperialists was much, much smaller.

The Taliban are civilians, by the way. They are not a military force backed by a state. They are great warriors but still, civilians. Our bombs are being dropped on civilian populations in Afghanistan, Iraq and now, Pakistan. It is growing worse, not better because the wars we are waging are expanding. And virtually none of this is enriching us.

True, the US has ceased threatening Iran every day. Coupled with Iraq re-entering world oil markets means the price of oil is finally dropping, temporarily. So long as Saudi Arabia sees fit to pump it cheaper and cheaper in order to protect their investments in the G12 economies.

China denounces proposed US arms sales to Taiwan: state media

AFP) - China on Saturday denounced proposed US arms sales to Taiwan worth 6.5 billion dollars, according to state media, warning "there is only one China in the world, and that Taiwan is a part of China." Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said the government and people firmly opposed the move, which would seriously damage China's interests and Sino-US relations.

Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei has summoned the charge d'affaires of the US Embassy to protest the US move, according to a spokesman, the state Xinhua news agency said.

The Pentagon notified Congress Friday of 6.5 billion dollars in possible arms sales to Taiwan that would include advanced interceptor missiles, Apache attack helicopters and submarine-launched missiles.

The Defence Security and Cooperation Agency said the proposed sales were aimed at improving Taiwan's defences and would not alter the basic military balance in the region.

The latest moves to irritate China are designed to cut down on Chinese trade with the G7 nations. Ringing China with threatening weapons forces China to be more aggressive. Then we plan to point to this as proof that China is a threat. This same stupid plot is being foisted on Russia. The US is ringing Russia was hostile missiles aimed at Moscow. This forces Russia to retaliate and rearm. Why we want this is sheer insanity. I suspect that the military/industrial people really do imagine we can win a nuclear war now, not later. So they want to push this agenda forwards now.

There is lots of delusional propaganda running around the planet. In the West, we have our own pet delusions. One, that has been peddled a lot this last few months, is the pretense that Russia, not the US, started the war that flared up in Georgia. Now, we see terrorist bombings of the Russians in Ossetia and the US is totally silent about this. Instead of the ritual denunciations of terrorism, our government, as per usual, actually endorses and even pays for terrorists to act. Just as the US encouraged the 9/11 attackers to succeed in order to launch the New World Order's Stalinist actions.

The US has few value-added manufacturing export items. One of the major things we sell are Boeing jets and military hardware, especially jets. These sales of military stuff have picked up recently as various countries running trade surpluses with the US [Israel has a big trade surplus, for example] buy our weapons. We are not selling this to Russia or China. So our trade deficits with them are growing worse even as we see world trade collapse, overall.

This financial need to hyper-arm the planet will create more wars but we don't care. We are the world's top warmongering society and we bristle with desire to bomb, bomb, bomb anyone and everyone. In the present Presidential race to the bottom, anyone who dares to even suggest we use elementary diplomacy is hammered by our AIPAC media. So all candidates left standing are the ones who endorse warmongering. And Wall Street bail outs.

Russia to upgrade nuclear systems

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has announced plans to build a "guaranteed nuclear deterrent system", to be in place by 2020.
He said he wanted military chiefs to submit plans by December.

He called for a programme to build new nuclear submarines as well as "a system of aerospace defence".
*snip*
"We plan to start serial production of warships, primarily nuclear-powered submarines carrying cruise missiles and multifunctional submarines," Mr Medvedev said.

"We will develop an aerospace defence system, as well," he added.

Since the US is bent on reducing trade with China by NOT trading with China in the future, this will cause WWIII. Japan, of course, will vanish during the first hour of WWIII. Just as Germany will, too. Not one person in either country will survive except a few in the mountain fringes. If that. This would suggest Europe and Japan would be very reluctant to fund the US death wish machine. But no, both want to dominate China or Russia via the US military. It is still a useful and nearly free club they can swing wildly and then retreat into diplomacy while the US takes all the flack. But not if both endorse parking hostile missiles right on top of Russia and China's borders.

IAEA nations urge non-nuclear Mideast in bitter vote

(Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear assembly on Saturday passed a resolution urging all Middle East nations to renounce atom bombs in a vote most Arabs boycotted over amendments they felt took pressure off Israel. The vote was 82-0 with 13 abstentions but disenchantment reigned after days of wrangling between Israel and Western nations on one hand and Arab and Islamic states on the other that polarised a body that normally operates on consensus.
*snip*
But almost all Arab League states stalked out of the Vienna assembly hall before the vote over Israeli-sponsored amendments pushed through by Western states in paragraph-by-paragraph votes earlier, changes the Arabs felt weakened the measure.

"How could we approve a call on us all to obey our international obligations when Israel itself refuses to adhere to any non-proliferation standards. This undermines the IAEA's credibility," one Arab diplomat told Reuters.

A senior Western diplomat countered: "The call for compliance with obligations was a (key) change from versions of this resolution in previous years in that it is a clear signal to Iran and Syria."
*snip*
Near the end of the meeting later in the day, a second Middle East resolution revived by Arabs to brand "Israel's nuclear capabilities" a threat was kept from a floor vote by a Western-backed "no-action" motion carried by a 46-43 margin.
*snip*
"It has been a circus, the worst conference in the history of the IAEA. I've never seen such animosity. But it reflects the unilateral character of the age we are living in, plus the lack of a true peace process," said a European diplomat.

Approving the resolution were virtually all Western states, a handful of Asian, Latin American and African countries plus Iran and Egypt from the Islamic world. Abstainers included Israel, chief ally the United States, and Syria, a foe of both.

This is such curious news! Iran, I suspect, wants to have this passed because it is the camel's nose under the Israeli nuclear tent. But the other nations in the Middle East want Israel disarmed. The US and Europe need the oil in these nations that are so outraged but feel that these kings and princes will back things secretly because of economic connections. This is why bin Laden's little revolutionary band is so successful. So long as all the wealth and profits in the West flow to Islamic nations, there will be no revolutions except in the non-oil exporting countries like Pakistan or Afghanistan but the minute oil drops, this revolutionary stuff rises! So I am predicting that if there is a depression in oil profits, internal violence will cascade over all the Middle Eastern theocracies.

And the collapse of US ability to hand out money like lollipops to people like the vile Egyptian dictators will also lead to more revolutions. AIPAC runs nearly totally, our entire diplomatic systems. So the US and Europe dutifully will be total hypocrites and will continue to torture the entire concept of 'disarmament' which seems strictly to be, 'Everyone disarms except for the US empire and its minions'. This, in turn, is backfiring hugely. But our plan is to have enough people disarmed so we only have to nuke Russia and China. This is a very stupid concept, a dumb dream and a total nightmare.

Troops Deployed Abroad Give 6:1 to Obama

According to an analysis of campaign contributions by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions than has Republican John McCain, and the fiercely anti-war Ron Paul, though he suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination months ago, has received more than four times McCain's haul.

Despite McCain's status as a decorated veteran and a historically Republican bent among the military, members of the armed services overall -- whether stationed overseas or at home -- are also favoring Obama with their campaign contributions in 2008, by a $55,000 margin. Although 59 percent of federal contributions by military personnel has gone to Republicans this cycle, of money from the military to the presumed presidential nominees, 57 percent has gone to Obama.

They want to go home. They figure, Obama must toe the AIPAC line but they also hope that he will listen to them. I think that this is an illusion, alas. There is no hope for the professional soldiers who are the slaves of the State. My little village is named 'Berlin' due to so many descendants of the Hessian mercenary soldiers who were abandoned here by the Crown when King George III lost the Colonies. I wonder if our own soldiers will establish little New York Cities or Houstons in Afghanistan and Iraq?

Heh. Yup. But only after they convert to Islam, I suppose. These poor people are trapped and will cycle through death traps until they all die. If 10% die a decade but the survivors can't leave, this really is a losing proposition for anyone thinking they can get rich this way. The divorce and bankruptcy rate for these poor people is astonishing. Some barely know their own children.

But the hope of the government is, the fiscal meltdown will supply it with many more recruits willing to destroy themselves in the hopes of getting some tiny piece of a shrinking economic pie in the sky! By the way, Ron Paul outdid both candidates in donations when he was still running.

Incidentally, here is an old article of mine from virtually a year ago: Real Inflation, Real Wars And The History Of Money

There are many theories about cycles. Why does the economy or wars or other things go in cycles? Much of the excuse for various government and banking systems is to prevent cycles but this always fails like clockwork. Indeed, the need for relentless cycles seems to get worse, not better, over time! The Federal Reserve likes to play with the rate of money making and inflation by moving interest rates up and down like someone fiddling with the thermostat constantly. Only they tend to go to extremes. But what drives all this? Why do these things happen? And what cycle are we on right now?

The US attempt at encircling both Russia and China is also failing since both Russia and China have real sovereign wealth to spread around. And are quickly building many alliances across the planet.

Russia and Venezuela in oil pact against US

RUSSIA and Venezuela have signed an energy pact to bolster co-operation in their respective oil and gas industries, bolstering energy ties between two countries trying to decrease US world influence.

Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, and Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, yesterday watched as their energy ministers sealed the deal in Orenburg, near Kazakhstan's border, and home to Russian oil industry facilities.

The chief executive of Russia's state gas monopoly, OAO Gazprom, and the president of state energy company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) signed a memorandum of understanding calling for establishment of a consortium to oversee broader co-operation in oil and gas between the energy-rich nations.

And as I predicted a number of years ago when the 'Let's go to MARS!' people thought Bush was their big, fat hero:

NASA's Star Is Fading, Its Chief Says

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has clashed repeatedly with the White House in recent months -- a rift that escalated when budget officials heavily edited a statement he was submitting to Congress about China's space ambitions and spilled into the open last week in a leaked e-mail that accused the budget office of doing "everything possible" to walk away from the $100 billion international space station.

Griffin was a total fool. When I mocked him here at Culture of Life News, a number of space enthusiasts who knew me from my L-5 Society days were angry with me. HAHAHA. But just like I predicted the collapse of the L-5 initiatives due to members supporting the Reagan Star Wars program, I was also right about Bush not being serious about anything to do with space exploration except to use it for military purposes.

The military side of our space program has totally swamped the civilian side. When I was a child, the military ran the space program which is why I got to stay briefly in a secret military installation back in the 1950's. Russia's successful 'man in space' launches finally forced our government to create a civilian space program which is now being starved relentlessly to death. Kiss it goodbye, Griffin. I warned you about this.

Note that the sole interest in the dying old space jalopy program is due to grim expectations of fabulous failures, not dreams about going into space! We could fund a huge civilian space program if we wanted. But instead, we are funding useless bank bail outs, useless wars with angry civilians who hate our guts and preparations for that hideous disaster we call WWIII, aka, the Apocalypse. Why we are doing this is a mystery....for future writers about the decline and fall of the US great power.

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Comments

[WG]

Now that the $700b-to-infinity bailout is passed, maybe that arms sales is a deliberate attempt to anger china, just to trigger some kind of financial retaliation that will destroy most medium and small banks, and JP + GS will buy up all the broken pieces to sell to the government at max value... Just before they both get eaten by the derivatives beast...

This will be much more fun to watch, if it isn't for that impending approach of ww3.

[GK]

Instead of "Groundhog Day" (my favorite movie of all time) I think "Beowolf" and its discussion of the consequence of unlimited greed and ambition might fit even better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUykRNkYD2o

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Beognome. The movie about the battle between a bunch of drunk gnomes and the Derivatives Beast which becomes visible only after eating banks.

[Simon]

The arms sale does not matter that much since Taiwan is on friendly terms with China atm
Sounds more like trying to make the 700 B to pay for the rescue

[Blunt Force Trauma]

'Beognome'! Ha, ha, ha, how suiting.

GK's suggestion is plausible, but the latest animated soft porn offering of the tale was terrible.

This was, in my opinion, the better version:

http://tinyurl.com/yjt6hs

As far as Irael is concerned, it's good that the IAEA is now going to bug Israel into 'fessing up on it's nukes; since the world doesn't know how many they have and is non-signatory of the NPT, yet whines about Iran and their legal nuclear power program that Israel claims is for making weapons, when clearly, it is not and the IAEA has, after many inspections, claimed that it is not.

[Blunt Force Trauma]

....speaking of collapse....

Listen for the buzz phrases this week, such as; "difficult to value" and "hard to price" as we may see the DOW tank all on it's own starting tomorrow morning; as it did last Friday afternoon AFTER the vote.

That, by the way, has to be an all-out new speed record for a broken "promise". The bill will save the markets and see them move upwards. We need this bill. 'Yes' vote. PLOP.

It's all B.S. anyway. I suspect the LIBOR will remain at it's current level and may even rise signalling banks to not trust each other even more so strangling credit beyond it's already oxygen-starved blue phase. Isn't this how we got into this in the first place?

Bunch-o-goofs. Anyone want to guess when the next "bailout" will be? I'm throwin' mine in for Tuesday.

Wee, more funny money. Americans are already closer to 3000 bucks poorer after Friday; why not more?

[CK]

It's been 50 years since the "Who lost China" spasms, almost time for the sequel "Who Lost Formosa."
Since Formosa will be reabsorbed in the PRC just as Hong Kong, Macao, QuemoyandMatsu, have already been. Letting Formosa have xBillions of American military dross is just sweetner for the PRC.

[CK]

@BFT: Meanwhile, expectations are building for an interim rate cut by the FED before its next meeting at the end of this month. Short term treasuries will be paying 0 or negative nominal interest rates. Not exactly the Japanese carry trade but close.

[Blunt Force Trauma]

CK said:

"Meanwhile, expectations are building for an interim rate cut by the FED before its next meeting at the end of this month."

I know. Can you f-ing believe it?!

"Short term treasuries will be paying 0 or negative nominal interest rates."

3 to 12 month term rate bonds already are and have been since last month.

[Blunt Force Trauma]

Did Mr. Hopey Changey Unicorn Man do this or not?

"Several Democratic members of the House of Representatives Friday said calls from Barack Obama helped convince them to switch their votes and back a 700 billion dollar Wall Street bailout."

If he did, well, what a President he'll make. More of the same, different pile.

But, you know; he can do no wrong. Especially with his broodish clut following. I keep having visions of Jim Jones for some strange reason....

http://tinyurl.com/5452gp

[Blunt Force Trauma]

Hey CK, more...

Flight to Treasuries may spell disaster for investors (Investment News)

"The financial rescue plan, which Friday was passed by Congress and signed by President Bush, will likely "accelerate" a stock market recovery, said Jim Lowell, partner and chief investment strategist of Adviser Investment Management Inc. of Newton, Mass., which manages $1.2 billion."

Sure, Jim. "Accelerate stock market rocovery". Just as it did on Friday afternoon, right? Ass.

http://tinyurl.com/3v6j8m

Bond rates, according to Bloomberg:

http://tinyurl.com/2dw6x

[clymer]

Watch and consider a new way: http://www.addendummovie.com/

[Oops]

On a slow news day we could take a poll.

What will be the new "reserve" currency?

And when will that currency emerge?

[don]

Watching the Clock in New York:

Population of America: 304 million
Within 24 hours it grows to 3 billion a day
since Sept. 28th, 2007
That averages about 34,000 for each
American, now pay up.....................

[Oops]

Elaine, to my knowledge, hyperinflation has never occured during falling home prices. I know the Fed is going to "print" money, but don't you think the banks will do the same thing as the Japanese banks did under a similar scenario? That is.....hoard money. It seems that it would result in deflation. I suppose it depends on one's definition of inflation but if the debased currency will not be lent out then it is not really mis-representing goods and services. Hyperinflation seems very possible but I would think it would be down the road a bit. At least until a bottom is reached. Any thoughts on this?

[gg battams]

Hypo Real Estate,german bank on verge of bankruptcy after deal falls thru/italian bank unicredit spa.in deep trouble .europe is not going into recession ?they said/yeah right i believe them

[chorddog]

This is the tail-end of an article posted September 7th by Bob Moriarty on his website: www.321gold.com
The whole article is worth a read.

"Today, Sunday September 7th, the US government announced formal nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. A big reason was that the Bank of China was screaming like a stuck pig because they are sitting on $1 trillion in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds and treasuries. What does that mean for gold and for the dollar?

Here's what to consider. Let's say a nice couple in Miami with an income of $100,000 bought a $600,000 home two years ago with a $500,000 mortgage guaranteed by Freddie Mac. Those are all perfectly reasonable numbers.

The husband lost his job and now they can't keep up with the mortgage payments and are in foreclosure. The house is now worth $400,000. The government steps in to help. But who do they help and how? The couple really couldn't afford a $500,000 mortgage on an income of $100,000 in the first place and the husband is now collecting unemployment. How can the government help them? It can't.

The house is now worth only $400,000 with a loan against it of $500,000. How can the government help?

Answer: they can't. The government should let the homeowner lose the house they can't afford and the bank lose the money they shouldn't have loaned.

But the US government doesn't want anyone to feel any pain, much less the Bank of China that loaned us every cent to pay for a useless war in Iraq. So the government is going to bail out Fannie Mac and the Bank of China. At your expense.

The US government isn't collecting enough taxes to pay for all the money they are spending; we are $100 trillion in debt. So they are going to print dollars until they are totally worthless. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will pay off their bonds that the Bank of China owns.

In Zimbabwe dollars."

[CK]

First the Irish guaranteed all the deposits in 6 of their Irish based banks.
The English banking establishment went gonzo as deposits were pulled from English banks and ran to Ireland.
Then "leaders" of the EU tried to get together and develop guarantees.
Worked not at all
Then the Greeks guaranteed all their bank deposits.
The Italian govt strutted as to how no criminals were going to speculate on Italian banks. ( Unnecessary as Italian banks are already all criminal )
Now the Germans appear to be guaranteeing all the deposits in their banks.
Oh and the USA is now guaranteeing up to 200K of deposits instead of the old 100k.
From my reading ( limited and cynical ) the European banks do not trust each other at all and do not trust the Big name american banks either. Meanwhile Citi is suing and has acquired a temporary restraining order against Wachovia and Wells Fargo ... There is a HUGE tax loss carry forward available to whichever bank sucks up Wachovia thanks to a change in the IRS code that slipped into the books a few days ago.
Meanwhile the lard bailout bill does appear to have some very nice things in it for ME.
Yes I will get to expense some of my new furnace and my new windows and siding against my taxes.... maybe.

[blues]

Let me be frank. If I were tasked with developing a plan to utterly destroy the USA, I could not have come up with a better one than our current "leaders" have followed. Also, frankly, from my personal perspective, the economic side is somewhat secondary to the productive system (mostly industry) in terms of "big picture" significance. We do produce bombers and bombs and rockets, etc., but this cannot continue if the rest of the productive system is lost.

For example, we presently appear to have no supersonic bombers at all. The B-1 was supposed to be supersonic, and originally was, but stealth items were added, and now it is not quite supersonic anymore. according to Pravda (this is generally backed up by "Western" sources):

http://tinyurl.com/4opvt8
(This should be read!)

|¯ The Tupolev Tu-160 is a supersonic, variable-geometry heavy bomber designed by the Soviet Union. The Tu-160 is the heaviest combat aircraft ever built. The aircraft is similar to the B-1 Lancer, but 430mph (692 km/h) faster than the Lancer, and possesses greater range and payload capabilities. Produced 10 years later than the B-1, it flies at 10,000 ft (3,048 m) lower maximum altitude. _|

According to "Western" sources, the Tu-160 was designed with stealth in mind, and its engines have stealth internal components. So, it is "born steathier," and is much faster than the B-1. I have read that our current weapons systems actually incorporate circuit chips from China that are absurdly sensitive to electromagnetic pulse. And I read the Russians actually use advanced vacuum tubes because of their relative immunity to EMP. From my own experience, I can assure you that vacuum tubes must be something in the neighborhood of 1,000,000 time more resistant (if not more) than typical MOS semiconductor chips. Shielding helps, but is very tricky and probably unreliable, since EMP pulses can be produced anywhere in the RF frequency spectrum, and no shielding is perfect. (Maybe it would be if comprised of cryogenic superconductor material, but I think the vacuum tubes would be much simpler and more reliable. Superconductors can only handle so much current.)

I actually view the (collective) national possession of a complete productive system in much the same way as some readers here view (personal) possession of gold. But a productive system turns out food, medicine, and products of all kinds, whereas gold does not.

[Ralph]

Dear Elaine,
I had the luxury of eating at Waverly last night in Manhatten. The men at the table next to me were bankers from Morgan Stanley enjoying the fare and talking about Morgans business. THEY WERE TERRIFIED. Depression,panic,fear,no-understanding. These guys were literally shitting in their pants. The word DERIVATIVES was used numerous times. I was dining with a friend on the sell-side of Wall st. who overheard the comments as well and he agreed with them. I really think Wall St. is screwed up real bad from this. I personally thought alot of this was consolidation of power in NY by the FED by bankrupting everyone by pulling in credit lines to whomever they wanted and enriching JPM,C,BAC,GS. However, Iam convinced you are 100% right. This is an outright total bankruptcy from derivatives of all of Wall St and most likely all of the USA.

[Yusef]

I respectfully disagree with you Ralph.

I still think this is about consolidation of power in NY by the FED bankrupting everyone by pulling in credit lines to whomever they wanted to enrich a few.

What's happening, I think, is that the concentration of power is so intensified that some (those you overheard) of those who simply assumed it was being concentrated on their behalf (ie thought power was being concentrated to them, for them) are now in fact being cut out of the action. I believe this in part explains the confusion in Washington and the temporary defeat of the bailout.

The elite is not monolithic and there is competition between elite factions. Some factions lost out here. Overhearing some factions complain is not evidence, however, that all factions lost, are bewildered, or are on the way down. Paulson and Bernanke weren't feigning anxiety and distress--they were really sweating. Their faction was feeling some heat. They could have lost. They didn't-- they pulled their fat out of the fire. The ones crying now we'll not likely see on TV or hear about through other media. They'll bitch in restaurants--they're gone, they're powerless. It doesn't mean all of them are.

[blues]

Thanks for the heads-up, Ralph. This is precisely the sort of tip I would expect if this was all going to happen according to the signs. Oh fuck...

"Beyond the reach of human range, a drop of hell, a touch of strange" — Steven King

Bob Chapman's International Forecaster
http://tinyurl.com/3qvdd3

|¯ A dish of Bailout with a side of pork, shareholders vaporized by Derivatives Death-Star, We all await the financial markets implosion, No problems solved by the bailout, Stay prepared for a full shutdown of the financial system with some cash on hand, Credit default swaps unregulated point in the chain...

[....]

|¯ The $700 billion bailout, a mere sideshow, sweetened with 150 billion in pork, has now been approved so that Wall Street can continue to game the system and its hapless suckers, the American sheople. Just put some pork in, and the hungry piranha in Congress would legislate their own mothers into slavery for a nice juicy morsel of that pork. And never mind the moral hazard dripping from the pork, because that makes it taste all the sweeter. _|

Bob Chapman is nominally "conservative," but I heard him on Coast To Coast, and am convinced he is a great guy. And deadly accurate. Oh fuck.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

The huge hyperinflation years of the 1970's featured a collapsing housing market. In NYC, it literally burned up whole neighborhoods. I bought a partially-burned house for a song and rebuilt it. This is how I made a lot of money back then. Housing didn't really begin to rise until the early 1980's after inflation was suppressed by Volcker.

[blues]

I am always mentioning Cult of Life News over at Wild Wild Left. In any fairness, they are a GREAT online community, and I should mention them here:

http://tinyurl.com/4b68q2

[blues]

Uh Oh. For the first time, the little bastard Tiny Earl screwed me. Not a good sign. Wild Wild Left:

((----- Copy & Paste - W/O The Line Breaks -----))

http://thewildwildleft.soapblox.net/showDiary.do;jsessionid
=B45BAFF03B18E77CA73D281119E315D6?diaryId=923