CNN Money is reporting that Wal-Mart is cutting jobs from it's Bentonville, Arkansas headquarters. 800 total white-collar jobs down the drain at the world's biggest retailer. While it may seem like a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of thousands of jobs being shed by companies such as GM it does call for pause.
Wal-Mart... laying people off. Wal-Mart.Click your heals 3 times....there's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home...
Take a look at this clip from C-Span of Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) discussing the initial $700 Billion TARP Program. At about 2:20 into the video, he reveals what the Federal Reserve and Hank Paulson told Congress on September 15, 2008. The banking system was hours away from a complete meltdown.
Gee. Thanks. Place a check in the "Things We Already Knew" column.
What is most disturbing is this... and you have to watch the entire video to pick it up... it's worth it...
The clip begins in the middle of a rant from a woman caller explaining she's paid $600 in utility bills, is out of money, and the $800 Billion "stimulus" package should put money directly in the hands of the people and we'd stimulate the economy ourselves (she actually says this)...
Kanjorski then eschews the virtues of the decisions they've made, the impending collapse of the system and why TARP changed. This takes most of the rest of the video... here's the kicker...
At the end he actually says... and I shudder at this... he actually suggests that we ask people like the caller at the beginning of the clip for their opinions because they may have better ideas. Because, as Kanjorski puts it... they are not financial geniuses and don't have all the answers. MY GOD... as if we didn't know.
People... this man is a CONGRESSIONAL CAPITAL MARKETS COMMITTEE MEMBER. Shouldn't he have a certain level of expertise? Shouldn't he have better ideas than the caller who can't pay her utility bills? Shouldn't he be able to come up with something better than "let's solicit ideas from everyday Americans because they know better than us"...??????
WAIT... oh.... maybe he's actually on to something. This is scary, folks. This is our government in action.
It's amazing what politicians can twist and how blind they can be. Take a look at the chart below. It compares job losses in the current recession (depression) to the 1990 and 2001 recessions.
Notice anything different? I'll spare the insult to your intelligence and just ask this simple question... does anyone really think a second half rebound is in the cards? Oh... and another question... does anyone really think spending another TRILLION DOLLARS of our grand children's money will do anything? Anything at all?
It's time, folks. Time to consider the fact that our government is no longer "of the people, by the people and for the people". Time to consider the fact that we are swimming in a pool of s**t created by the wealthy ruling class of America. Time to consider the fact that our new President, while well-meaning and ground breaking, is a political pawn. Time to consider that the coming Depression... yes... I said it... could have been avoided.
The Founding Fathers were well aware of the corruption of money and power. It is what they feared most for our fledgling democracy. It has come to fruition. They would act. Shouldn't we?
"The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. … What country before ever existed a century and half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."
In this scene from "Wall Street" Gordon Gekko reminds us that most of what we see in he financial world is an illusion. The perception has become reality. "I create nothing; I OWN."
I believe what we are witnessing in this historic time is that reality eventually wins. The problem, however, is that when reality IS the perception, the let-down is even greater than the original ruse. Why? Because we watch those that created the "reality" crumble under the perception that they have failed.
Calls for the bottom are overly optimistic. The reality here is that... sometimes, Reality Bites.
The following is a reprint of my post for Wreconomic's sister blog: Foreclosure Statistics
OF COURSE the government is going to bail out Wall Street... what are friends for?
OF COURSE the government is going to pork up this bailout with some sort of foreclosure bailout package for homeowners.
OF COURSE this will not work, as NOTHING has worked since day one of this crisis. Why? Because values have not become remotely affordable and lending has contracted. No amount of bailout from anywhere will cause banks to loosen their lending standards to where they once were. As a matter of fact... this will most likely spark a huge sell-off in the Treasury Market, driving interest rates into the stratosphere.
You see.... our country is well past deficit spending... we are now spending our great-grand childrens' money. How can we do that? By borrowing it now. How do we borrow it? The Treasury sells more and more bonds to generate the cash now. As more bonds are generated, the supply swells, the price falls and the yields on those bonds rise. Interest rates rise. It's simple. And they know it. In effect, we will be printing money. They will argue that we aren't... but we are. Now combine falling asset values (housing prices, car prices, goods prices, stock prices) with an increased money supply (selling treasuries like mad to generate the cash to give to banks to buy the bad assets) and a lending contraction and...
PRESTO!
Lock up. Freeze. Bust. DEPRESSION. Call it whatever you want, but it ain't gonna get any better. Just how in the HELL is this going to help anyone? Really?
When the median home price is still WELL out of reach of the median income... just how is this going to help? Actually... no one in our pathetic excuse for a government has given us any reason that this will help. All they can say is that this is necessary and preferred over the "alternative." I ask you ... Senator Havalot... what, exactly, IS the alternative?And if that unspoken alternative is the big D word... why is it ALL OF A SUDDEN THE ONLY ALTERNATIVE? Where IN GOD'S NAME WERE YOU FOR THE LAST 2 YEARS WHILE THE WORLD CAUGHT ON FIRE?
HOLY COW, PEOPLE... IT'S TIME FOR A REVOLUTION. Remove the traitors. The Founding Fathers would have.
