12/13/08

You're Getting Warmer

This is a little weird. Are they playing that party game when you blindfold the person who's 'it' and make them grope around the room for some mysterious object while giving them hints like warmer and cooler?
It's quite unsettling to talk to members of Barack Obama's transition teams these days, especially those who are helping with the economics portfolio. Without going into details, the sense I get from them is that they are very worried that the economy will get a lot worse before it gets better. [WARMER] Not just worse... a lot worse. [WARMER] As in -- double digit unemployment without the wiggle factors. Huge declines in aggregate demand. Significant, persistent deficits. [DEFINITELY WARMER] That's one reason why the Obama administration seems to be open to listening to every economist with an idea and is stocking the staff with the leading lights of the field. In one sense, the general level of concern among Obama advisers and transition staffers is reassuring; they get the magnitude of the problems, and they're not going to assume that, just because the bottom has never dropped out before -- certainly not in the lifetimes of most people doing policy these days, the bottom will never drop out. [VERY VERY WARM]

Where the discussion isn't going, at least in public, (or the PR level), is the possibility that the first foreign policy crisis the administration will face will be the complete economic collapse of a large, unstable nation. [GETTING HOT NOW -- SO CLOSE!! WHICH COUNTRY WILL IT BE!?!?!?! CAN YOU FIGURE IT OUT?!?!?!? IT'S RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!!!] {Blindfolded player takes sharp U-turn.} To be sure, Pakistan is nearly broke, and U.S. policy makers seem to be aware of that; but a worldwide demand crisis could lead to social unrest in countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, Singapore, the Ukraine, Japan, Turkey or Egypt (which is facing an internal political crisis of epic proportions already). [COOLER] The U.S. won't have the resources to, say, engineer the rescue of the peso again, or intervene in Asia as in 1997. [MUCH COOLER]

The public rhetoric from Team Obama seems to treat history as having ended in early October, [WARMER, YES] which is understandable; the priority right now is on the liquidity crisis, the structure of government and the peopling of the administration and the domestic economy. [WARMER] Most of the administration's major policy voices don't have the luxury of time to game out scenarios. Now -- it can fairly be said that Treasury nominee Tim Geithner, himself an assistant secretary for international economic affairs during the Clinton administration, is aware of the precarious state demand in certain critical countries, [MUCH WARMER!] as is Larry Summers. The question: what's the administration's policy in this area? [VERY WARM AGAIN] {Another U-turn.} Which countries can we afford to let fail? Which unstable states would concern us the most? Is there something the U.S. can do, in advance, should do, in advance, to forestall the collapse of other economies? [COOLER]
Well...how about we forestall the collapse of OUR economy? I bet that would help.

27 comments:

Greg Bacon said...

I watched a little show on CSpan, that was on last Saturday, hosted by Tom Friedman that had a David Rubenstein--cofounder of the Carlyle Group, which some might call a no-good bunch of war profiteers and former World Bank head James Wolfenshon, and a Manual Trajtenberg(sp?), Olmert's economic advisor, all talking about the shit storm that's hitting America and how Americans should NOT be worried about our economy, but how all of this affects ISRAEL.

Yes, I'm sure that when that grieving mother visits Arlington Cemetery and cries uncontrollably over her dead son, killed in the Israeli Theater, AKA Iraq War, between sobs, she'll wonder how is little ol' Israel doing.

And tonight, when that homeless family beds down in their car, since they lost their home to greedy Wall Street gangsters, they'll spend more time worrying about Israel than whether or not they'll ever again be able to afford a house to live in.

Yes, we all need to spend more time worrying about that SLC, Israel.

Hey, I know!!! Let's send Israel whatever gold or silver we can put together. Can't send dollars, they're too worthless.

A. Peasant said...

Have you ever read this guy?

http://tinyurl.com/5mznjo

Greg Bacon said...

The Jews will claim that their fiat money is "sound money", "real money", and "hard money"; but it will be less than a Federal fiat money, because it will not represent the labor or resources of any nation

How can any currency be less than the Fed Monopoly money?

Other than Zimbabwe's and I'm afraid we're going to find out first hand how worthless paper money can become.

The only thing propping up the Fed's fiat schemes is the Pentagon.

I liked the view the Native Americans had of gold, they thought it was funny that the White Man loved a piece of rock so much.

A. Peasant said...

*How can any currency be less than the Fed Monopoly money?*

I do not know, but I'm sure where there's a will, there's a way. ;)

Greg Bacon said...

Out of curiosity, what is the meaning behind your blog's title, the 12th bough?

And you answer your posts with the name of A. Peasant.

Is A. Peasant and yourself one and the same?

Just being nosy, that's all.

It's obvious you're a very educated type that writes extremely well.

Do you have an degree in English or Journalism?

That's all for now, I'll stick my ample nose back on my face.

A. Peasant said...

No problem. I am flattered you would ask.

Twelfth Bough came to me this way: I love the two words individually, meaning in the Old English spelling and sound sense (I'm a word weirdo), and I also love their symbolic meaning together. For me it represents the human family tree, and my feeling of belonging to it in a specific way with other contemplative people throughout history. Contemplative meaning "those who care a great deal about the fate of the world."

A. Peasant is me, Marlena.

I have a BA in Political Science and Economics and an MBA, but most of what I know that's important I learned on my own by being very nosey about the way things really work. And I have a sixth sense about people which helps a lot.

So nosey doesn't offend me. I understand nosey. ;)

Greg Bacon said...

I'm not sure about the symbolic meaning, but i do understand this ".."those who care a great deal about the fate of the world."

At times, it seems it would be easier to say the hell with it and just push some matters completely out of one's mind and get on with other things...
But that's the type of selfish attitude that got us up this creek with no paddles to begin with.

From your degrees, you sound like a prime candidate for some political office or behind the scenes staff member, pulling those delicate strings that grease that political machinery.

A. Peasant said...

Yes, it would be much easier to wash our hands of the mess, but it never lasts even if you can do it for a while. Caring is an addiction.

As for me, I'm a totally behind the scenes support type, my big fat mouth on this blog notwithstanding.

And btw, I love firemen. :)

Greg Bacon said...

And btw, I love firemen.

We're supposed to use the neutral term "firefighter."

When I first started, the old timers were dead set against letting women into their boys club, but I welcomed anyone that could pass the physical and other portions of the entrance exam.

Having women in the firehouse made some of the more uhh, randy types behave a bit.

People seem to have a universal admiration for firefighters, especially after 9/11.

That day, I was kinda snoozing on the couch, trying to recover from a 24 hour shift, when the phone rang.

It was my brother, in a very excited state, going on about jets hitting some buildings in New York.

I had not been watching TV and had no idea of what was going on.

He asked me what I thought was happening and I replied that it sounds like the CIA was up to their old tricks.

The line almost went dead, so quiet it was on the other end.

Couple of years later, he told me that I sounded fuckin' crazy saying something like that, but now days, he's not so sure I was talking crazy.

P.S. I don't view your blog as someone ranting with a big fat mouth.

It's an intelligent, insightful blog that makes people think.

A. Peasant said...

Oh yes. Who's crazy now, hmm?? I've been a crazy for a long time. I'm glad your brother is coming around.

My dad was a house painter, so we always had the firemen around since a few of them painted as a second job. The respect was ingrained in me from a young age.

Thanks for your kind words. Sometimes writing the truth feels really, really rude, but it has to be done, come what may.

Greg Bacon said...

Writing the truth feels rude?

It might make one feel like they're on a deserted island, but rude?

And it might make you feel like you're in some pre-school, tenderely teaching some basic facts to those tabula rasa types, who need to have their brain's chalkboard scrubbed clean of all the hogwash and BS that's been dumped into their cranial cavity.

George Orwell was a genius.

A. Peasant said...

As I said, *sometimes*. Not all the time. Not even most of the time. But sometimes, because it's like throwing a bucket of ice-cold water over people's heads. I try to have compassion.

Greg Bacon said...

It's difficult to get people to understand that their biggest enemy is our own federal government.

Talk to some people about who was really behind 9/11 and they'll get violent, threatening you with some type of physical violence.

Talk to others, and they'll get a blank look on their faces, like they didn't hear anything you said and they'll walk away, still safely ensconced in their own little world.

But others are willing to listen and those are the ones that need convincing.

As for the first two types, not sure if anything will reach them.

A repeat of the Great Depression might get their neurons back online.

Hunger can really focus the mind.

A. Peasant said...

Well, exactly. This is a tactical issue. Who can you reach, and how best to do that? I think you're absolutely correct that a window is now opening to reach a lot of people, many of whom will be really shocked and horrified to learn what's been going on. This issue probably deserves it's own post.

Greg Bacon said...

I live in the Missouri Ozarks on a small farm that sits next to the main highway into the largest city around here, Springfield, so the road gets its share of local traffic.

Back in October 2006, after the Vichy Congress passed the Military Commissions Act, which legalized torture, I got so fed up that I had to do something, so I made up a sign.

A big sign, 4' x 8', that was painted white and had large black letters on it saying "Who Would Jesus Torture?"

Took that sign and set it up on some scaffold jacks in the pasture, facing the highway where you can't help but to see it from the road.

You can look away, but the sign's sitting in the spot facing the road where you have a curve coming up and a bridge.

Look away and take a chance on wrecking.

I thought the sign would either get shot up or fire-bombed, since there's more than a few Evangelicals types down here-- the real fire-breathers, their ancestors probably went on the Crusades--but to date, nothing's happened to the sign.

Had to freshen the paint due to age, but it's still standing strong.

Think I'm going to replace the original lettering with the words, "9/11 Was An Inside Job" and see how that fares.

A. Peasant said...

Interesting that it hasn't been vandalized. That's good. I think people are ready.

Another idea for the sign:

Al Qaeda = CIA = Wall Street

Sort of a puzzler. Make them think.

Greg Bacon said...

Oops, mea cupla.

The pasture sign says "Would Jesus Torture?"

Had to make the letters large enough to be seen from a 1/4 mile away, so I dropped the Who part.

My bumper sticker says "Who Would Jesus Torture?"

Got some pretty good feedback from that one, smiles, waves, thumbs up, etc.

Posted it not on the bumper, but on the truck's tailgate, where an approaching vehicle couldn't help but to see that sticker.

All was well until I stuck on another bumper sticker, below the JC torture that said "Free Palestine End the Occupation."

That one hasn't been received well at all.

I get glares, fists shaken at me and pissed faces that are mumbling something that's probably x-rated.

If they ever figure out that 9/11 helped conflate the Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestine into our phony War on Terror, we might get somewhere.

A. Peasant said...

Yes. This is where it all gets very tricky -- as soon as you touch the sacred cow: Israel. Somebody once said whoever has real power in a society is the one everybody whispers about.

We are working against decades of shameless media bias.

It's all connected though. The trick is to meet people wherever they're focused (now the economy), and draw their attention to the next dot. Follow the money.

Greg Bacon said...

There's so many dots appearing now before our faces that it probably looks like some kind of psychedelic freak out pattern.

We're getting robbed blind and the obvious is not to many people.

Another member of the Tribe, Madoff, is out on bail.

This one had some kind of 50 billion dollar Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors, including some of his own people.

What is it with money and the Tribe? Get a bundle of cash together and it looks like one of those shark feeding frenzy's, with the water swirling and the sharks getting so excited they start biting one another.

And Madoff had dealings with the Royal Bank of Scotland, a bank that is getting 50 billion pounds from England to help thru this "downturn."

Sweet. Steal from your own account, ship some of that loot back to the Mother Ship and get the taxpayers to cover the losses.

If they can ever start putting two and two together....

But it won't be because of the MSM.

Too busy talking about the latest sordid scandal involving another dead child.

I'm not trying to be callous, but there's something like 15,000 kids that disappear each year in the US.

So why focus exclusively on one child unless it was a planned distraction?

A. Peasant said...

You nailed it - distractions. Even Madoff is a distraction from Rubin and the bigger corruption in the financial world.

MarcLord said...

Greg,

good onya with your sign. And thanks for asking M. Peasant about the blog's name, I had wondered.

I live in Seattle, so the bumper sticker isn't an act of defiance here. Even so...there are the same portions of folk who fall into the 9/11 denial.

Tactics. I can't claim much track record of success there, but I can report that having been there that day, and having heard a firefighter (man) say that there was substantial blast damage on the ground floor, it doesn't help an iota.

People don't care about contradictory eyewitness testimony, lack of evidence, culpability, factor analysis. They're not even protecting any belief in government: it's all about the power required to change a previously accepted narrative arc, and the difficulty to admit to being swindled.

I find it's more rewarding to focus on the convenience and coincidence factors and make a little headway there, i.e., the concept of energy wars and the Unocal pipeline planned to run through Kandahar, Taliban visiting Houston, etc.

Incrementalism is how Israel's press officers do it. They meticulously crafted a story, it's well established now, and they can hang all manner of falsehood off of it.

The solution for the Palestinians is simple and timely: they need to ask the Arabs to buy US media properties. If the Kuwaitis bought the LA Times and the Chicago Trib, for example, you'd start seeing some change in belief. And that could happen, because I just thought of it.

A. Peasant said...

I'm working on a post about this denial business. You know me, always up for opening another can o' worms.

Hopefully tomorrow. It's a little sharp right now, as I had a glass of wine when I ripped off the first chunk. Probably should sand off the corners first....

Greg Bacon said...

If the Kuwaitis bought the LA Times and the Chicago Trib

Those properties should be for sale, at least the Chicago Tribune, the paper that got bought last year by Sam Zell with borrowed money.

Zell then proceeded to loot the company from within and is now declaring it bankrupt.

He should know.

Let me guess who's going to reimburse the bank for that loss?

As for any Arab buying something of subsantial value here in the US, especially a media giant, forget it.

Remember the shit storm raised when Dubai Ports wanted to take over management of a dozen or so US ports?

Even die-hard Zionist Wolf Blitzer investigated DP and said they had a spotless record, but the Israeli controlled Congress sprang into action and said NO.

Do you know who finally took over that port deal?

AIG.

Yes, that AIG, controlled by the Greenbergs and gobbling up our money to the tune of over 200 billion dollars.

Wonder where some of that money got off to?

Hmmm?

The original 9/11 wrecking crew used Israeli controlled airport security to help pull off that attack.

Looks like the next 9/11 will be launched from some tramp freighter docked in some US port.

Greg Bacon said...

Marc, as for 9/11 and the WTC collapse, let me humbly offer some eyewitness accounts of building collapses.

A few years ago, I retired from a Central Missouri Fire Department (FD) as a career fire fighter. Retired with the rank of Lieutenant.

Not including the rank to brag, but to buttress my arguements, since that LT thing allowed me to be in command of fire scenes and watch the process from the exterior.

Not near as much fun as going inside and kicking the devil in the ass, but it has to be done.

In 20+ years of service, i was on the scene of more than a few structure fires. Fires in various types of buildings, including residential, commercial and industrial. Even high rises. Most times, we were able to fight the fire successfully, extinguish the flames and return a sizable portion of the building and contents back to the owner.

However, some of the times, we lost the fight--and as the post fire investigation by the Fire Marshal's office would find, those fires involved arson--and were forced to go from an offensive mode, in which we would conduct interior fire fighting, to a defensive mode, in which we would "surround and drown" the building with immense amounts of water from the exterior.

When that happened, some of the times the building would collapse, due to interior fire damage and the immense amounts of water applied in fire suppression. The structure would collapse in a random, haphazard, piecemeal manner. Not once did i personally witness one of those structures collapsing in the rather controlled and somewhat neat pancake fashion as the WTC towers and Building 7.

i might be able to believe that one of the towers could fall that way, but all three?

On the same day, within hours of one another?

The odds against that happening must be astronomical.

There has been much made about the interior fire's heat contributing to the collapse of the WTC's. i also disagree with that.
Those buildings, thanks to the fire codes enacted over the years, were built to withstand fire and not add to the flames.

The type of fires left burning after the jet fuel flamed off are what we call "contents fires". They involve the burning of the contents of the rooms/building, such as furniture, carpets and the like.
Initially, these fires are hot, but either burn out quickly or suffocate themselves due to the fire needing a large amount of oxygen and not being able to receive the proper amount of oxygen due to the large amount of smoke generated or no fresh sources of oxygen.

Several years ago, the NYFD released some of the on scene radio transcripts from some of the interior fire fighting units. i've read thru some of the radio traffic and from their accounts, in one of the towers, they not only had the fire extinguished, they were going to start providing medical care to the victims.
i believe the published radio accounts, not only due to the authentic sounding radio traffic, but the fact that they acted like fire fighters; that is, you make a decision at the beginning of the operation as to whether or not you are going to fight fire or rescue victims.
Since most FD's are usually understaffed and cannot provide both services, you usually elect to fight the fire, while ventilating the building to push out the toxic gases and smoke so the victims can at least get fresh air.

If the on scene fire crews had not only extinguished the fire(s) and determined that the building was safe enough to conduct medical care and rescue, then there is something terribly amiss and wrong with the so called "official" 9/11 version.

And that's putting it mildly.

MarcLord said...

GB, both comments,

It was very difficult for me to accept what was thrust into my face. The firefighters' testimony has been the most muffled, amongst others.They were overloaded, yes, but professional.

My former boss, after eating his usual Tuesday morning breakfast at Windows on the World, called his wife from his cell phone and left a goodbye message. He didn't say, ooo, they were being burnt to a crisp.

He said they were pounding on the doors on the exit stairs, they couldn't get them to open and didn't know why. He asked her to call for rescue helicopters to evacuate them from the roof. Helicopters which never came. So you know I'm telling the truth, his name was Rick Harvey.

Greg Bacon said...

A friend of mine's cousin worked at Windows on the World, but 9/11 wasn't his assigned work day, so he missed that tragedy.

But it caught up to him four years later, when he got killed in Iraq while on duty with his National Guard outfit, fighting the Bush/Cheney Junta's war on mankind.

Pete said...

Interesting concept of less than fiat, but it makes sense. Take the dollar: it holds up because of the image of the good ole USA standing behind it, complete with weapons, men in uniform, and a huge work force. All that would stand behind some new global currency (the Glob-oh?) would be jews in suits on your TV.

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