Swamp-Ass

WASHINGTON – The government's response to the financial meltdown has made it more likely the United States will face a deeper crisis in the future, an independent watchdog at the Treasury Department warned. The problems that led to the last crisis have not yet been addressed, and in some cases have grown worse, says Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the trubble asset relief program, or TARP. The quarterly report to Congress was released Sunday.

"Even if TARP saved our financial system from driving off a cliff back in 2008, absent meaningful reform, we are still driving on the same winding mountain road, but this time in a faster car," Barofsky wrote.

Since Congress passed $700 billion financial bailout, the remaining institutions considered "too big to fail" have grown larger and failed to restrain the lavish pay for their executives, Barofsky wrote. He said the banks still have an incentive to take on risk because they know the government will save them rather than bring down the financial system.

Barofsky also said his office is investigating 77 cases of possible criminal and civil fraud, including crimes of tax evasion, insider trading, mortgage lending and payment collection, false statements and public corruption.

One case concerns apparent self-dealing by one of the private fund managers Treasury picked to buy bad assets from banks at discounted prices. A portfolio manager at the firm apparently sold a bond out of a private fund, then repurchased it at a higher price for a government-backed fund. A rating agency had just downgraded the bond, so it likely was worth less, not more, when the government fund bought it. The company is not being named pending the outcome of Barofsky's investigation.

Barofsky renewed a call for ...

“With all due deference to separation of powers,” Obama said, “last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates to special interests including foreign corporations to spend without limit in our elections.

“I don’t think America’s elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests. Or worse, by foreign entities,” Obama continued. “They should be decided by the American people. And I’d urge Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps correct that.”

"I've got a very short commute;" "I can't always visit people directly;" "I break out;" "I saw;" "I knew it would be unpopular;" "I ran for this office;" "I had no illusions;" "I had a whole bunch of political advisors"...

As we start the new year 2010, the establishment politicians, economists and Wall Street are trying to convince themselves that we have turned the corner and economic growth has once again begun. The predtictions that conditions are getting back to normal come from those who never saw the crisis coming and don't have the vaguest notion what caused it. Some of them concede that it could be a jobless recovery. That will establish a new definition for a recovery.

Official unemployment is at 10% but even the government knows that if everyone is counted, including those individuals that are too discouraged to even be looking for work, the unemployment rate is 17%. Free-market economists claim the actual unemployment rate is closer to 22%.

There's reason to believe that the correction is just barely started and has a long way to run. If the financial bubble came from excess credit created by the Federal Reserve, doubling the money supply can hardly be a solution. It wouldn't make much sense for a doctor taking care of a very sick patient from severe infection to deliberately give the patient another infection. Yet that's what the PhD doctors are doing to our very sick economy. It can't work. It will make the economy much sicker. If our leaders don't wake up soon, the economy will be brought to its knees. Great danger lies ahead.

In foreign policy, it's alwa...

The "public servants" who have been grinding the soles of their loafers into our faces as they usurp our liberties and spend the nation into bankruptcy are sworn to uphold the Constitution. Yet evidence accrues that they aren't more than vaguely familiar with this "deeply flawed" document:

• Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) doesn't know "if there's a specific constitutional provision" for health mandate.

• Senator Bernie Sanders (Socialist-VT): Constitutional power to mandate health insurance is "probably" in the same place as Medicare.

• Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH): Constitution gives Congress power to mandate health insurance in the "same place" as Medicare.

• Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) declines to say where Congress gets the constitutional authority to mandate health insurance.

• Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) doesn't say where Congress gets the power to mandate health insurance, but cites auto insurance at the state level.

• Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE): Constitutionally, Congress can "probably" mandate health insurance in the "same place" states can mandate car insurance.

• Senator Mark Begich (D-AK) doesn't say where Congress gets the authority to mandate purchasing health insurance.

• Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA): There is no limit on ...

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'We're past campaign mode. I think it's important for everyone to get some form of health care. So, to offer a basic plan for everybody, I think is important."