It is still hard to fanthom
that the United States of America nearly collapsed, both politically and economically, in September of 2008. Do you think I overstate the case? Listen to Congressman Paul Kanjorski:
I was there when the secretary and the chairman of the Federal Reserve came those days and talked to members of Congress about what was going on… Here’s the facts. We don’t even talk about these things.
On Thursday, at about 11 o’clock in the morning, the Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous drawdown of money market accounts in the United States to a tune of $550 billion being drawn out in a matter of an hour or two.
The Treasury opened up its window to help. They pumped $105 billion into the system and quickly realized that they could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the banks.
They decided to close the operation, close down the money accounts, and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account so there wouldn’t be further panic and there. And that’s what actually happened.
If they had not done that their estimation was that by two o’clock that afternoon, $5.5 trillion would have been drawn out of the money market system of the United States, would have collapsed the entire economy of the United States, and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed.
Now we talked at that time about what would have happened if that happened. It would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it.
This explains the dire warnings of Paulson to Congressional leaders, warnings that martial law would have to be declared if the bailout was not passed. It was originally in reaction to this that I famously declared that all Republicans should be round up and shot. A stupid thing to say, but you can understand the anger. I mean, come on, the collapse of the United States???? How could one not feel anything but murderous rage towards those responsible for it.
The anger continues today, and we now have new things to be angry about. Given these dire warnings about martial law from a Republican back in September, why do Republicans now oppose any stimulus to the economy? Could it be that they are just playing politics? You have to ask yourself, why? Why would those responsible for the near collapse of the United States now attempt to stop any attempt to rebuild it? It is like crashing a car, and then preventing the paramedics from treating your injured passenger. Do they really want the US to collapse? For it can only be two possibilities: either Republicans are just playing petty politics in opposing the stimulus, or ….they truly wish want the United States to fail.
Maybe they wish to see Social Darwinism play out on a global scale. Ironic, considering their beliefs in “intelligent design.”
I guess this is why they were able to ram through the TARP plan. It seems like we were left without a lot of bad choices. Let everything fail – the Congressional Republican plan or salvage the banks – the Bush/Paulson/Congressional Democrat plan. I’m seeing rumors that Geithner will announce a bank plan today that will continue to stick it to the taxpayers, while bank executives and their shareholders get a bailout.
This is terrifying.
I do have sympathy for our legislators. I don’t think they know what to do. What I don’t have patience for is the posturing and political gamesmanship going on. We’re talking about people’s jobs and lives here.
I just finished reading that post, UI. Scary. And here’s another thing I’ve noticed. Other than Steele’s gibberish Republicans rarely mention jobs. It’s reminding me of how McCain never said the words Middle Class.
Talk about out of touch.
I guess no one else can “fathom” this post as interesting.
Firstly, the martial law thing looks like a red herring. I looked at quite a few sites/clips and they all reference the same interview with Sen. James Inhofe. The audio is inconclusive, with the interviewer being the only one to reference “martial law” in a list of other threats/fears. Inhofe has been a consistent opponent of these stimulus measures and didn’t want to give Paulson (now Geithner) the power to spend the money as he liked. Inhofe doesn’t seem afraid of hardball tactics; so if Paulson had made such a ridiculous claim, it seems reasonable that Inhofe would have used that against the plan. Also, whenever I Google something that should be a news piece and the first page of results is full of PrisonPlanet, InfoWars, and Ron Paul sites…I’m a little skeptical about their conclusions.
That said, Paulson and Bush did act irresponsibly and made wild claims about what would happen if we did not pass “something.” I have never believed in the phrase, “Well, its better than doing nothing.” Because that might be the case half the time.
—I don’t think threats of violence, especially impotent ones, are worth more than one disparaging sentence.—
What’s really interesting is that our President is now echoing these dire predictions. Last weekend, he said this crisis may become irreversible. That sounds like economic collapse to me. Last night he backed away from that statement, saying that we will get out of this, but only with government spending. He tried to tout the power and need for the private sector to work, but was very clear that recovery would not happen without the government. We can argue about that position, but it is very similar to the Paulson/Bush position of a few months ago.
If you are really worried about panic talk, which I am, listen to Rep. Kanjorski. At the end of this clip, he says we are in the middle of the ocean without a life raft. Okay, now that is some scary imagery there. I think he’s wrong, but again, I disagree with all the panic.
One last point that may not belong in this post: Is it just me or did Obama appropriately tag the Republicans with deficit spending for the last eight years, no less than three times? That’s fine, I agree, but wait, the only way out of it is for more deficit spending? I’m not smart enough for this crowd
Jason Zerbey
Jay Z in da house!
I think Obama’s point is that Republican’s interest in the deficit is a bit late. Yes, the only way out is more deficit spending, but the deficit will grow no matter what is done because tax revenues will decrease.
And some of the deficit spending returns money in terms of additional tax revenues by those who are employed as a result of recovery efforts. But it is by no means revenue neutral.
But the disaster as I understand it isn’t yet financial collapse — it is making high unemployment and a much lower GDP (and other subsequent productivity measures) a permanent feature. The current total unemployment rate is abit more than 13% now and will go lower in the next quarter or two. Can we as a country — a central player in the global economy — survive with more or less permanent unemployment at that level? I really doubt that, but really haven’t seen anyone make the case for that, either.
Eventually the corporations will begin demanding that their customers be supplied with some money.
anon,
I thinks it’s happening already. The Chamber of Commerce and the Manufacturer’s Association have come out in favor of the stimulus. Most Republican governors have as well. Congressional Republicans are pretty much alone in opposing it.
We will know the recession is serious when corporations start complaining about people cancelling their $120/month cell phones and their $100/month TV feeds. Until then, not so much.
Actually, anon, this is happening. My 9th grader tells me that the number one complaint in his High School is kids losing their cell phones and premium channels. Text messaging privileges were cut back a few weeks ago.
Now this is an isolated story, but it’s what we’ve been discussing over the dinner table.
I have seen news stories about cell phone companies suffering because people aren’t upgrading their phones. In most cases, they’re actually downgrading.
I call bullshit anytime that “FEAR” is invoked. especially the type done by people. They are just replacing the word terrorists and it still conjures up a bunch of black people rioting in the streets of LA
‘Donhusseinsquishviti // Feb 10, 2009 at 5:37 pm
I call bullshit anytime that “FEAR” is invoked. especially the type done by people. They are just replacing the word terrorists and it still conjures up a bunch of black people rioting in the streets of LA’
At least everything is spelled correctly, but beyond that, this is unintelligible. It wouldn’t be a personal attack to ask you about your favorite afternoon whiskey, would it?