Thom Hartman on Obama

Via TheRealNews.com:

Not much more needs to be said.

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Kaz Hayashi poster! :)

Kaz is the spokesperson for a Japanese anti-drunk driving promotion.

BTW: He looks as good from the backside as he does from the front! Also, he's the current All Japan Pro-Wrestling Junior Heavyweight Champion.

Pic from Kaz's blog: I'm Here!

US Fed Chairman demands plan to cut social programs

Original article, by Barry Grey, via World Socialist Web Site:

Testifying Wednesday before the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke demanded that Congress and the Obama administration map out a program of austerity measures to bring down record budget deficits. Bernanke made clear that the heart of this program should be sharp cuts in social spending, including basic entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

Well, duh! You didn't expect Bernanke to come out in favor of increased social spending, did you? Indeed, austerity budgets are part of the neoliberal playbook. Let the financial institutions plunder a country, and then make that country's population suffer a shrinking of their safety net.

“Maintaining the confidence of the financial markets,” Bernanke said in prepared remarks to the committee, “requires that we, as a nation, begin planning now for the restoration of fiscal balance.”

I bet he said this one with a straight face. The financial markets are, to a great extent, what have failed us in this crisis of capitalism. I should think it would be the financial markets which need to regain our confidence. Silly me.

The phrase “confidence of the financial markets” is a euphemism for the interests of Wall Street and major international banks and investors. In demanding the preparation of austerity measures to be imposed on the American people, Bernanke was speaking in behalf of the financial elite whose massive taxpayer subsidies have been the major cause of the explosive growth over the past year of the federal deficit and the US national debt.

And it's been Bernanke and the Fed which have been doing most of the shoveling. At least $12.8 trillion has be poured into the financial markets in an attempt to right them. You would think Ben wouldn't be quite so keen to cut our social safety net, if only to be nice to the people who are financing his spending binge.

I'll let you read the rest of the article. You'll read how unemployment is expected to continue to rise at an astounding rate. You'll read how the Obama administration's policies fit rather nicely with Bernanke's vision. You'll be left to wonder how well allowed this to happen to ourselves, and what we're going to do about it. You'll also be left to wonder how the US economy ever got to the position of being on the precipice of being a third world economy.

Dennis Kucinich On General Motors Bankruptcy

Dennis is right! The manufacturing infrastructure is an important national security interest. Think about it. If we are to go to a major war, if those factories are shuttered, where will the tanks be built? Where will the warplanes be built? You get the idea.

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Kucinich on Saving the Auto Industry

UN report issues dire forecast for world economy

Original article, y Patrick O'Connor, via World Socialist Web Site.

The United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) updated its “World Economic Situation and Prospects” report last Thursday, forecasting world growth this year of negative 2.6 percent. World trade is expected to decline by 11.1 percent—the sharpest annual contraction since the 1930s. The latest estimates are revised sharply downward from previous UN forecasts in January of positive 1 percent growth for 2009, with even the most pessimistic scenario then anticipating negative 0.5 percent growth.

Hmmm. If I didn't know better, listening to the MSM and to the cheerleaders, I would have sworn that we had hit bottom and were coming out of the depression/deep recession. Well, perhaps not.

The revised figures are another indication of the unprecedented rapidity with which the slowdown in global economic activity has developed. Putting paid to recent optimistic US media reports of a potential imminent recovery, DESA’s director of the development policy and analysis division Rob Vos said there were “no green shoots to be seen which could signal beginnings of a new spring in this still very wintry landscape”.

Mind you, economics is, to a good extent, driven by emotion. If people feel good about their positions, then they're likely to spend more. So, I suppose one can't really blame the cheerleaders for...well, cheerleading.

The report predicts a contraction of 3.9 percent for the advanced economies in 2009. The US economy is forecast to shrink by 3.5 percent. “With unemployment rising sharply and financial de-leveraging continuing, the risk of the economy falling into a protracted deflation is still increasing,” the UN warns.

Take your choice of elixirs, ladies and gents. On one side is deflation, in the middle is hope and on the other side is hyperinflation. Ah...I see you like the center. Good choice. What's that? Oh, you like the taste? Sorta like grape kool-aide? Hmmmm....

Data released by the US Commerce Department on Friday added further weight to the UN forecast. First quarter 2009 US gross domestic product (GDP) declined by 5.7 percent, not as severe as the previous quarter’s 6.3 percent contraction, but still worse than most economists’ predictions. The Commerce Department noted that quarterly corporate profits nevertheless increased by an average of 3.4 percent. This was driven by financial sector profits, up an astonishing 94.9 percent due to the Obama administration’s bailout measures; non-financial sector profits fell by 8.6 percent.

Aha! Here we go. The banksters are doing well for the time being. That explains why the bankster frauds running our economy keep talking as if things are rosy for all of us. Well...as the old saying goes: "Give me $12.8 trillion (as of March 31, 2009) and I probably can turn a profit, too."

I'll let you read the rest of the article. O'Connor does a good job at showing why the rest of the world's economy seems not to be doing so well at the moment. While early estimates look much better for next year, the leading engine of such a recovery looks to be Asia, rather than North America or Europe. The improvement is based upon no unforeseen roadblocks (of course, the collapse of the financial sector was 'unseen' while it was building up). He also reminds us of the social misery which accompanies the continuing economic downturn. He finishes with the following:

The UN report also notes that numerous middle- and low-income countries have seen large currency devaluations in recent months, some between 20 and 50 percent. This has “made external debt service obligations much more expensive in terms of local currency and are already affecting the budget positions of governments and businesses”. As a result, “many developing countries face difficulties rolling over their foreign debts, with some $3 trillion of emerging economies’ foreign debt maturing during 2009.”


This is certain to mean a new round of government cutbacks to spending on essential social services, such as health care and education, as resources are shifted to pay off the international banks.