Tag Archive for 'Barack Obama'
Tuesday, March 24, 2009; A01
The Obama administration is considering asking Congress to give the Treasury secretary unprecedented powers to initiate the seizure of non-bank financial companies, such as large insurers, investment firms and hedge funds, whose collapse would damage the broader economy, according to an administration document.
The government at present has the authority to seize only banks.
Ok, so now the government can use taxation to ‘undo’ legal but unpopular contracts (see AIG bonuses) and now they will have the right to seize companies outright? Where are the armies of hyperventilating liberal idiots who said Bush was trying to make himself an evil fascist overlord now, huh? Where did they go? If you’ve got a company that’s related to finance, watch how you run your company, because if it becomes politically expedient for Barack Obama to nationalize your company, he can and will. This is full-bore socialism.
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner is set to argue for the new powers at a hearing today on Capitol Hill about the furor over bonuses paid to executives at American International Group, which the government has propped up with about $180 billion in federal aid. Administration officials have said that the proposed authority would have allowed them to seize AIG last fall and wind down its operations at less cost to taxpayers.
Only a fool would actually believe that the federal government would do a better job at crashing these companies. The government is partly to blame in the first place! And this is not about saving investors, this is about saving the owners of these businesses. They won’t be protesting this action (at first) because it will be better than having a golden parachute — it will mean that as long as they are profitable the profits will remain privatized, but once the company starts to fail the losses will become socialized, extending onto the backs of taxpayers.
The administration’s proposal contains two pieces. First, it would empower a government agency to take on the new role of systemic risk regulator with broad oversight of any and all financial firms whose failure could disrupt the broader economy. The Federal Reserve is widely considered to be the leading candidate for this assignment. But some critics warn that this could conflict with the Fed’s other responsibilities, particularly its control over monetary policy.
‘Systemic risk regulator’? We already have a system for that in place - it’s called the free market.
If this goes through, people, America is doomed. DOOMED.
The government also would assume the authority to seize such firms if they totter toward failure.
Where would we draw the line on ‘tottering’? Is a public outcry enough? Would a heartfelt speech by a senator do the trick? All this will accomplish in the long-term is expanding the role of government, and in the short term delay the recovery. The Democrats’ prescription for the economy’s case of temporary walking pneumonia is terminal socialistic brain cancer.
Besides seizing a company outright, the document states, the Treasury Secretary could use a range of tools to prevent its collapse, such as guaranteeing losses, buying assets or taking a partial ownership stake. Such authority also would allow the government to break contracts, such as the agreements to pay $165 million in bonuses to employees of AIG’s most troubled unit.
We’re privatizing profits and socializing the risk.
I’ll say it again - under the Democrats this nation is DOOMED.
No, I’m not joking.
It just keeps getting worse.
The President who claimed he would repair America’s image abroad has managed to diplomatically snub the one nation with whom we have had the most steadfast support, Great Britain. Barely covered in the U.S. mainstream media, the Obama White House has treated our best ally like an unwanted relative.
As the visit of the national leader of our closest ally began, the President informed the Brits that he wouldn’t be attending the joint press conference that was planned to be held once PM Brown’s plane touched down. This threw the visiting delegation into a tizzy leaving them scrambling to explain the sudden change in plans to the folks back home. Still, meetings were had and things smoothed out. Eventually the visit seemed to right itself… then came the Obama’s gift gaffes.
For his part, PM Brown gave two symbolic gifts and one that expressed national pride. Brown came bearing a pen holder carved from the timbers of the sister ship of that which gave the wood to create the famous “Resolute Desk,” the desk that has been in America’s charge since 1880. He also gave Obama the framed commission for that famous ship, the HMS Resolute. His third gift was a seven-volume biography of one of England’s greatest leaders, Winston Churchill.
How thoughtful and graceful!
So, what did President Obama give the British PM? 25 movies on DVD. Yeah, that’s it. Brown gives a symbolic gift like the pen holder fashioned from a famous British warship and Obama responds by sending a staffer to WalMart to pick up a few quick movies.
Graceless. Not only does Obama not find time to show up to the press conference, he fobs a foreign leader off with some DVDs. I wonder what DVDs he got the British PM? I’m guessing he bought from the bargain bin — maybe ‘Ernest Goes to Prison’ or ‘Superman 3′ was in there? Pathetic!
Oh, and the PM’s wife brought the Obama girls two dresses from an upscale British clothing store. What did Obama get the PM’s children? Two plush toys of Marine-1 (the presidential helicopter) from the White House gift shop! Yeah, I know the media are going gaga over Michelle’s very well-toned arms, but could they manage to notice that she’s a graceless clod?
All of this would be easier to take if St. Barack had not portrayed himself as a master diplomat, promising to use diplomacy in ways President Bush did not. Last I checked President Bush didn’t alienate our allies by treating them crassly.
Oh, and Barack also returned a bust of arch-Brit Winston Churchill from the Oval Office. It was on loan from the Brits. It’s widely been seen by the UK press as a snub.
Has America’s even- tempered new president already ruffled feathers in the land that spawned Borat and Benny Hill? That’s certainly how the spiky British press responded after the White House sent back to the British Embassy a bust of Sir Winston Churchill that had occupied a cherished spot in President Bush’s Oval Office. Intended as a symbol of transatlantic solidarity, the bust was a loaner from former British prime minister Tony Blair following the September 11 attacks. A bust of Abraham Lincoln–Obama’s historical hero–now sits in its place.
Worst. President. Ever.
Charles Krauthammer has hammered St. Barack in his latest column.
The markets’ recent precipitous decline is a reaction not just to the absence of any plausible bank rescue plan, but also to the suspicion that Obama sees the continuing financial crisis as usefully creating the psychological conditions — the sense of crisis bordering on fear-itself panic — for enacting his “Big Bang” agenda to federalize and/or socialize health care, education and energy, the commanding heights of post-industrial society. Clever politics, but intellectually dishonest to the core. Health, education and energy — worthy and weighty as they may be — are not the cause of our financial collapse. And they are not the cure.
Krauthammer has nailed it here. Obama’s administration is like the captain and crew of the Titanic, glad that we’re sinking because now he can finally rearrange the deck chairs to his liking. The meme that Bush was aggrandizing the threat of terrorism in order to be a fascist was a brazen lie. Now the Obama administration is openly displaying pleasure at America’s economic crisis because it serves their political desires. It’s disgusting.
Obama is going to be the absolute worst president this country has ever had. America needs a real leader, and the legions of fools in America voted an orator into office instead.
Fresh Cracks...