Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Denninger: You Should Be Ashamed

From Denninger:

Proud To Be American? You Should Be Ashamed

We have seen the largest looting operation in history perpetrated against The American People.

Over $5 trillion dollars in junk securities were marketed and sold. They had a real value of about $2 trillion dollars; the other $3 trillion, roughly, was pure fiction.

The banks created and sold these throughout the world, with the full knowledge and support of Congress, The Fed, and the banks themselves.

It was pure fraud.

Granting someone a "mortgage" based only on whether they can fog a mirror is proof positive of malfeasance, unless you disclose this fact to the buyers of these securities - a fact that was not disclosed until after the securities blew up.

Lenders, builders and others pressured appraisers to "hit the numbers" to support these fraudulent deals. Proof of that is found in the nearly-10-year-old Appraisers Petition bearing thousands of appraiser signatures.

That ratings were a "mistake", either real or intentional, is a matter of now-known historical fact.

Americans have sat on their butts through all of this, allowed their 401ks and IRAs to be trashed, their supposed "home values" to be pumped and then destroyed, and their hopes, dreams, employment and house have all vanished into the ether of fraud.

When this came to light the banks went to Congress, and supported by The Fed's intentional draining of liquidity to create an immediate "crisis", they got a $700 billion bailout bill passed - one that you, your children and grandchildren, will have to pay for.

The government then passed another near-trillion-dollar "stimulus" bill claimed to hold unemployment to 8%. It did not, because it was yet another "papering over" of the fraud, but that bill your children and grandchildren, along with you, will also pay.

Your savings accounts and CDs now yield an effective zero.

Your credit card interest rates have gone from 11% to 29%, all so that the banks can keep granting ill-advised credit to people who can't pay. Those who can pay - the rest of you - are being jacked for 30% a year in interest.

We have seen a few "tea parties" in which a few people showed up and which were immediately panned by "those in power" as "astroturf."

Contrast with this.

A few days ago, Iran held an election. It is alleged that there was massive fraud. The current President claimed victory under less-than-clear circumstances.

The people said "hell no!" in this sort of demonstration:

That's about 2 million people, out of 70 million population (roughly), or one in thirty-five Iranians in the entire nation who took to the streets to demand justice in a simple vote.

More strikingly, Tehran has a population of roughly 12 million; this means that one in six citizens of the city are standing in that crowd.

This, despite the fact that the government there has been shooting people, has arrested the opposition party and issued an order to burn the ballots so there can be no recount.

This, despite the fact that the Iranian population does not enjoy a Second Amendment, and thus is forced to fight a rogue government with makeshift molotov cocktails, rocks and clubs, should that rogue government choose to shoot.

And this was about an election. A President. One man.

In our nation we have literally had 1/3rd of our GDP - that is, 1/3rd of everything you worked for last year - stolen by a bunch of fraudsters with the explicit cooperation and assistance of the government.

We should be seeing 10 million Americans literally closing Washington DC with peaceful protest in the streets - making the entirety of the downtown inaccessible to vehicles and the normal conduct of business impossible, were Americans to display the same sort of anger over an insult vastly more serious than that served upon the Iranian people.

If one in six Americans had enough in America's big cities, there would be one million people in the Streets of Chicago - enough to fill Chicago's Loop from Lake Michigan to I-90/94 and from The Chicago River to beyond Soldier Field, rendering the city core impassable. (Roughly double the crowd that shows up for the 4th of July Fireworks, to put it in perspective. "Greater Chicagoland" has a population of ~7 million)

The same in NY City would result in a crowd of 3.3 million people.

Where are you America?

In America, if the government turns into a goon squad, you have the constitutionally-protected ability to shoot back. In Iran you have no such ability as the Iranian government has never recognized the unalienable rights as set forth in our Declaration.

So in Iran the population risks mass death to protest.

In America the population risks loss of some income since you'd have to cut work.

The Iranians take to the streets; we take to our couches and have another beer.

Grow a pair of balls America.

The people of Iran are putting us to shame.

PS: Those threats appear not to have been idle either:

BREAKING NEWS: AP photographer sees pro-government militia fire at protesters, killing at least 1

***

With a barely-detectable band of exceptions, my country has become a nation not of free men and women, but of Walter Mittys.

And thus it has richly earned -- in spades -- everything that is coming...

So be it.

9 comments:

  1. Excellent point!

    I'm feeling the shame alright.

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  2. "America, where are you now?
    Don't you care about your sons and daughters?
    Don't you know, we need you know?
    We can't fight alone against the monster..."

    -Steppenwolf

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  3. A large part of the problem is that far too many Americans for the most part really don't have a clue as to how badly they have been f****d over by the ruling class. Heck, when I started working back in the early '60's. it took me one paycheck to figure out what a rip-off scheme social-lack-of-security was/is. And none of my friends had a clue.( Many of them don't to this day.)

    One of the contributors to their ignorance has been an indoctrination system that has managed to graduate three(?)/four(?) generations who can't read, write or do simple math. So it's hardly any wonder that most of them are deer-in-the-headlights as the train powers at them.

    The only fly in the ointment here for their Masters is that when the proles can no longer buy their tellie and beer, they are going to become unhappy campers rather quickly, I suspect. Or should I say UGLY unhappy campers? And I don't think they are going to be blaming each other for the fiscal shortfall. Even an uneducated prole can see the difference between a Mercedes and a crapped out Ford Taurus.
    Can you say LA/NY/NO/DC/Chi-town, etc., riots?

    Personally I hope me and mine are in my earth-sheltered home in the deep Ozarks before this happens - which means I better get hopping.
    emdfl

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  4. I agree with Anon. We are more concerned with our favorite college team's win-loss record or where we are going out to eat.

    I fear we have already lost our country....

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  5. To answer the question.

    Americans are sitting in their ergonomic office chair with the AC cranked sipping a nonfat latte from an unnamed over priced coffee conglomerate that funds the enemy.

    Americans are too comfortable to revolt. They would rather be led like sheep to the slaughter.

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  6. Setting aside for the moment, the concept of shame, I agree that what has been done, and what is going on is wrong. What, exactly, does Denninger propose to do? Does he have some plan, some way to right the ship? Something to say, besides, shame?

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  7. ... the public has long since cast off its cares; the people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two things - bread and circuses.

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  8. Sean:

    Here is Denninger's "plan":

    "...In our nation we have literally had 1/3rd of our GDP - that is, 1/3rd of everything you worked for last year - stolen by a bunch of fraudsters with the explicit cooperation and assistance of the government.


    We should be seeing 10 million Americans literally closing Washington DC with peaceful protest in the streets - making the entirety of the downtown inaccessible to vehicles and the normal conduct of business impossible, were Americans to display the same sort of anger over an insult vastly more serious than that served upon the Iranian people.

    If one in six Americans had enough in America's big cities, there would be one million people in the Streets of Chicago - enough to fill Chicago's Loop from Lake Michigan to I-90/94 and from The Chicago River to beyond Soldier Field, rendering the city core impassable. (Roughly double the crowd that shows up for the 4th of July Fireworks, to put it in perspective. "Greater Chicagoland" has a population of ~7 million)

    The same in NY City would result in a crowd of 3.3 million people.

    Where are you America?..."

    Now, if that could be arranged, it might make a difference.

    Given that it won't, there's a Swiss militia motto that might be relevant.

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  9. where did the 401k and IRA come from?

    why are regular americans banned from making better, private investments if they don't have enough money?

    why can't investment advisors say certain things on television?

    why is the common man left with wall street's table scrap investment products in the first place?

    he's got every reason to be upset, just as we all do. here's my answer:

    assuming you know what you are about, you thought you knew what america was about, too. maybe you were right, but if you didn't know where it came from, you went about honoring it the wrong way, or simply honoring something else entirely.

    and there's a corollary to that, because, as we know, the fight is coming either way. if you still refuse to step up and figure it out, first, you're going to end up fighting an enemy that isn't there. you will lose, even if you successfully conquer. to the extent that denninger does things like defend fractional reserve lending, which is fraud, he will never win.

    thomas paine shamed men who chose to leave the fighting to the next generation. you need only look at your children's faces for a moment to say, as he did, "i will do the hard part now, so that they may have the easy part."

    did he pick up a gun or a pen?

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