Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Politics In General A Contrived Crisis? - You Decide

Through a series of supposedly random but arguably deliberate chain of events, America is poised to jettison 220 years of a free market system called capitalism, in favor of the tried and failed system of socialism. This writer, and others, are now starting to question how we reached this point.

Last summer, as McCain and Obama were in the midst of their campaigns to capture the presidency, a series of events dramatically changed the focus of the campaign from Iraq to the economy. From that point on, Obama took the lead and eventually won the presidency.

June 26, 2008: Democrat Chuck Schumer leaked a memo questioning the solvency of IndyMac bank. This memo precipitated a run on IndyMac which led to its failure. Federal regulators pointedly cited U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., in explaining the bank's failure. "The immediate cause of the closing was a deposit run that began and continued after the public release of a June 26 letter to the OTS and the FDIC from Senator Charles Schumer of New York."

This event, coupled with the Lehman Brothers collapse in September, marked the beginning of the current economic meltdown and provided the ammunition for massive government intervention in the private market.

July 12, 2008: The federal government takes control of the $32 billion IndyMac Bank. *

Sept. 6, 2008: Fannie Mae begins its downward spiral, which will end with a crash in November. This crash was avoidable, as the problems with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were identified in June of 2006, when 15 Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee introduced legislation to address the problem. Democrats, led by Barney Frank, killed the reform efforts.

Sept. 15, 2008: Obama and McCain are virtually tied in their race for the presidency. Out of no-where, in the space of less than 2 hours, the Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous drawdown of money market accounts in the U.S. to the tune of $550 billion. Rep. Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania said that if authorities had not closed the banks, $5.5 trillion would have been withdrawn from US banks, which would have caused the collapse of the US within 24 hours.

This seminal event marked the ascendancy of Obama's candidacy, and eventually resulted in his election as president.

Fast forward to this week. The markets reacted to Obama's proposal to bail-out mortgages and Senator Christopher Dodd's talk of nationalizing banks by reaching 11-year lows.

Obama continues to stoke the fears of imminent crisis, actually using the word 'crisis' a total of 26 times in one speech.

Enter George Soros. The infamous one-worlder, billionaire George Soros adds his voice to the media doomsayers by opining that the world financial system has effectively disintegrated, adding that there is yet no prospect of near-term resolution to the crisis.

Soros said the turbulence is more severe than during the Great Depression, comparing the current situation to the demise of the Soviet Union.

He may be right. The series of 'inadvertent errors', deliberate obstruction, political shenanigans, behind the scenes manipulation of the money markets and non-stop calls for immediate infusions of taxpayer cash have brought the U.S. to its knees.

With one voice, politicians, economists and 'experts' agree by unspoken consensus that government is the only solution. No one points out the fact that every single step taken so far by the government has exacerbated the problem, effectively bringing America one step closer to centralized government control. Which, coincidentally, Obama favors.

I am not an economist. But I will challenge any expert to dispute the fact that if President Obama took to the airwaves tomorrow and announced the Bush tax cuts would be extended and a capital gains tax cut was under consideration, the markets would immediately turn around.

That no-one is proposing this common sense solution is alarming. That no free market solutions are even under consideration is more alarming. That no-one is questioning who was responsible for the Sept. 15 run on money market accounts, or why the media was silent on it, lends credence to the possibility that our current economic crisis might not have been the result of a series of random events.

The economic meltdown is undoubtedly responsible for Obama becoming president. It is also responsible for the current consideration of socialistic solutions, if not outright socialism. Without a doubt, this crisis has strengthened the Democratic party. Yet to connect the dots and suggest that this crisis isn't a result of capitalsm gone bad risks branding this author with the title of paranoid conspiracist.

Color me paranoid. Was this current crisis manufactured? I don't know. Does the possibility exist? You decide.


* Six months later, Jan 2, 2009, a seven-member group of investors agreed to buy the remnants of failed lender IndyMac for $13.9 billion. Other investors included a fund controlled by billionaire George Soros' Fund Management.

I think you're using that same tinfoil hat that was used by the conspiracy theorists who surmised that 9/11 and the lies that led to Iraq War were simply plots by the Bush administration to create a "war time" environment and thus enable him to govern as a "war president", knowing full well the reluctance of the American people to change administrations during war. Please, get a grip. Eight years of rule by the Bush administration was enough to convince any thinking American that a change needed to be made.


I'm aware of no such consensus. I'm aware of no such "one voice". You obviously have a knack for hyperbole. You also appear to have an abundant supply of straw given the number of strawman arguments that you are able to include in a single sentence. I'm not aware of anyone in the Obama administration (or any thinking person for that matter) who believes that government "is the only solution." The fact that 40% of the Recovery Act is devoted to tax cuts is proof positive that your argument lacks any merit. And, by the way, the past eight years has brought us much closer to "centralized government control" than anything conjured up by the current administration.

How fascinating!
A suggestion that the democrats destroyed the economy, in order to take power and turn the U.S into a Socialist Nation.
To what end, prithee tell?

Limbaugh for president?

Thank you, Nancy, for encapsulating the talking points of the right. For those of us who can't spend enough time to learn the broader base of propaganda that confuses the victims of the past eight years of bad government, it's a reminder of the one sided thinking that brought the world to the current situation.

The arrogance of settling all blame on Democrats is shallow.

I , for one, am pleased to have you back again, and hope that you will stick around to defend your ideas. I particularly like the approach that smacks of "let them eat cake"... where we should borrow trillions from our kids, to continue tax breaks to the top 5%.


Hmmm... would you take the time to read these experts first? Before you pass on the Limbaugh Doctrine?

Welcome back, Nancy... you bring interest to RR.

Rush Limbaugh, the oxycotton, Viagra taking (Rush Limp-balls?) gab-show big-mouth, is just stirring the pot and getting the non-thinkers all riled up for sh^ts and giggles.

Frankly, I'm not interested in nationalizing either Citibank nor Bank of America - I'd rather they fall on their swords, die, and go away.

Of course the "markets" would - that's exactly what the greedy bastards (aka 'talent') on Wall Street want! These numb-nuts got us in this mess - let them sit in their own pile of sh^t and stew about what they did.

Do exactly the opposit of what the Wall Street greedy bastards...erm, I mean 'talent' want!

Will do.

Apparently, Nancy has some inside skinny that she has not divulged to the unwashed here at RR.

A woman who worked for me until June of last year bought a house in Scottsdale with her husband that they could not afford. I know their financial situation. They bought their $500,000 at the top of the market. Money was cheap. The leased new cars. They bought at timeshare. The went to Europe. Money was cheap. Today they work second jobs when they can get them. They are way over their heads in debt. Swimming in it.

My secretary, divorced, bought a house with an ARM a year ago. Her credit was not good, but the money was cheap and easy. Today she lives in her sister's house to save money to pay off the mortgage on the house she cannot afford to live in.

Shall we list here the names of national retail stores that no longer exists? Would you like a list of locally owned stores that have gone belly-up?

Nancy seems to have double secret information that would indicate that all these people are Democrats and/or dupes of the Democrat socialist conspiracy. IF, according to Nancy, President Obama declared "the Bush tax cuts would be extended and a capital gains tax cut was under consideration, the markets would immediately turn around". Suddenly, people would again start spending money that they don't feckin have. Folks would jump at the chance once again to throw money around like fleet sailor in a Hong Kong whorehouse. Say the magic words Obama and happy days are here again! Suddenly banks will become responsible and lend only what they can cover. Wall Street will become honorable and the rat's nest of derivatives will straighten itself out. Corporate captains once hearing the magic words will police themselves and end the shameful practice of amassing money in amounts no one could possibly spend. Gone will be the days of sumbitches like Standford and Madoff. Suddenly the Security and Exchange Commission will do its job. All Obama has to do is say the words and corporations will no longer hide billions in off shore accounts.

I'm here to tell you Nancy once again you give us conspiracy and you give us no facts. There is absolutely no proof that the current situation is a Democratic lead conspiracy. No one party is to blame. In fact, I don't know anyone who was forced at gunpoint to buy a house way, way, way over market value and equally over their ability to pay for it for the balance of the loan. Do you know people who were forced to take the money?

Here is the bottom line, Nancy, your view is simplistic. Your solution is even more simplistic. Your conspiracy theory is laughable. In fact, we have not had a free market economy. But the closer we got to one the more raw, human greed slimed to the top of the dung heap.

The party is over, Nancy. The good times are gone and they aren't coming back while you are still young enough to enjoy them. You can't spend what you ain't got. The days of excess, 100 million dollar houses, 10 million dollar birthday parties, new cars for the kids for high school graduation, second homes in the mountains and third homes at the beach, thirty thousand dollar motorcycles, all that crap is going, going, gone.

Now I don't know Jesus, but I do know he was a good person, I know he's big in South Carolina. I'm thinking that Jesus would be pleased if people got back to thinking about each other, thinking about their stewardship of the earth, respecting children and parents and grandparents, concentrated on peace and love and understanding instead of making more money to buy more things that will take them away from reality.

Money in and of itself is not good or bad. Many of us know that the more money you have the more you are tempted to forget the real reasons life is important. Look at America over the last 50 years.

Over to you Issodhos

holy shite!
amen bro!