Madoff

Bernard Madoff is out on us$10m bail. He's confined to his us$7m flat in Manhattan's silk stocking district. He's bilked his investors of us$50bn, yet for all intents and purposes, he is a free man living in the luxury he is used to. Why isn't he in prison orange and in Riker's island sharing the life of an ordinary felon? Well, as F. Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote, the rich are different.
Madoff is 70. He's shouldering full blame for his Ponzi scheme, thereby trying to save his two sons, daughter, and brother from criminal pursuit. Nobel? Hardly!
He got away with it as he boasted, he could make money when the market was up or down but not when it went flatter than a pancake. It did...at the very moment he was looking for foreign suckers to sustain his pyramid scheme. Now, the slow wheels of justice are churning as government officials look into feeder funds and accounting firms and other 'louche' arrangements which allowed Madoff & co. to bilk his clients from day one.
Madoff won't find much cheer among his fellow Jews, whom he robbed gladly...Yeshiva University, Steven Spielberg's Wunderkind foundation, and the Eli Weisel Fund, among others. They entrusted endowments which overtime grew steadily so that they could expand charitable work, it seems, but wisely kept private money away from Madoff's greedy mitts. Madoff fooled large banks...Bank of Scotland, France's BNP, HSBC...not to mention the wealthy and comfortable who now are hurting badly in the autumn of their lifetime.
It is doubtful Madoff will see much prison time. But that is the affair of justice and a jury of his peers.
His machination had the complicity of the greedy but also of a mindset who thought the market itself could regulate foul play. It didn't. So new laws and older statutes will be better observed perhaps, but they won't stop those always looking for the golden ring of making a buck and quick. Nonetheless, harsh measures are called for; hardly a cent will be recovered, but Madoff & his kind especially his close confederates and those at the feeders fund deserve long terms in prison.

North Korea Idiotic?

Before the movers and shakers of the Council of Foreign Relations, US secretary of state Condolezza Rice opined that 'only "an idiot" would trust North Korean promises that it abandoned its nuclear programmes". Well, blimey! Then why did Mme. Rice reverse course as Bush's secretary of state, in her boss' second term, and begin negotiating with Pyongyang? Well, Bush's play hardball diplomacy splatted egg on Bush's face after 4 years of name calling and boasts of bringing about regime change in North Korea. Bush & co. had to eat crow for its obtuseness ushered Pyongyang into the world's nuclear club! Then did serious negotations of a sort began. So who's idiotic? And can you trust Washington, a North Korean wag may ask?

Small mercies

Winter Soltice...Christmas...Yuletide...call it what you will...soon the nightmare of 8 years of George Bush and his gang of the corrupt and the wicked will fade from the scene. Still, they leave behind not only a country on the abyss of ruin but the world clouded by uncertainty and war and millions of lives shattered. Should we be thankful? In a way, yes...the grinch that stole our well being and hopes is going to the smug, iron gated community in Dallas, Texas...he goes to pal out with the rich, the lazy, and those descended from the robber barons, the hucksters, and the people who crush small people owing to the sharp, questionable practices they use to get ahead. Thankful no...for Bush & co. have left behind a dung heap to clean up and hardship for the younger generations who will lead mean lives. Thankful, yes, for as the English saw twangs: Good bye to bad rubbish!

Every day has its day!

Yes, every dog does have his day! And US president George Bush has had his at his press conference in the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq. A 29 year old reporter Muntader Al Zaidi threw his two shoes at Mr. Bush's head. The 62 year old president proved nimble enough to duck, but he couldn't escape the contempt of Al Zaidi's gesture. It was says the young reporter a farewell kiss to the man whose pre emptive war, based on lies and false reports, that have brought untold death and destruction on Iraq. Al Zaidi's gesture is an Arab way of showing complete disrespect and contempt, aimed as it was at Mr. Bush's head. What's more Al Zaidi spat out 'dog', which is the lowliest of the low in the Arab way of classifying animals. Al Zaidi badly bruised with broken bones is in Iraqi military hands, and will no doubt spend some hard time in prison. Mr. Bush will never live down the shame, no matter what smiling face he will put on it; Al Zaidi's two shoes will haunt him in retirement and follow him to his grave. A fitting judgment!

Every dog has its day!

Yes, every dog does have his day! And US president George Bush has had his at his press conference in the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq. A 29 year old reporter Muntader Al Zaidi threw his two shoes at Mr. Bush's head. The 62 year old president proved nimble enough to duck, but he couldn't escape the contempt of Al Zaidi's gesture. It was says the young reporter a farewell kiss to the man whose pre emptive war, based on lies and false reports, that have brought untold death and destruction on Iraq. Al Zaidi's gesture is an Arab way of showing complete disrespect and contempt, aimed as it was at Mr. Bush's head. What's more Al Zaidi spat out 'dog', which is the lowliest of the low in the Arab way of classifying animals. Al Zaidi badly bruised with broken bones is in Iraqi military hands, and will no doubt spend some hard time in prison. Mr. Bush will never live down the shame, no matter what smiling face he will put on it; Al Zaidi's two shoes will haunt him in retirement and follow him to his grave. A fitting judgment!

If a Ford worker is earning us$73 an hour, how much does a manager earn?

Chances are the US congress will after negotiation give Detriot the bridge loan that the US auto industry is seeking, to ease their cash flow. The talking heads and the media are more or less drumming the same tattoo: the worker is to largely blame for the sad state of affairs that Detriot is in. He earns too much. Let her take a good cut in pay, in order to make the US auto industry more competitive. Look at Nissan, Toyoda, Hyundai, and other foreign car makers the workers of whom earn half of what a Detriot worker does. Why? the unions. Nissan et al. put plants in the South, in anti union states, for the simple reason that they can play workers less. So, largely writ, the attack on the unions and the so called high paying worker is a smoke screen to let off the hook an inefficient, highly paid bloated management. It seems as though today in the US, management is sacrosanct, but the ordinary union gal or guy isn't. He's greedy whilst management are saints. What a laugh. What has happened to the idea that the higher up the chain of command you go, the more responsable you are for what happens to a company's fortune? Apparently, that thought doesn't enter the calculus of blame. And how much do management earn? Well high multies of 10's, 50's, 100's 400's than the ordinary Jane or Joe on the assembly line. And if times are tough the union member tightens his belt, whilst management continues its high standard of living with full medical and other social benefits. Good year, bad year, management enjoys the good life. It's time to hold management's feet to the fire and let them share the lion's share of blame and sacrifice which hardly will make up for the hardship of the ordinary worker and a worker who is a union member. It's not the union member that should worry so much the banks and government but management who is let off the hook and continue a style of living which is condemnable on all points of the compass.

The New York Times borrows almost a quarter billion dollars

In these parlous economic times, the old grey lady 'The New York Times' announced that it is going to borrow us$225 million against its new headquarters, designed by the well known architect Renzo Piano. A state of the art glass building of 52 floors had made news around the world by daredevils who climbed its ventian blind like slats to the building's pinnacle. It now comes to light that the NYT owns 58 per cent of the building or some 1,5 million square feet, and the developer Forest City Ratner owns the rest. Lately S&P have lowered the credit worthiness of the NYT, and a revolving line of credit is coming to its term. So, given the downturn in the print medium, the old grey lady is strapped for cash. In consequent, since it has its money tied up in the building, to easy its cash flow, the NYT is borrowing almost a quarter billion dollars against this asset. And this very well may be the first step towards increasing debt against its headquarters.

General Shinseki

President elect Obama has chosen another member of his cabinet. This time to fill the post of secretary of veteran affairs. He has chosen wisely. He is going to nominated 4 star general Shinseki whom the much disgraced Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz dismissed as being out of touch in fighting wars. General Shinseki rightly called the need of several hundred thousands of troops in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. He was spot on when he spoke of ethnic and religious tensions which neither Mr. Bush nor his camp followers gave a second thought. With general Shinseki in the cabinet veterans will be given a fair shake...not the pitiful treatment they are getting...remember the scandal at Walter Reed hospital! It is a signal from Mr. Obama that a big broom is sweeping over business as usual in Washington. If anyone had any doubts, the naming of the octagenarian Paul Volker as head of Mr. Obama economic council would have told any thinking person that!

Mugabe must go!

It is not without a certain sense of irony now to hear African leaders begin raising their voices calling for Mugabe of Zimbabwe to step down...to go away. It is long evident that Mr. Mugabe had ascended to the ranks of the meglomanic, but nary a word was raised for his removal from office outside of his own country. In Zimbabwe, Mr. Mugabe has done everything that he could to emasculate the opposition by any means possible. Yet despite his meanest efforts, the opposition fights on. Outside Zimbabwe, even South Africa's Tabo Mbeki had the squeak of a mouse in trying to square Mr. Mugabe's circle. For, Mr. Mugabe was calling in his chits, supporting as he did South Africa's ANC in its long struggle against apartheid; he skilfully played his anti colonists cards to shame other African leaders to put a damper on any criticism of him and his iron fisted rule. Now, it seems the fear of the dreaded cholera has put the fire of fear across southern and eastern Africa; for that horrid and lethal disease knows no boundry. Furthermore, Kenya's leader has put out a call to raise any army of African states if Mr. Mugabe does not resign from power, to invade and remove him manu militari. Something that they sneezed at when it came to Sudan's war in Dafur. Mugabe won't go, and unless his praetorian guard engineer a coup there is little that the feckless leaders in Africa can do.

City of the Patriarchs

City of the Patriarchs. Hebron. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam acknowledge its sacredness. For the unschooled, read the first book of the Bible, Genesis. Since 1967Hebron is under Israeli occupation. Today, 180.000 Palestinian Arabs live in fear, because with the might of the Israeli military, 680 militant, orthodox Jews walk in the arrogance of self righteousness and conquest. They carry guys; attack Arabs; and try with some success to occupy property of theirs. For the 680, sweeping aside millenia, Hebron belongs to the biblical Judea under a perscribed guide of Jewish law which they wish to reclaim in the same vein as Islamic terrorist dream of re establishing the califate under the rule of Sha'ariah. For them, Hebron is 'Eretz Israel', the earth and soul of a Zionist state, which international law does not subscribe to. Yet, the gang of 680 extremists are sustained by millions of US dollars raised abroad, and particularly in the US, by the little known Hebron Fund. The fund's website says it raised funds for Hebron, Israel, no more, no less. These very monies go to sustain extremism and messianism, grandly protected by the might of the Israeli state through its army. The gang of 680 religious fanatics strut through Hebron, acting with open racism and impunity, in ways reminiscent of storm troopers and colonial armies of the past. A question arises: is the Hebron Fund aiding Israeli terrorism? This is a legal matter that Washington has to parse.

Dr Lee Jae Oh

Dr Lee Jae Oh's name deserves little household recognition outside of South Korea. Presently he is in the US on a visa which expires in May 2009 and holds the rank of senior visity scholar of the US Korea Institute at John Hopins University. Dr. Lee is the man who engineered the election of Mr. Lee Myung bak first as mayor of Seoul, and then as president of the Republic of Korea [ROK or South Korea]. Yet, Mr. Lee has not appointed Dr. Lee to any high post in his administration. Today [4 December 2008] New York's Korea Society rolled out the red carpet for Dr. Lee to talk of the role of president Lee Myung bak's administration. Which implies that Dr. Lee is in bad odour in Seoul since after the landslide election of president Lee, his campaign leader is sitting safely in Washington, DC. Dr. Lee faced a packed room of the South Korean press and the 'grattin' of Korea watchers in finance, the academy, business, the military and the diplomatic corps, and American Koreans. He approached his topic obliquely, talking of instituting a nation of 'the righteous', to eradicate corruption and open opportunities for all South Korea's to work hard to prove themselves as good, upright citizens. His call is right out of Korea's history of reformers, and with echoes of Jean Calvin's city of saints, Geneva. He then proceeded to talk of his trips to Peru, Brazil, among other countries in Latin America, but remained silent on his stay in Cuba. [There did he meet with North Koreans?] Furthermore, Dr. Oh is cut from the same wood as Confucianism, and his comments on the useless of a mountain in Rio which from the tope you see unfold before your eyes the splendour that is Rio de Janeiro. Yet, in the same vain, he doesn't see the ressemble with Mount Kumgang in North Korea to which South Koreans rush to visit. But that is his cultural blindness. His views on North Korea are firm the more especially since Pyongyang won't acknowledge the killing of a tourist in May at Mount Kumgang who strayed towards a military post. Nonetheless, he did go out of his way to stress that president Lee's approach towards Pyongyang is non threatening and peaceful. Dr. Lee said little about the US other than to reiterate that it is time for Washington to ratify the Korea FTA [which Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton expressed in the past little enthusiasm for a free trade agreement with the ROK]. But the import of Dr. Lee's talk was his sincerest apology to president Lee. Obviously, he wants to come back to South Korea, but his return remains unsure, the more especially since he is favourable towards Mme. Park Guen hae, former president Park Chung Hee's daughter who is president Lee's rival. Did Dr. Lee express full repentence to the Korean press who will deliver his message on Seoul's airways, it is too early to tell.

US recession year 2

Yesterday [01 December 2008], the NYSE lost almost 700 points or 9 per cent in value. News that the US has been in recession since December 2007 caught everyone unaware. Well...many...not all...Some voices had been raised saying that the economic verities of the day had gone haywire, and that the country had slipped into recession. But the old shaggy heads shook it off hiding behind the dry textbook definition that it was too soon to come to that determination. After the failure of Bear Stearns, the old guard thought, they had saved the day. They didn't, and from there the situation went from bad to worse, and them from worse to worser. The US Treasury, the Fed, and the economic advisors and conventional economists tinkered with this and that but after the government let Lehman Brothers fail...it was difficult to believe that the economic establishment thought the spector of recession didn't hover over the global market. It did! Now, the truth is out. It had been swept under the rug until the dirt accumulated into a small Himalaya, it could no longer be denied. And now we know, what we all knew or suspected, we're in a deep and growing recession, bordering on depression. Which raises the question about collusion between the Treasury, the Fed, and the monied and corporate class to preach denial. And denial they did preach. And they bought time till after the US elections, and left the mess for someone else to clean up! So we may soon see a mighty broom sweep out old theories and practices, and hunker down to get a failing economy working again.

Paulson's Apologia pro sua vita 2

US secretary of the Treasury has gone on the telly to lecture us on the financial crisis which he as CEO of Goldman Sachs, among other bulge brack bankers, created, and which he as US secretary of the Treasury turned into a nightmare particularly after he, to teach Lehman a lesson, he refused to snatch it from bankruptcy. The rest we know as the world markets temble and continue tumbling. He has rewarded his friends in the financial sector and rescued AIG the spendthrift assurance company. Today's long, boring press conference bears no 'I take responsibility' at all, and he's done nothing to force the now more cash rich big banks, thanks to rate or taxpayers' largesse, refuse to loosen credit on the market. A casualty of this miserly attitude is the sinking of Detroit's auto industry, which again to teach the same lesson he taught Lehman, Paulson & co. are willing to tilt the deepening global crisis towards a worldwide depression. Once more, Paulson has shown too small for the job, and president Bush deserves complete blame.

Detriot's agony

The US auto industry is learning a hard lesson. It usually favours the Republican party. It contributions fill the party of Lincoln's war chests. But when it comes with cup in hand to Congress for a bridge loan to tie it over during an economic crisis which the government infused funds have pumped up bluge bracket banks who created the subprime mortgage meltdown, thereby cutting off avenues of credit to Detroit, it discovers that its Republicans friends ain't listening. In fact Mississippi senator Shelby is the spokesman who is willing to tell them 'drop dead', go into Chapter 11. Well old Shelby who is known for his know nothing politics has been preaching the same message since he turned thumbs down on the Chrysler bailout in 1979. Luckily, he wasn't listened to. But this time, Detroit's Republican friends are digging in their heels in the wake of the party of Lincoln defeat at the polls and loss of the White House. More, Shelby & co represent the extreme right wing of the party which believes the workers not the banks have done the economy in and suddenly wake up to blame generous senior managers of the auto industry for inefficiences, lavish living, and any other sins they can find in their bible of narrowmindedness. Well by refusing to vote for a bridge loan of us$25 billion with severe conditions, they're willing to worsen an already bad economic future for the US. It's not bad enough when they had Bush in the White House, they let the banks and big business get away with everything imaginable, they now find virtue in letting millions of workers lose jobs, and fill the growing army of the unemployed and the poor. Why worry says Shelby? The market will correct itself. It won't. And the dimlight from Mississippi hasn't a klew ... does he believe the world is flat?

Paulson's Apologia pro sua vita

The 18 November 2008 online edition of 'The New York Times' carried an op ed piece of US secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson. It is called 'Fighting the Financial Crisis, One Challenge at a Time'. As such, it sums up quite neatly Paulson's guiding star in handling the worst financial crisis in almost a century, and thereby hangs a tale of his inability to deal effectively with the toxic subprime mortgage bonds which have infected the world financial markets. In effect, Paulson has mistaken the tree for the economic forest. As such, by treating each forest fire individually, he has allowed other low grade fires to thrive until each and everyone flares up into a major crisis. In brief, his narrow approach has made a bad market worse, and one example is worth mentioning, his deliberate, not fully thought out decision to let Lehman fail. Lehman's bankruptcy percipitated the krash which have threatened world economic growth and good health for years to come. Paulson's apologia pro sua vita is his way of a cover up. 'Le Monde' reports that constrained by Senator Obama's election, Paulson has put a break on his plan to disburse us$700bn to his friends in the banking industry. Moreover, his decision to let the American automotive industry to fail, is proof again of his myopia and misunderstanding of the markets. His insouciance of letting the pillars of US capitalism crumble, boggles the mind.

Standoff between South and North Korea

Right wing talking heads and journalists in Washington are on the qui vive when it comes to the divided Korean peninsula. Especially worrysome is the new cold war of words between Seoul and Pyongyang, which they see as a North Korean ploy to put a wedge in the spokes of Washington's relations with South Korea, thereby forccing the US to choose between its long standing ally and Kim Jong il. Well, this standpoint has an odd logic to the like of the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute for example, but it is a big pill to swallow hold. What may give it urgency is that these neo cons for the most part, are out of Mr. Obama's loop, and so a lot of second guessing is going on. Let's look at the lay of the land, as North Korea threatens to close the border at the 38 parallel on 1 December 2008, and the effects of the revived 'cold war' between Seoul and Pyongyang. Trouble lay ahead with the election of Lee Myung bak as South Korea's president. He campaigned on a get tough policy towards the North, Once in office, he dismantled the 'Sunshine Policy', cut off fertilizer shipments to the North in the face of a growing food crisis and imminent starvation of North Koreans; he engaged in a Bush like policy of moral posturing and verbal threats unless the North bent to his demands. This strategy may have played well in Washington, but it didn't in Korea. Furthermore, one had to wonder whether Mr Lee had an understanding of North Korea, or the slightest hint of face among South Koreans. With the absence of Kim Jong il and the questions about his health, Mr. Lee's policy has encouraged groups to send by balloon pamphlets denoucing the North's Dear Leader; this has not gone over well at all, if anyone needed to be told. It has raised the North's temperature and with anger came the bluster of warlike words. Looking from the South, the killing of a tourist last spring at Kumgangsan brought no apologies from Pyongyang. As a result the North Korean resort has gone downhill since visitors from the South have steadily declined. And so we have a shaky standoff which Mr. Lee has let deteriorate and has tried to use to his advantage. However this has backfired, for if North Korea closes the border crossing, the South's free trade zone at Kaesang will suffer and have to close down, and in the face of the growing recession which has bitten large into Seoul's export economy, this is bad news. Now let's turn our attention to US South and US North Korean relations. One, the newly elected president Barack Obama has already sent a message reaffirming US' support and traditional friendship to Mr. Lee. Korea is not at the top of his agenda. As for US North Korea relations, president Bush has perced the enflamed abcess of long standing grievances as to Yangbyon and the nuclear question, by taking Pyongyang off America's list of terrorists states, thus opening the path for North Korea to tap the world's capital markets to repair its economy so on and on. American neo cons viscerally hate North Korea so that they see one under every bed as though the spirit of America's witch hunters could smell a 'Commie' a kilometre away. Well times are changing despite the scare tactics and wild scenarios of theirs. And more likely than not, Mr. Obama will stay away from this madding dispute between South and North. Mr. Lee began a fight which he cannot win, and that's the simple and plain truth.

Rahm Emanuel brought up short

Barack Obama's new chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has had to apologize to Arab Americans for the tasteless remarks of his father Dr. Benjamin Emanuel. In an interview with the Israeli daily Ma'ariv, Emanuel pere who holds an Israeli passport as does his children, proudly extolled the power that his son would have over the 44 president of the US by influencing American support for Israel. Well had he stopped there, it would've sounded no more than the average boast of a proud father and an Israeli citizen that the US is Israel's friend. But the elder Emanuel didn't. He went on to add as chief of staff at the White House, my son won't be 'an arab. He's not going to be mopping floors at the White House'. The American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee immediately pick up on this racial slur [substitute Arab for black in the American context...and what do we have?], shot off a letter to Rahm Emanuel calling on him to repudiate his father's remarks, and noting on the bottom of the letter it had also sent a copy to Mr. Obama. Well, Rahm Emanuel apologized; he did the right thing. His father is an unrepentent Israeli hawk. The main street media has not picked up on the fact that the father as a youth was a member of the Jewish terrorist group, Irgun, which brought us the King David Hotel bombing and the Deir Yassine massacre. It would be in Rahm Emanuel's interest to keep a tight rein on his father, and to remember his first loyalty lies to the US not to Israel, despite the fact that he holds dual citizenship.

GM Paradise Lost

Emma Rothschild wrote a neat little book about the US automobile industry in 1974. She called it 'Paradise lost'. Sound familiar today when GM and Ford are on the cusp of bankruptcy? It took a Brit to calmly tell the decline of the US auto makers. She made a jolly good case as to why Volkwagen's Beatle could take away in the early
1960's up to 15 per cent of motor car market share in the US, and this at a time when motor gasoline was cheap! The buyer wanted fuel efficiency, not gas guzzler, and didn't give a fig about dinosaur like features like fins and long bodies and cumbersome motors. Sound familiar? It should, for the same complaints are with us today in a severe recession for GM and Ford. There was time when GM's CEO could arrogantly boast, 'What's good for GM, is good for America!' Not anymore! And this has been true for quite a long time as Korean, Japanese, and European carmarkers have shaken the pillars of Detriot's supremacy and smugness. Who remembers, too, when UAW president Walter Ruether urged GM's CEO to support Harry Truman's proposed single payer healthcare package? No one. GM didn't want anything to do with healthcare for all Americans, so wily Ruether got a contract and a promise that GM would look after GM's workers' health as employees and pensionners. Shortsighted GM is now stuck with the albatross of healthcare premina which it gladly put around its own neck itself. Why? Senior management were basking in GM's salad days and had no thought for the future nor any idea of social responsibility. Who remembers another Ruether initiative? As the US was building Fortress America to defeat Hitler and Italy and Japan...the Axis, Reuther came hat in hand to Washington asking that automotive assembly plants be turned into aerocraft factories. He got turned down, and today, the taxpayer is saddled with an inefficient semi private company called Boeing & its ilk, which basks in government largesse and cost overruns and gross inefficiencies. GM missed out as not only an automaker of note but a future aerospace and defence contractors. So today shrinking like violets they're a shadow of themselves, the for plain and simple truth, for over a half century its warts were there for all to see and they did little or nothing but continue business as usual which now has landed them on the edge of collapse and chapter 11. Sheds no tears for management but pity the poor working stiff!

US treasury won't purchase toxic debts after all

Speak of back peddling, US secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson announced the US government won't purchase toxic subprime mortgage debt, as collatoral for bank bailouts. It is bad enough, Paulson has proven inadequate in the face of the worst economic crisis since 1929 [dixit John Thain Merrill Lynch CEO and former Goldman Sachs buddy of Paulson], but he has done everything to feather the incompetence of the investment banking industry with the promise of government largesse. Paulson's days are numbered at the Treasury and his band aids for the growing recession have become the joke of the day. He's willing to let AIG gobble up US$bns as executives of this assurance company waste millions on junkets and selfish pursuit, but he won't funnel money to GM and Ford. Is this surprising? No. Let's not forget, Paulson is the financial wizard who let Lehman fail without stopping to think that it was the largest vendor of commercial paper, and that it's bankruptcy would throw a spanner in the world's financial markets. Which it did, and accelerated the recession everywhere globally. So we dealing with not with a rocket scientist in finance but a small town banker who even with specs sees hardly the tip of his nose and even that hazily. It's time he's gone, and for good!

The Russian bear roared

Russia's president congratulated Barack Obama. He then went on to announce Moscow will station missiles on its European enclave of Kallingrad in response to Herr Bush's forward policy of putting missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic as a warning to Iran! Herr Bush's logic strains the imagination since the missiles are in Russia's backyard, so to Russia's way of thinking, Iran is a figure of speech for Russia. The Polish prime minister smiled at Russia's move by dismissing it as a Russian growl...in other words, the Russian wolfhound barks but doesn't bite. The stationing of Russian missiles in Kallingrad simply makes relations with its neighbours in Europe tenser and more unsettling. Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, sighed with disappointment, but without a note of seriousness. Russia is serious; Herr Bush is not; he lacks a sense of history or for that matter why Churchill and Roosevelt couldn't but allow a Russian cordon sanitaire in eastern Europe after the end of world war 2. Herr Bush broke that sense of calm by his forward military policy in eastern Europe and then his wanting the Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO. So, president elect Obama has another load of tsuris to carry before he enters office, and a clash with Russia at the green carpet is not one he would welcome. Beware of the growl of the Russian bear! Avoid adverturism!

Will Barach Obama blink in dealing with North Korea?

Former staff writer of the Asahi Shimbun Takahashi Kosuke raise this question. The newly elected American president has not lost sleep thinking of Kim Jong il, 18Brumaire dares saying. Furthermore, negotiations with North Korea is not a very high priority faced as America is with the worst economic crisis in a century. Freelancer Takahashi thumbs his worry beads that Mr. Obama is not cut from the diplomatic cloth to hold his own with Mr. Kim. He sweats at the thought the future 44th American president will engage in discussions with Pyongyang without preconditions. Well, old darling, wipe your brow. Preconditions do exist, and they were hammered out by the reluctant suitor George W. Bush who scrambled for a foreign policy "win" before his lackluster years in office came to an end. Furthermore, much to his neo con supporters, not only did Mr. Bush flinch but he blinked in dealing with Mr. Kim, in negotiating a way out to defuse and shut down North Korea's nuclear programme. Mr. Obama is cool as a cumcumber, more sure of himself, and what's more will have a team which will be of one mind with him; something which Mr. Bush didn't on the question of North Korea. Takahashi has swallowed whole the red herring that talks with "preconditions" lead to complete capitulation. It doesn't. Had he looked into his own cabbage patch of Japan, he would've perhaps, seen that Tokyo's dealings at first with neighbouring Beijing were predicated on the assumption that it was alright to agree to disagree, thereby sidestepping thorny issues of Japan's agression in China in the 1930's and 1940's. Let's face it, like Mr. Bush, Takahashi has a visceral dislike of Kim Jong il, and like the bogey man that a child endows with extraordinary powers, he projects his own fears on to Mr. Obama.

A faustian bargain...Taiwan & China

A top negotiator from China is coming to Taiwan to negotiate smoother economic trade and political ties with Taiwan aka the Republic of China. The Kuomintong holds power in Taipeh after recent elections; the old KMT has never wanted to wean Taiwan from the myth that it is part of China, on one hand; on the other hand, the current recession affecting even cash rich Taiwan which lives off exports, pushes it to firm up relations with China where it has heavily invested time, money, and qualified people. Beijing seizing the opportunity to "absorb" Taiwan which it regards as a renegade province, will use the wiles of Circe to hog tie the Republic of China into its web of false security. Beijing is not talking to Taipeh as an equal, no matter what president Ma[n] might say or think; it will use any trick that it has in its bag of thuggery to hook Taiwan into its net and for good. The KMT should look at negotiations with Tibet. A fog of false promises. Tibet should serve as a lesson to Taiwan. You can make money in China but do not fall for the lure of gold. Taipeh has a good hand to play with, and should never lose sight of Beijing's duplicity. The old Chinese leaders have feet of clay, and they need Taiwan, and that Taipeh should never lose sight of. Furthermore, Taiwan is a thriving democracy, and the Taiwanese won't stand for Beijing's wiles and false words. And that Beijing hasn't ever to forget.

Yahoo & Google strike out for freedom of speech

Yahoo and Google have come out for freedom of speech. Tell that old darlings to the Chinese bloggers and interest users. Yahoo and Google have kowtowed to Beijing's strict control of the press and the internet. Let's not forget that the China market means big bucks! And money is the lubricant that greases profit and market share and penetration. So, we ain't talking hay despite the flight to the aerie of high minded principles. Google censors bloggers. 18Brumaire now has a warning to its readers that it contains language suitable for adults. Let's give a sampling of what constitutes suitable language for adults. The adjective haggard, for one. Haggard is a strong adjective but hardly a shaker of the pillars of the temple of the establishment. And what about compost heap, which the Google programme put in between <...> with the note strong/strong...well, what would it say to a farmer or a gentleman gardner? Google and we suspect Yahoo have become like our prissy Victorian aunts, who even went so far as to cover the feet of pianos and chairs and tables, so that they could present a chaste and proper face to the world. Me or my, how the hands of time have gone backwards, and how so quaint the situation ain't.

Beijing makes a poor bet

After a 2 day meeting in Beijing, leaders of Europe and Asia have come up short on common ground for handling the deepening global recession. The meeting met the criterion for a ‘no meeting’; a meeting at the end of which high principles are enounced with no follow up. China however did make a bold move to a big mover on the international scene, calling for replacing the US dollar as world currency by either the Euro or the Japanese Yen or and why not by the Yuan Reminbi? China’s call for dumping the US dollar makes one scratch one’s head. Let’s look at the situation: one, China has a large amount of US debt, its has an enormous reserve in US dollars, and thanks to massive infusion of US dollar investment and industry. It’s own rapid industrialization is very dependent on America’s unbridled appetite for consumerism, snapping up China made retail items. Its monetary reserves in US dollars, Euros, and Japanese Yen have not sheltered Beijing from the toxic effects of the sub prime mortgage effect on the US and global markets. It has protected China from a shift towards abstinence among US shoppers. And its own bungling of quality control, its toys, its milk, its over the counter medical products have caused serious illness if not certain death. In consequent, sales have fallen off; factories by the hundreds closed and abandoned; workers fired and many not paid for work done. You’d think that China had enough internal spreading economic problems promising social unrest than to challenge the primacy of the US dollar. A gross miscalculation if there is any! A strengthening US dollar has shifted monies into the US market which may have a good injection into an ailing American economy. Beijing has made a poor bet, it seems. And if Barack Obama occupies the White House, although he’s not made much about China, Beijing may find an American president more interested in job growth in the US; keeping US investment at home and not in China; and a more realistic approach to a China that the two Bushes and Clinton kowtowed to gladly.

Greenspan pleads the fifth!

Alan Greenspan looked older and haggard when he appeared before the Senate banking committee yesterday [23 October 2008]. Sybilline formulae bubbled from his lips as usual, but in trying to explain his role in the subprime mortgage Ponzi scheme meltdown, he pleaded not only not guilty, but flawed in his grasp of the markets. Under Clinton, he was held on a firm leash as guru of the US Fed; under Herr Bush, he exploded in exuberence, letting the free market do its worst as we now know; ignorning the headlong disaster which we are now all too familiar with. For Greenspan who sat at the feet of the ultimate free marketeer Ayn Rand and fluffed up the sails of Milton Friedman, the market not only could do no wrong, but it was self correcting like Adam Smith's invisible third finger would steady the free market capitalist ship from listing too far one way or the other. Brown noser of the first water, he left Herr Bush do his damnest to explode government spending and let his croneys and court favourites feed at the public's trough, whilst John Q and Jane Q Public shouldered higher taxes and fell into debt fooled as they were by the flashing tackiness of consumerism. Il Signor Greenspan pleaded that no one could foresee the recession, calling it a one time tsuname in a century. Well, sorry old cock, many did and screamed it from the roof tops, but times were so good no one wanted to listen to us Cassandras. And now it's payback time, and Greenspan is like the 3 monkeys rolled up into one, he saw no evil, spoke no evil, heard no evil. Yet, he is at the root and branch of the crisis. He's no honour; he won't fall on his sword; he's a coward; and now all fingers are pointing at him as the town leper. But, he cares not a whit. Il Signor Greenspan will withdraw into his cozy cocoon, rocked to his final resting place on the tunes of jazz. The bum is already king of the dust heap!

Alan Greenspan has a senior moment

Alan Greenspan looked older and haggard when he appeared before the Senate banking committee yesterday [23 October 2008]. Sybilline formulae bubbled from his lips as usual, but in trying to explain his role in the subprime mortgage Ponzi scheme meltdown, he pleaded not only not guilty, but flawed in his grasp of the markets. Under Clinton, he was held on a firm leash as guru of the US Fed; under Herr Bush, he exploded in exuberence, letting the free market do its worst as we now know; ignorning the headlong disaster which we are now all too familiar with. For Greenspan who sat at the feet of the ultimate free marketeer Ayn Rand and fluffed up the sails of Milton Friedman, the market not only could do no wrong, but it was self correcting like Adam Smith's invisible third finger would steady the free market capitalist ship from listing too far one way or the other. Brown noser of the first water, he left Herr Bush do his damnest to explode government spending and let his croneys and court favourites feed at the public's trough, whilst John Q and Jane Q Public shouldered higher taxes and fell into debt fooled as they were by the flashing tackiness of consumerism. Il Signor Greenspan pleaded that no one could foresee the recession, calling it a one time tsuname in a century. Well, sorry old cock, many did and screamed it from the roof tops, but times were so good no one wanted to listen to us Cassandras. And now it's payback time, and Greenspan is like the 3 monkeys rolled up into one, he saw no evil, spoke no evil, heard no evil. Yet, he is at the root and branch of the crisis. He's no honour; he won't fall on his sword; he's a coward; and now all fingers are pointing at him as the town leper. But, he cares not a whit. Il Signor Greenspan will withdraw into his cozy cocoon, rocked to his final resting place on the tunes of jazz. The bum is already king of the dung heap!

Self styled il Duce of finance Paulson pleads his case in the New York Times

Go online for the 23 October 2008 edition of 'The New York Times'. You will find a picture of self styled il Duce of finace & US secretary of the treasury Henry Paulson. He looks like a deer caught in the headlights of a oncoming motorcar tearing down a country road; he freezes; he doesn't know what to do, to save himself. Read Joe Nocera's timely article on his interview with Paulson which says what 18Brumaire has kept hammering away at, that Paulson was always chasing the after effects of the subprime mortgage Ponzi scheme, which he at Goldman Sachs, among other bulge bracket banks devised and make handsome profits off the unsuspecting public; il Signor Paulson has failed miserably on his watch; he's not enough guts to step down, the more especially since it was his decision to let Lehman fail with an insouciance which simply boggles the mind, and shows him up for an incompetent. He let the largest purveyor of commercial paper go belly up, and as a result, the markets worldwide went ballistics. What does he have to say for himself? Not guilty, he pleads. He did his best, wink, wink, wink. The plain, commonsense truth is that blinded by his complete obedience to the free markets, with no oversight, and benign neglect of goverance, he couldn't think outside the box. In this he is in the league of Alan Greenspan whose sybilline commentary masked his utter slavishness to his goddess Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman, let the thread of the economy unravel. 18Brumaire doesn't think that il Signor Paulson suffers much. He muddles along and almost threw world markets into a depression. Luckily, UK's Gordon Brown who knows a thing or two about economics managed to hold the beast of depression at bay, and il Signor Paulson had no choice to go along, even though he's down everything to water down regulation, mild or otherwise, in the market place. Il Signor Paulson sheds a crocodile tear or two, but he should be put on trial for his negligence at the treasury. More, he says that he couldn't foresee the radioactive disintergration of the subprime mortgage Ponzi scheme. Really! Well, Goldman Sachs did and it sold off its share to any willing and greedy buyer without saying boo. So in the end we've a man who brought about a stock market krash and infected the global economy and put his finger in the sordid pie, licking his thumb saying, what a good little boy am I! but ain't taking no rap for the mischief I've done!

Self styled il Duce of finance Paulson enunciates the yo yo theory of economics!

Self styled il Duce of finance & US secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson, the man who triggered the crash in the market by letting Lehman Brothers fail, and who as CEO of Goldman Sachs had given birth to the subprime mortgage Ponzi scheme which has inflected world financial markets, last evening [21 October 2008] has risen to new heights of the banality of evil in economics. He now has held forth on yo yo economics. You needn't be a whiz kid of Wall Street to grasp the simplicity of his theory. Simply put, the markets are down but they will go up. And though he doesn't say so, up markets will turn into their opposites, down markets! Now is that a kick in the heade? Sure is! So worry not, share holders and coupon clippers, markets do rise and in 6 months or so, the US and world financial will be up to speed, dixit preacher of pie in the sky il Signor Paulson! With such reassurances by our wise but simple minded economic Duce, we can all sleep peacefully at night, and know that he has our best interests at heart! Wink, wink, wink!

The Dear Leader

North Korean authorities, it is reported, had closed off entry to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea [DPRK] aka North Korea. Why? An important announcement was at hand yesterday. Yet no announcement came. Seoul, Tokyo, and Washington are worried for they fear the worst. Translation either complete incapacitation of Kim Jong il or the reading of his political will. The Dear Leader's absence from event marking milestones in the DPRK's history has injected adrenalin into the veins of the rumour industry. The plain truth is that no one but no one outside Mr. Kim's family and inner circle know what's what. Whatever the truth, one thing is sure: the country has not collapsed; panic is not seen on the street; there is no mass exodus across the Yalu into China or as family talking heads like to keep saying across the heavily guarded and mined 38 parallel in South Korea. Scenarios of gloom and doom and much wishful thinking since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the sudden withdrawal of Moscow's gold to North Korea. North Korean watchers with few exception are rubbing hands with glee about the end of Mr. Kim and his kind. They are more willing to believe in the tooth fairy than reality. And let's put it more boldly, they blowing smoke from where you can jolly well guess. Pyongyang will say what it has to say when it wants to say it. In the meanwhile, newspaper space will fill up with this or that or the other rumour.

Self styled il Duce of finance swallows dollops of Keynes hard!

When you thought self styled il Duce of Finance Hank Paulson & his acolyte, scholar, student of the krash of 1929 & US Fed Chief Ben Bernanke had emptied of Milton Friedman bag of tricks, the ghost of plenty past John Maynard Lord Keynes has spooked them into to embracing a weak Keynesian solution to the never ending economic crisis.
Yep, in an age of Herr Bush’s gross, misused and misdirected government spending, his two little elves at the Treasury & the Fed see a way out of the crisis by more and better government spending. What does this imply? Infrastructure, job creation, expanded monies for food, etc. 18Brumaire says ‘imply’, because with this band of skinflints for those who are not wealthy, we’re never sure that they wouldn’t try to throw more sand in the public’s eye! Like it or not il Signor Paulson & his mate Bernanke will have to back peddle on the sacred waters of free trade capitalism. But they will resist every push of the peddle to steer the economic ship towards neo Keynesian. Happily, time is running out for them, and soon they will be pounding the pavements for work. Let’s hope, no one will pick up this pair of loosers.

Miracle of miracles, Herr Bush wants to save 'democratic capitalism'!

To think the world has lived to see the day when Herr Bush has descended from his imperial indifference to venture forth unto his countrymen and women, to spread the gospel of 'democratic capitalism'! For 8 years he has allowed his class of bloodsuckers, croneys, coupon clippers, scalliwags of the super rich to feed off America's hardworking poor and growing army of impoverish middle classes, and thought nothing of it but to ensconce even more firmly on the levers of economic, political, and social power of the plutocracy that he favours. And now in the midst of that class' demise owing to their greed and incompetence and contempt for democracy...and to save Herr Bush's class from complete implosion, Herr Bush now is trying to bamboozle the ordinary man & woman on the street, into thinking that he was and is their frined. Ain't that something else? It certainly is. His magic won't work, but that doesn't mean Joe or Jane won't vote against his best interests. He might in this year's elections. For Herr Bush & his plutocrats ain't hurting that much, but the country is. Happily this would be tin diktator will be sent to his dude ranch in Crawford, Texas, whilst everyone else has to pick up the broken pots he is leaving behind. The man should be in gaol not in splendid, easy retirement!

Anal hair stylist & self styled il Duce of finance Paulson regrets! Put on Cole Porter's Miss Otis Regrets, boys!

Anal hair stylist supremo & self styled il Duce of finance & former CEO of Goldman Sachs & US secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson now regrets his whooper for throwing the world’s financial markets into the worst krash since the Great Depression. Well, il Signor Paulson ain’t no Miss Otis Regrets of Cole Porter. Porter at least sends her to the gallows for murder. What the anal hair stylist is economic butchery. He won’t suffer capital punishment nor live on bread and water in a prison cell. But the anal hair stylist supremo has nothing between his legs. He’s no man; he won’t take his punishment, the least being turning in his resignation. Since this incompetent fool fancies himself a Sinologist of sorts, were we in a Cultural Revolution, we would lead him around with a rope around his neck, and he wearing a dunce cap, for everyone to boo and spit on him. What this arse hole did is worth our full contempt. He’s a coward of the first water; he’s dumb; he’s incompetent, and stubborn. Let’s call for his resignation!

Old Korea hand Donald Kirk is much displeased that Herr Bush took Pyongyang off the US list of terrorist states

Donald Kirk has had a long hate affair with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea [DPRK] which is more commonly known as North Korea. Kirk is an old Asia hand; he was the International Herald Tribune's man in Seoul, and has contributed to Institutional Investor, TheNation, The National Review, and is a regular on Asia Times Online. Washington based, he's chummy with the Pentagon and the American Enterprise Institute, and his articles appear in the Christian Science Monitor and occasionally he makes an appearance on Public Television channels and speaks at the Korea Society. Recently, he visited the DPRK; he didn't like what he saw there and his filings make that very clear, snide and smary as they are. He added little to what other critics of Kim Jong il had to say. Kirk when he covers South Korea, took a distinctly hard line, shrill assessment on Kim Dae Jung's opening to Pyongyang which we went under the name of 'Sunshine Policy', and he was quick to attack Roh Moo hyun, Kim's successor in the Blue House. With the election of the right wing Lee Myun bek as president of South Korea, Kirk has found a man to his liking. It doesn't take a rocket scienctist to figure out why. Lee's espoused the old Bush line against Pyongyang, but with some arm twisting from Herr Bush, he held his tongue on the DPRK's removal from the US list of terrorist states. For even the occasional student of Korean affairs, reading Kirk is enlightening. He is the conduit of right wing neo con attitudes and is a sounding board for the Pentagon and other US agencies best left unnamed. Kirk is a must read for that alone.

Super Schnorrer JPM CEO Jamie Dimon says his bank doesn't need the us$25bn bailout!

We heard it from the horse's mouth, super schnorrer Jaime Dimon, ceo of JPMorgan Chase. He doesn't need a government bailout of us$25bn, after the bank reported earnings of us$2,6bn for 3q 2008. Yet, he was quick to add, but 'what's good for the system is good for JP Morgan'. Doesn't this statement stir chimes in $nostalgic minds: Charlie Wilson when he was ceo of the now much shrunken and depressed General Motors with a grand display of huberis proclaimed 'ubi et orbi', 'what's good for GM is good for the US!' Well, old darling, refuse the infusion of US rate and taxpayers money. Well, he won't. For hidden in that sea of very black ink are toxic Alt-A mortgages mainly in California which run up to us$400bn! So, little wonder, Dimon, il Duce of Finance Paulson and his sidekick bathroom attendant Bernanke look smilingly on Wall Street's fair hair boy. Did they hand him on a silver platter Bear Stearns & Washington Mutual? Dimon who believes in the free market and less or no government interference in the private sector, is no slouch when it comes to milking the public's cash cow...the US treasury. And he naively believes that the equity warrants the US government has in his bank will mean strict regulation. Well, let him dream! By accepting the government's bailout, he's let the camel into his tent, and we all know the end of that parable! Enjoy the comfort of your hubris, old Jaime Dimon! The old Greek gods are thirsty for revenge!

Unacceptable but necessary, dixit il Duce of finance Paulson

'Unacceptable but necessary' quoth the raven of free market economics & anal hair stylist supremo & self styled il Duce of finance & former Goldman Sachs CEO & US secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson. Yes, it's unacceptable to this free marketeer who as CEO of Goldman Sachs fashioned the subprime mortgage Ponzi scheme which has infected and poisoned the global system of finance. Dragged kicking and screaming to match in step with Europe and Japan in dealing with the market krash of 2008, he finds it unacceptable, but has to bow to his peers concerted and common action which goes against the grain of letting government's largesse favour finance capitalism without any check. So, here he is agreeing to buy equity warrents into 9 major US banks, including his defunct investment banking house Goldman Sachs reborn from its ashes as a commerical holding company cum bank, and agreeing to regulationing the finance industry as yet undefined. Do the US rate or taxpayers need a man like Paulson to save literally their lives? NO! NO! NO! He's against everything which their tax monies fund without 'government on capitalism's back!' The US needs someone who will safeguard the economic lives of its citizens not a scoundrel who sells pie in the sky whilst sipping champagne & eating caviar in the aery of his multi million dollar home. Happily, he has not long in his post, yet he has enough time to drag his feet in dealing with the consequences of the krash so that each day becomes a small calvary for the small man or woman but not for the plutocrats that he and Herr Bush favour, support, and look to save out of class solidarity. Throw the bum out! Paulson has not shame. He should resign!

Herr Bush gets green around the gills...he dumps free market snakeoil shares!

It's no use belabouring the point that Herr Bush has transgressed the sanctity of his sacrosaint belief in the free market. He had no choice. Owing to his inept handling of the economy and his lackadaiscal management style, his hands off approach to everything he doesn't touch, and his choice of a secretary of the Treasury, the anal hair stylist supremo & self styled il Duce of finance & former CEO of Goldman Sachs who is more gauche than Herr Bush, he had no other choice to concede defeat to the UK's Gordon Brown in dealing with the global krash of the world's stock exchange. He's had to embrace 'socialism' of a sort, to save the economy from his own recklessness and stupidity, whilst affirming in a brief speech to the nation [14 October 2008] that he's saved free market capitalism. That's a laugh! Il Signor Paulson has done everything to save Wall Street, parasitic finance capitalism, and his own hide. He's act in a way which tells the US rate and taxpayer, he doesn't give a rat's arse for them but the shekels they can pay the Treasury to bail out people like him who devised the subprime mortgage Ponzi scheme which is the root of the current economic crisis. Yet, by pouring good money after bad into the world's banks, and re establishing a certain equilibrium in the financial markets, Herr Bush is doing nothing that ease the onerous burden that he & his gang of 40 thieves have burden the American people. Now even he agrees, the world is in a deep recession, but he cares not a wit for he's little time left in office, is a scion of wealth and ill gotten gain, and can go back to chopping wood in his 'ranch' in Crawford, Texas. Yet, he's green behind the gills, for he's turned the US into a primus inter pares which means the US' sun of power is setting, and lesser countries in Europe and Asia are there to pick eventually the banner. A pox on his house! --

Pyongyang's off the US terrorism list; Herr Bush picked the wrong fight!

Herr Bush picked the wrong fight when he let his then national security advisor Condoleeza Rice put North Korea on his 'axes of evil' list. In a moment of whimsy, Herr Bush, a scrappy, dirty fighter, and a small man in mind and thought, took on a wily opponent who bested him at every twist and turn. Not only that, Herr Bush lacked the cujones to discipline his vice president whom he let go to the edges of the extreme in matters domestic and foreign. By his dickering, his waffling, his sitting on the fence, Herr Bush in all his small mindedness even allowed Pyongyang to join the world's club of atomic powers! And for what? One, to prove, Clinton was soft on North Korea? In part, yes! Two, to show, he could bell the communist beast? In part, yes! The laundry list could go on and on. The US elected twice, a yahoo with a pedigree of weath and a Yale degree and a Harvard MBA, who failed many times in business, to assume the role of the leader of the world's only superpower. And boy, did he fail at that! Like the grumbling, formidable mountain of LaFontaine's fable, Herr Bush in finally living up to his promises to take Pyongyang on his list of terrorist states, gave birth to a mouse of an agreement. He lost, and in doing so, proved the bankruptcy of his stupid foreign policy which knocked the US as 'the' superpower worldwide. North Korea emerges the winner! Pyongyang delivered the knockout by slowly escalating the risks of ignoring it...read, starting up its nuclear reaction, producing plutonium grade uranium, and testing its very sophistication rocket technology!

Self styled il Duce of finance Paulson is up to his old tricks! Markets tumble!

Anal hair stylist supreme & self styled il Duce of finance & former CEO of Goldman Sachs & US secretary of the Treasury sent markets down again. It’s against his ideological spaghetti backbone to do more than asking the banks to do the voluntary thing for government capital infusions and police themselves. In brief, he won’t be taking a leaf out of British prime minister Gordon Brown’s partial nationalization of banks. He’s letting the blood flow more profusely in the world financial markets. Were he to put a government leash on houses which aren’t regulated though they function as an investment banks, he wash away the black pessimism of today. Quite frankly, acting true to form il Signor Paulson is like Pavlov’s dog, ring the bell and he behaves as he was trained. 18Brumaire is not a Paulson groupie; we have always thought him incapable of doing good for the US rate and taxpayer. Like his handler Herr Bush, he looks to preserving his bloodsucking class of coupon clippers, fraudsters, & financial thugs, who bleed the body of hardworking American almost white. So the crisis will continue and as it does the closer we come to falling into the abyss of a depression which seems the curse of a Republican administration without ideas.

Anal hair stylist Paulson is helping the invisible third finger to screw us all!

18Brumaire has long been unimpressed by anal hair stylist supremo, self styled il Duce of finance, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, and US secretary of the Treasury. It has earned us a warning to readers of Google that our content is for adults only. The only trouble is that the American public is growing fast into manhood owing to the bad policies and choices of Herr Bush's il Signor Paulson & his Sancho Panza sidekick US Fed chief Ben Bernanke. As 18Brumaire mentioned, Paulson's dumb decision to let the world's largest purveyor of commercial paper Lehman to fail, whilst saving the arse of his old colleague at Goldman John Thain CEO of Merrill Lynch; that irrational step tilted the world markets towards the downturn and the blood letting in the markets. Imagine, Lehman held us$ tillions in commercial paper; everyone--banks, businesses, individuals, governments--held Lehman's paper, and so with Lehman going into bankruptcy out of bad management and greed, it set the world in panic selling, ill ease as to the future, and a mindset of 'sauve qui peut' as the rats, the fat greedy rats of plutocracy abandoned the ship of free market capitalism. Today, Lehman's commercial paper goes on auction, and its sheer value staggers the imagination, clicking the counter into the us$ tillions of outstanding loans. Ain't that a kick in the head, and a glaring example of Paulson's bad judgment and monumental stupidity. And now, we see Paulson has no plans but to save the leprous skin of the banking class, and damn everyone else. The anal hair stylist should be in prison for the harm and havoc that he's created...and lest we forget as chief honcho at Goldman Sachs, he helped fashion and devise the subprime mortgage Ponzi scheme, which is at the bottom of the meltdown globally. And not only has he put his lapdog to oversee the us$700bn 'bailout', which if anyone really looks at the money trail, will quick discover that his incompetent lackey of finance capitalism has thrown to wind, to cushion his class of greedy ogres of finance us$ tillions already! And now he's got BlackRock aboard to help manage the 'toxic subprime debt'. Yep BlackRock who came up with the idea of these financial instruments which remain without value but have the effect on the markets of an AIDS virus, with its multiple, Protean permutations! And as an outsourced company, BlackRock will make out like a bandit in fees and perks and skimming over the top of Herr Bush's administration largesse of rate or taxpayer monies! Ain't that a kick in the head! So, Paulson has put the fox in the public hen house, for rapine and plunder. He's a criminal. And his belief in letting the market regulate itself, has resulted in greasy the indivible hand's third finger to screw up the public's anal hole with impunity! Paulson & his ilk belong behind prison bars, and for life!

Self styled il Duce of finance fails to tame the markets!

The Persian king Darius couldn’t tame the waves; the anal hair stylist supreme & self stylist il Duce of finance & former CEO of Goldman Sachs & US secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson cannot tame the financial markets. Today [9 October 2009], the NYSE bled more red ink, the seventh day in a row, and the Dow Jones average fell below 8000 as it heads south towards 6000. Quixotic il Signor Paulson has tried every trick in his how to finance book of the free market to quiet the market volatility. And to no avail. His handmaiden in his efforts US Fed chief Ben Bernanke have borne no fruit after a cut in the interest rates. World markets remain jittery. The chaos in financial circles have thrown off high pedestals the mighty priests of Wall Street and the US Fed. In today’s online edition of ‘the New York Times’, a detailed article explores the handy work of Alan Greenspan who is much responsible along with Goldman’s Paulson for the mess in the market place. A year ago, this would be considered high treason no longer. Crisis saves no one’s reputation the more especially when it comes to the almighty Yankee US dollar! In the NYT and ‘Wall Street Journal’, the anxious eye sees a straight line of how il Signor Paulson and his side kick Bernanke have struck out blindly in dealing with the subprime mortgage Ponzi scheme meltdown, from the fall of the house of Bear Stearns to the dumping of Lehman Brothers to the questionable rescue of AIG to…. [fill in the blanks]. It’s a sorry record of the anal hair stylist supremo’s tilting at windmills, misreading the pulse of the markets. Take his allowing Lehman to fail, and saving his old crony from Goldman John Thain of Merrill Lynch from falling flat on his face. Il Signor
Paulson did not give a second thought that Lehman was the foremost issuer of commercial paper which banks, businesses, and wealthy clients held. By bankrupting Lehman, Paulson set off the current run on the world markets. And Paulson is the man who made the house of Goldman a mighty player on Wall Street! Let’s face it, Paulson has proven unable to ‘think outside the box’. His bromides do not work! They cannot in a very ‘toxic’ market! Push come to shove, he is going to be forced to ‘nationalise’ the big bracket bank to restore confidence in the market, yet he is resisting, blinded by his own economic orthodoxy and fuzzy vision of the current crisis. 18Brumaire’s youngest grandchild who point out that this emperor is naked. He should step down. He’s no clear plan to restore confidence in the rapidly falling and deteriorating markets at home and abroad. Too long has he look up the financial arse hole, and let the real signs pass. If he had any honour, he would step down, but Paulson is not a honourable man in this sense. He’s first and foremost out to save his plutocratic class—look at his inchoate plan to rescue free market capitalism from itself! When he needed to take action six months ago he didn’t; now as the markets waiver on the border of a very serious recession, he is a blind man…and so is his class…where is the one eyed man who can lead us out of the mess Goldman Paulson & his scum created for us in devising the subprime Ponzi scheme which has proven more toxic than a hundred atom bombs! Away with this pest & his ilk!

Mortgage foreclosures

Surfing the net brings interesting info to light. A recent Sunday [5 October 2008] interview on America's National Public radio brought this nugget to the surface. NPR's Sunday two hour morning news programme touts a blog for those having difficulty making mortgage payments. This 5 October story is about a young married woman in the murky land of California which is steep in failed mortgages.
Her tale of woe is instructive. She began by saying that she thought that her grandfather's advise on putting away something [money] for a rainy day and living beyond your means, a bit thick. She after all was living in another time, another world, an age of easy money and of plenty. She and her husband had a good college degree; the two were had stepped on the rungs of middle management; they were children of genY. She and her hubby jumped at the idea of buying a home of their own on easy credit terms with almost nothing down. And then the housing bubble kicked him and the variable mortgage rate began climbing, and her monthly payout did too to meet her bills. What were they? Well, to begin with, the mortgage payment, then student loans, then motor gasoline for two gas guzzlers for her and hubby to go to their respective jobs, and of course, food prices kept going up, and then there were the credit card debt which at first helped cushion the burgeoning expenses. She found a second job, and even with 3 salaries, the money was never enough to downsize the ballooning debt. Now here's the kick in the head, the young lady had a degree in FINANCE, yes finance. When asked if she read the terms of her mortgage, she replied wearily no! For her and her hubby the hypnotist's crystal of easy money, feed greed and the dream of a home of our own, a home 18Brumaire hastens to add, which suited them both and in which they would spend most of their lives together. When asked, what about savings? None, nada, not a plug nickel, she came back with. And now, by December she very well will be out on the street unless the mortgage is restructured and renegoticated. Fat chance at that! Now here's a solid citizen of 'middle class America' whom you'd think is a model for others to follow. Well, they have. Usually the usual scold will say, people on welfare or in slums or in barrios drank from the same fount of snake oil the banks and mortgage companies were selling two cents on the barrel head even at that! Irresponsible, living beyond their means! Well the truer story is a reflexion of this young gal's tale of woe. Someone whom the system favoured, and it failed her and opened a deep wound of America's fraud, speculation, and easy marks for the banks and mortgage companies to exploit and walk away with fat wads of us$ in pocket. Did our gal learn anything? She did. She regretted thinking her granddad was an old fuddy duddy out of steep with the times; he wasn't in a way; he knew the horrors of the Great Depression, and yet even he couldn't save his granddaughter from her own desires and her times.

Anal hair stylist & il Duce of finance Paulson's lapdog Kashkari rewards the failed bankers who brought you the subprime mess

The public knows little of Neel Kashkari. Briefly, a native of Ohio, an aeronautical engineer, a recent MBA who went to work for Goldman Sachs. There he caught the eye of il Signor Paulson self styled il Duce of finance, who took him to Washington when he ascended to the US Treasury. Now, Kashkari is the lapdog of anal hair stylist Paulson; he will do the bidding of his master. Look at whom Kashkari spoke to when he became the guy who was going to distribute the us$700bn bailout, you ask. Well, to the American Enterprise Institute, the gang of neoconservatives who believe firmly that government has the god given purpose of rewarding the rich who are absolved from any responsibility and who if we didn't know helped design the subprime mortgage Ponzi scheme, chief culprit of which is il Signor Paulson himself. Well, we all know that everyone's talking about liquidity, so you've to wonder why Kashkari ain't pumping up at his us$700bn motor gasoline station the banks with cash to lend to one another. Good question. Well, he's spreading the rate or taxpayers manure first and foremost as outsourcing to the very bankers who helped create the subprime meltdown. And if we know anything from past history, outsourcing will fill deep, greedy pockets of the people who triggered the world financial crisis in the first place. Two, why is Kashkari the puppet of anal hair stylist Paulson waiting for the day after the election to disperse funds to the banks? Another good question which any child can answer. So Herr Bush & co. are once again playing the US rate or taxpayer for a sucker, born anew everyday!

Rats fleeing the economic ship and world bankers bluster & fluster & don't know up from down!

The rats are fleeing the mighty economic ship that has sailed happily through smooth seas till Wall Street began hawking snake oil in the form of subprime mortgage debt [an arching term to include all the greedy nastiness that street could do]. Now world markets are heading through stormy weather and the world's bankers have lost their heads. Main street everywhere has lost any notion that these high flyers know their arse from their elbow! Look at anal hair stylist supremo & self styled il Duce of finance & former CEO of Goldman Sachs & US secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson. He got his us$700bn rescue package with little oversight, and he hasn't the foggiest idea as to what to do. He's not as 18Brumaire has constantly written, enough fingers and toes to staunch the leaks in the financial markets. And what's more, he hasn't the foggiest idea as what to do next other than giving his cronies oversight on the 'bailout'. Well, banks ain't lending to one another; foreign countries are panicking and eacy state is going its own way. No co ordination in the world markets and everyone of the rats are fleeing a seemingly sinking ship. And what's more the mighty Solons who vote this and that are so tied by the umbilical cord to finance capitalism, there is little hope for reform, let alone a radical breakthrough. Yes, old darlings, you've made a mess and will continue to do so, for no one with lead in his pistol is on the scene to whip you back into line and obey the oversight and discipline the exuberant bankers abandoned for self enrichment, and what's more in the US, since the abandonment of pension schemes, the little man and woman who knows squat about investing has had to follow the examples of their betters [sic], and do a monkey sees, monkey does act to get by and save for days of pensioners. Where has this gotten them? Back to square one and poorer than ever and a bitter old age whilst the plutocrats fall comfortably of government bailouts and cushions of a sybarite life style. Is there no justice? Apparently not!

Self stylist il Duce of Finance names a Goldman Sachs crony to oversea bank bailout!

Here we go again! In the face of a giant meltdown in financial markets, anal hair stylist supremo & self styled il Duce of finance & US secretary of the Treasury & former CEO of Goldman Sachs has named a crony Neel Kashkari lately of Goldman Sachs to oversee the us$700bn 'rescue fund' to save Milton Friedman economics from itself. Fat chance! Il Signor Paulson has proven himself incapable. He's more an ostrich hidding his head in the sand whilst exposing his the country's financial arse; he's dragged his feet trying to avoid everything his ideology says that he shouldn't do, and let the market take care of itself. Well, the old darling helped fashion and sell and profit greatly from what is globally called the 'subprime mortgage Ponzi meltdown', and which has spread like an AIDS like virus through the world's economic body. He's no real programme, for if he did, with us$700bn on hand, he would have something to spend it on. Well, he doesn't. But he does have his cronies from Goldman Sachs to appoint with plummy titles and posts. Will they buy the toxic subprime debts say at us$0,60 on the us$, will they impose discipline on the markets, when they couldn't discipline themselves nor rein in their greed? Probably not. But like all bankers of Paulson's wide yellow stripe, he prefers doing little or nothing. And the proof is in the pudding, without a plan or even a sense of direction as to what to do. The feel heeled Asia markets are now falling...boys come out with her savings to save Paulson & his foul policy. Herr Bush's now pushing Herbert Hoover out of top spot for economic failure, and now proudly wears the crown. The bar is very low for Paulson & Neel & all their rotten plutocratic friends who even now live high on the hog whilst the average rate or taxpayer is suffering and will suffer even more. What we need now, are men with ideas not the old fools and their failed programmes and hot air which have landed us and everyone else in the world in this cesspool of a giant meltdown. Were are the good fundamentals these purveyors of snakeoil have been pushing to a public dazzled by glamour and false hope?

The no meeting in Pyongyang. Herr Bush's policy towards North Korea is a dead duck!

Much has been made of the US chief negotiator Chris Hill's panicked flight to Pyongyang to try to salvage a dead deal on North Korea's nuclear programme, in the light of Kim Jong il's regime's restarting it again, and reneging on Herr Bush's promises to delist North Korea from its 'terrorist states anathema'. Even though Hill prolonged his 2 day stay to a third, his trip was much ado about nothing, and had the suspect odour of a publicity stunt to blame Pyongyang for Washington's sins. Herr Bush tried to flim flam North Korea by calling a meeting whose avowed purpose is doing no business at all. US secretary of state, the incompetent Condoleeza Rice gave the whole show away by announcing that the US had nothing to offer North Korea in order to dissuade it from shutting down Yongbyon once more. Furthermore the sleight of hand was to hide from view the complete and total failure of Herr Bush's foreign policy, by creating the impression that the US was ready to talk business, but whose avowed purpose is to do no business at all, at all. And so it was. A visibly exhausted Hill showed up in Seoul to say nothing had been accomplished in his quick flight to Pyongyang. The result: Pyongyang will continue its nuclear programme. Hill's last minute visit may have had another purpose...he had to pluck his false rabbit out of his diplomatic pouch, for at the same time he was there military talks between North and South Korea were underway, and there too we find another 'no meeting'. The fault lies squarely with the hardline, dogmatic Lee Myong bak, South Korea's new president. He has succeeded in killing the goose that laid the golden eggs of Kim Dae Jung's sunshine policy, and bringing back to the divide Korean peninsula, a renewed state of tensions. So much for the high and the mighty who take lamp lights for chamber points! If anyone has shot himself in the foot, it's Herr Bush and his fellow blockhead in Seoul Shogun Lee.

Google & 18Brumaire...censorship?

Anyone wishing to read the blog 18Brumaire.blogspot.com will find a warning that it has 'content suitable for adults'. If you google 18brumaire, you will find 4 entries, and not the most current. However, you go scroll down to the bottom of the page, you can click on the blue line which will bring you to about 18 pages of blog entries, but not all entires; go to page 16; there you will find the 'objectionable' blogs fit for adult eyes only. And lo and behold, you will find such everyday topics about the current US presidential campaign, the less than sterling practices of US secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson & co, so on and on. So how does this infringe on Google's code of good conduct? Beats us! even though Google distances itself from the views on 18Brumaire. Well, you can say this works two ways, since it human nature to taste of forbidden fruit, the casual reader will look for the taboo subject. Or it's Google's way of protecting itself from the angry army of the righteous who will object to anything under the sun! 18Brumaire is honoured to uphold the sanctity of the first amendment, and believes in free speech, and all that good stuff!

Wells Fargo foils anal hair stylist & self styled il Duce of the US Treasury's plans

Today [3 Oct 2008] Wells Fargo gave the royal finger to anal hair sytlist supremo & self styled il Duce of the treasury & US secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson lately of Goldman Sachs. The Minneapolis bank offered us$7 a share for Wachovia. Previous il Signor Paulson playing his game of rewarding his friends and killing his enemies [vide Lehman & Bear Stearns] had offered Wachovia to Citibank with US rate or taxpayer largesse to cushion greedy and wobbly banks. Citi could and choose what it wants from Wachovia and throw aside like chicken bones the parts it didn't want. Namely, Citi's mouth watered at picking up Wachovia's commerical banking units at fire sale rates, which is the tattoo pattern of il Signor Paulson's. Well, surprise, surprise, surpise, Wachovia made a bid for Wachovia in tot for us$14bn at least, and without public financing. So there il Duce trying once again to flim flam the rate or taxpayer for the comfort and ease of his plutocratic friends! Citi is not taking this lightly nor is the anal hair stylist supremo of the coupon clipping classes. What all this goes to show is one, there is liquidity out there--look at Buffet flating Goldman Sachs and GE--but the moguls of finance won't wave the flag to save free market capitalism from itself. So il Duce of finance along with his unindicted co conspirate the bathroom attendant US Fed head Ben Bernanke is panicking and not without cause with a dodgey bailout plan which rewards people like Paulson who helped devise and enriched himself in the subprime mortgage Ponzi scheme [18Brumaire readers look at JK Galbraith's 'The big crash 1929', the chapter on Goldman Sachs we trust, to see how the leopard hasn't changed its spots!], and who is the fox in the people's hen house, ready, willing, and eager to plunder the American working people, for his lazy, blood sucking class of the rich and super rich, and the sycophantic corporate America! So bravo Wells Fargo. Paulson has proven himself incapable and an il Duce without clothes. His old magic is gone. Throw the bum in prison and then throw the key away. He's none of the sekhel [Yiddish] that a Warren Buffet has in his little finger.

John McCain concedes Michigan to Obama on 2 October 2008. Is McCain the 2008 Kerry?

US Republican party candidate for the presidency John McCain has ordered a retreat of his troops from the state of Michigan. He's conceding Michigan to his opponent Barak Obama. His dirty tricks though his Michigan surrogates had wanted to challenge voters who were in foreclosure, thereby denying them of the right to vote [read mostly blacks who favour Obama]. It didn't work, and McCain's messy tactics earned him little but diminishing returns in his hope of snatching the state's electors. Which raises the question: Is McCain following in the footsteps of John Kerry's 2004 campaign, when the senator from Massachusetts gave up states to George Bush without much of a fight, in order to carry the battle and money to another day and another state? Seems so. The economic crisis has broken the neck to neck polls with his rival Obama. The junior senator from Illinois is pulling ahead because rightly the American voters have pinned the tail of economic woes on the Republicans' elephant, and believe the Democrats are better able to deal with worries and woes and drop in living standard of theirs. So the tug boat captain's election boat has sprung a leak, and try as he might, he's not enough fingers and toes to plug the gaping holes.

Rock bottom expectations for Sarah Palin pay off!

Last night's [2 Oct 2008] US vice presidential 'debate' won't ruin Sarah Palin's reputation. No one had high expectations for John McCain's running mate. She couldn't not but shine since no one really though much of her to begin with. And she did for the moment. She simply proved once again how untutored she was in matters of state. When she doesn't know the answer, she runs at the mouth, throwing everything and the kitchen sink in to her rapid fire, confused volley of words. The talking heads say that she 'connects' with middle America. She may; then again, she may not. What is certain is that McCain's choice uncovers an Alaskan mother lode of know nothingism which is an endemic strain in nativist Americana. She pumps out like an old church organ the sound bytes of god, country, and mum's apple pie. Knee jerk appel to the basest elements within the body Americana. It's a sorry day for America, her candidacy, and it says much about the devious mind of McCain, revealing his erratic, hip hop character of a weather vane spinning in any direction of the wind of opportunism points him to.

Asian markets are not amused by the Senate's vote on the US bailout

Asian stock markets are down this morning. The vote in the US senate which passed its version of the massive and increased bailout bill has run into the distaste of Asian markets. They are not amused by the added amount of us$150bn to a us$700bn package to excuse American financiers for bad behaviour and little reform. They full well know that it is cash rich Asia who will have to pour money into an undiscipled and insouciant US economy where personal savings are very low, where personal and corporate debt is high, and where US lawmakers think the world is their oyster and que dedale! the world owes them everything for the simple reason it is the US. And the merry go round will whirl even faster for to get off will through the global economy into chaos.

Consolidation in the financial markets...the road to the ultimate triumph of finance capitalism

Consolidation in the financial industry is going fast a pace. Wachovia is folding into Citibank; Merrill Lynch & Washington Mutal in JPMorganChase. The bailout when it comes will not sink its teeth into the meat of the problem...mortgages, but will refloat the meanies who brought us the subprime mortgage meltdown. The talking heads talk of Main Street, but for all the blarney, the bluster, and the blowhards, little will be done for the little man or the little woman. A good barometre is the rising unemployment numbers, the tight family budgets, and the general impoverishment of the majority of the US population. We are seeing, dare we mention the road to a national socialism which would make il Signor Mussolini quite happy. Confidence will fill the sails of the rich and the super rich who may feel some pain in portfolios of theirs, but won't stop a lavish style of living which brings to mind Dickens...picture small children, shoeless in the snow, looking through the frosted window panes of a rich family's Christmas dinner. And that's more or less what the Main Street is seeing and feeling and experiencing. And alas no matter the new tune after the elections, the rich will benefit because the shift in privilege begun under the false prophet Ronald Reagan is not torn out root and branch.

Wall Street forgets Main Street

Markets are in a spin but ultimately the tug of war in the houses of Congress will vote for a hastily, devised 'bailout' of finance capitalism which has ruled the roost for almost a generation. The plutocratic rule of bankers will continue no matter the reform. Look, the anal hair stylist supremo & now self styled il Signor Mussolini & US secretary of the Treasury will control the bailout for the first 3 months at least. With us$700bn or tranches thereof, he will do everything, as he is doing now, to consolidate the firm grip of those thieves which have brought free market capitalism almost to its knees. The mechanisms of saving the banks will take a leaf out of FDR's book, but the more pertinant example is the rise of national socialism which il Signor Mussolini brought to life. In Fascist Italy's example lest we forget, the banks made out like bandits, as they are doing now in freedom loving, land of the free, home of the brave US under Herr Bush. Look at the budget allocations, defence, homeland security, veterans affairs receiving the lion's share of rate or taxpayers monies, and a sop or two for Main Street, read the little guy or gal. Inchoate popular anger is there awaiting as the case will be in the US for a demogogue, not an enlightened leader. Everyone has much to fear for the renaissance of nationalism socialism!

Death of a warrior in Singapore.

JB Jeyaretnam fondly known as JBJ died suddenly today of heart failure at the age of 82. A warrior has fallen in his fight for civil rights in a PAP run Singapore. The ruling party impoverished the man by using a law for slander which put a heavy financial burden on JBJ, ruined him, but never extinguished his flame nor his passion for justice. For those outside the Merlion City with longer memories, they many remember him as the 'man from Anson' who upset Lee Kwong Yew's tightly run election, who won a seat in the parliament. JBJ so frightened then prime minister LKY that knowing the measure of his 'enemy' had to shed his high tone of 'impartiality' by descending into the well of parliament to debate sharp tongued JBJ who could with a razor sharp phrase cut through the wooden language of the PAP younger guard who grew up in a city state run by one party. Not happy to parry and thrust with JBJ, LKY & his minions sought the courts to slander the man. They succeed, challenged, too, his credentials at the bar, and brought the mighty warrior to the point of ruin, but they never humbled nor defeated the man, only death could. The LKY's party the PAP were so frightened of JBJ's success at the polls, they re drew electoral circumscriptions and the rebellious Anson was incorporated, defanged, and turned into a PAP safe seat. JBJ represented, in spite of oft time fraction behaviour with smaller parties, a voice that spoke truth to power, and one man did make power fret, sweat, worry, and lose many a night's sleep. For those who saw the man at the exit of the MRT at City Hall, hawking a book of his speeches, can never forget this elder statesman, and who 'in petto' thanks the lucky stars, that he was there to defend civil society and civil rights in Singapore. The old warrior is now gone, but let's hope his spirit lives and has inspired younger and yes older Singaporeans to carry on the fight for truth and justice and a more open society. Fair thee well, oh warrior!

The Wall Street bailout, is it socialism? or national socialism?

Herr Bush in his usual state of irrational exuberence has hailed the dodgey Wall Street bailout plan a major success. He would, wouldn't he? He's hailed his Iraq war a success, too, and we all know that is a crock of night soil! Everyone is hoisting the old hoary petard that with the bailout the free marketeers are taking a leaf out of the socialist handbook. Well, old darlings, is it the Socialist handbook influenced by Marx or the Nationalist Socialist handbook written by Mussolini? If you look at the huge emergency spending bill the houses of Congress signed off the other day, what do we find? The largest share of the pie goes to defence, homeland security, and veterans affairs. So the road to socialism to drag US capitalism out a mess of its own making, tilts towards il Duce's national socialist model, and history buffs, remember that under il Signor Mussolini and Herr Hitler the banks made out like the bandits they are and the country was set on a permanent war footing. Ring a bell?

The more you scratch McCain's image the filty the dirt uncovered!

The Sunday edition of the 'New York Times' online has a revealing and long and well researched and documented article on John McCain's ties to the gambling mafia of the US, and the role his advisors beginning with the suspect Rick Davis of the Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac subsidies in his own personal bank account till the two semi private entities were on the verge of government takeover, and now we find his greedy fingers in the casino honey jar! [Remember the convicted felon Jack Abrams funded his fraud by using casino money till he was brought down by a jury of his peers! and sent to prison where he turned on his own mates. No honour among thieves there...!]. The laundry list of McCain handlers and bundlers grow more and more interesting since they are the scum on the pond of skimming off the government through tax favours and loopholes, and campaign on the fraudulent claims that no one else but them should feed off the public treasury. Throw the rascals in gaol where they really belong. Basta ya! Enough is enough. McCain as president is a laughing job, but seriously speaking should he become Mr. 44, the US is heading for a disaster which would make 9/11 seem like child's play!

Why did anal hair stylist & self styled Mussolini of finance Paulson let Lehman fail?

The answer to this question is in Gertrude Morgenstern's article in the Sunday 'New York Times' online. Morgenstern is the newspaper's financial senior reporter, and what she says should confirm what 18Brumaire has always contended that anal hair stylist & self styled Mussolini of finance & US secretary of the Treasury is part and parcel of the subprime meltdown, and not of its solution. Morgenstern's article details why Lehman got thrown overboard by il Signor Paulson & his gang of 4, and AIG got a government loan of us$80bn. It seems that Paulson's old outfit Goldman Sachs where he was CEO and had walked away with a cool us$500m in the pocket as he ascended to the post of Herr Bush's cabinet, had a us$20bn exposure with AIG's Financial Product London subsidiary, and that relatively small sum if we are to believe the thick India black ink of Goldman's balance sheet, would have sunk the mighty house of Goldman & Sachs as though it were a stealth torpedo. Morgenstern also says that Goldman Sachs was AIG's leading trading partner, and as such made much dinero from that suspect relationship. AID's downgrading by the equally complacent rating agencies of Moody's & S&P & Fitch, threatened Goldman's standing, and so with Paulson's successor Blankfein also at the secret confab which let Lehman go down the tub, these panicky big swollen heads of world finance snatched AIG from the jaws of failure, and as such brought some confidence back to the markets but not for long, and yet, it saved Goldman from rumour and loss of shareholders confidence. So, when it comes down to it, it looks as though il Signor Paulson acted out of very narrow, selfish motives, in order to save 85 Broad Street, Goldman's headquarters from ruin, and cushion his own class of pirating free wheeling, free dealing, free marketeers at rate or taxpayer expense. And what a bill, the poor slogs are going to chew and gulp down as a whole, whilst these arse holes of the rich and the mighty get off scot free! Anal hair stylist says that the pain is worth it, but not for him, he remains a solid billionaire; tell that the man who faces foreclosure, or the mother who has health assurance to pay for her child's sickness, or to the unemployed worker whose job is in China where Paulson made big bucks for Goldman Sachs! If anyone deserves to be in the dock, it's Paulson for his crime against the American working class, and for his big part in devising and fashioning the subprime Ponzi meltdown!

Jaime Dimon to the rescue of WaMu

Jaime Dimon is Herr Bush's fair haired boy. He served up cheaply Bear Stearns on a platter, and at a bargain basement price. Now Herr Bush's put the largest commercial banking failure in US history Washington Mutual, better known as WaMu, into JPMorgan Chase's basket, and at a greatly reduced price. Why? Well with the government snapping up failed Wall Street toxic bonds and rescuing Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, and throwing a life line to AIG, taking over WaMu would cause a larger rebellion among the moss back Republicans who are sabotaging il Signor Paulson's package to quiet jittery financial markets at home and abroad. JPM can well afford it, for he's paying less than us$2bn on the cheap, a sum which what Bear Stearns brought him almost pays for the deal. More, JPM has space to expand on the US west coast where it is under represented. So, like the cat that ate not one but two fat canaries, Jaime Dimon is sitting pretty. And, for WaMu's subprime mortgage debt, he does give a flying fig! Why? Well the government's rescue plan will take them over, and Dimon will simply dip his white bread into the gravy that's left. Ain't that a kick in the head!

Lame duck Herr Bush cannot whip his party into shape!

Herr Bush is showing the wear of time. He's incapable of cracking the whip to discipline his rebellious Republican troops in the house of Representatives, to back the Wall Street bailout. My have the mighty have fallen! Newt Gingrich tried shutting down the government he failed; now Herr Bush is failing as always has, to show his mettle. Oy vey!

Tug boat captain McCain dithers in a financial storm

Well if further proof there be as to tug boat captain McCain's ability to make decisions, to lead forwards on to battle to slay the economic crisis dragon...do not expect miracles. He dithers; he flip flops; he's the jerky movements of a puppet. But one thing is sure, he ain't got a single idea in his wooden head. He's a know nothing who tries slipping and sliding and shucking. He ain't a natural born leader; in fact, he ain't a leader at all. Let's call him a political summer soldier. He basks in the glory of media sunshine, but when the dark clouds gather, like now during the financial crisis, he's taken heels to his shoulders and run away. And he wants to be president of the US. If there is a sign of the decadence of the American empire, he's the perfect example. And what's more, 'I'm a leader; I've the experience; I've this or that', but he cannot shape his moss back Republicans in the house who are playing spoilt spot and offering reckless solutions, like doing away the capital gains and inheritance tax! to solve a capitalism in crisis. And what does this erstwhile hero do, smile, sit on the fence, and waffle. A sure fire formula for failure. With a man like tug boat captain McCain America doesn't need enemies!

Herr Bush fails to tame his party in the houses of Congress

Herr Bush's very short speech to his fellow Americans last evening [24 Sep 08] fell flatter than a pancake. It looks as though the Democrats would sign on to a stiff bailout but not members of Herr Bush's Republicans in the houses of Congress. Herr Bush is not only a failure but a has been.

Tub boat captain John McCain runs around like a chicken with his head cut off!

Tub boat captain and Republican presidental hopeful John McCain is running around like a chicken with its head cut off! Hither & thither & yon he strikes out. Now, for the sake of the nation, he's 'suspending' his campaign. Why? The subprime meltdown crisis is sinking his ratings, and to stop, Obama from gaining footage, he's asking him to stop campaigning too. What a transparent fraud! He's proving what common wisdom said about Gerry Ford: 'He cannot walk and chew gum at the same time!' Now this man who poses himself as leader looks as though he cannot look at one crisis but at one time, and this man wants to leader of the 'free world'. Give us a break, old cock! And then passing up a chance to chitchat on David Letterman's late night programme, he backs out to have a dalliance with Katie Couric who as it turns out made Sarah Palin look as raw and inexperienced and ill knowledgeable that she is to be a heart beat away from the Oval Office. Why the switcheroo? Well, the financial crisis, old darlings. What a transparent fraud to get publicity. And if his spinning like a top out of control, he won't debate Obama at Oxford, Mississippi until the bailout package is resolved and decided upon in Congress. Now speaking of cowards who run in the heat of battle, well, old dear, what do you have to say for yourself? Yep, here's a man who headed the Senate commerce committee and understood less then about economics and still less today about economics on his own admission. And this tub boat captain wants to be president of the US? Heavens preserve the American people and the world. Headless McCain has made his footprint of indecisiveness, flip flopping, and taking bad advice from his handlers.

Herr Bush meets Wall Street expectations...and as usual is late for the prom!

Herr Bush is never on time for a crisis which he hasn't committed. Last evening he interrupted prime time television viewing to deliver a do or die 7 minute speech of utter eyewash! Even his own Republicans aren't buying his baloney! The subprime meltdown and the infection it's spread in the corpus economicus has around deep seated anger among the electorate, for him or his anal hair stylist & treasury secretary & of late il signor Paulson who thinks of himself as an heir to Mussolini, and lest we forget a prime mover when at Goldman Sachs of the subprime mortgage Ponzi scheme, to ask the electorate to swallow whole the us$700bn on their word alone! Neither Congress nor the electorate are going to be snookered in another warlike debacle that is Iraq! The electorate is looking for blood, and it will get some before a package is hammered out. Herr Bush has proven once again, he ain't a leader but the tail his class of plutocrats wag in the face of a storm!

Bush at the UN

Herr Bush has made his swan song speech at the UN general assembly yesterday. [23 September 2008]. Herr Bush was up to his old tricks, peddling his rancid brand of snake oil, but everyone's is now on to this major disaster as 43 present of the US. Again, he hectored the assembly, and dismissed as irrelevant the UN. But when there's a problem for him or any of his allies, he's the first to seize the Security Council. Herr Bush has shifted the US into a second shift of world power. He knows it, but cannot say so. So as he moves off the world stage, no one but the choir of supporters of his will miss this grand guignol!

Il Signor Paulson sheds tears that would drown a school of crocodiles

Il signor Paulson aka anal hair stylist supremo & US secretary of the Treasury is affliged. He 'suffers' the pain of the slogs on main street. He never is going to admit he's part of the subprime mortgage Ponzi scheme meltdown which he as CEO of Goldman Sachs helped set. No, not he...he's blameless as Pontius Pilot...he's washing his hands of the blame but at the same time shedding cocodile tears at the state of the US' and world's financial markets, and is yes wanting to do something about it to the tune of us$700bn rate or taxpayer dollars. But he and his unindicted co conspirator the bathroom attendant & US Fed chief Ben Bernanke, are clever by half. Il signor Paulson has donned the Roman toga and fancied himself as a Cipolla the magician in Thomas Mann's 'Mario & the magician'...he's cast himself in a 3 page memo to Congress as Mussolini re incarnated...as the new Tsar of finance to lead us poor children out of the land of debt to the land of milk and honey of prosperity. Yep, the foxes are in the hen house still! He wants a blank cheque which he ain't going to get. People know how to read 3 pages and see il Signor's plan for the Ponzi scheme it is. Imagine, letting Paulson hire outside consultants from failed Wall Street houses to handle the us$700bn bailout! You've gotta be kidding, old weaver of corporate anal hairs! Cry as much as you want, but your days are over, and lucky you you won't be thrown in the slammer where you rightfully below.