In 1956 during a speech to the United Nations by Harold Macmillan, Soviet President Nikita Khrushchev beat his shoe against his desk and shouted to the US representatives "We will bury you".
Khrushchev was not always polite. During the great Kitchen Debate on July 24, 1959, when Richard Nixon poked his finger in Khrushchev's face, Khrushchev said according to translators, "Go screw my grandmother". Nobody seems to know what Nixon said while pointing his finger, but the pic made big news and endured Tricky Dick to some Americans.
The Kitchen debate was a comparison of Democratic Systems and Communism. Khrushchev said that Communism would win out in the long run"
I never thought it would happen-that Communism would bury us. But that is now what is happening. The government has now taken over three huge financial organizations.
General Motors, you had better watch out.
Bill Moyer's Journal
Last evening (September 19, 2008), I watched Bill Moyer's Journal uninterrupted by commercials on Public Television. I just wanted to get away from the noise of television, the endless commercial tirade that destroys any possible enjoyment of watching a television program.
Every American should read the transcript of that program.
You will learn what created this mess and why we are not going to get out of it without more suffering. You can read the transcript at the PBS site.
Speaking of the greatest calamity since the Great Depression, Gretchen Morgenson said, "Because it affects everyone. It is now possibly bleeding into the economy. We've had a fairly strong economy up until now, which has been a godsend, while this incredible turmoil is taking place. If banks are stopping lending, which they appear to be doing, then that's going to affect the economy, to make the downturn. So it is affecting everyone.
"There was a lack of accountability where a banker didn't care whether the loan was repaid. And the Wall Street firm that sold the securitization trust didn't care if it ever got paid back, because they were happy with their commission. The broker making the loan didn't care, because he got, all the way up the ladder to the CEOs of these companies, who are allowed to walk away from a financial cataclysm with huge payments."
As for the Communist-style takeover of AIG, Bill Moyers said, "Let me ask you about one telling anecdote, at least, telling to me. The Secretary of the Treasury, Paulson, calls the CEO of AIG and says, "You've got to go. Pack your bags and leave." That's usually a decision for a board of directors."
That was not unusual for the Soviet Union.
Floyd Norris said, "The government is nationalizing companies. They nationalized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And that made a little bit of sense, since we'd always thought Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had an implicit government guarantee, whatever that meant. And now they've nationalized AIG. They own eighty percent of the company. They have lent money to the company at very strict terms.
"For this company to somehow pay that loan back will require amazing competence in managing things. And I don't think anybody expects them to ever do that. They're probably going to liquidate AIG. It amazes me. I'm not sure it was unnecessary, as I said. But I can only envision what the right wing would be saying if a liberal Democrat had decided to nationalize the biggest insurance company in America. I don't think you'd be hearing a lot of praise for it."
On Alan Greenspan, Kevin Phillips said, "Turn on the spigots. He started in 1987 with a crash that was a wicked one in one day in 1987. And he turned on the spigots. And they had the huge growth of the tech bubble in the 1990s. And then right after the tech and the stock market bubble blew up in 2000, you had 9/11. So there was a need for more stimulus. And they ginned up the stimulus again hugely.
"And the upshot is that during Greenspan's tenure from 1987 to 2006, what they call total credit market debt in the United States quadrupled, quadrupled from about $11 trillion up to $44, $45, $46 trillion. And finance got the great bulk of it. And Greenspan would do nothing to disturb finance.
He wouldn't puncture a bubble. He wouldn't crack down on the exotic mortgages. He really wouldn't do much of anything except give obscure speeches in which, you know, he mumbled the different directions so nobody would know what he meant. But basically he gave finance what they wanted."
Later in the program, he said, "It's been a bipartisan phenomenon. You can go back to the 1980s and say Reagan and George Bush, Sr., got a bubble started. Clinton got in and got an even bigger bubble going. And then George W. Bush with the biggest bubble of all. But it's not that the Clintonites didn't play. They did. Bob Rubin as Secretary of the Treasury - I mean, if he was a Hindu and he was being reincarnated, he'd come back as a pail because this guy bailed out everything you can imagine. They had the Mexican loan bailout. They had the long-term capital management bailout, the Russian Southeast Asian currency bailouts."
How Qualified are Our Presidential Candidates to Handle This Mess?
Moyers asked about the presidential candidates: "What do you think when you hear John McCain and Secretary Paulson say that the fundamentals, however, are solid?"
Kevin Phillips replied, "Well, John McCain once said he didn't know anything about economics. And half the time what he says, you know, proves that on a day-by-day basis. I don't think we have a sound economy at all. Not remotely at this point. I mean, there are, like, ten yardsticks I could use. Paulson is your typical Treasury Secretary guy that has to deal with it. And everybody knows he has to exaggerate. He has to say all the Hoover type stuff about how strong the economy is and the recession's going to be over in three months and that sort of stuff. I don't really credit these people very much. But, frankly, I don't credit the Democrats either.
Bill Moyers said, "No, I was going to say Obama's trademark rhetoric of inspiration seems to desert him when he talks about economic affairs.
Phillips replied, "He doesn't seem to have anything very specific to say. That's part of the problem. A second problem is, for me at least, you know, just as I can't believe that John McCain ever wanted to get his economic advice from Phil Gramm. I mean, Phil Gramm, a former Texas Senator, appalling. He and his wife were known as Mr. and Mrs. Enron because they were so flagrant, that's McCain.
"But then you've got Obama with Bob Rubin and he doesn't have any problem with the hedge fund types. I mean, one of the Chicago people was a major financier of his. He gets a guy to pick his vice-president. Turns out to be somebody who was part of the Fannie and Freddie mess.
"So I don't exactly see Obama as this fellow riding in on a horse who represents all kinds of reformism. It's an important thing probably to have to change from the Republicans but I don't see that he is free of the ties to finance and Democratic Party financial types."
Conclusion
We are not going to pull out of this mess easily.
There is no quick fix.
We will suffer for many years to come because of greed, dishonesty and incompetence.
Those that created this mess are taking their multi-million dollar pensions to a life of luxury. Some are probably scared that the government will grab some of that money. I'm sure they are stashing some of it away in Bermuda Banks.
The solution to this problem is for the Towers of Education to look at the corruption they are producing. Those former Boy Scouts who are running some of our corporations have forgotten the Scout Law.
They are not honest.
They are not truthful.
They are a corrupt gang of gamblers.
When some young persons graduates from our great MBA schools, he or she has only one thing in mind.
GREED!
Our government has been feeding that GREED for years.
They will continue to do so until the people get angry and do something about it.
If action had been taken when it was needed, we could have avoided this financial mess. Soon, the manufacturing sector may suffer from this financial debacle.
If that happens, we are going to our second Great Depression. That is the reason for the current communistic takeovers.
Being confident and having the pipe dream that all will be okay is folly.
Things are not okay.
Until GREED is replaced with HONESTY and RESPONSIBILITY, we will continue to drift into the rocks of total disaster.
The government had better build a lighthouse and keep that light burning for a long time.
Fly Old Glory!
John T. Jones, Ph.D. (tjbooks@hotmail.com - a retired college professor and business executive, Former editor of an international engineering magazine. Novelist and prolific article writer.
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