Profiteering, From the Civil War to Your Wallet

Through my ever so slightly teary eyes, let me find the stop button on Senator Barack Obama's speech that I've watched for the 13th time on Youtube, and get to the gooseberries of something that will affect our lives in a non-gender/racially oriented, your sandwich is going to cost more, we're at war, and your government just gave your kid's imaginery college money to JP Morgan sort of a way. You can't make this past week up, but I'll try.

J.P Morgan made his first fortune during the Civil War by purchasing defective rifles from the Union for $3.50 and reselling them (defective) to the Union for $22. Last week, in the midst of the ongoing mortgage crises, he bought Bear Sterns at 2 dollars a share, when a year ago it was trading at $170. Amusingly enough, he would be 170 years old today. Even more amusing is the Federal Government's 20 billion dollar backing of the purchase, coming at a time when JP Morgan books closely resembled that of Bear Sterns. I bet the members of JP Morgans accounting department are thanking their preferred deities that their quarter ended in December, and that the government backing avoids their having to validate the value of their assets in this current market. They're probably also thanking their friends at the Federal Reserve (described as a "white knight" by the New York Times last sunday) who created "a 200 billion dollar lending program for investment banks and a 100 billion credit line for banks and thrifts." Apparently, the public discourse has drifted from the morality of bailing out banks with predatory lending practices to the Federal Reserve creating a facility specifically for that purpose. A bank has been created to more efficiently dispense money (printed on the promise that we the people will repay it) that will aid in the foreclosure of millions of American homes. To cheer myself up as I contemplate this, I imagine a magical North Pole-esque type setting where outsourced Indian elves print dollars day and night, and freshly manicured giggling investment bankers of all ages push around personalized bronze plated wheel barrows while snorting cocaine and quoting Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman.

Of course, most Americans are expected to not notice this as they sit in their living rooms pondering what they'll do with their $600 refund checks from the Internal Revenue Service. Most of us will probably spend it at Wal-Mart, further propping up the Chinese economy. I received my Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 Payment Notice in the mail on Wednesday, a sheet of paper that explains how easy it is for me to get my 600 dollars while conveniently omitting the fact that they're just borrowing it from our unborn grandchildren. I say unborn grandchildren, because with the Bush tax cuts and the continuing Wars on Menacing Nouns, I can't imagine throwing my stapler at our 9 trillion dollar national debt. Usually, if you get offers of easy money in the mail they're either: A. a scam or B. a scam.

The answer is C, it's a huge scam. If you went up to my Mom and just offered her $600 bucks, she'd probably say "Oh no, what did you break?" The Federal Reserve can print up fresh debt as fast as our Democrat-controlled Congress can subtly nod in the direction of President Bush and mumble under it's breath "Yeah, what he said, but I want a receipt and change back. Actually, forget the receipt. Are you going to eat all that?" Our economy is being run by a man with family business ties to the Bin Ladens who couldn't manage a baseball team in Texas, and by the time my refund check gets to me it'll cost $12 bucks for a small coffee in Mexico. The more money they print, the greater ability they have to finance the endless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the more the value of the dollar plummets, the more they give to government contractors like Halliburton/KBR that received a no-bid 385 million dollar contract to build Immigrant Detention Centers. According to Market Watch, this contract "provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to expand existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs." Here's a company whose fortunes were molded while the Vice President's foot was still in his office at the Pentagon, engorged with money from no-bid Iraq/Afghanistan contracts that has moved it's headquarters from the United States to Dubai, and they're building prisons in the United States with the money that you haven't even earned yet. Hope you don't experience any direct irony with that one.

The truth is, you see the symptoms of it everyday in more benignly sinister ways. The price of gas. The cost of a gallon of milk. The price of a decent hotel room and anonymity in New Jersey. These things are all interconnected, and they quickly add up to your quality of life. I don't intend to diminish the value of an obviously monumental speech by Barack Obama, when I suggest that instead of asking a presidential candidate about comments their aides/supporters have made, we should be analyzing the specifics of their platforms. We should be asking Obama, a Chicago community organizer and leading recipient of Wall Street campaign donations (Wash. Post) who's top contributors over the totality of his political career are Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan (according to OpenSecrets.org), whether he will stand up for us and not continue bailing out a Wall Street that gambles with our livelihoods and loots hardworking Americans savings and pensions. We should ask him to clarify his stance on government/defense contractors because it directly pertains to his stated aims of ending the war in Iraq. How can you legitimately claim a desire to end an illegal war without explicitly denouncing the use of 196,000 defense contractor's like Blackwater that outnumber 181,000 US military personnel? We should ask him how his stated desire to increase the size of our military sends a message of peace and hope to the world. What peace loving nation spends over 1 trillion dollars on warfare? We should ask him how his support of a National ID Card and re-authorization of the Patriot Act makes safe our civil liberties and privacy of information. Habeas Corpus has yet to be re-enshrined, and we've been living with a Democratically controlled Congress since last November. This isn't about race, gender, or what our pastor or family member said. It's about not yet imagined American children inheriting an ever larger growing cycle of self-funded economic, social, and state violence. We are all in the same boat and if we don't start asking real substantive questions, we're going to end up even more broke with an angry old fighter pilot in 1984 Oakley sunglasses who graduated at the bottom of his Naval Academy class and can't discern Iran from marshmallow peeps. My apologies, Senator Lieberman just whispered into my ear that it is actually Shiite, not marshmallow peeps. Let us hope that when McCain is 170, our children won't be reaping his benefits. Let us also hope that when we and Obama champion the word "change," we're all using the same definition. Personally, I say give me back the value of my money, give me back my constitutional liberties, end these corporate mercenary wars against the working people of the world, and keep the change.

Last Monday, my corner deli displayed this sign:

TO ALL OF OUR VALUABLE CUSTOMERS, WE REGRET TO INFORM YOU THAT DUE TO THE RISING COSTS OF FLOUR AND MANY OTHER ITEMS, WE WILL BEGIN RAISING THE PRICES OF OUR ITEMS THROUGHOUT OUR STORE.

Comments

[outnow]

Obama either doesn't know economics or isn't saying. It takes about two years to understand the principles of economics. He still has to master foreign affairs. Hillary is still ducking bullets in Bosnia and wanting to bring back Greenspan and Robert Rubin. McCain is headed for assisted living. The answer was in Kucinich's policies. A red hothead with a hot redhead. Instead we have these "attractive" candidates such as HRC, Obama and/or McCain who knows nothing about foreign affairs or economics. It's a good thing that Joe Lieberman can still lead McCain around by the hand. More of Uncle Ronnie's policies and we will have socialism.

[texanna]

Great post, and I second the questions you want asked and answered. Unfortunately, they're not sexy or titillating and way too hard for the hairbrains that pass for journalists today; so I don't think we'll get any satisfaction about these important issues. If Sen. Obama's supporters were half as passionate about that "holding his feet to the fire" thing as they are to defending him at all costs, maybe we could get his answers. BTW, I'd like to hear Sen. Clinton's answers to these same questions. To date, the best I've been able to find as to what these two think about some of the things you've mentioned was their response to Boston Globe questionnaire wayyyyy back at the beginning of the primary. And, even then, the questions were narrow and so were the answers.

[maggiemae656]

If we could only go back to the days of no interstate banks...

[vanessa04]

The issues raised by these questions are the issues we should be asking all the candidates about. Not happening.

[zizyphus]

I did not realize that Obama voted for the Real ID act. That is saddening and disturbing. I hope he realizes now that was a big mistake. Also, as a professor of Constitutional law, he must know that Habeas Corpus is central to preserving democracy. WIll he be questioned on this, or will we be subjected to weeks more of spin about his pastor? All we know at this point is, McCain would be the final death knell for America by continuing the destructive and wasteful Republican policies.

[Aaror]

Two solutions:
1. for anyone who can, leave. No I am not a repub troll playing the "if you don't love america, just leave." I am honestly saying that if you are intelligent, and can leave the US, do so. Take what is great about America with you and help your new nation appreciate freedom, multiculturalism, and cooperation. This will make you about $30,000 per person in your household as you shed your share of the US debt. Of course if enough of us do this it will bankrupt the country, but that will happen anyway, and see point 2.
2. The US should repudiate it's debt. This will do two things. First it will end the staggering debt hanging over our heads. Second it will make US debt untrustworthy, forcing the Federal government to forego future deficit spending, unless they are spending a surpluss from a prior year. Yes, this will collapse the value of the dollar, making cheap chinese imports too expensive and effectivly lowering every American paycheck, but we will live on what we can afford and not buy crap from china, so it will save us from the other great threat (of spending until we are all so in hock we can't afford to disagree with China when they tell us what to do).

[oldpotsmuggler]

Liquidating the U.S. Air Force alone would pay most if not all of the current debt. Throw in the public lands in The West, and we could buy up a fair chunk of the rest of the planet.

[itmaybetoolate]

Clear, concise, and cuts to the core. I haven't seen anything better than this!!

[dadw5boys]

One law of supply and demand does not change!

If you leave it on the shef or in the tank the price will come down.

If you can't afford to go to work , stop!

Would you work your way into bankruptize?

[wonderingstar]

Heath, this is probably the most important blog post I've seen on Huff Post in the last week, but I'm afraid it's not as sexy as some other posts so I only see a handful of comments. Are we really spending $1 trillion out of 2008 revenues of $2.6 trillion on military? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget%2C_2008). Something is very screwed up about our national priorities. I vote for the candidate who will spend the biggest portion of our military budget on rebuilding our crumbling bridges and infrastructure. Let's get some of those Blackwater guys behind a backhoe and build something we can all use instead of guarding the haves from the have-nots.

[oldpotsmuggler]

If I had had some money to invest in oil company stocks at the begining of BUSHCO I wouldn't be affected by any of this right now.

Oh, that's right, the folks in the inner circle did, and did, and aren't. As for the other 99.9% of us, who gives a shit?

[LoRiseAntlers]

If ever any time screamed for revolution,it is now.

Unfortunately,the majority of our fellow citizens can't get off their fat asses or stop staring at their communist made flat screens because American idol is on long enough to give a shit.

[dissolvethecorporation]

What's really scary is that the $600 rebate may come with notice that says 'Greetings...'

[PioneerKing]

Heath be thankful that the republicans are in charge. Imagine what the economy would be like if the democrats were in power. lol

[yrerbendr]

Right the Republicans have run the country so well, the Democrats could not do any better. It may just turn out that the problem is not which party, but the very excesses of our system. We all need to rethink the goals of our financial system and the limits of wealth.

[Rule Of Law]

Heath--good article. Scary, but good. three questions;

"Halliburton/KBR that received a no-bid 385 million dollar contract to build Immigrant Detention Centers...for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities...in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs."

1. I can search for Halliburton camps and find a wide range of info having varying degrees of accuracy, so can you cite your sources on this critical issue?

"the use of 196,000 defense contractor's like Blackwater that outnumber 181,000 US military personnel?"

2. I have heard numbers all over the board on this, and it is a very important number, because if it is accurate, it means that even with over 300,000 troops in Iraq we still can't fulfill the promises that Bush and co have made over and over to us and to the Iraqis! Where can did you find this info?

"Obama...who's (sic) top contributors over the totality of his political career are Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan..."

3. That sounds like platform for change to me! But let's be fair, compared to Hillary or McCain, it's pretty much par for the course in our presidential races, especially when the MSM massacres any real proponents of change like Dodd, Biden (?), Kucinich, Feingold. So where do you find the dollars for each candidate so we can know who our next president is owned by?

As for our Constitutional Liberties, If, as you pretty much say, our President is a Corporate Tool--what are the chances?

[Aaror]

Re the 196,000 defense contractors not securing peace in Iraq, they are part of the problem, not the solution. Their idea of weapon practice is fire at iraqi civilians and see if they can hit. But you shouldn't be surprised.
They get really good pay for those jobs. Their bosses have made sure they know the money only keeps coming if the war continues. Simple self interest directs those contractors to do anything they can to keep the war going and "hot."

[Sundialsvc4]

Heath, we don't have to "ask" ==any== of these people, because they are all three sitting Senators. The Librarians of Congress are doing the work for us at http://thomas.loc.gov.

Every text of every version of every bill, every comment made on the record in a committee meeting, every vote ever taken or abstiained. It's all there.

"By their fruits shall ye know them."

And yes, the profiteering is disgusting. I seem to remember a General named Dwight D. Eisenhower who had a few things to say about that. . . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_industrial_complex

(Gee, why didn't we have the Internet when =I= had to do term papers. . . .?)

[desmirl]

For most of the people who voted for Bush (twice!) the coming financial woes are going to be a harsh lesson. For those of us who didn't vote for Bush, we'll just have to suffer along. Recessions don't last forever... Keep telling yourself that....

[FredBrighton]

Ah, well. Recessions don't last forever? Tell that to the Aztecs or Mayans. Actually if a "recession" lasts long enough and hard enough the country going through it doesn't survive and in that case the recession sort of lasts forever. Rome went through a kind of recession, so did England and the Soviet Union. For that matter, until we create a democracy to live in and as long as we allow the Republicrats to control the government we will be in some kind of a recession or depression. I know I am most of the time now. I keep wondering what will happen when the Japanese, Chinese and the lot decide enough is enough and they either call in their chits or just stop lending us drug money. Who the hell thought putting a cokehead in the White House was going to be a clever way to run things? The man tap dances for the cameras on the White House porch! He holds hands with his Secretary of State as they stride off to Helicopter One for a cozy weekend together. I don't know, it sure feels like forever.