Newt or Mitt VS Obama. Can either of 'em beat him?

[GQBlues]

Here is a good bedtime story!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=Lvl5Gan69Wo

I still remember Pelosi loudly caling out Bush to give up those cool billions from TARP and hand it over to none other than Ron Gettlefinger, who comfortably arrived in Washington in their respective private jets. Remember that silliness?

Then once the stupid fungus got settled in the white house, he then added billions more both to Chrysler and GM that was slated to Ford who ultimately decided they didn't want any part of. If that isn't enough, he decided to rape the taxpayers even more by his billion dollar giveaway which he named 'Cash for Clunkers'..$3,000.00 for a heap of useless scrap metal that doesn't run? *WE*, the US taxpayers, paid that much just so GM/Chrysler can sell their cars?

To this day, they haven't paid any of the taxpayer's monies back, but according to them, they have and that's damned good enough for that fungus in the white house.

Here's the ad:   

Here's the truth about that ad:


As for your link...pay close attention to cushy Ron's discreet declaration @ 3:10 of this video.



All things being equal, GM's move to set-up house in China may be controversial, but can you really blame them? It is potentially the biggest market anywhere in our galaxy at this time. After all, doesn't the people of USA 'own' GM at this point under the leadership of the white fungus? Besides, isn't that why Clinton signed that trade agreement with China, and his urging to introduce China to the WTO, to begin with?

Here's Dan Atkerson's vid back in 2010 trying so hard to 'hide' the fact GM need China's market to help them remain 'competitive' in the highly competitive global auto market. see: at 2:10 of the vid.



If not GM, then who? Heck, to be perfectly honest about it. Hundai and/or Kia would've been perfect for the role (who, IMO, is currently the best automaker right now behind only VW). 2 birds with one stone. Help SK's economy prosper even more and these 2 countries can renew their long lost admiration for one another which would've help unifying that other region in the peninsula.

As bad as this nearly 100 billion giveaway to GM/Chrysler is, it's nothing compared to the AIG white house fungus charity. Remember that Chris Dodd 'lost' memo about the bonuses? Well, at the time it was a huge mess (it still is), but little did we know, they knew, AIG knew 200 blllion dollars will never find it's way 'back home'. Great supporting role for Geithner on that puppy.

Yeah, Bernanke can win an Oscar for portraying the really angry Treasury Secretary role in "Let's Rape America with Hope and Change"

[GQBlues]

Here is also a good read:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-kuttner/credit-default-swaps_b_1067152.html
 
"You may recall that credit default swaps were the prime instrument in the nearly $200 billion collapse of AIG, which had to be bailed out by the U.S. government. AIG, the world's largest insurance company, in effect wrote insurance against sub-prime securities going bad, but without setting aside reserves against that risk.
Reserving against possible loss is the fundamental pillar of the insurance business. AIG could get away with breaking that rule because industry has successfully lobbied for a loophole holding that a swap was not quite insurance, not quite a security, not quite illegal gambling -- it conveniently fell between the cracks."

The real core of the Great Recession is Clinton's signing of the Commodities Futures Modernization Act of 2000.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_Futures_Modernization_Act_of_2000

I agree crony Capitalism is pretty raunchy, but if you fail to see all the recent events leading to the decimation of America can be found at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, then yes, vote for bigger government. Vote for Socialism later this year. Give that fungus a chance to finish what he had started.

[BC]

The real core of the Great Recession is Clinton's signing of the Commodities Futures Modernization Act of 2000.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_Futures_Modernization_Act_of_2000

I agree crony Capitalism is pretty raunchy, but if you fail to see all the recent events leading to the decimation of America can be found at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, then yes, vote for bigger government. Vote for Socialism later this year. Give that fungus a chance to finish what he had started.

I sincerely doubt that the purpose of the law was the Great Recession.  Instead it seems intent was to lessen trading restrictions thinking big banking would get it right. 

Instead of being responsible and following intent, all was done in the name of circumvent.

I really don't know what is scarier, government or the top echelons of business.  For both ethics be damned.

[TheTraveler]

I really don't know what is scarier, government or the top echelons of business.

what a foolish and naive question.
 
has a business ever killed 6 million jews?... or wiped out millions within the soviet union?... or committed genocide across africa... or forced chinese women to abort their babies... or how about started any world wars?
 
like i said... foolish and naive.

[GQBlues]

I sincerely doubt that the purpose of the law was the Great Recession.  Instead it seems intent was to lessen trading restrictions thinking big banking would get it right. 

Instead of being responsible and following intent, all was done in the name of circumvent.

I really don't know what is scarier, government or the top echelons of business.  For both ethics be damned.

The 'purpose' of the law? Just as the Community Reinvestment Act by Carter and Clinton, didn't mean to market homes to people who couldn't possibly afford it, right?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act

...which was originally enacted in 1977, and expanded in the 90s, which led to the early 1980's recession and early 1990 banking creative financing. By the mid-1990s, Clinton once again regurgitated Carter's ambition, and the rest is history as I hope many ought to know by now.

I was searching an original campaign vid that was used to support McCain bavk in the '08 election but it was controversially 'taken' down. This is the one replaced it...



...and speaking about McCain, I used to like this guy but because he acted like a stooge in the recent Libya invasion by suggesting and lobbying for the US to take part in that silliness by asking for attack drones to be deployed on the onset of that Libyan *Freedom* movement  , but no more..

...all roads to hell is paved with dubiously political good intention$ i.e. United Nations.
 

[Gator]

With the current congress, would it really make any difference who is president?

Huge difference.   It is called leadership.   
 
American government is about compromise.   Reagan was elected president and his Republican Party had control of both the House and Senate.  Did he ramrod his policies down the throat of the Democrats?  No.  He met with the liberal Tip O'Neill, the second longest running Speaker of the House.   Together they reached  a compromise for  legislative initiatives.   The compromise was about 60-40 in favor of conservative policies, yet the liberals got some of what they wanted.   The liberals were not ignored.   
 
Reagan represented all Americans.   Reagan went on to accomplish much in his 8 years, including the collapse of the evil empire, the USSR.
 
Have you seen similar leadership by Obama?     The answer is no.   
 
Fact: all the American presidents recognized as the "best" had party control of Congress.  Do you believe Obama will be considered one of the best Presidents?  It is not a time for amateurs.  We need a leader. 
 
 

[Gator]

BC,

GQ is correct in that the Great Recession starting in 2008 had its roots in the  Community Reinvestment Act.   Over time it greatly increased the volume of subprime mortgages.
 
Yet it took far more than that for the collapse.  The lending institutions lobbied for and received less regulation (e. g., repeal of the Glass Steagal Act as Glyden described), enabling them to assume more risk.  Government lending enterprises were pressured to take on more risk.   And with derivatives and credit default swaps, risk was leveraged.  Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve did not take away the punch bowl when the party became too lively.   
 
Let us not forget one important fact.   Americans decided it was acceptable to assume more debt, "... with the ratio of debt to disposable personal income rising from 77% in 1990 to 127% at the end of 2007, much of this increase mortgage-related."  It  created a bubble.  All bubbles eventually pop.
 
There is enough blame to go around for everyone.
 
Once we got into the mess, our government undertook many initiatives.  Probably the best was TARP as it did save the financial community from collapse.  Can you imagine ATMs not functioning?  After that, few policies did anything other than increase our debt.
 
 

[Gator]

If that isn't enough, he decided to rape the taxpayers even more by his billion dollar giveaway which he named 'Cash for Clunkers'..$3,000.00 for a heap of useless scrap metal that doesn't run? *WE*, the US taxpayers, paid that much just so GM/Chrysler can sell their cars?

Don't be too harsh about "Cash for Clunkers."  It removed from our highways about 75% of the "Obama for President" bumper stickers.   

[Gator]

I really don't know what is scarier, government or the top echelons of business. 

Business leaders are appointed to represent the business owners.   Government leaders are elected to represent the welfare of the public.  Huge difference.
 
 

[tfcrew]

    Government leaders ...

Key word.
Where are they?

[BC]

Don't be too harsh about "Cash for Clunkers."  It removed from our highways about 75% of the "Obama for President" bumper stickers.   

Now that's a chuckle I'll take in stride Gator

[Shadow]

what a foolish and naive question.
 
has a business ever killed 6 million jews?... or wiped out millions within the soviet union?... or committed genocide across africa... or forced chinese women to abort their babies... or how about started any world wars?
 
like i said... foolish and naive.

Arms business is responsible for all of this.
Oil business has wiped out millions of animals, and a nice number of people.
Nuclear business has caused ilness around the globe.
Medical business has killed as many as it has cured.

A business is not ethical in any way. And that is a good thing, do not get me wrong.
After all the Dutch made good money during the 80-year war, when they produced and sold bullets to Spain. Spain used these bullets to shoot the Dutch...

[erikmagenta]

Arms business is responsible for all of this.
Oil business has wiped out millions of animals, and a nice number of people.
Nuclear business has caused ilness around the globe.
Medical business has killed as many as it has cured.

A business is not ethical in any way. And that is a good thing, do not get me wrong.
After all the Dutch made good money during the 80-year war, when they produced and sold bullets to Spain. Spain used these bullets to shoot the Dutch...

But of course, all of those businesses could have been regulated by the government, right??   

[Gator]

Obama continues to attack Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital in private equity.  How about Obama's record in public equity? 

President Obama's administration has invested billions of taxpayer dollars in private businesses.    Many of those investments have been failures,  "leaving in their wake bankruptcies, layoffs, criminal investigations and taxpayers on the hook for billions."  We are talking about far more than the $535 million pissed away on Solyndra.   

From the Washington Post:
 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/forget-bain-obamas-public-equity-record-is-the-real-scandal/2012/05/24/gJQAXnXCnU_story.html
 
Who do you want watching your tax money?

[Gator]

Medical business has killed as many as it has cured.

What?

[Boethius]

what a foolish and naive question.
 
has a business ever killed 6 million jews?... or wiped out millions within the soviet union?... or committed genocide across africa... or forced chinese women to abort their babies... or how about started any world wars?
 
like i said... foolish and naive.

It was neither foolish nor naive.

Business leaders have always been intertwined with these conflicts.  Did businesses kill millions during WWII?  Well, IG Farben manufactured  Zyklon B gas, which was used to kill those individuals, and funded Mengele's experiments.  That company was renamed Bayer after WWII.


Siemens built the gas chambers (with slave labourers).

Standard Oil was one of only three companies in the world that could produce tetraethyl lead gas, used to fly planes.  They supplied the Nazies with the gas throughout the war.

Ford supplied the Nazis and the Allies with vehicles throughout WWII.

Allianz insured Auschwitz, and paid life insurance benefits of Jewish Holocaust victims directly to the Nazis.

There is a whole book which explores IBM's role in the Holocaust
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust

De Beers is currently involved in a controversy as they demand land be cleared in the traditional Bushman lands in Botswana.  They have continued their business interests, notwithstanding findings their actions are leading to genocide.

There is also an interesting book on the connection between Wall Street and the Bolsheviks -
http://www.amazon.com/Street-Bolshevik-Revolution-Antony-Sutton/dp/089968324X/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top/182-0327913-3639778

The Abir Congo Company played a major role in the deaths of 20 to 40 million Congolese. It was responsible for major human rights violations, often using slave labour by "taxing" Congolese villagers, and torturing, often to death, those who failed to meet quotas.

Cargill did not have a particularly illustrious history in Bhopal.

I could go on and on . . .
 
 

[SANDRO43]

Standard Oil was one of only three companies in the world that could produce tetraethyl lead gas, used to fly planes. They supplied the Nazies with the gas throughout the war.

Bo, I don't know where you obtained that piece of info, but IMHO it's wildly inaccurate :

Tetraethyllead (common name tetraethyl lead), abbreviated TEL, is an organolead compound with the formula (CH3CH2)4Pb. Its mixing with gasoline (petrol) as an inexpensive additive beginning in the 1920s allowed octane ratings and thus engine compression to be boosted significantly, increasing power and fuel economy.

Considering that German chemical research and industries were at the forefront since the late 1800s, I doubt very much that Germany had to rely on US supplies for a comparatively simple product best known universally as the antiknock agent.

TEL is produced by reacting chloroethane with a sodium–lead alloy.
4 NaPb + 4 CH3CH2Cl → (CH3CH2)4Pb + 4 NaCl + 3 Pb

Among other things, German chemists developed synthetic rubber and other substitutes for unavailable raw materials during WWII, so the process was well within their technical capabilities .

[calmissile]

This link provides at least some of the answers.  A very interesting read

http://reformed-theology.org/html/books/wall_street/chapter_04.htm

[SANDRO43]

This link provides at least some of the answers.  A very interesting readhttp://reformed-theology.org/html/books/wall_street/chapter_04.htm

Yes. It says that Standard Oil gave the Germans the technology for TEL - not the product itself, as reported in Bo's quote - and the latter swapped theirs for buna (synthetic rubber).   

[tfcrew]

 

   That company was renamed Bayer after WWII.

One of Bayer's products...

 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Bayer_Heroin_bottle.jpg

 
 

[Shadow]

But of course, all of those businesses could have been regulated by the government, right??   

The main thing is that businesses are not innocent of crime. To believe business would do any better in controlling a country as a government is pretty naieve. You only have to watch  some movies to understand the results.

[BC]

The main thing is that businesses are not innocent of crime. To believe business would do any better in controlling a country as a government is pretty naieve. You only have to watch  some movies to understand the results.

Movies?

Recent history is much better..

Just because some action or loophole may be legal does not mean it is ethical.

[SANDRO43]

One of Bayer's products...

Clearly NOT a post-WWII product .

Well, IG Farben manufactured Zyklon B gas, which was used to kill those individuals, and funded Mengele's experiments. That company was renamed Bayer after WWII.

Foundation of IG Farben
IG Farben was founded on December 25, 1925, as a merger of the following six companies:
BASF
Bayer
Hoechst (including Cassella and Chemische Fabrik Kalle)
Agfa
Chemische Fabrik Griesheim-Elektron
Chemische Fabrik vorm. Weiler Ter Meer
...
Break-up and liquidation
Due to the severity of the war crimes committed by IG Farben during World War II, the company was considered to be too corrupt to be allowed to continue to exist. The Soviet Union seized most of IG Farben's assets located in the Soviet occupation zone (see Morgenthau Plan), as part of their reparation payments. The Western Allies however, in 1951, split the company up into its original constituent companies. The four largest quickly bought the smaller ones. Today Agfa, BASF, and Bayer remain, Hoechst having in 1999 demerged its industrial chemical operations to Celanese AG and merged its life-sciences businesses with Rhône-Poulenc's to form Aventis.

Part of Hoechst was afterwards Celanese AG, while another part of the company was sold in 1997 to the chemical spin-off of Sandoz, the Muttenz (Switzerland) based Clariant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IG_Farben

After WWII, Bayer concentrated on pharmaceuticals, BASF (once Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik) on chemical products.

[GQBlues]

Yeah, speaking of naive and foolish, LOL...I suppose a person can snort TIDE detergent (Weapon of Mass Detergent) all day long, or drink gasoline to wash down their dinner, to prove businesses kill people..

Those evil bastards. I never realize those inanimate canned products, produced by those evil bastard businesses, could've easily attacked me to death from under the sink. It's good I first stumbled upon RWD, phew...I feel safe now.

[Boethius]

The point is not the product, but that, as BC said, business leaders are not ethical.

The wheels of the Nazi machine, as just one example, would not have turned so easily, if industry had not supplied them, willingly, with the tools they needed.