The economy is in the crapper. Unemployment i going through the roof. The country is burning. And the Republicans are grandstanding and playing games. Why am I not surprised?

they are not feeling the flames.

I think the carmakers banks are using a lot of scare tactics, trying to play chicken with the politicians.

The difference between Chrystia Freeman and reality.

Another interesting point that one of my Republican pals pointed out, the Big 3 cannot fail for National Security reasons alone. Why is it that no one in the MSM will call out SHelby and Corker for what they are – shills for their foreign companies who have operations in their states. Nothing more. In fact the Anti-American Shelby stated on CBS this morning that there is nothing the American Automakers can say or do to change his mind. Pretty much a self-admission that he is an Anti-American Right Wing idealogue.

The country is burning. And the Republicans are grandstanding and playing games.

Shorter message for Repugs: “Don’t piss on me and tell me you’re the fire department!”

I think they see as an opportunity to toast marshmellows.

David Scott is on now saying people want smaller, efficient cars.

No, they don’t. Especially not now that oil prices are down — so says Marcy.

http://emptywheel.firedoglake……-they-are/

That’s because the corporate media is their firewall.

That hearing was impossible to watch on CNN with the commentary of an
airhead as an overlay of additional stupidity… CSPAN provided the
thing itself, which was bad enough. Seems the South Succotash crowd
smells victory at Gettysburg this time around, oblivious to the total
disaster a collapse of the hated Detroit Three would be even for the
glorious southland. This lameduck period will be the undoing of what is
left of the economy before the innauguration if nothing is done. That
scene yesterday was one of the worst days of television I have seen, but
I know now there are more to come. God help us.

fyi – in addition to the auto industry hearing, the JEC is having a hearing on the latest unemployment numbers. i find myself wishing the congress critters at the auto industry hearing were listening in on the JEC hearing.

marshmellows and firewalls? the modern day analogy of nero fiddling?

The stakes here are high. It shouldn’t be too much to ask that people do a little research before climbing on cable news an making outrageous and demonstrably false claims.

If it is their business to make outrageous and demonstrably false claims, doing a bit research won’t change anything. Besides, the less research they do the easier it is to debunk them.

Critters have no idea what the witness does for a living. Maloney’s Qs are moronic. He’s a data drone not an analyst.

“You can’t expect someone to know something when their paycheck is dependent on them not knowing.” Upton Sinclair, socialist.

Corker was just on the Today show.

What a piece of work that guy is.

these hacks don’t give squat about the fabrid of the nation .. they’re in “obstruction mode” already .. and it’s just going to get worse after the new administration comes into office ..

i hope haven’t internalized that “the jig is up” .. imo the electorate has caught on to these gasbags .. and they will be deflated .. but it might well come too late ..

there is simply no way that sitting back and letting one in ten jobs disappear can have a “good outcome” for the country …

what’s happening is shameful and crass .. we’re in a serious national crisis .. it’s not the time to be playing partisan politics .. imo

I’m sure it has been remarked on but the economy lost an estimated 533,000 jobs in November.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

An estimated 1,256,000 jobs have been lost in the last 3 months. This brings Bush’s job creation total for the last 8 years down to 3,698,000. His job creation numbers were always piss poor but these are horrendous.

Playing Politics with the Auto Industry is Something We All Expect.

However, Eliminating Jobs in a Down Economy is Just Too Dumb to be called Playing Politics.

Shelby and Corker are Insisting on Irresponsibly Making an Ideological Point – Unions are Bad – by Destroying Our Manufacturing Base, thereby Undermining 1 Out of 10 Jobs in America.

So, the Wisdom of the GOP here is: Cut Off the Nose to Spite the Face!

i’d like to think that numbers of this size wouldn’t need a subtle analysis…. actually, i’d just be happy if the congress critters had a clue what the number actually are.

Unemployment is now at a thirty four year high and they judge that differently now than they did then.
I have heard you double the official number to get a truer picture. That is scary.

I posted that in a prior thread. Jobs are down 2.0 million over the past year. If another 500,000 are lost in December, then the job gains over the 8 W years amount to under 5 million. I’ve forgotten my table but that’s about the worst of any post-WWII prez.

Christy asked me to write a diary discussing the numbers, how to interpret them, and some historical comparisons. I won’t get to it until later today, so if you prefer to do it, let me know. I have no particular desire to do it, but would provide it as a service.

“Those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Santayana

“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” Karl Marx

as progressive politicians they MUST base any bailout on gm promising to honor contracts with labor…this is simple stuff, that will get the republicans OFF the “make them go bankrupt” meme

Why is Cummings being such a dickhead?

ok, back to the auto industry hearing….

the correct analogy of nero playing fiddle is right there, have a look you will surely agree

Right to work states are simply a modern slang for slavery. It sickens me they call if “right to work” but what a joke. It is most often really modern slavery. If you work all day and still cannot afford to live in a “decent” manner; being able to pay rent, buy good food, afford good healthcare, provide a better life for your children, what else can you call it really, but slavery, penury, or serfdom?

that’s when i gave it up – cummings has been one of the less idiotic in the past. if he’s this bad today, i don’t have much hope for the rest….

first for nola, and now for the country.

Here’s a great Frank quote courtesy of Josh:

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA): “[Obama’s] going to have to be more assertive than he’s been. At a time of great crisis with mortgage foreclosures and autos, he says we only have one president at a time. I’m afraid that overstates the number of presidents we have. He’s got to remedy that situation.”

I wonder what fraction of a prez we’ll have after 1/20. Obama does not show signs that he thinks the economy’s hair is on fire.

I was saying the same thing yesterday. However,this very point was made a week or so ago by the unlikeliest of talking heads-Ben Stein. He was on Cavuto,and when Stein UNEPECTEDLY defended a GM “bailout” I thought Cavuto’s head would explode. He literally seemed to stammer. The back and forth went on with Neal trying to sway Stein to the “F–k Detroit and thye Unions” stance,but to NO avail. Maybe Ms. Hamsher can get some video of the veddy interesting interchange.

Michael Duffy of Time Magazine is implying on the Diane Rheam show on NPR that losing the Big Three would not effect national security in a world of asymmetric warfare.

I’m leaving for errands shortly. The witness puts data together. Why are they asking him policy, analysis, and forecasting Qs. They’re all dickheads.

Common sense would inform most people that if this turns out to be the case, foreign automakers will not be immune, either.

and there’s your problem right there. Please name me one single person in the Senate or Congress that has common sense.

An emailer to the Diane Rheam show suggesting the Republicons in fact want to destroy the unions and the “panelists” poo poo this. They say their is no “proof.”

Manufacturing jobs are down to 13.168 million and represent 3.946 million manufacturing jobs lost during the Bush era. This is a 23% decline. Manufacturing jobs now account for only 9.7% of US jobs.

Sometimes it is impossible to comment without sounding like a know it all, but the auto industry problem exemplifies the psychosis motivating capitalism and hierarchy. Some people have a need to see themselves as “better”. The more pain they inflict on their way “up”, the merrier. Why do we endure such a system? Why do we resist trying to fashion a serious online movement to push back? Why do we need status when we are all going to die? It’s not the economy, it’s who we are and why?

Let’s not forget to remember that Alabama is the state that railroaded Governor Don Seligman into prison at the behest of Karl Rove and with the machinations of Abramoff. My money says that the Japanese and Korean carmakers want the Detroit plants for themselves and Shelby is their procurer. All he needs is a pair of platform boots and a big fedora with a long plume.Boom-shak-a-lakka–Detroit gets the SHAFT!

Yeah you would think that the wholesale rejection of the GOP and their culture wars (which I do believe this is — red state hatred of unions, after they were forced to integrate) they wouldn’t be able to dominate the conversation with their bullshit arguments.

Obviously not.

Does anyone here know what a “right to work state” means?

Michael Duffy of Time Magazine is implying on the Diane Rheam show on NPR that losing the Big Three would not effect national security in a world of asymmetric warfare.

Michael Duffy is one of many media dopes and shills who wouldn’t be able to find his ass if his corporate employers didn’t tell him where it was (and better be).

The right to work for less.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law

right to work state

It’s not the economy, it’s who we are and why?

That is pretty much it. And looking at our politicians, it makes me pessimistic about both.

Does anyone here know what a “right for corporations to work have no union state” means?

Yes.

You are close, it means that you can’t get any assistance from the government for anything. It means you have to take any job that you are offered at any price. If you are offered a job at less than living wages, you must take it. You are “forced” by the government to take any job you are offered, at any price/wage. Basically, you are a slave to corporate america.

that would require recognizing and dealing with reality. they’re still working off the old play book:

…when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

A slave is a slave, no matter what the color of their skin.

I firmly believe this is a farewell,middle finger salute by BUSHCO to ALL unions.This is public humiliation and economic shock and awe for proponents of EFCA which the GOP has demonized. The EFCA will make it easier for workers to organize into uniions. Obama has said he will sign the legislation into law. That’s why they’re getting the union concessions NOW from Detroit=and their doing it in a public pillorying way they didn’t do to Wall Street. It’s the unions,stupid.

From watching this video of Robert Reich I conclude he knows squat about bankruptcy. The point about consumer behavior is a good one, but there is an even more basic problem with it.

If the reason they are in trouble is that they cannot get credit lines, and potential buyers cannot get credit to buy cars, bankruptcy may not improve that situation. For a successful Chapter 11 there has to be financing for the reorganization. Lenders in bankruptcy get first priority for being paid back, but if they think that’s unlikely, they won’t lend. If Chrysler files a chapter 11 case and has no financing, the case gets converted to Chapter 7, liquidation, and the assets are sold off in pieces by a trustee. Even if they manage to stay in 11, they have to file a reorganization plan that can be fought ferociously by lenders, creditors, unions, and any other stakeholders, and a judge will decide whether to approve it. It can take months or years.

They should get a really expert bankrutcy lawyer to school them on why Reich is blithely wrong. His question is OK: what’s wrong with the bankruptcy? But he never answered it, leaving the assumption that bankrutcy is OK. The answer is: they will probably be liquidated within a year and we will have no auto industry.

There are no well adjusted slaves.

Not in this history of humankind, although human and kind together are probably an oxymoron.

I was union member and union board member for years and watched them
destroy our local in a RTW state, no matter how many concessions we
gave or how reasonable we were in negotiations. This is an ideology
of destruction that we confront with no help from the media or our own
party… Paris is burning.

…when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

this actually worked for quite some time;

“the patriot act”, plaguerized from hitler himself and simply re-wording “the enabling act”, the OPPOSITE of “patriotism

“no child left behind” deliberately formulated to bnakrupt public education

“clean air act” forumlated to allow industry to dump their bronchitis in your kids air and cancer in your wife’s water

and the list goes on and on

they created their own reality indeed and the country fell for it for about 6 years

I understand Bankruptcy Protection under the law for Corporations, This is not about a restructuring of a business, this is about a restructuring of employee rules. It is totally about doing away with labor unions. This is about the last vestiges of Milton Friedman’s Shock Doctrine. The destruction of humanity as we know it.

Senators like Richard Shelby…

well, he’s *kinda* like a Senator….

But mostly, he’s like a dick.

I am behind the unions all the way. I don’t care what it costs executives.

You are so right.

Curious you should say that. I call my theory, to which I am the sole adherent, “collective image psychology”. It holds that negative perceptions of the collective image (human nature) motivate hierarchy as some seek to distinguish themselves from a mass they despise. We find ourselves in a collective sado-masochism which, unlikely as it seems, gratifies both ends, high and low. The high get the gratifications of feeling “superior” while the low relish the irresponsibility of following orders. It will be difficult, perhaps impossible, to escape madness of this magnitude, but madness it is.

That is how Weimar died under the Nazi assault.

If the reason they are in trouble is that they cannot get credit lines, and potential buyers cannot get credit to buy cars, bankruptcy may not improve that situation. For a successful Chapter 11 there has to be financing for the reorganization.

This is why an auto industry bailout can only be one part among many to get the economy going again.

We’re so screwed.

And why is it that the banks who largely created this mess get a blank check made out for $trillions, but the auto makers, get the third degree?

That’s a rhetorical question, by the way, I think we all know the answer.

It’s as if in the State Ministry of Truth, there are no more Staff furiously loading the Wurlitzer with it’s Massive Propaganda Programs.

Instead, just a few naked light bulbs and a looped-CD wired into the Soundboard, blaring out the Same Old Shit…”Unions are Bad!” “Obama’s a Muslim!” “He’s going to Raise Your Taxes, Joe Sixpack!”

And 20 Million Ditto-heads are just Lapping it Up like Pablum!

Berkeley steps up, sort of:

(12-04) 18:02 PST — Berkeley’s City Council will delve into national policy again next week when it votes whether to demand the United States charge Berkeley resident and former Bush adviser John Yoo with war crimes.

…

The City Council will vote Monday on the five measures. In addition to demanding that Yoo be charged with war crimes, the city will decide whether to order Boalt [Hall, UC Berkeley’s law school] to offer alternatives to Yoo’s courses, so no student is forced to take a class from him if they don’t want to. Yoo has taught constitutional and international law at Boalt since 1993.

…

“We respect the politics of Berkeley, home of the free speech movement, and their right to debate this issue,” Gluss said. “They can pass this measure, but it won’t have any bearing on the university’s policy.”

Although there may be those/many who adhere to the heirarchy of being master/slaves, there are many of us who want no part of it. The problem is many of the “slaves” don’t even know/acknowledege that they are slaves. That is the biggest problem. The human ego is so large, that even “losers”/”slaves” don’t see themselves as such. Hint: If you don’t make enough money while working full time, to afford to live a life where you can pay your rent, buy healthy food, afford healthcare, provide future higher education for your children, afford a decent vacation once a year; you are a wage slave. Sorry, but the truth is the truth.

Wow, how close are you :-), :-(

“We respect the politics of Berkeley, home of the free speech movement, and their right to debate this issue,” pro-torture advocate “I never met a war crime I didn’t like” Gluss said. “They can pass this measure, but it won’t have any bearing on the university’s policy.”

Fixed for you.

Let me be clear that I abhor the wage/slave reality. It exists, and I devote my very being to crushing it. I know there are still those of you who happily live in it and refuse to believe it exists while being crushed by it. I love you and wait diligently until you see it clearly.

This is why an auto industry bailout can only be one part among many to get the economy going again.

i finally got around to reading krugman’s piece in the NYRB, “What to Do.” this bit i stood out for me:

We’re also going to have to think hard about how to deal with financial globalization. In the aftermath of the Asian crisis of the 1990s, there were some calls for long-term restrictions on international capital flows, not just temporary controls in times of crisis. For the most part these calls were rejected in favor of a strategy of building up large foreign exchange reserves that were supposed to stave off future crises. Now it seems that this strategy didn’t work. For countries like Brazil and Korea, it must seem like a nightmare: after all that they’ve done, they’re going through the 1990s crisis all over again. Exactly what form the next response should take isn’t clear, but financial globalization has definitely turned out to be even more dangerous than we realized.

beyond the point that people from stiglitz to those crazy black block folks have been saying our regime of financial globalization was stupid (inefficient and destabilizing) for years. i’m beginning to think that it’s not just paulson and bernanke who are uncertain about what should be done.

Yup, they got that right, but the people over at TTAC just refuse to acknowledge this without snark…

Unfortunately, it has never been about globalization for the benefit of globalization; providing many others with work throughout the world/globe, auch that it would create increased demand throughout the world/globe. It has always been about a few guys/corporations making a boatload (a technical term) of money, while the rest of you were screwed (another technical term).

I find it almost laughable that one side of the debate about giving tens of billions of dollars to yet more corporations is being framed as necessary to support unions. The money will go to corporations. Any idea that the bailouts are pro-union is just more propaganda that diverts attention from the goal of this act which is simply the corrupt support of corrupt corporations.

We are looking at an amazing role reversal in which the Republicans are no longer supporting corporations while Democrats are. It is, I think, proof that there really is only one party with two departments that switch positions depending on who has power. The result, however, is always the same: corporations and the wealthy always have the support of those in power and the vast majority of Americans just get screwed.

what actions, if any, do you think congress should be taking?

It means that an employer can fire you at anytime for any reason.

Globalization as a concept had much to recommend it, the idea of enriching and tying the world together economically much as our own country was in the 19th and 20th centuries. But globalization as it was practiced from the start had glaring internal contradictions that had nothing to do with it lofty ideal. It became about exporting jobs, capital, pollution, poor wages, and bad working conditions abroad. The effect was to hollow out mature economies and practice a kind of predatory laissez-faire capitalism in developing ones that had long since been outlawed in the First World.

I can’t figure out why some people who should be on the labor side in this issue, like Olbermann and even Michael Moore, come out quibbling over their dislike for auto management, in a way that doesn’t help a bit, IMO.

I totally am with you, don’t get it either.

the only people i’ve meet who are not in favor of some kind of globalization are right wing nativists. the argument wasn’t about globalization or no globalization – although people like mr f.u. liked to pretend it was – it was always about what kind of globalization we would create. and capital liberalization was a big part of that.

i think there are plenty of ideologues who don’t actually subscribe to the “screw you” plan. they just have been having trouble seeing beyond their indoctrination.

You are right. Victor Hugo praised the equality of the law for prohibiting rich and poor alike from stealing bread when their children are starving. The thing is we have a collective (dirty word) problem which can only be solved collectively. That runs against individualism’s grain. Some people eschew automobiles because they don’t want to be polluters. It’s a fine sentiment. If it works for them great, but it won’t impact air pollution. Nothing will until lots of us get ourselves into a position to demand something else.

Without question the stupidest piece of TV I’ve seen in a while, and that’s saying something.

Nobody seemed to realize that for your $3 billion you’re buying a shitload of debt and obligations, and that the results of a default on the community is what Moore seems to be worried about in the first place.

Hello cash flow, anyone?

They cannot see the forest foe the trees, even those two have had enough
time as a celebrity to cloud their sense of the whole. This society is
truly sick and the cure will be terrible as it was in the 1930s.

I still believe that individuals can get things done together. I don’t see that as “communism”, I see it as creative capitalism. Capitalism can exist with decency, with paying a living wage to one’s workers. I know this can be done because I have run the numbers….

The never ending search for the soundbite is a symptom of the malady.

With all due respest, it is not about cashflow. It is about keeping a manufacturing presence in the U.S. Without any manufacturing capablities, we cannot compete with the rest of the world.

But as so often happened globalization became an example of an incredible bait and switch.

Why do you say we cannot compete with the rest of the world? I always thought we set the standard.

The North Carolina General Statutes as of 1989 still defined ‘right to work’ as a master-servant relationship…ie…free to hire, free to fire.

The Statute actually says….”master-servant”

Amazing isn’t it?

wow, thanks for the info, it is amazing…

Sorry, misread your post… forget my prior question.

I disagree. I don’t see capitalism, which carried to its logical conclusion is unbridled greed, as having any virtue. It’s actually counter productive in rapidly evolving technological societies. It ties us to the status quo of internal combustion engines because investments and jobs hang in the balance. The same is true for single payer health care, the war on drugs and the wars on any place else. They create jobs. Capitalism makes change dangerous when change accelerates. Not only that, it is increasingly obvious there cannot be enough jobs globally for everyone that needs one to eat and keep a roof over their heads. The only rational society is a classless, moneyless one where lots of people don’t have to work. Impossible, you say? Why? I ask.

I would suggest that our current statistics, suggest that this is no longer true. Besides the fact that we are complicit in so many awful acts throughout history, we can hardly claim to be so great!

Correct.

*smiles* Creating and maintaining a strong economic/social safety net for all citizens such that their basic needs are met while they suffer through this or any other hellish creation of the criminal “upper” class.

I have a major problem with talking heads pontificating about something they know relatively little about. To sit before an audience and try to micromanage/dissect a humongous company like GM is ludicrous! And it buys into the propaganda that the Auto Companies are somehow failed industries (inherently, because of unions). It’s a distraction and sidelines any real effort to curb the BS.

Yes, as John Ralston Saul deals with extensively in the The Collapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World

Now if we had only treated others throughout the world as we would like to be treated, maybe things would be better for us. I don’t mean this as a religious treatise at all. I mean that if we truly treated other workers throughout the world as we in the U.S. would like to be treated; fair wages, clean water, safe food, a roof over our heads; we would be so much better off now. Unfortunately, the things we screwed them out of, have come bace to screw us as well. Poor wages, poor water, poor food, poor air, a poor roof, etc., etc., Karma is a bitch.

Reading various blogs here and by Krugman over the past few days, I’ve come around and got on board with the idea of bailing out the industry. However, a couple things should be noted:

Corker, as much as he’s a flaming idiot about a lot of things, is spot on about Chrysler – there is no working car company left there anymore. Daimler stripped their talent and technology, leaving nothing but a few ancient models and no R&D ability. Should Chrysler be allowed to die because of this? I don’t know the answer to that, but I don’t think Cerberus should be given no-strings-attached cash to help their strip’n’flip plan.

Secondly, with regards to the fact that Ford’s sales are holding better than Toyota and Honda – Last I heard, even with sales down, Toyota is still making a profit. I heard a stat a while back that the entire executive team at Toyota makes less money than GM’s CEO Wagoner. And they announced they’d be taking voluntary pay cuts months ago.

In the end, I don’t think there’s a good way out of this. I think I’d feel best about something that would look like nationalizing and merging GM and Chrysler, but somehow I don’t think that’d be the best way to turn those companies around.

We can’t lose more jobs right now, but I can’t help but think any money put into GM and Chrysler as they exist right now is just cash being thrown after bad cash, circling down the drain.

I am in favor of making the loans to the auto companies…ASSUMING..the facts are as they presented them. Why? Becuase we must, absolutely must keep what little remaining manufacturing base we have in this country and because the ripple effect of their failure in jobs and related entities would be crushing and perhaps the final blow to entire US economy.

I was not in favor of bailing out AIG or any of the WS companies. Why? Because they are replacable. There are astounding amounts of investment money in private hands and in the hands of the failed companies competitors that could and would have stepped in and taken the place and taken the business of the failed WS firms.

That is not the case in manufacturing. You cannot easily transfer and replace a manufacturing entity.

The entire WS bailout was Paulson saving his former cohorts and the only sector in the US economy he knows anything about. Of the 700 billion allowed to Paulson 290 billion has already been spent without any accounting or reporting to congress. Bloomberg is suing the FED if you can believe that, under the FOIA, to find out who the money went to. Our congress who made a lot of noise, and it was just noise, about appointing an overseer for Paulson and the 700 billion just got around last week to holding hearings on who to appoint to this position….after the 290 billion was already spent. Paulson now announces he is done and will leave the rest of the billions for the Obama adm to spend. Does that strike anyone as odd? The US economic world was coming to an end! according to Paulson but now that he has has given WS 290 billion he suddenly see no reason to go any further into our economic problems? Very odd.

I am sure most people on this blog, being progressive or liberal and party dems, don’t want to hear this but the dems are just as complict in what has hapened to the US as the repubs are. There have been the occasional lone dems and repubs from both parties who have warned us time and time again where US economic and trade policy was leading us but the herd didn’t listen and didn’t care.

Where did what is happening now all start? In congress. Under the influence of their corporation sponsors. Corporations that wanted to avoid taxes, avoid labor laws,safety laws, unions, corportations run by the guy at the golf club who wanted to maximize profits by cutting cost instead of innovating and good business practices. Corporations that now are seeing the chickens come home to roost.

In 1965 I was in Geneva listening to the owners of mid size (less than 5000 emloyees) US manufacturing companies testify before GATT (General Agreement on Trade and Tarrifs), the forerunner of our wonderful trade “Globalization”.

Every SINGLE thing they predicted would happen to US manufacturing and jobs has come true down the line to the exact word.

But congress, in the thrall of their monied campaign suporters on WS, the bread crumb gathers, the sucker fish who attach themselves to other fish to scavenger the leftovers, who make money off others endevors and ideas, not by creating anything, producing anything..didn’t listen.

So there you are.

And congress is still as corrupt, as incompetent, as clueless as ever. and because they are it will get worse.

Beats the hell out of me why the masses wait until they have that famous “nothing left to lose” before they ever take any real action.

Yet giving unconditional money to AIG, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan et al is a great idea?

I totally agree with you!

Who passed the Commodities Modernization Act of 2000, Bill Clinton. Who passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Bill Clinton and a Republican Congress. Both sides are to be blamed. Hopefully, some grownups will oversee some stuff now.

But as so often happened globalization became an example of an incredible bait and switch.

perfect description.

and when some people started complaining about the switch, the ideologues pretended they were complaining about the bait.

The Commodites Futures Act of 2000 is what really sent non-regulation of the financial markets into the stratosphere. Credit Default Swaps were a birthchild/debacle of this de-regulation. Herein lies are biggest problems.

i’m with you on that – but we need to have some industry to fund it.

That is the Commodities Futures Modernization Act of 2000. Look it up on Wikapedia.

In 1965 I was in Geneva listening to the owners of mid size (less than 5000 emloyees) US manufacturing companies testify before GATT (General Agreement on Trade and Tarrifs), the forerunner of our wonderful trade “Globalization”.

Every SINGLE thing they predicted would happen to US manufacturing and jobs has come true down the line to the exact word.

1965? wow – would love to know more… either from your recollections or if you can point me towards anything accounts you consider accurate.

or check out some of my links at oxdown: Which Idiot Decided Not to Regulate Credit Default Swaps?

i’m still working on the ’90s, so i haven’t started reading about the s&l scandal (i think it was you who made that suggestion?). but there is the beginnings of a timeline and the beginnings of a series of summaries (at least that is what i intend).

There is an old saying that pure capitalism fails for the same reason that pure socialism fails.

Which means.. Where Is The Balance?

The purpose of government economic legistation is idealy to maintain BALANCE.

Between labor and capital between imports and exports between all sectors of the econony that affect one another.

You do that thru legistation and law making. Thru regulation and requirements for transparency in the financial sector. Thru trade laws and policies.

Congress’s idea of balance is this… run the country’s business by considering the demands of their monied mistress on their legistative decisions….they implement this and that to sastify their mistresses demands…then they have to tweak something else a little to keep the US in busines because the demands of the mistress are squewing business unequally..so they implement and tweak, implement and tweak, tring to satisfy their mistresses and keep the US economy afloat at the same time…tweak,tweak,tweak…how long can you keep it all afloat when your decisions are split between what your mistress wants which is damaging your (the country’s) business and the decisions you make to cover for and compensate for the bad decisions your mistress is forcing on you?
That is your congress’s problem. That is the FED’s problem..implement for their favorite elites sector, then do a tweak to cover for the implementation, then tweak again to keep the first tweak and makeup tweak going….sooner or later you run out of tweaks…create a bubble to get thur some rough patch, then create another bubble when the first bubble crashes and on and on.

The US has been turned into a consumer society, not a production society. It has been going on for a long time and with Bush we just got speeded up to a return to the Gilded Age of Robber Barrons and Lords and Serfs.

Good damn luck to us all. If Obama can get the US out of it’s foreign and domestic corruption it will be a miracle. I don’t think he can but for those who believe in miracles, it’s an option.

Sounds like a good thing to do. You are so smart and articulate, I hope we hear from you about the whole kit and caboodle.

I agree with you to a certain extent. I think the bastards are just plain greedy, soul sucking, sons of bitches. I don’t think they care about tweaking anything that gets in the way of their transfer of wealth from regular folks to them. They really believe they are better than the rest of us. They believe in survival of the fittest. Let them eat cake! is what they really and truly believe. Listen to Nixon’s tapes that are now declassified….

The US manufacturers arguement was that lowering tarrifs on foreign imported goods would make it impossible for them to compete ‘even at home’ with cheaper imports, much less export their more expensive to produce goods to other countries…who did ( and do) btw maintain tarrifs on US imports.

So the US congress went along with GATT and allowed us to be flooded with cheaper imports,not subject to tarrifs. By the seventies it was already apparent that entire sectors of US manufacturing were going under, furniture manufacturers, textile manufacturers, parts manufacturers, appliance manufacturers, medical and industrial tools and so on. GATT was the begining of the end. It allowed a few corporations cash rich enough to position themselves to overseas and make alliences with overseas companies and government to virtualy wipe out every lesser company in their field.

Now….you can travel the country, especially the south and see the remains and ruins of thousand of former manufacturing plants of wood products, textiles, parts, that employed millions of people. All of this manufacturing became consolidated into the hands of those few major corporations that have gone even further now and off shored what domestic plants they had here to countries where labor cost are nothing.

As a current example. A wood products company near me that use to make plywood and had about 500 employees is nothing now but a depot for imported plywood…the defunct facilities and location near a port bought out by a US multi national “global’ company who manufacturers it abroad ‘and ships’ to the US to sell to home building and construction suppliers for less than it could be made here.

So what congress did with GATT was to tie American manufacturers and workers hands behind their back and tell them to go compete with labor getting 50 cents an hour in third world countries and no unions and no OSHA and no corporate taxes and no payroll taxes and no income taxes and no inflation and no tarrifs.

This is what congress calls a free market when it is actually a rigged fight.

I did paper on this back then…have no idea where it is now or if I still have it but I will look.

From today’s AP, reported in the Denver Post: [President Bush] says he is concerned about providing taxpayer money to companies “that may not survive.”

Wow.

Given the size of the aid proposed relative to the financial services boyz (enormous vs. ginormous), and the disappearance socialistization of the industry, it looks like the Republican hatred of organized labor needs to be recalibrated. What’s three steps beyond ‘visceral’?

And doing this at the same time he and Rove are kicking off his legacy project is just another cherry on top.

thanks! i am particularly interested in the legislative and regulatory actions and arguments that were used (as you can probably tell if you’ve seen either of my fisa diaries or the recent otc derivative deregulation diary).

Giving free money to any supercorporation is a horrible idea. Practically, I don’t think congress will have a choice but to give big cash infusions to all these companies – and unfortunately, due to the time constraints, there won’t be a chance to set up the sort of oversight required to keep these robber-barons honest.

I just think that despite my political differences with Sen. Corker (and the fact that he’s a flaming idiot on a number of topics), I had to point out that he makes some good points about Chrysler’s situation. Detroit insiders have been mourning the loss of Chrysler’s technological and engineering expertise ever since Daimler dumped what they didn’t want back on the market. As is being pointed out in the current hearings, the most valuable portion of Chrysler currently is their Financing arm.

What does all this mean? I don’t know. Chrysler can’t be allowed to go under due to how interdependent the supplier networks are. But they simply aren’t a viable company any more.

LOL…

The only reason for the ‘tweaks’ is to keep the system going, to keep the elites fed.

The reason cannibals are extinct is because they ate all their neighbors without considering reproduction issues and realizing they would eventually destroy their food supply. The elites and congress know they can’t totally disregard the masses and have to keep them somewhat going least the elites lose their food supply.

Well I had my say on this today and enjoyed seeing others takes.

Not to committ further heresy on a primarily democratic blog let me do my dsiclaimer before I say more. I am a registered democratic but I vote all around the block. It depends on the man and the times. Basically in the past the dems as a party have been better for business. That has changed and is no longer true as multi nationals have become the main voices and influence in congressional legistation for dems and repubs.
A politican is only a politican as long as he stays in office and they all know who provides the money to keep them in their offices…and it isn’t the public.

Just by observation we can see what has happen to the Chamber of Commerce for instance…gone big nationals, where it was once the voice of independent and mid size and small business. All politicans square off around “their” own political interest, where their districts are union, they are union, where their districts are corporate, they are corporate…Biden for instance was happy to ditch the liberal and progressive view in voting for the bankruptcy bill because Delaware is his home district and the Banks.

They would say they “are representing their districts”. But are they? Really?

This year the republican party got what it deserved. But the work is only half done. The democracts need the same treatment. If people insist on putting all their faith in and cleaving to a “party” the least they can do is hold that party’s feet to the fire and punish the hell out of them when they start their bait and switch and backwalking on the issues they ran on as a platform.

A six year old listening to most politicans talk on any issue would see thru them immediately. When a politican implies that workers don’t have a job because they didn’t get an education, or haven’t kept continuing their education and haven’t kept switching to different careers or job skills year after year as jobs in America disappear..a six year old would say…”whaat?’

When a politican waxes on in all his moral glory about how the US should lift third world workers and countries out of their misery by trading with them and giving them concessions I promise you he is getting ready to slip you a law and trade concession and legistation that will put American deeper into the ditch.

If we had a clean and uncorrupted congress that actually worked for America and Americans, that actually honored their oath of office and the constitution we would not have to worry about who the president was.

Congress is where it’s at, don’t forget it and make them all, the dems and repubs fear you, the voter.