Trust, But Scared!

Good Morning Papamoka Readers! I must admit that after reviewing the Obama Administration/US Treasury's new plan to buy up toxic assets clogging the financial system, I've decided to join with Paul Krugman and call the plan ill conceived and misguided.

I hope it works, but Krugman sounds wise when he questions President Obama's - the plan's - trust in the banks and the bankers. That could lead to billions more being wasted on Wall Street scam artists, and we cannot now afford the risk.

The "Public-Private Investment Program for Legacy Assets" will be funded with $75 to $100 billion dollars from the government, which officials say could lead to private investors generating "$500 billion dollars in [immediate] purchasing power." They also say the plan could expand to one trillion dollars of government investment if necessary. That sounds expensive and risky to me. How about you?

However, God forbid, I don't wish to say NO for the sake of it, like most Republicans these days. How about a friendly YELP! to signal serious worry and slight panic. There's no way around it, I - probably like most Americans - am worried about any plan that involves the banks right now.

Wow, I can't believe I'm questioning President Obama so soon after writing a piece just a few days ago suggesting how we should all support him during these dark days. I just hope you know what you're doing Mr. President, because it's too complicated for most of us.

The hitch in the giddy-up as a friend of mine likes to say (I call him Rumsfeld-like when he says it) is that we are being asked to TRUST WALL STREET again! It sounds insane! How many times do we have to risk getting burned by these greedy, low-life scumbags. I guess President Obama knows what he's doing, but the rest of us don't seem to have a clue.

Paul Krugman rightly points out how sick the banks are, and how they show no signs of improving their lending skills anytime soon. Without some kind of government institution forcing them to act, it seems unlikely that anything will change - at least to help average Americans. I guess Secretary Geithner knows something we don't know, but I doubt it.

Krugman's opinion in the New York Times gives me the feeling he sees President Obama's optimism about the market as a liability. I kind of do too. I guess we could be wrong, but he seems to trust the Wall Street brain trust too much. For God's sake, they got us into this mess! The whole thing is quite unnerving.

I'm sorry Mr. President, I support you and trust you, but this one scares me. I think you would be better off taking a more radical approach, perhaps one that sidesteps, or at least controls, Wall Street more. I just don't see the motive for the banks. With all due respect Mr. President, the plan doesn't sound like it goes far enough in terms of financial control and [middle-class targeted] impact, sir.

Krugman says it best. "The Geithner scheme would offer a one-way bet: if asset values go up, the investors profit, but if they go down, the investors can walk away from their debt. So this isn’t really about letting markets work. It’s just an indirect, disguised way to subsidize purchases of bad assets." That makes me VERY NERVOUS!

I trust the President, but I also want to go on record that I don't trust Wall Street and the American banker. Their reputation is ruined. They have proven themselves crooks and cowards, and I have no patience for any of them. I will support you Mr. President, but I think you may be risking a lot on this one.

Michael Boh

Papamoka's Left Coast Contritubor

from Our Rants & Raves Blog

Real Clear Politics Polls

Over at Real Clear Politics (RCP) they are showing a huge move from red state to moderate, middle of the road, on the fence thinking about their votes for Obama over McCain. This is a huge upset for the Republican Party and the damage is their political parties own damn fault! All of the lies, deception, “Can’t touch me”, and “Those laws do not apply to me because I am an elected official of the US Congress” are catching up fast and furious to the red state Republican’s. That and the fact that the current President has pretty much torn up the Constitution because his interpretation of “We the People” is far different than what the founding father’s actually stated. That might explain his current approval rating at 28% and the Congress at 17%.

I’m going to be straight with you and tell you right now that the next election will look nothing like the past two for President of the United States of America. This will not be even a close race for several reasons and I’ll list them out for you. Number one is the war in Iraq and the lies that lead all of us into it. WMD’s were a lie, Yellow Cake was a lie and the Plame scandal outing a CIA operative in the field just added up to more lies on top of more lies.

Number two is the corruption or thought of probable corruption with no bid contracts for that war with the largest of chunks of billions of tax dollars going to none other than the former firm CEO that is our Republican Vice President Dick Cheney. Then to avoid the long arm of the law the firm Cheney once headed pulled up stakes in America and moved its world headquarters to… Dubai!

Three, and this one is really important, the mass exodus of die hard conservative and staunch Republicans from red states through resignation or indictment that supposedly had strong “Family Values” but assisted in, were part of, tried covering up, or were actually accused of sexually deviant adventures as elected members of the Congress. You can not preach family values, God, the Bible, and American values and then do the exact opposite.

Four, Americans do not like to be told that you just have to deal with it because you are an oil addict. President Bush’s only answer to our nations energy crisis and the cost of gas at the pump is to drill for more oil, not research programs to fund alternative sources exploration, not science programs to expand our knowledge of potential new resources, just a slap upside the head from a former oil executive that “We the People” are addicts and should be ashamed. President Bush has never, not once, nope, not even during a time of war asked “We the People” to cut back, conserve energy during a time of war. Just his statement that we should all go “Shopping”!

Last but not least, coming in fifth is the tax cuts for millionaires that President Bush passed and Senator McCain who as a Conservative once thought was a fiscal disaster now wants to keep in the worst way. Ergo, taxes on the rich are bad, which McCain is in fact one, with his wife’s assets estimated at over $100 million dollars. Passing the buck to the little people makes more sense somehow in McCain's mind. After all there is more of them than people like him above it all so to speak.

With all of these reasons, John McCain with his following of Bush on every major issue is in fact a clone now known as John McBush. People see through the path that Bush once plowed into a field that will never even grow weeds and that is why the following states are now no longer diehard red states:

Nevada
Colorado
New Mexico (Bush wanted to Annex it but it was already a state)
Missouri
Indiana
Ohio
Virginia
North Carolina
Florida

Dare I add other states to this list? Damn straight if Obama shows some Presidential potential backbone on his current trip to Iraq and Afghanistan. Provided Obama does not screw up Sunni and Shia and other tribes names in Iraq, forget the name of the current leader in any nation he visits, or misspeak on any issue relevant to the nation he is in during this trip, then he should or could change the polling numbers by a large percentage in other red states as well. Just a thought for you to think about, if you are worried about his messing up facts and details… Obama is a Harvard University graduate that was at the top of his class. He studies topics and recalls them fairly well when asked about it. He is not George Bush or John McCain. He is never one to quote Homer Simpson with a “Dhut” explanation.

When you really think about it, the Bush administration has allowed corporate America to run shotgun on our economy and in doing so we have lost our way on how to be the best in the world. While not just jobs but entire industries have been sent overseas the current occupant of the Presidency is the actual cause for this failing economy and is still looking the other way. So is the Republican nominee for President of the United States of America.

Salvation, hope, whatever you want to call it is not in electing just a President but electing someone that actually believes in honest change for the better. While McCain is grasping and gasping for the Bush 28% approval rating he has lost his way like oh so many of us in America. change of the status quo just isn't in his heart and he can not sell it. That is why "We the People" will change our own lives for better times come November.

Papamoka