Comrade?

Hope 'n' Change: The (Toxic) Elephant in the Room
The nation's Kommissar of Economic Cheerleading, a.k.a. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, unveiled his plan to save our ailing economy this week -- the so-called Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP). The announcement was punctuated by a much-ballyhooed 500-point surge in the Dow, an indication that the market, at least, likes PPIP. But why wouldn't it? Investors tend to appreciate "free" money.

At its core, PPIP provides investors with mega-leveraged government financing. Patterned roughly after the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) thrift bailout plan of the late '80s, PPIP is composed of two parts: The first part addresses "legacy" loans; the second, "legacy" securities. "Legacy," incidentally, is the new kinder-gentler buzzword for "toxic," as in "toxic assets," the former nom du jour for radioactive financial instruments like subprime mortgages and mortgage-derived securities.

PPIP offers private investors enormous amounts of cheap, taxpayer-backed financing for every dollar they put up of their own money. Under the program, government lends up to 85 percent of investor funding, with the Treasury "investing" one dollar of taxpayer money for each private capital dollar to cover the remaining 15 percent.

From an investor's standpoint, of course, there's no personal downside. Investors leverage government money at a 6-to-1 ratio and the lion's share of any losses generated are absorbed by taxpayers. Thus, if a borrower defaults on his mortgage, the government would only be able to seize the real estate -- private investors walk away relatively unhurt.

Independent of taxpayer liability, however, the program is not without risk. As indicated by Vincent Reinhart, American Enterprise Institute resident scholar and director of the Monetary Affairs Division of the Federal Reserve, PPIP assumes that "assets are troubled because their true values are obscured by irrational self-doubt and market illiquidity, and not by fundamental problems in the prospects of repayment. It also assumes that the solution to problems created by excessive leverage is for government to encourage more leverage."

Apart from PPIP, our strategic issue, the elephant in the room, is one of accountability. Helped by a willing media, the central focus has been shifting from Congress and the Executive branches to business. Still, for all the finger pointing at banks and insurers, and for all post-hoc economic crater repairing, we hope those as yet unenlightened Americans who have been blinded by the Obama media will soon learn the origins of this mess: government.

---from The Patriot Post

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If we let this continue, how long before we are calling each other "Comrade"? Pres. Obama is changing things fast and furiously; so fast it makes even my head spin. So how many Americans, how many of you out there are really paying attention to what your government is doing to this country and to you personally?

The "War on Terror" or "Global War on Terror" has already been changed to "Overseas Contingency Operation". HUH? Is that supposed to be the "kinder, gentler" name for something that is a serious, serious matter? Is it not supposed to terrify the terrorists that we are supposed to be after? I don't understand this at all. It is a WAR and it is against TERROR and TERRORIST. They have not only attacked here in American, but Spain, England, Africa etc., etc., etc.

And don't even get me started on the U.N. "Climate Change" issue. This will cost trillions of dollars, cost jobs, ruin country's economy's, make global taxes on everyone, including us? Excuse me?? The U.N should have absolutely no power over us, America. The fact that the Obama administration is willing to even "talk" about these things should scare the pants off of us.

Put all of this together, before you know it, we will no longer be America: Land of the Free, Home of the Brave. We will be some other country, a socialistic/communistic combination, and your freedoms to do anything, and I do mean anything, will be out the window. Take care, Comrade.

Rise up against this. Remember this is the kind of thing we originally left England for all those years ago and came to this brave new world? If we aren't careful, things will be worse than when we left England over 200 years ago. Those days will seem like a picnic compared to what is happening to this country now; and you, yes, you, are just letting it happen. Get off your duff and stand up for your country, American!

"God Bless America" by Kate Smith
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r26_CSzk3Xw