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Friedman Calls Code Red and then Instructs Us in Confidence: Depression is Here. Believe in O’Bozo

Friedman Calls Code Red and then Instructs Us in Confidence: Depression is Here. Believe in O’Bozo

The New York Times—aka the Walter Duranty Papers[1]has an all-embracing and tortuous history of apologizing for Communism, propping up losers, celebrating AIDS along with the perverted practices that spread this horror, and its never ending pursuit of higher and higher and higher taxes.  The Times has never retreated from its pathological contempt for capitalism. The Times has also relentlessly praised any leftist parasite or pervert who will openly parade their dishonor in our now degenerated society.  Today, as the economy starts to sag, the Times appears to wax a bit solemn on certain economic matters but grinds on with their propaganda on the essence of the Obama Depression Politics. [2] We are encouraged to be confident. Obama is here!

 

Our Resident EcoNazi[3], now wrapped in his new scintillating economic gown steps up to the podium on Mt. Olympus to offer guidance to the unwashed masses with a confession and a suggestion:

 

So, I have a confession and a suggestion. The confession: I go into restaurants these days, look around at the tables often still crowded with young people, and I have this urge to go from table to table and say: “You don’t know me, but I have to tell you that you shouldn’t be here. You should be saving your money. You should be home eating tuna fish. This financial crisis is so far from over. We are just at the end of the beginning. Please, wrap up that steak in a doggy bag and go home.” [4]-- We Found the W.M.D. By Thomas L. Friedman Op-Ed Columnist [Emphasis is mine in all quotes.]This link references all quotes in this essay unless otherwise stated.

 

 Then, from a banker:

 

This is the real “Code Red.” As one banker remarked to me: “We finally found the W.M.D.” They were buried in our own backyard — subprime mortgages and all the derivatives attached to them.”-- Thomas L. Friedman

 

No blame here for Fannie Mae and her idiot brother  Freddy or the CRA  [Community Communist Reinvestment Act][5][6]? Of course not. Not even a mention. All that ‘affordable housing’ must have been a good idea as a good liberal Democrat tells us:

 

"These two entities—Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—are not facing any kind of financial crisis," said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. "The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing."[7]—Backside Barney Frank

 

Just 5 trillion dollars of toxic debt Barney. Reviewing a recent article by Krugman from Nov. 14[gee not even two weeks ago] by the igNoble Leechette[8][9], we get the following prediction:

The economic news, in case you haven’t noticed, keeps getting worse. Bad as it is, however, I don’t expect another Great Depression. In fact, we probably won’t see the unemployment rate match its post-Depression peak of 10.7 percent, reached in 1982 (although I wish I was sure about that)”[10]-- Depression Economics Returns By Paul Krugman Op-Ed Columnist Published: November 14, 2008 [Emphasis is mine in all quotes.]

Well, there are two predictions that belong in the latrine. So, what does Friedman, our Hero of the Moment, advise us to do except eat tuna?

The last point is something only a new President Obama can inject. What ails us right now is as much a loss of confidence — in our financial system and our leadership — as anything else. I have no illusions that Obama’s arrival on the scene will be a magic wand, but it would help.”

My confidence soared after I learned O’Bozo listened to Jeremiah Wright for 20 years.

“Right now there is something deeply dysfunctional, bordering on scandalously irresponsible, in the fractious way our political elite are behaving — with business as usual in the most unusual economic moment of our lifetimes. They don’t seem to understand: Our financial system is imperiled.”-- Thomas L. Friedman

Conventional wisdom says it’s good for a new president to start at the bottom. The only way to go is up. That’s true — unless the bottom falls out before he starts.”

So, what is the message here? This is the Bush Depression and only some Messiah like O’Bozo can rescue us from this looming financial disaster? We all have loads of confidence in O’Bozo.

One of Friedman’s errant comments is placed here as the conclusion to this mess:

The stock and credit markets haven’t been fooled. They have started to price financial stocks at Great Depression levels, not just recession levels. With $5, you can now buy one share of Citigroup and have enough left over for a bite at McDonalds.”

Now, this is fact and a rare admission of the truth from the NYT. I wonder if Friedman passed this around and by Krugman before his published this heresy. This group who could see through the odious leftist fog is called the Smart Money Set and they can consider themselves as being somewhat beyond tuna [sans thon in French] sandwiches at this point. The dumb money is known by its sticky attachment to the Party of Democrats or their theories of class warfare and taxation.

We have smart money and the smart voters who have, at least in part, finessed this social and financial disaster by avoiding the phony tax-whoring antics of Fanny Mae, the gurgling and Elmer Fudd fluster bluster and flying spittle droplets of Barney Frank and have cleared their debts. The dumb voters are still mesmerized by O’Bozo, the Messiah, who will give us ‘confidence’ in the future. Indeed, the smart money is already making business plans to make profits when the bottom falls out of probably half of our businesses. The dumb money will follow the Detroit Bailout, Green Weenieisms and other follies.

Sure.

Let us hype the confidence up and stimulate the masses with some massive taxes on the middle class, the use of a big fat carbon taxe[11] on all energy forms and maybe a neat environment-preserving gasoline tax of say $2 per gallon. We all have confidence in O’Bozo.

rycK

 

Comments: ryckki@gmail.com

 



[1] In honor of that celebrated Communist stooge and liar and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for the NYT. The color RED is used in my essays in honor of Walter Duranty, a saint, if there could be one, in the Marxist Archives of Honor.

[4] We Found the W.M.D. By Thomas L. Friedman Op-Ed Columnist http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/opinion/23friedman.html

 

[5]Bear Stearns made the first public securitization of Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) loans started in 1997.[6] Editorialists in some American newspapers[7][8] and US Congressman Ron Paul[9] say the CRA loans were lent to otherwise un-credit-worthy consumers in the name of ending discrimination, although an analysis of actual lending patterns does not generally support this conclusion.[10][11][12]

On June 22, 2007, Bear Stearns pledged a collateralized loan of up to $3.2 billion to "bail out" one of its funds, the Bear Stearns High-Grade Structured Credit Fund, while negotiating with other banks to loan money against collateral to another fund, the Bear Stearns High-Grade Structured Credit Enhanced Leveraged Fund.[13] The funds were invested in thinly traded collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) found to be worth less than their mark-to-market value. Merrill Lynch seized $850 million worth of the underlying collateral but only was able to auction $100 million of them. The incident sparked concern of contagion as Bear Stearns might be forced to liquidate its CDOs, prompting a mark-down of similar assets in other portfolios.[14][15] Richard A. Marin, a senior executive at Bear Stearns Asset Management responsible for the two hedge funds, was replaced on June 29 by Jeffrey B. Lane, a former Vice Chairman of rival investment bank, Lehman Brothers.[16]

During the week of July 16, 2007, Bear Stearns disclosed that the two subprime hedge funds had lost nearly all of their value amid a rapid decline in the market for subprime mortgages.

 

[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act

Community Reinvestment Act (or CRA, Pub.L. 95-128, title VIII, 91 Stat. 1147, 12 U.S.C. § 2901 et seq.)

 

[10] Depression Economics Returns By Paul Krugman Op-Ed Columnist Published: November 14, 2008 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/opinion/14krugman.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

 

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