Republicans get a bum rap in financial crisis
Don’t blame the Republicans for the financial crisis
Ken Brinzer
Blaming the current problems of the economy on Bush, McCain and the Republicans doesn’t cut it. Here’s why:
1. In 2006 Bill Lockyer the Democrat California State Attorney General sued the Big Three Automakers – soon perhaps to be the Big Two American Automakers – claiming they were responsible for global warming.
(Caveat: While this suit was dismissed, I begin with it not because it caused significant economic damage per se, but rather because it is indicative of the highly imprudent use and abuse of legal power by government AGs that existed in 2006 following the Spitzer era (noted in Item two) and the colossal economic damage done in that era; and I observe that such an economic environment constitutes a great impediment to the operation of private sector entities on a profitable basis.)
2. Eliot Spitzer the Democrat New York State Attorney General sued Mutual Fund industry over after hours trading violations. He followed that siege with another long high-profile siege over the fees of mutual funds being too high. Then he followed the mutual fund campaigns with high profile long-running lawsuits of the CEOs of the New York Stock Exchange, General Electric, and the American International Group over compensation matters.
As a practical matter, the threat of Spitzer prosecutions loomed over our markets for a several years, undermining confidence in our markets, and doing grave damage to the reputations and goodwill of major corporate names needlessly. Icon logos such as the NYSE, GE, and AIG were slimed along with countless other entities that played crucial roles in capital formation in the American economy, and ultimately by extension, all American enterprise around the world.
3. Twelve States Attorneys General (Democrats) entered into a class action lawsuit and sued the Bush Administration for it’s easing of environmental standards on power plants (2003) as part of the Bush Administration’s plan to assist a distressed economy post the 9/11/2001 attacks which had gravely damaged the American economy.
4. Congress passed Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 and it contained the pernicious mark to market FASB 157 accounting rules to be applied to level 3 long-term, hard to value, highly illiquid assets. In November 2007, the Royal Bank of Scotland issued a warning that if enforced these mark to market accounting rules would result in losses to American Banks and Brokerage firms in excess of $100 Billion. By early fall 2008, Five Hundred Billion Dollars of losses attributable to the imposition of mark to market accounting rules (FASNB 157) constituted 70% of all losses that had been sustained up to the bailout. Democrat Senator Christopher Dodd the Chairman of the Senate Banking and Urban Affairs Committee knew of the warnings and the dangers related to mark to market valuations applied to level 3 assets, and yet he never managed to lift a finger or advocate any means to mitigate against the cause of these catastrophic losses. Instead, he just watched as those rules destroyed over $500 Billion of vital American economic infrastructure, and then pointed his finger at others.
5. In a vote along party lines Democrats blocked reform of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in 2004 while there was still time to stop their mad dash to insolvency. This was long before the real estate bubble had reached epidemic proportions, while there was still time to stop the reckless behavior of Freddie and Fannie, behavior that contributed mightily to a colossal real estate bubble, then a pernicious credit crunch, and a market contagion that crippled the economy.
6. Again Sarbanes-Oxley, this time though another provision of that congressional enactment that worked to reduce the number of Initial Public Offerings in the United States by 90% following its passage. In brief, until Sarbanes-Oxley was passed, fifty percent of all successful Initial Public Offerings in the world originated in the United States. After it was passed, the percentage of all Initial Public Offering originating in the US dwindled to five percent of total Initial Public Offerings. Meantime, the number of Initial Public Offerings in London and Hong Kong skyrocketed.
7. The Janet Reno/Clinton (Democrats) Justice Department threatened lending institutions with prosecution to the fullest extent the law allowed, if loans for socially good purposes were denied. The result of this threat was that lending institutions that might have used prudent financial underwriting for loans that qualified as socially good purpose loans did not dare decline those loans on grounds they were too risky. This set up a pernicious template for lending as should now be evident to all
8. Democrats consistently sided with extreme environmentalists in opposition to new domestic oil and gas development. This exacerbated American dependency on foreign oil and made us both vulnerable and virtually without recourse as oil prices rose meteorically hurting consumers as well as manufacturers throughout the United States.
Those who would still insist on blaming the current nightmare threatening our economy on Bush, McCain, and the Republicans can of course vote however they please. Hopefully though, the majority of voters will not be fooled by the deceptive rhetoric of those who would blame Bush, McCain, and all things Republican for the monumental economic catastrophe that so many Democrats have engineered and disingenuously try to blame on the other guy.
It’s time to pin the tail on the donkey where it belongs. It’s time for Americans to stand up and take their country back at the polls. Now is the acceptable time.
Ken Brinzer is 62 years old, and lives with his wife, a high school chemistry teacher, in Penn Hills, PA. He and his wife have been married 34 years and have 3 adult children. He is a financial services professional, licensed both as a life insurance agent and a registered representative series 6. He holds a BA degree in Spanish from Rutgers (1968). He served in the USAF for 4 years 1968-1972 and attained the rank of captain. He is a practicing Catholic, reads at church, and loves God, Family, and Country and the splendor of truth.
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October 24th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
The current political crisis in the United States began with the fraudulent election of GWB, a nefarious attack to democratic principles, as endorsed by the US Supreme Court, so no wonder there is both a political and a financial crisis now.
If the US government (at least the incoming administration soon after taking office) doesn’t incarcerate a significant number of white collar criminals in the US and impounds their assets (both from the private and the public sectors; entrepreneurs and politicians alike, at the highest levels, whether members of the Illuminati clan or not) who are to blame for unfair business practices, political corruption, insider trading, favoritism on juicy war and other public contracts, self demolition of buildings and institutions, abusive secrecy about relevant information and technology that should be made public for the advancement of mankind (i.e. the Disclosure Project), including all sorts of tax / financial simulation and manipulation schemes, which combined blatant crimes have led the US to this collapse, and whose conduct is legally sanctionable by law and in equity, so as to demonstrate that there are rooted solid principles in the US legal system, sufficiently strong and valuable to shelter those main street citizens who abide by decent standards of living, and to punish wrongdoers until they repair the damage, with punitive and decisive action, the conclusion is simple: NO MONETARY BAILOUT WILL EVER BE ENOUGH FOR THE US TO REGAIN CREDIBILITY, because it is conducted at the expense of innocents and for the shared benefit of criminals. That is abuse of power … pure and intolerable injustice. If the Judicial system remains a silent puppet, just as the two other branches of government have clearly become noisy ones, the free fall of this crisis will not end, because what is being done is simply immoral, no matter how it is labeled or justified.
THE WORLD URGENTLY NEEDS A MORAL BAILOUT, and both the US Executive branch and the Legislature (composed of politicians mostly interested in their selfish careers, and not in the common good as public servants) don’t seem to have a clue of what that means or how to implement it, except with more of the same which wont solve the roots of the problem.
It is the Judiciary (not composed of biased politicians but by persons of allegedly good moral character with standards of ethical behavior), through the Supreme Court, the branch of government that is constitutionally in charge of administering Justice, so IT IS ABOUT TIME FOR THE JUSTICES TO DO THEIR JOB and save us all from what is coming.
Regardless of the merits, the US achieved international respect when President Nixon was impeached, which led to his removal from office after Watergate. During the last few administrations all kinds of lies and deceit by Presidents in the US have not been sanctioned and have not only been tolerated but continue to be even applauded, with a much worse component of dishonesty than the Nixon era, including shameless ridicule, so the outcome is exactly what we have and where we stand right now: economic, political and moral decay.
If a country has the government it deserves … there’s no more time to waste and the US as a country should regain worldwide credibility, because further delays in taking effective action with a principled bailout will unfortunately turn over governmental leadership to others abroad, just to save those few liable criminals in-house (politicians and bankers), and that will be at the expense of freedom and international peace, let alone the continued bankruptcy trends of the US economy and its political system, fundamentally due to more than obvious moral insolvency from the top down.
Eric Coufal, Esq.
Attorney and Counsellor at Law
admitted to practice in Mexico,
and in the United States by the
New York and New Jersey Bars
October 24th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Hello Eric,
What you say has the ring of righteousness, but I see you only mention 2 corrupt presidents, and they are both Republicans. Can you think of any instances in which a Democrat president was guilty of corruption? Further, I have no idea what a “principled bailout” could be. To me, any intervention in the free market is only a step toward more government control in a situation that was caused by too much government control. Therefore, it would be an oxymoron to speak of a “principled bailout” at this time. I invite your response.
October 27th, 2008 at 3:12 am
Good evening !, thanks for your reply.
A principled bailout is the only way to control the otherwise inevitable divorce of peace and prosperity.
While I could probably add many thoughts, may I recommend you read the article in the link listed below, which is a lengthy one but worth reading:
The article includes the following statements:
… it all started when, in 1913, the financiers took over through the Federal Reserve System and created a monetary system based on usury, debt-based currency, and bank leveraging of speculation, combined with crony capitalism and criminal disregard of all legal and commonsense standards.
The politicians profited from this system which has now failed. The financiers and their enablers in the White House and Congress have driven a once-great nation off a cliff. Will the European solution of collective action to shore up the world’s debt-based monetary system make a difference? Or will it just lead to a new era of international financial looting, forced population reduction, and a more sophisticated police state than anything we have seen yet?
ECONOMICS OF THE SPIRIT
Maybe a New World Order really is needed. If so, shouldn’t it be one with a genuine spiritual basis leading to economic justice, not just a modification of the system we have today? Such a system based on economic justice was affirmed in a message to the author by an Australian author, Omna Last, who wrote:
“But what if there was a truly representative world government…I do not mean a coercive world government imposing itself on the peoples of the world, but one that operated exactly as you suggest an American government should operate in helping to fulfill the potential in the lives of Americans? A government that provided free no-interest economic dividends to every nation of the world community? If the money was embezzled, used for corrupt purposes, or helped to destroy the world’s eco-system further, then that country would receive no free dividends for a period in the future.”
In an article posted on his website on October 26, Omna Last wrote:
“Earth is a temple. The money-changers have taken over the temple….It is time to remove the money-changers from their positions as priests of the new religion of money….Governments all over the world should be run by people in tune with their divine selves – their conscience, in tune with God, not in love with money and its power, but in love with the moral laws of the Universe.” (www.omnadeLight.com)
Those with eyes to see knew the present crisis was coming long ago. That vision now has spread to more people. What is increasingly clear is that positive change, as opposed to the change that is just a drift to disaster, will only happen when people who love freedom demand it, work for it, and sacrifice for it. Will the next president of the United States facilitate such change or stand in its way?
Based on the above I don’t share the view that a principled bailout is an oxymoron, but the only way out.
Cordially,
EC
October 27th, 2008 at 3:20 am
Hi Don once again,
You may also want to read the article published tomorrow (Monday, 10/27/08)in the Teheran Times, at , which also simplifies the reference to the current crisis citing GWB s follows:
Addressing the Majlis Sunday session, Larijani said, “The financial turmoil in the West will not end soon and it is like a September 11 economic crisis.”
He said the United States financial downturn started after President George Bush took office in 2001. “The U.S. at the time had $200 billion excess profits but wrong policies on different issues like cutting taxes… and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan caused the current turmoil.”
“Now, Bush is leaving office with $4500 billion deficit. The U.S. financial crisis is caused by the lack of credibility and trust,” the Majlis speaker added.
He said, “The U.S. financial meltdown and the failure of the Greater Middle East and Annapolis plans are the result of the careless performance of the U.S. adventurous conservatives.”
Cordially,
EC
October 27th, 2008 at 11:23 am
Hello Eric,
I am not sure how reliable the Teheran Times is these days, and I don’t agree that Bush crashed the banks–for the reasons given in at least 3 articles published here.
But you are spot on about 1913 being the year when havoc was wrought in our monetary system. That was also the year the income tax was created.