It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane … No, it’s Spitzer to the Rescue

If Obama was serious about restoring confidence in the markets, he’d dump SEC chief Mary Schapiro and replace her with Eliot Spitzer. That would send a message to the world that the administration means business. Schapiro is another Wall Street toady who believes in “self regulating” markets. Right. As the head of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) she twiddled her thumbs while the financial giants increased their leverage to gigantic levels and spread their derivatives contagion to every part of the system.

Schapiro also missed the Madoff scandal, the auction-rate bond fraud, the blow up at Lehman Brothers, and the mortgage meltdown. She was blindsided at every turn. Her dismal performance as a private-sector regulator proves that she’s the wrong person for the job. Even the far-right Wall Street Journal has lambasted Schapiro. In an article titled “Obama’s pick to head SEC has record of being a Regulator with a Light Touch,” the WSJ relays this revealing anecdote:

The Financial Services Institute, a trade group, was meeting, and Ms. Schapiro addressed the crowd about Finra’s efforts to fight frauds aimed at senior citizens. Frank Congemi, a financial adviser, asked what Finra was doing to regulate “packaged products” such as complex mortgage securities. Mr. Congemi says that Ms. Schapiro replied: “We have rating agencies that rate them.” The credit-rating agencies, by this time, were being heavily criticized for having given triple-A ratings to mortgage bonds that became unsalable as foreclosures rose.

Mr. Congemi says that at the May 7 meeting he retorted: “What is that going to do to markets and people’s trust when these things go to zero?” He says Ms. Schapiro replied that she couldn’t answer hypothetical questions. (Wall Street Journal, “Obama’s pick to head SEC has record of being a Regulator with a Light Touch”)

This story sums up Schapiro’s “do nothing” attitude perfectly: plenty of posturing and rhetoric with zero enforcement. She’s doomed to follow in the footsteps of her feckless predecessor, Christopher Cox, who stuck his head in the sand while the 5 biggest investment banks levered up to 30-to-1 and brought the whole global house of cards crashing to earth. Schapiro will undoubtedly torpedo any effort to police the markets or to bring charges against any of the Wall Street Godfathers.

And what is the SEC up to now? Where are the regulators and what steps have been taken to clean up Wall Street?

Nothing. Just more blabbering. Obama hasn’t changed a thing. Treasury is full of bank loyalists and the SEC is loaded with brokerage-friendly flunkies. The only difference is that the SEC’s rubber stamp has been passed from laughingstock Cox to lapdog Schapiro. Other than that, it’s business as usual.

If Spitzer was running the SEC, the Pinkertons would be swarming the investments houses right now, thumbing through the off-balance sheet paperwork, overturning filing cabinets and tasering bloated banksters as they scuttle away clutching their Armani briefcases stuffed with taxpayer loot.

The public is not in the mood for any more lame excuses or windy oratory from President Inspiration. Just get on with it. Governing is more than just gliding from one teleprompter to the next pointing at rainbows and promising Utopia. There has to be action, accountability, and justice.

What people want is to see a truncheon-wielding cop on every corner of lower Manhattan. They want regulators snooping through e-mails and digging through trash cans to uncover any scrap of evidence that will build a case for investor fraud or criminal malfeasance. They want Spitzer-clones — armed with bullwhips and billy-clubs–posted in every boardroom, in every penthouse, on every private jet, breathing down the necks of every CEO, every CFO, and every dodgy, derivatives-peddling scam artist until the financial typhoon subsides and the culprits, cutthroats and carpetbaggers are dragged in leg irons to Guantanamo for a few brief dunks on Dick Cheney’s waterboard.

This is not the time for the namby-pamby, weak-kneed Schapiro. Eliot Spitzer has a proven record of taking on the industry behemoths and organized crime. (He launched an investigation that brought down the Gambino family’s control over Manhattan’s garment and trucking industries) He’s devoted himself to consumer and environmental protection, while taking aim at white collar crime and securities fraud. Until he stepped down, he’d been doing a bang-up job reigning in reckless speculators, predatory lenders, and Wall Street kingpins. He’s a bulldog, a corporate dragon slayer, and the best man for the job. Spitzer’s heavy-handed tactics made him big business’s most hated man. In fact, in January 2005, the president of the US Chamber of Commerce described Spitzer’s approach as “the most egregious and unacceptable form of intimidation we’ve seen in this country in modern times.”

If that isn’t a ringing endorsement for SEC chief, than what is?

Spritzer’s Hookergate

In March 2008, Spitzer resigned as Governor of New York when he was caught with a high-priced call girl named Ashley Dupre. The story made headlines across the country. Spitzer accepted full responsibility for his conduct and did not challenge the allegations even though the information was gathered via a federal wiretap.

The Spitzer case brings up some unsettling questions about Bush’s surveillance programs: mainly whether they are really being used to investigate potential terrorists or simply a means of destroying political enemies. Spitzer made a name for himself by sticking it to big shot business tycoons and Wall Street kleptocrats, the very type of people who fill out Bush’s campaign donor list. That’s why many people believe that the Bush Justice Department was simply carrying out a vendetta on behalf of Spitzer’s many powerful enemies.

Just days before the scandal broke, The Washington Post published an article by Spitzer which linked the Bush administration to the mortgage fiasco. He showed how Bush had blocked all efforts to save loan applicants from being fleeced by mortgage lenders. Spitzer was joined by many other state attorneys general who noticed early on that predatory lending was on the rise and that there was a concerted effort to keep the mortgage swindle going whether applicants had the ability to make their payments or not.

Here is an excerpt:

Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye….

In 2003, during the height of the predatory lending crisis, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) invoked a clause from the 1863 National Bank Act to issue formal opinions preempting all state predatory lending laws, thereby rendering them inoperative. The OCC also promulgated new rules that prevented states from enforcing any of their own consumer protection laws against national banks. The federal government’s actions were so egregious and so unprecedented that all 50 state attorneys general, and all 50 state banking superintendents, actively fought the new rules

But the unanimous opposition of the 50 states did not deter, or even slow, the Bush administration in its goal of protecting the banks. In fact, when my office opened an investigation of possible discrimination in mortgage lending by a number of banks, the OCC filed a federal lawsuit to stop the investigation.

Throughout our battles with the OCC and the banks, the mantra of the banks and their defenders was that efforts to curb predatory lending would deny access to credit to the very consumers the states were trying to protect. The curbs we sought… would have stopped the scourge of predatory lending practices that have resulted in countless thousands of consumers losing their homes and put our economy in a precarious position.

When history tells the story of the subprime lending crisis and recounts its devastating effects on the lives of so many innocent homeowners, the Bush administration will not be judged favorably. The tale is still unfolding, but when the dust settles, it will be judged as a willing accomplice to the lenders who went to any lengths in their quest for profits. So willing, in fact, that it used the power of the federal government in an unprecedented assault on state legislatures, as well as on state attorneys general and anyone else on the side of consumers. (Elliot Spitzer, “Predator Lenders’ Partner in Crime,” Washington Post)

If the allegations are true, then the Bush administration was directly and maliciously involved in duping thousands, if not millions, of credulous borrowers into fraudulent loans. Surely, this is a matter that requires congressional investigation. Journalist Greg Palast sums it up like this:

Spitzer not only took on Countrywide, he took on their predatory enablers in the investment banking community. Behind Countrywide was the Mother Shark, its founder and now owner, Bank of America. Others joined the sharkfest: Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup’s Citibank made mortgage usury their major profit centers . . . . But there were rumblings that the party would soon be over . . .

The big players knew that unless Spitzer was taken out, he would create enough ruckus to spoil the party. Headlines in the financial press – one was “Wall Street Declares War on Spitzer” — made clear to Bush’s enforcers at Justice who their number one target should be. And it wasn’t Bin Laden. (“Eliot’s Mess,” Greg Palast)

Spitzer gave his enemies all the ammo they needed to put him away for good, and they took full advantage of it. No one expected that he would pop up just a year later.

Last Sunday, Spitzer was interviewed on Fareed Zakaria’s GPS on CNN. The ex-Gov showed a better grasp of the details of the financial situation than of any of the 535 members of Congress. Spitzer understands the problems and knows what needs to be done to fix them. Here’s a small part of the interview:

Fareed Zakaria: What made you look at AIG and say something is wrong here?

Eliot Spitzer: Their fundamental accounting structure was wrong, and when we prosecuted them we brought a case that they had allegedly manufactured fictitious reinsurance contracts designed to create the appearance of capital on the books which was not there and this was was a structure that had been designed and orchestrated at the very top of the company.

Fareed Zakaria: So they were basically fudging the numbers to make it look like they had a stronger balance sheet than they actually had?

Spitzer: Precisely. That is exactly right. The underlying effort was to create the illusion of financial strength that was not actually there. And as we dug more deeply into the underlying structure and organization and accounting that was ongoing at the company we knew there was a problem. Four people have been convicted in this and the former CEO was called an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal courtroom by the federal prosecutor. So, this was a fundamental effort to alter the facts and lie to the public.”

AIG CENTER OF THE WEB

ZAKARIA: So, do you think the problems that AIG got into later on stemmed from some of the same practices that you were trying to get at?

SPITZER: They stemmed from an effort at the very to to gin up returns whenever, wherever possible, and to push the boundaries in a way that would garner returns almost regardless of risk. Back then, I told people that AIG is at the center of the web. The financial tentacles of this company stretched to every major investment bank. The web between AIG and Goldman Sachs is something that should be pursued. And as I’ve written . . .

Consider what Spitzer is saying: that the lumbering Goliath, AIG, is at the very center of the gigantic derivatives fraud which took trillion of dollars of undercapitalized credit default swaps (CDS) and sold them (as insurance) to myriad other financial institutions to help them maintain artificially high ratings on complex securities whose real value was always in doubt since the underlying collateral was connected to uncreditworthy borrowers who were more likely to default or go into foreclosure. Whew! These CDS are the paper claims to fictive wealth which greatly inflated the world’s biggest speculative bubble. These unregulated swaps are the tissue that holds together the failing shadow banking system which both Geithner and Bernanke are committed to preserve. Spitzer understands how this complex system works and knows what it will take to bring it under control. This alone should put him at the top of the list of candidates for the SEC.

If Obama was serious about defending the little guy and restoring confidence in the markets, he’d replace Schapiro with Spitzer pronto. But since the real goal is to maintain the same basic power-structure at all costs; the economy will continue its relentless slide towards the abyss. One unmistakable sign of imperial decline is the inability to make critical changes when the country’s future depends on it.

Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He can be reached at: fergiewhitney@msn.com. Read other articles by Mike.

13 comments on this article so far ...

Comments RSS feed

  1. Don Hawkins said on April 2nd, 2009 at 1:30pm #

    This whole global house of cards crashing to earth part when talking about the economy is a walk in the park compared to what this climate breakdown will do in ten then twenty years.

    One unmistakable sign of imperial decline is the inability to make critical changes when the country’s future depends on it.

    This time we are not talking about one country but all countries. We have 98 months to be well on our way to stop burning fossil fuels like coal or the house of cards will be crashing to Earth in slow motion sort of. Last night on one of the financial channels someone said we don’t have those kind of demonstrations in the United States like we see in London right now. Then I saw two kids and one said they hit us with clubs and we are only eighteen just kid’s. Oh boy. In the United States the powers that be have for years now been able to keep people in sort of a middle ground. They know how serious putting CO 2 into the atmosphere is and what it means to all of us but it sure looks to me that a decision has been made to just do it anyway full speed ahead. To hard to go the other way and the whole money power thing. Well of course they are the biggest slaves of all to the system without it as it is now how could they ever go on. Oh they could go on and just maybe we can too. Somehow those demonstrations need to start in the States and not just a few thousand but a few million. One voice loud and clear. Think about that in front of the Capital calm at peace two million at the same time loud and clear this is real and so are we. This is real and so are we. The problem is the powers that be don’t think you are real it’s kind of an optical delusion of confusedness and it seems to be working so far and that has to change. I have been watching the Senate the last few day’s and that is what I see an optical delusion of confusedness and that illusion of knowledge they play so well the game. I am older and so are most of these so called leaders and sometimes I just don’t get it why they will not try. My kids and there kids in just a few years will have to grow-up fast as it is going to get very tuff. I don’t live in that middle ground there bullshit has been clear to me for a few years now. Your future depends on you and think of this as kind of a war. To go into the darkside listening to bankers, policy makers, business so called leaders with 5,000 dollar suits and perfectly combed hair telling you all kinds of things and none of it even close to the truth is not to cool to say the least. So for those two young men in England who said we are only kids and they hit us with clubs well I see some older people who really don’t have a problem with that. Loud and clear this is real and so are we. Get those boots you will need them even if we start today. One unmistakable sign of imperial decline is the inability to make critical changes when the country’s/World’s future depends on it.

  2. Don Hawkins said on April 2nd, 2009 at 1:56pm #

    I will send out something (“Worshiping the Temple of Doom”) on cap-and-trade soon. It is incredible how governments resist the obvious (maybe not so incredible when lobbying budgets are examined, along with Washington’s revolving doors). This is not rocket science. If we want to move toward energy independence and solve the climate problem, we need to stop subsidizing fossil fuels with the public’s money and instead place a price on carbon emissions.
    My suggestion is Carbon Fee and 100% Dividend, with a meaningful starting price (on oil, gas and coal at the mine or port of entry) equivalent to $1/gallon gasoline ($115/ton CO2). Based on 2007 fuel use, this would generate $670B/year – returned 100% to the public (monthly electronic deposit in bank accounts or debit cards), the dividend would be $3000 per adult legal resident, $9000/year per family with two or more children. This is large enough to affect consumer product and life style choices, investments and innovations. Of course all the other things (rules re vehicle, appliance and building efficiencies, smart electric grid, utility profit motives, etc.) are needed, but a rising carbon price is needed to make them work and move us most efficiently to the cleaner world beyond fossil fuels. James Hansen

    In just a few years people will read that maybe if there is still books or people who can read or have the time to read while trying to survive kind of like now only much harder and say we still had time but people watched Fox News and called called now instead of instead of instead of

  3. Don Hawkins said on April 2nd, 2009 at 7:30pm #

    I’ve always seen the US elections as something bizarre: it revolves around the person, and not around the ideas. You get to see the candidates family, how and where he grew up and whether he’s really patriotic, etc. Thomas Van Oppens

    it revolves around the person, and not around the ideas. It revolves now in the twenty first century around something called an optical delusion of consciousness it’s not real. Is anything being solved come on is anything being solved or is it made to seem like it is. Is most of what we see and hear nothing more than an illusion of knowledge and not even a good attempt at that. Once in a great while someone will say something that is real the truth with a new way of thinking but only once in a great while. If you don’t believe the illusion of knowledge will people listen to you? “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?… Just a thought

  4. Deadbeat said on April 2nd, 2009 at 9:57pm #

    I agree with Don’s concerns about the environment but the whole global house of card may be one of the best opportunties for Don to advance his ideas. People who are beginning the illegitamacy of Capitalism are going to be looking for ideas to change the course of the political economy. Clearly soceity needs some immense restructuring in order to deal not only with inequality but with the environment. This is the time for Don and other who are primarily concerned with the environment to advance ideas of how the political economy can be restructured to benefit the masses and “save” the planet. Solidarity is the key.

  5. Mulga Mumblebrain said on April 3rd, 2009 at 12:51am #

    Much as I enjoy Whitney, he overlooks the fact that elite plutocracy and pathocratic rule are as American as apple pie. I’m sorry, but the sooner the US crumbles and breaks up into five or six states, and the archipelago of terror of its hundreds of military installations around the planet rusts away, the better. Parasites everywhere, craven plutocrats and despots, will quake in fear, and many will end up doing a Mussolini, but the vast majority of humanity will breathe a sigh of relief. Only a new, anti-capitalist, anti-market fundamentalist world can save mankind from ecological collapse, war and pestilence. I’m afraid I think it is already too late, but without America’s fall from power and dominance there is absolutely no hope.

  6. Don Hawkins said on April 3rd, 2009 at 4:30am #

    Still, there are even greater, ecological, disasters looming, and no sign whatsoever that the Masters intend to do anything but protect their rackets, by any means necessary. Mulga

    I see you have not lost your touch Mulga. To take something that is complex or seems complex and make it simple is still one of the hardest things to do. That the Masters intend to do anything but protect their rackets, by any means necessary. Masters of what masters of the illusion of knowledge. In just a few years millions then billions of people will be in a bit of trouble. Here in the states these so called masters are still trying to protect their rackets and what do we see bazaaro world. Tent cities and commercials that still tell you to call call now. People still call me to apply for a credit card and my credit rating is probably 83. I usually tell the person on the other end that credit cards are nothing more than legalized extortion and just keep people in slavery, oh and by the way the mob doesn’t even charge that much interest. Then I get well sir no annual service charge, what. To me the strange part is these so called masters are the biggest slaves of all to the system. Without it how could they ever go on. The spa the golf course the jet or the big one get there face on TV and tell people how special they are and if you do all the right things you can be just like me. Thanks but no thanks and now after pointing this out these very people would say you just don’t like rich people and you seem a little nut’s. All I have to do is turn on the TV and watch these so called masters protect their rackets, by any means necessary with the illusion of knowledge lite on the knowledge and then go have a cup of coffee and think about bazaaro world where bad is good and a lie is the truth. The Senate passed 3.5 trillion last night to do what? More flat screen TV’s more credit cards more cars that get 30mpg or to sell more houses at compound interest to build more coal fired power plants or drill for more oil and on and on protect the rackets at all costs. This time the cost is a bit high.

  7. bozh said on April 3rd, 2009 at 6:58am #

    yes, don
    i also expect that the ruling class wld do whatever it takes to retain near absolute or even absolute control.

    but i still hope we can get onside 90% of world pop; nevertheless, some of us will have to face persecution, death, and imprisonment before we can establish a much better democracy/world. tnx

  8. Don Hawkins said on April 3rd, 2009 at 8:47am #

    some of us will have to face persecution, I think most of us already face persecution it’s that daily dose of stupidity that comes over the air waves over and over again. Get those electrons moving at all costs. The last President the have and have more guy. Let’s just take one little bit of what these people did. On climate change the word is denial over and over again but they didn’t stop there. At NASA scientists like James Hansen being followed reports changed and at the climate conference when one of the President’s men said well if the ice caps melt they will come back right. That I is hard to forget. Now today I hear Obama say climate change is real and the ice in the North melting will change the climate Worldwide. He was very right on that and he is our last chance to save some of the human race many will not make it to late. Think about that Bush and his people just a few months ago not one word on climate change now Obama yes it is real. A form of persecution sort of a better word is confusion. In the House the Senate the same thing is still right there in living color. The one side is trying but still only a band aid the other side protect the rackets at all costs. For the most part any of the news media protect the rackets at all costs once in a great while a little truth on the problems that face us only a little. The reason I guess is we are not smart enough to understand. Just maybe the reason is some are hopelessly slaves to the system and think it is a good idea we stay right there with them. I think not.

  9. Don Hawkins said on April 3rd, 2009 at 9:20am #

    One thing I forgot. Bush and the have and have more the master plan for climate change was and still is for many let the millions not make it problem solved. Well they got there wish as millions maybe billions probably to late problem solved, no. We all have about 98 months to see some very large changes in the way we do things or it will probably be out of our hands. There is still time only a few years to go for it.

  10. Don Hawkins said on April 4th, 2009 at 4:24am #

    Many scientists believe that we have delayed so long that this is our last chance to act. They say that even if we make cuts over the next two decades of 80 per cent in GHG emissions, our children and grandchildren will still have to cope with rising sea levels, creeping desertification and violent storm surges, not to mention the geopolitical pressure that will be placed on governments trying to deal with human migration away from devastated areas of the globe.

    “I frankly think that this Copenhagen is the last chance for us to deal with this problem,” Andrew Weaver, a climate expert, IPCC contributor and author of Keeping Our Cool: Canada in a Warming World with the University of British Colombia. “I’m serious. They’re vital.”
    “If we don’t do anything now, we’re going to push the world past what is known as a 2-degree-Celsius threshold, which means that we are committing it to 12 metres of sea level rise, the desertification of southern Europe and many, many other things. So, frankly, now is the time.”
    “Some people are saying we have already crossed this threshold (into unstoppable, jarring changes),” Ford, who is also an IPCC contributor, said. “Others are saying … we haven’t crossed it yet, but it’s pretty close. The climate is definitely changing faster than we thought, especially the Arctic. Globally as well. This really caught the scientific community by surprise. In 2002, what was involved was this idea of gradual climate change: We may see dramatic changes but towards the end of the century, not today.
    “That is now changing, we are now thinking these changes are occurring quite rapidly today. Quite a few people are speculating that we are going to see even more dramatic changes quite soon.”
    For this reason, he said, the talks this year are “very important.”
    “If we fail and there is no agreement, it’s going to really constrain our ability globally to address this problem.”
    Stone also noted that no IPCC scientist has been asked to brief the government on climate change.
    The international consensus is that we have delayed action for so long that it is “virtually certain” that future generations will have to contend with mean temperature rises of about 1.5 to 2C. That may not sound like much, but in fact it is enormous. Here are some of the repercussions scientists have concluded with 90-per-cent certainty will occur – in some cases they’re already happening:
    At least 30 per cent of species will be at risk of extinction due to floods, drought, wildfire, insect infestations and acidification of the oceans.

    Crop production will gradually increase for northerly climates, while it will decrease in tropical and semi-arid areas, where most of the Earth’s 6 billion people live.

    “It’s close to a couple of key thresholds. No. 1 is it’s close to the threshold beyond which we are committed to the demise of the Greenland ice sheet, which commits (us to a) sea level rise of seven metres. So that’s in the cards. It’s also at the same level that you commit us to losing the west Antarctic ice sheet. That’s another five metres. So you are committing the world to 12 metres of sea level rise. It won’t happen overnight. It takes centuries.
    “With 12 metres, you’ve got 130 million people in the Netherlands and China, including the cities of Shanghai and Jiangyin, under water. What do you say? You say, ‘Well, in Canada we have a slightly longer growing season so you can just quietly go and die there in China. And you know it’s not our problem.’ So to me the big issue is the political instability that is clearly going to arise.”
    “Awareness of the issue is quite broad,” Stone said. “There is a question about the extent to which people understand it, that they understand that they are part of the problem and they can be part of the solution. I think that we still have a lot of work to do there. If we don’t get a globally rigid regime in place within the next 10 years, then I think things could be bad.” By William Marsden, The Gazette

    Crop production will gradually increase for northerly climates, while it will decrease in tropical and semi-arid areas, where most of the Earth’s 6 billion people live.

    Crop production will gradually increase for northerly climates, while it will decrease in tropical and semi-arid areas, where most of the Earth’s 6 billion people live.

    Crop production will gradually increase for northerly climates, while it will decrease in tropical and semi-arid areas, where most of the Earth’s 6 billion people live.

    If we don’t get a globally rigid regime in place within the next 10 years, then I think things could be bad.”

    If we don’t get a globally rigid regime in place within the next 10 years, then I think things could be bad.”

    Think in terms of months 100 is a round number and two million to start is a nice round number to start and not to get our banks lending again.

    Still, there are even greater, ecological, disasters looming, and no sign whatsoever that the Masters intend to do anything but protect their rackets, by any means necessary. Mulga

    Masters give me a break masters of the illusion of knowledge my Grandson is only six and has more knowledge than these so called masters I see playing the game of illusion. Two million to start is a nice round number to start and not to get our banks lending again. That’s called a new way of thinking.

  11. Don Hawkins said on April 4th, 2009 at 5:33am #

    If you watch the news you now hear about troubled people. We saw a troubled person yesterday. Let’s work on that new way of thinking. Still, there are even greater, ecological, disasters looming, and no sign whatsoever that the Masters intend to do anything but protect their rackets, by any means necessary and if you turn on your TV is a good place to see just that. The very people who talk about troubled people seem a little troubled themselves it’s hard to protect their rackets, by any means necessary and there best means is to get those electrons moving. Let’s see does Rush seem troubled or Glenn Beck who hasn’t cried on TV for at least a week or bankers are they troubled? Wall Street types are they troubled again hard to protect their rackets, by any means necessary. Beck’s new deal is Fascism and what we can all do to stop it. More like protect his rackets, by any means necessary and could this be troubling to some people? Yes I am sure it is to me Beck is troubled and nut’s but he himself has said that about himself, strange. If you watch the Senate or House do they seem troubled again hard to protect their rackets, by any means necessary and appears to be rather hard on there mind, troubling. Calm at peace two million to start Capital one voice to help those troubled people inside the Hall’s of power focus on not how to protect their rackets, by any means necessary but solve some very real problems we all face and maybe it will trickle down to the talking heads on TV and bankers and Wall Street types who seem oh so troubled. Do you think some will find what I just wrote troubling? Well for them think calm at peace a new way of thinking is needed you must relearn what you thought you knew and may the force be with you. Oh and lose those Alligator shoes and get some boots. The very people who talk about troubled people seem a little troubled themselves it’s hard to protect their rackets, by any means necessary now isn’t it.

  12. Don Hawkins said on April 4th, 2009 at 5:54am #

    I will send out something (“Worshiping the Temple of Doom”) on cap-and-trade soon. It is incredible how governments resist the obvious (maybe not so incredible when lobbying budgets are examined, along with Washington’s revolving doors). This is not rocket science. If we want to move toward energy independence and solve the climate problem, we need to stop subsidizing fossil fuels with the public’s money and instead place a price on carbon emissions. James Hansen

    Now for all those oh so troubled people in the hall’s of power and talking heads and wall street types and bankers please read what James Hansen wrote maybe three times. Think baby steps keep it simple at first calm at peace. This is not rocket science it is an easy concept to understand. Thank you thank you very much.

  13. Don Hawkins said on April 4th, 2009 at 7:40am #

    Yesterday we got the jobs numbers for the States 600,000 plus lost jobs and unemployment at about 8.5%. For some reason the government seems to have a problem with numbers and the media well the media is after all a business. Instead of 8.5% try about 27% in the States. Tent cities and it looks like many food banks are running out to feed families because of the other kind of bank who has got trillions in just the last few months. Again calm at peace just maybe we need to figure out away to feed people. I have an idea government control until the private sector can work out there troubles. Where I live I do what I can to help people who need food but somehow many I see on TV with very well pressed clothes just there dry cleaning bill money alone could help. Troubling.