This picture is from the NATO Summit in Bucharest, Romania. I wonder if Bush knows what this picture means? I wonder if other Americans will see this picture and know what it means? I hear these world leaders saying, "You arrogant jerk. Who cares what you think?" George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have done this all by themselves – squandered 230 years of credit in a short 7 years. Quite a legacy…
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[…] how the neoconservatives did it… ( politics ) […]
[…] At least 14 Iraqi civilians were killed in clashes in Baghdad today; nine of the casualties occurred in Sadr City, the Mahdi Militia’s stronghold that “has been under siege since last week by about 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops.” Three American troops were also killed, and hundreds of Iraqis fled Baghdad “as U.S. and Iraqi forces increased pressure on anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who faces an ultimatum to either disband his Mahdi Army or give up politics.” The timing is just to pat. Crocker and Petraeus in Washington. McCain’s major Iraq War speech. And all the stuff I mentioned before. This is American Republican Theatrics 101, nothing less. It’s actually getting a lot of Americans and Iraqi people killed; it’s not working very well; and it’s clearly our taking sides in a Shiite Civil War. […]
[…] If you think of a worst case scenario, it’s probably right. Two weeks ago, I wrote this Scenario III: Circumstantial Evidence suggesting that the offensive against Basra and Sadr City was an American Operation, and that […]
[…] on Thursday 13 November 2008 I said recently that I wanted to change the blog [the Park Bench I…, the Park Bench II…]. What I want to do is pick out some questions that are worth thinking […]
[…] Even if all the things we thought were true, this kind of price escalation isn’t natural. There were other forces at work – big forces with offices in places like New York City – near Wall Street [see a wise man spoke…]. […]
[…] of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission from looking into regulating the Derivatives Market [a bronze statue in the Washington Mall…]. But going back in time, during the Administration of George H.W. Bush, Wendy Gramm, a Ph.D. […]
[…] regulating Derivatives [if you don’t know about her, it’s pretty key and I’ve summarized it here – the economy of the entire planet…]. But he kept the Interest Rates low his whole tenure. So as the back story of trading in packaged […]
[…] OTC Derivatives in 1996: … during the Administration of George H.W. Bush, Wendy Gramm, a Ph.D. Economist and wife of Senator Phil Gramm was Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The not-yet-notorious Enron Corporation was lobbying to be exempted from regulation in its trading of Energy Derivatives. In 1993 as her last act before leaving, she granted the exception. She left the CFTC, and [went on the Board of Enron]. She was followed at the CFTC in 1994 by Mary Schapiro who moved on to become President of NASD. So Brooksley Born became Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission a couple of years after Wendy Gramm’s exception. By 1998, that exception had grown into a gajillion dollar, unregulated Derivatives Market. In May of 1998, Born published a "concept release" asking for input about whether and how to regulate this expanding Derivatives Market [the "dark" Market]. This idea was immediately opposed by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt Jr. Then when Long Term Capital Management, a Hedge Fund heavily into Derivative Trading collapsed, she escalated her concerns about this unregulated Market in Derivatives. Her opponents responded by getting Congress to declare a 6 month moratorium on regulating Derivatives. After multiple meetings and some seventeen Congressional appearances, she gave up and left her post in June 1999. In November, the President’s Working Group on the Economy [Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt Jr., and the new Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Arthur Levitt William J. Rainer] issued a report, Over-the-Counter Derivatives Markets and the Commodity Exchange Act, unanimously recommending that these Derivative Markets continue unregulated. […]
[…] a huge campaign against regulating Derivatives. I’ve documented this repeatedly as well [a bronze statue in the Washington Mall…]. As we know, Derivative Trading played a role in multiplying the damage from his mismanagement of […]