Sunday, November 30, 2008
Geithner, Summers, and Volcker: Change We Can Believe In?
Sunday, November 30, 2008 | 
Posted by
Chris Waner
Let's quickly summarize our economic situation. The Federal Reserve, riding on the back of the fractional reserve banking system, has managed to print out of thin air enough money to allow US banks to explode to sizes that are "simply too big to fail." The loans that these banks issue are backed by nothing more than a promise to be paid back at a later date. This money, which is not backed by any asset or commodity value, has facilitated unsustainable investment in energy, then technology, and now housing. This mal-investment has produced economic havoc in the form of bankruptcies, foreclosures, bailouts, probable recession, and, thereby, almost certain inflation and monetary collapse. Don't worry everyone, Obama's on the case. He has new people with new plans. Who are these new people? Enter Timothy Geithner, Lawrence Summers, and Paul Volcker. Have you heard these names before. The Obama administration is counting on the fact that you haven't. So who are they?
The most familiar name on the list is Paul Volcker, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, conservative Keyensian, and promoter of the US's money-as-debt system. His record is well known, and you can find it here.
Timothy Geithner began his career working for the Treasury Department starting in 1988. Yes, the same Treasury Department that bailed out the savings and loan industry because of (sound familiar?) poor real-estate investments and the subsequent collapse of the FSLIC (the Savings and Loan version of the FDIC). "In 1999 he was promoted to Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs and served under Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers [source]," whom we'll meet shortly. Geithner was again around just in time to enjoy the ".COM" bubble burst. His latest exploits include work for the Council on Foreign Relations (proponents of the North American Union), the International Monetary Fund (the tool of the US Treasury to bailout any country whose corrupt economy threatens to leave their Keynesian dreamland in shambles), and lastly the President of the New York Federal Reserve.
Finally, Summers was one of the prominent spokesmen for the "Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which allowed many derivatives--like the credit default swaps that have rocked markets this fall--to go unregulated." Summers fought hard for the $750 billion dollar bailout and continues to fight hard for another round of bailouts of undetermined size, but certainly in the hundreds of billions. Economist Dean Baker says of Mr. Summers, "the policies he promoted as Treasury Secretary and in his subsequent writings led to the economic disaster that we now face." [Source]
Does this list of appointees sound like a change we can believe in? Does it even sound like a change at all? These men aren't going to rescue our economic situation; these are the men that created our economic situation. One or another of these men have been in active economic or governance rolls for every major economic disaster of the last 40 years.
One could make the argument, "whom could Obama have appointed, who also has the economic credentials to advise a US president and at the same time was not a participant in the calamity? I'm glad you asked. How about picking the gentleman who repeatedly predicted the chaos over and over again, was repeatedly shunned and ridiculed by the media and the so-called economic experts that were, themselves, responsible for the mess. I refer to none other than Peter Schiff. Need proof of his credentials and sheer economic genius? Watch this YouTube video and join me in encouraging Obama to choose the people who predicted the problems not produced the problems:
Labels:
Economics
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