Matt Taibbi writes: "Most Americans know about 'the budget'. What they don't know is that there is another budget of roughly equal heft, traditionally maintained in complete secrecy. After the financial crash of 2008, it grew to monstrous dimensions, as the government attempted to unfreeze the credit markets by handing out trillions to banks and hedge funds. And thanks to a whole galaxy of obscure, acronym-laden bailout programs, it eventually rivaled the 'official' budget in size - a huge roaring river of cash flowing out of the Federal Reserve to destinations neither chosen by the president nor reviewed by Congress, but instead handed out by fiat by unelected Fed officials using a seemingly nonsensical and apparently unknowable methodology."
Why did the Federal Reserve fork over $220 million in bailout money to the wives of two Morgan Stanley bigwigs? (art: Victor Juhasz/Rolling Stone)
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Who Is dissuaded by incorrect answers? END "THE FED"
Sure. END THE so-called (phony) 'FED'; and really federalize OUR nation's currency.
Oh, and can we arrest and/or impeach every single person that was part of this scheme?
The American People are being "screwed" into the ground by this insulated cabal of elite financiers and their inner circle of family, friends, and fellow partners in crime. It may all appear legal on paper, but so did Bernie Madoff's massive rip-off before it unraveled. The difference is this mondo-con is being perpetrated by the very people put in place by our government to "manage" our financial recovery for the benefit of all Americans.
Hahahahahaha! I bet Christy Mack sleeps like a baby weasel.
Who is minding the hen house? Where is the prez on this? Will he read this article?
What we really need is Course 101 in Fraud. Unbelievable!!!
This- thoroughly unaccountable- state of public affairs didn't develop overnight, but gradually, over the past quarter-to-half century.
Yes; we need central banks. No; we do not need them in private hands.
The money cartel cannot control everything.
A sensible question might be "does anyone on Earth really understand right now how all of this [these (often dodgy) economic stats/figures] is working?"
No reason- that is- other than to take down the Currency, thus forcing a crisis as to whether more-of-the-same OR genuine public money should take its place.
Please don't say that you haven't heard the truth on this matter.
"As we gaze out at the popular fervor in the streets [of Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain], one question to ask ourselves is this: When will it come to America? In important ways, our own country has become like one of these distant, troubled places.
* * *
The top 1% have the best houses, the best educations, the best doctors, and the best lifestyles, but there is one thing that money doesn't seem to have bought: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99% live. Throughout history, this is something that the top 1% eventually learn. TOO LATE." (Emphasis added.) "Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%," Vanity Fair, May 2011, http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/83-83/5602-of-the-1-by-the-1-for-the-1
I notice it, too; with two eyes, ears, and a normal functioning cranial bucket.
No, that's not the case. The (true) media chase the ratings and readership.
I can assure you that if the American people would watch it, the media would air it. But the fact is, the majority of this nation is more celebrity driven and drawn by the flash-bang spectacles; to soap operas, tabloids, car chases, explosions and disasters.
America wants to see it, live, from as many angles as possible. But as soon as some media figure tries to explain in detail how and why something happened, with honest-to-god facts, way too many American minds shut down, look away. It's simply like ADHD, and is the evolution of this country's appetite. It prefers entertainment over education. Folly over fact. Opinion over knowledge.
This country needs information reform, but I don't think that's going to happen. The country is simply getting more stupid by the minute. And doesn't demand better of its sources.
If Taibbi was brave enough to front this story on major media, much of this country's viewers/readers would tune out in the first minute. About the time he drew the fourth arrow on the money trail.
Sad. But true.
Bankster - Chase CEO Jamie Dimon gets massive $16M pay package -
Hope that Jamie gets more next year - his economy is improving. Trump for president and we have here dictator/fascist scenario.
We owe our soul to the company store [The fed}
Yes, I'm rambling and I'm angry.
C'mon folks. Let's show how angry we are and get out on the streets and do something already?
Getting out in the streets will only work if we pack the streets with thousands and demand attention. Demand they give us back the freedoms they have been whittling away since 9/11 in the name of security. We have become draconian in the measures we take in the name of security.
I'd better stop now.
PEACE TO YOU ALL.....AFTER THE BATTLE.
Oops, I nearly forget the Bushwhackers who lied us into war, war and more war. But it sure as hell (pun intended) looks like none of the above will ever be investigated or prosecuted, or will see the inside of a jail.
Evil it is...VILLAINAIRES, GO TO HELL!!!
PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH YOUR NETWORKS! If we want anything to change, we have to arm ourselves with information and act to correct. Bitch Moaning and Complaining will do NOTHING to resolve what this government and Big Corporate America and their rich Lobbyists are doing to US. We as a society have been "broken" as we do our pets when we house train them, and have forgotten what this country was founded on: Motivated Fighters that traveled to unknown places to fight for fair justice and find a better way of life. Words alone will do nothing. Those of us that are small business owners, we are paying for all of this!!! We get constantly taxed for EVERYTHING! Yet, when did we get TARP funds? Put together all the small businesses in this country, and we too ARE TOO BIG TO FAIL! It is small business, not Big Corporate Giants, that make this economy progress and give the lower and middle class the chance to get to stay alive in this God Awfull Expensive and Inflationary society. Why is that everything goes up in price except wages and salaries?
I am UTTERLY DISGUSTED!!!!!
Step #2) Publicly financed elections. As long as it costs to be a politician politicians will be bought.
Everything else can flow from there.
trystero777, you are Absolutely Right! This is how to start. The next needed step will be to abolish lobbyism and to prohibit the politicians to take bribes - a.k.a. "campaign contributions". The politicians should well be able to live exclusively from their good salaries and their good health care insurance. Their only extra benefit should the the HONOR of serving their fellow countrymen.
I'm not sure that this should not be #1 as I doubt that #1 and #2 can be achieved before fair redistricting reform is implemented.
I've been out there and you are right -- making noise on the streets is a great step. Call, write, scream and yell. You know what the history books don't tell? In the 1930's this country was close to anarchy. The President's train couldn't stop in mid-western cities because of the angry mobs. That's what this is going to come to -- and it's gonna be painful. What's sad is we are in a time much like the lead-up to the Civil War. The right and the left will fight each other and not even realize who the enemy is.
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