Global Economic Downturn: A Crisis of Political Economy

STRATFOR  "As we all know, the origin of the current financial crisis was the subprime mortgage meltdown in the United States. To be more precise, it originated in a financial system generating paper assets whose value depended on the price of housing. It assumed that the price of homes would always rise and, at the very least, if the price fluctuated the value of the paper could still be determined. Neither proved to be true. The price of housing declined and, worse, the value of the paper assets became indeterminate. This placed the entire American financial system in a state of gridlock and the crisis spilled over into Europe, where many financial institutions had purchased the paper as well."  George Friedman

Who is to blame?

President Bush? NY Times:  "[Bush] pushed hard to expand homeownership, especially among minorities, an initiative that dovetailed with his ambition to expand the Republican tent — and with the business interests of some of his biggest donors. But his housing policies and hands-off approach to regulation encouraged lax lending standards." Karl Rove rebuts:

Congress? Frank’s fingerprints are all over the financial fiasco  "The roots of this crisis go back to the Carter administration. That was when government officials, egged on by left-wing activists, began accusing mortgage lenders of racism and “redlining” because urban blacks were being denied mortgages at a higher rate than suburban whites.

"The pressure to make more loans to minorities (read: to borrowers with weak credit histories) became relentless. Congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act,"....

Timeline shows Bush, McCain warning Dems of financial and housing crisis; meltdown

Introducing the Blameshifter

Verum Serum   "Your stimulus program was a bust, unemployment is at 9.1%, the nation’s debt has been downgraded, and there’s an election coming your way? Sounds pretty hopeless.

"What you need now is someone else to blame. Thank goodness for the Tea Party. This tiny minority of elected representatives makes a perfect class of villains. All you need to do now is shift the blame…"

What’s that rumble? It’s the BlameShifter! (OFA employee shown for scale)

At last there’s a tool that’s able to meet your national level demands for shoving your failure onto others.

You say you’ve got 9.1% unemployment? Push the Bush did it line by the metric ton.

Just saw the nation’s debt downgraded by S&P? With the BlameShifter your surrogates can drive the “Tea Party downgrade” right down their throats.

Best of all, at just $4 million each, your billion dollar campaign can pilot a fleet of these. Soon everyone will know that none of this is your fault!

The BlameShifter – because all that blame isn’t going to shift itself.

Video: Dems Strategy – Blame the Tea Party

Debt man talking  "President Obama gave a statement this afternoon on the historic downgrade of the United States’ credit rating. As of this writing, the statement is not posted on the White House site. I wonder why. The best account I can find of it at the moment is this live summary by Politco. [UPDATE--Video below.] The following draws directly from the Politico summary." This article cites the following from CATO:

Obama’s Failed Response to the Downgrade and the Outlook for Fixing America’s Spending Crisis  "President Obama just spoke about the downgrade and his remarks were very disappointing. He uttered some empty platitudes, offered no plan, (amazingly) called for more government spending, and continued his advocacy of class-warfare taxation.

"So what does this mean? Other than expecting volatility, I have no idea what will happen in financial markets over the next few days. But I can opine about the downgrade, Obama’s unserious response, and what it means in terms of public policy over the next few years and into the future."

....

"But, barring some remarkable change in attitude, Obama is mostly irrelevant except to the extent that he can make matters worse by luring Republicans into a phony tax-hike deal." Dan Mitchell

The Afghan Mission and the SEAL Tragedy

Max Boot  "While we should be in awe of special operators and their accomplishments, we should keep their capabilities in perspective: They cannot win a war by themselves.

"The Tangi Valley is an area infested by Taliban. Even if Saturday's raid had been a success, killing or capturing some local Taliban leaders, it would hardly have ended the insurgent threat in that area. "Counterterrorism raids are a vital part of any integrated counterinsurgency strategy, but they cannot substitute for the lack of such a strategy. The loss of leaders hurts any organization, but terrorist groups like the Taliban—or al Qaeda or Hezbollah—have shown considerable ability to regenerate even after major losses.

"Only one thing can lead to their decisive defeat: a critical number of boots on the ground. In Afghanistan, the U.S. and our allies have the necessary ratio of ground forces in only two provinces—Helmand and Kandahar. The rest of the country is an "economy of force" mission. U.S. commanders hope to shift resources from the south, once that has been secured, to the east to gain control of ungoverned areas. But that strategy has been thrown into jeopardy by President Obama's decision to pull out 30,000 U.S. troops by September 2012.

"Many in the administration wanted an even more precipitous withdrawal, arguing that we could rely on Special Operations troops to keep our enemies from establishing control of critical terrain. Saturday's disaster shows the risks of that strategy and underlines the limitations of even the world's best special operators. So we should honor them, but we should not exaggerate what they can do."

Excerpt taken from a subscription-only Wall Street Journal article which may not be available when you click on the link. Ergo, we have printed the crux of the article here.

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/default.aspx

One more graph

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/photos/barack-obama-cartoons

You might be a left head, if ...

American Thinker 

•You can't tell "it's" from "its."

•Your mind cuts out after one tweet a day.

•You think "like" is part of English grammar.

•You believe Jerk Rap is better than Mozart.

•You feel sure that 2 + 2 equals 5 in some cultures.

•You think snowstorms prove global warming.

•You believe God is dead but Karl Marx lives.

•You secretly think human history started when you woke up in high school.

•You've had at least twelve years of education, but you can't read, write, add, subtract, multiply or divide, or make any sense.

•Your eyes glaze over when somebody talks facts and logic.

•You never liked history because it has too many dates.

•You're twelve years old and feel ready to have a baby.

•You think undocumented immigrants lost their documents someplace.

•You think blacks can't be racists.

•You consider Al Sharpton to be a spiritual leader.

•You want to spend your life doing good for humanity, but you can't stand math, science, business, accounting, agriculture, economics or engineering. Or work.

•You think the Nazis were conservatives.

•You're sure you're a Progressive but can't explain what that means. If anything.

•You believe Karl Marx gave human rights to women, blacks, and gays

•You think the Soviet Union was a good idea.

•You think the most intellectually stuck president in history is a genius.

•You think ObamaCare will balance the budget.

•You think Bill Maher is funny.

•You think race baiting is a perfectly good political argument.

•You believe anything in the New York Times. Anything. A-n-y-t-h-i-n-g

•You know in your heart that people who don't agree with you are evil, racist, sexist, gay-hating, and Islamophobes.

•You think America deserved 9/11.

•You're scared about Islamophobia, but not about suicide bombers with nukes.

•You believe Christians should not be allowed to criticize Muslims.

•You think it's ok for Hamas to kill families in Israel, but it's not ok for Israel to strike Hamas.

•You think that all drugs should be legalized, because people will use less of them if they're cheap and legal.

•You think Christians are evil, but Muslim terrorists deserve more sympathy and understanding.

•You think the media tell the truth.

•You think Obama never tells a lie.

Hat tip to SaveYourRights

Barackalypse Now

Powerline  "That’s from Rush Limbaugh’s show today, as Rush went on an epic rant which you can read here. A very brief excerpt:

Barack Obama inherits a AAA credit rating from George W. Bush, and look what he does to it. Obama is always running around complaining and whining and moaning about all that he inherited from George W. Bush. Well, he inherited a AAA credit rating, an unemployment rate of 5.7%. Does anybody doubt that this is on purpose?

"Well, I don’t really think it’s on purpose. I think Obama knew his redistributionist policies would impair economic growth, but he had no idea how much. As one who grew up imbued with the idea that America is too rich and too powerful, he had no idea what it takes to create wealth, or how easily the conditions that are required for wealth creation can be damaged by a hostile and incompetent government.

"One more illustration from Rush’s web site:"

"It reinforces, perhaps, like nothing else has the impression that Obama is overseeing -- and some respects engineering -- the decline of the American republic."  There can be no doubt!  It now just takes the courage to admit it.  This is why I said, "I hope he fails," because I didn't want to see this happen to our country. Rush Limbaugh, quoting Pete Wehner

President Blah, Blah, Blah

Warning Signs  "President Blah, Blah, Blah got in front of the television cameras midday on Monday to say the usual meaningless things he has been saying since he was elected, none of which are true and none of which have been able to hide the fact that he has driven the nation into the ditch with a lot of help from Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid."  Alan Caruba

Obama's press statement today

Hot Air  "....Update III: Obama spoke for about ten minutes, and had absolutely nothing new to offer.  He hinted at having a plan to deal with tax reform and “modest” entitlement reform, but wouldn’t even commit to producing it.  NBC’s Chuck Todd nailed it on Twitter: “You get the sense, WH knew they had to say something given the news of the weekend but he didn’t have much NEW to say.” "

Obama calls US AAA nation despite AA+ Rating   "Obama said financial markets around the world "still believe our credit is triple-A. I and the world's investor's agree.""

 

Radical-in-Chief

Frontpage Magazine  "...is that Barack Obama not only does he come from the left that I came out of, the radical America-despising left, but the worst part of it.  He had a 20-year relationship with a leftist whom I despised when I thought of myself as a Marxist revolutionary, which is Billy Ayers–despised him because he was so shallow and destructive."

 Obama: Still the Alinskyite   "Obama is a bad negotiator because Alinskyite’s don’t negotiate, they intentionally polarize. As for their own groups, here they try to placate all factions and hide their own goals. That about describes Obama’s performance on the debt deal, which included a dollop of both of these stances."

Milwaukee Issues Press Release on Racial Turmoil at State Fair: "We're Reaping the Harvest We've Sown"

Saberpoint  "Two aldermen of the City of Milwaukee have issued a press release addressing the black-on-white attacks at the Wisconsin State Fair. In the press release, they did something unprecedented: they placed the blame on the black community, where in fact it actually belongs. "The press release states:" ....

....Our hearts go out to the older generation of African Americans in this city who remember when their community had one of the HIGHEST marriage rates in the city. Sadly, many of these same residents are now scared of their own children and grandchildren....

American Tinderbox  "A twist that is also gaining popularity is the “flash rob” where a large group of young people descends on a store and loots it. As responsible journalists are always careful to say, the overall trend of youth crime in the US remains headed down, but this particular form of crime seems to be gaining steam."

The American Interest

Maxine Waters on the LA riots   "In 1992, during the Los Angeles riots in which 58 people were killed – she called it a rebellion – Waters excused the gang of black thugs who nearly murdered white truck driver Reginald Denny, saying, "The anger in my district is righteous. I'm just as angry as they are." She also dismissed those who looted Korean-owned stores by saying, "They were mothers who took this as an opportunity to take some milk, to take some bread, to take some shoes. They are not crooks.""

More on this here.   There were heroes among the rioters in LA who must be remembered. Perhaps there were in Wisconsin as well.

Spare Us the Sermons, Mr. President ; And explain why your policies aren’t working.

Victor Davis Hanson "During the recent debt crisis, President Obama talked about the need for bipartisan compromise and, as in the past, he urged civility. Giving ground and engaging in polite discourse, of course, can be noble aims. But, like most one-eyed-jack politicians, Obama has rarely embraced the admirable qualities he advocates — a fact increasingly evident to a skeptical public."