Michael Moore's Mistake: "Keep The Fed, End Capitalism"
Moore is cluelessly deranged regarding bailouts, the Federal Reserve and capitalism. The problem is not unfettered capitalism; the problem is that favored industries were spared from the market by government assistance.
Capitalism does NOT exist on Wall Street.
Every single over-leveraged, fraudulent financial institution that was saved by TARP and Bernanke and Geithner's trillions in stealth bailouts should have been allowed to fail. We are talking about investment banks, after all, not your grandmother's church choir.
Investment banks take risks by nature. And they should face dissolution and bankruptcy when those bets don't work out.
We've said it from the beginning, against the ignorant and misinformed current of status-quo talking heads and wannabe financial experts, including Inside Job director Charles Ferguson and over-hyped author Ellen Brown, allowing Lehman Brothers to fail was the only thing Bernanke and Paulson ever got right.
The market spoke and the government didn't intervene. That is capitalism. And not coincidentally we learned later that Lehman was an over-leveraged cesspool of fraud and criminal malfeasance with a $600 billion crater in its balance sheet, despite assurances from Dick Fuld that $20 billion from taxpayers would have saved the company. Complete and utter nonsense. And there is little reason to believe that Lehman's fraudulent financials were any different than what we would have found at Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup or Bank of America.
Each and every major investment bank was then, and to this day, remains MASSIVELY insolvent. It's not even a close call - with 30:1 leverage on inadequate capital, assets need only decline 4% in value to wipe out the balance sheet, and assets have declined 30-40% on average. We are talking about insolvency by orders of magnitude.
Only in the Bernanke-Geithner, CNBC-promoted, 'can-kicking' world of purple unicorns and psychedelic money printing, can any other conclusion be reached.
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In just 15 seconds this clip perfectly encapsulates the madness of bailing out Wall Street millionaires and billionaires.
Oct 26, 2011 at 12:02 PM
Reader Comments (31)
The above is brilliant! We need a summary reminder of the critical, and really only point from time to time amongst all the noise...
http://www.blacklistednews.com/Occupy_Wall_Street_Protests_Full_Of_Useful_Idiot_Communists_And_Socialists/15972/0/38/38/Y/M.html
This is harsh in parts but very correct in other parts. It's a fine line. We applaud the protests for pointing out the absurdity of the bailouts, and the protesters are a diverse bunch, some of whom have politics that are wrong in my view.
But again, the fact that we have protests is a GOOD thing and we can find common ground on some very important issues.
Moore makes terrific films but is DEAD wrong about capitalism. The pussies running the fascist show now know full well they don't stand a chance on a field of real competition.
He's more likely someone who is trying to misinform than someone who is misinformed.
Moore will gain people's trust by going to Wisconsin and yelling out that the top 1% have more money than the "bottom" 95% and use that trust to look like one of the good guys when the shit hits the fan like right now. Most already knew that so he didn't break any news to most people.
I trust him about as far as I could throw him.
He's a straight up liar. Period.
I respectfully disagree with you. Moore presents facts, on camera. He's not doctoring his films, which are terrically informative. Did you see MM's interview of Rep. Kaptur on the steps of the Capitol? That's fucking dynamite, dude. And there's no WAY to disagree with me on that.
I disagree with Moore's conclusions based on his own base of facts, but that base is powerful because it is raw and it is fact.
I never said he doctored his films and Marcy Kaptur is dynamite on her own without Moore.
We are talking about here and now and IMO this guy is taking the trust he's "earned" and the fanbase he's created and using it to divert attention away from the ultimate problem which is the FED.
He's exactly like a politician in this instance: Take a stand against social injustices in your work and use that "currency" to take a different stance when you need to.
Do you honestly believe he isn't aware of what the FED is all about?
If he isn't, he should refrain from saying "We have bigger issues than the FED to deal with" or "Capitalism is the real problem".
Utter nonsense. The FED is THE issue.
And if the poster above who said that Moore is somehow tied to Rahm Emmanuel interests, that's all the proof one needs to know what side he's on.
A couple more examples: Democracy Now's Amy Goodman. Supposedly an Alt news outlet to get the message out yet she's a gatekeeper for the 9/11 myth.
Or George Noory who, on his radio show Coast to Coast AM keeps spewing the "Iran wants to wipe Israel off the map" nonsense when Juan Cole translated that speech and it actually says: "The Zionist regime occupying Israel shall be removed from the page of time" ( loosely quoted). That's the government of Israel he's talking about, not the people or the country and they are actually the words of one of the Imams.
But I digress.
The guy's not trustworthy when he spews this nonsense.
It isn't any different than how the Tea Party has been co-opted by Israel-firsters like Palin.
Same exact thing, actually.
She is now locked behind bars, but Carol was out to take me down, and our son was going to do the Dirty Work..............Trust me, crazy people know what they are doing...........MM & GS, is on site........................
Thank you for the thoughtful insights. I guess as a member of the bar and a wannabe jurist, I'm very reluctant to judge folks on their intentions. I'm far more comfortable judging bodies of work. Moore's films are solid, though I frequently find myself shaking my head at his conclusions, e.g., capitalism is bad.
On that note, if it is true that Moore says ignore the Fed and focus on capitalism, then he is not only wrong but a fop: the Fed is an identifiable institution that carries out measurable acts, whereas capitalism is a construct, an idea.
It is a good thing that we still have spaces like this for real debate, as opposed to the meaningless sideshows that are so common seemingly everywhere else.
What the Fed has done is wrong and calls for correction and punishment. It is the corrosion of justice that I find most worrisome. For without that, we are due for a world of hurt, a place that chills my marrow. In that light, the maybe or maybe not nefarious intentions of artists and filmmakers strikes me as quaint luxury.
I have said it way back in 2007, if it wasent for A Gore, and the internet, None of this Crap would be happening today. No wonder the goverment wants to shut it down........
Lickin Them Stamp's, aint nothin compared to hand writting that letter. Thank God for the typewriter, and that little "IBM Ball"...........
I have had 2 puters "Locked Up" becouse of the Freedom of Information Ack, and digging whAre no Smart People, should of went................
God, I love the internet............................................................................................Keep Up the Good Work...
But, but, but... Al Gore says he "took the initiative in creating the Internet."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnFJ8cHAlco (queue to 0:50)
Thus, like a true god, he not only invented (i.e., conceived of the invention known as) the Internet, but reduced it to practice as well. But in his infinite beneficence, he didn't even care about getting any patents on it. He was content to turn the other cheek, not so much as giving a single fuck, as thousands of sham inventors roam the earth taking credit for Big Al's creation.
When the Senate republican majority voted to pass Gramm-Leach-Bliley by a vote of 55 to 44 [all but one Democrat voting against], it reversed what was, for more than six decades, a framework that had governed the functions and reach of the nation's largest banks. No longer limited by laws and regulations commercial and investment banks could now merge. Many had already begun the process, including, among others, J.P. Morgan and Citicorp. The new law allowed it to be permanent. The updated ground rules were low on oversight and heavy on risky ventures. Historically in the business of mortgages and credit cards, banks now would sell insurance and stock.
Dem politicians facing a Clinton era republican majority that introduced and passed the GLB bill on behalf of the banking and financial industry buying their support with $300 million from banking industry lobbyists with over 20 years of bribing republican politicians to repeal the Glass Steagall Act. Republicans rammed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley through with a final vote holding a veto proof majority that Bill Clinton could not veto. Republican politicians and the banking industry that had bought them lock, stock and barrel are fully to blame for the Glass Steagall Act rendered powerless by the GLB Act in 1999 allowing the banking industry, along with full republican support, to become the primary future cause of the 2008 economic crash.
Decades of Privatising Corp. profits(AKA: the bailouts)
Deades of Sosializing Corp. dept(AKA: the bailouts)
Its not even close to Capitalism.
Its plain steeling(MBS, CDS, and the Fed, for money out of the air) form our comon welth, the sweat and blod form our hands.
And on topp of that, scams and downright criminal frauds, and stil the MSM take what They say as The Truth in economics.
Decades of deregulations have brouth us here to day, where the Banks have finaly proven their inability to follow rules and laws. A corrupt regulatory regime, unable to respons to criminal frauds, and a failed monetary system that wil eventualy implode(by printing money).
There is simply no value anymore, the banks are empty shells, wourthless and have thru corporat monpoly and wellfare becomed a finnancial abyss wher one can showel money into, forever.
A bottomless pitt.
Some day it must stopp.
Or.
Soner or later, it wil stopp.
Do it now and you may have control, wait and it wil just exlpode.
"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell."
Edward Abbey.
Then AG realy did have a hand in inventing the internet.....? Guess I had it all wrong all these years. Oh Wait, he need'ed the internet so he could trick the people of the world about his Scam about the warmming thing........
Reamber Waaaaaaaay Back in the early 1970's. The Next Ice Age was gona hit by the turn of the centry. We need to clean up the air or were gona freeze to death.
Next we had "Smog Crap" on our cars and the MPG went down 8-10 mpg. That was right when gas went from 33 1/3 a gal. to $69.9 a gal.
Funny thing I reamber that all the talk of the next Ice Age just disapered over night. No more warnnings on how the Glasher was going to be as far south as Kansas City and St. Louis Mo.
The kids came home with Ice Age home work to learn how the planet is getting colder becouse of what man and the caars are doing to it.....
My how a few years ( "40" ) can realy change peoples minds. Guess its safe to sell my Artic-Cat suit for -30* cuz now I need to get my Blue Foil Thong & Boxers from my boat so I dont over heat from AG's fake warmming crap.........
Holly Crap, a Democrat invented the internet all the wile Pissing On His Shoes, becouse he aint smart enough to take 2 steps forward, becouse its shorter than he thinks......
No, Dar. Al Gore couldn't invent his way out of paper sack, much less anything like the Internet. I was really pointing out that his actual quote (I took the initiative in creating the Internet) are far more arrogant than what's attributed to him (merely inventing the Internet). He sounds someone with a God complex and a steering committee under him, just ridiculous.
Yes, these kids are only repeatting what the teacher has told them. Im sure the ones that know the truth will get them stright. Its like fingers on the chalk board every time I hear that.........
Yes, what we have in America is corporatism. And that was the essence of what Michael Moore was railing against in his film "Capitalism, a Love Story"
http://michaelmoore.com/books-films/capitalism-love-story
Watch it, ya'll might learn something that doesn't stem from Ron Paul ;-]
DB said it was harsh, he neglected to mention absurdly inaccurate and extremely disingenuous. It's author should read the Communist Manifesto before commenting upon it. But, alas, he knows who reads his tripe, and knows they won't bother to fact-check him.
He should also review the history of the US income tax, but again, why should he bother,...
Things just come out badly, 1.
He may have mistaken capitalism for bullXXXX.
Mr. Moore obviously seek free, equal, happy. He has my vote.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BJyyyRYbSk
I find myself at DailyBail. I think Mr. Ritholtz is philosophy-neutral.
The backstopping of the trillions of derivatives seems a little bigger
than your covering for $112 million in student debts, which
scapegoat radio obsesses over.
The slight - of - hand passing to you the wrongdoer's fraud
kinda speaks for itself.
http://dailybail.com/home/new-obama-foreclosure-plan-shifts-fraud-liability-from-wall.html
This was risk sold. but sold to suckers. shortable.
That's what makes it different from 1930, when the ultra-wealthy
then also ran out of suckers. Suckers because of one slight-of-hand
policy after another, today daily, shafting all but the scapegoaters and the
arrogant.
People scapegoat for profit knowing from their own experience
how to tyrannize. They may have been foreseen per a roadmap.
I am guessing the entire world shares a sense of right and wrong
BUT FOR this CONVEYED twist, that affording a mathematical proof
that does not have too many avenues, does not entail too much data.
People scapegoat to pacify. They would do us a favor by instead
mstrbtg over a toilet.
Transference is all the above pushed onto you. You then fear for
anyone resembling them. That is why you fight in the streets.
There is no substitute for failure but failure. No one should blame someone
else for their own mistakes. Those intractable issues flowing from that
may be not issues at all because of it.
The only losers here are the obnoxious losers who created the problem.
http://holygenes.weebly.com