Jon Stewart Asks Austan Goolsbee: Is The U.S. Too Big To Fail?

The Daily Show's Jon Stewart to White House CEA Chief Economist Austan Goolsbee:

• Are we broke?
• Is The United States too big to fail?
• Who is big enough to bail us out?
• Could we qualify for the Countries for Clunkers Program?

Goolsbee is the worst type of economist--incessantly political and biased, essentially a shill.  Listen to his response about the stimulus.  Just 8 weeks ago there was rumbling about a new stimulus when only 15-20% of the current one has been spent.  Now, Goolsbee is giving the 80% un-spent, generational rip-off credit for ending the recession.  Did we mention we hate political economists, as though the pseudo-science needed further trashing. 

To Stewart's credit, he pushes Goolsbee on the deficit, reminding him that we need a magical Leprechaun to escape our budget problems.  It's a funny clip.

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Bailout Barney Finally Buckles: HR 1207 Is Officially On The Docket

In breaking news reported by John Tate just moments ago, Congressman Dr. Ron Paul tells Campaign For Liberty that Barney Frank has officially agreed to hold hearings on HR 1207, Paul's bill to audit the Federal Reserve.  Tate reports that Frank has tentatively scheduled the first hearing for Friday, September 25 at 9 AM.

While this is a tremendous victory, especially in light of this new, stunning expose on Fed domination of Economics Academia, it is but a battle won.  Pressure needs to be applied to the Senate in support of S 604.  Visit the link and sign a simple petition.  You can do your nation some good with about 3 clicks and 60 seconds.

Several related links and 3 new Ron Paul videos are after the jump.

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Elizabeth Warren On TARP & The Auto Bailouts (Bloomberg, Sep. 9)

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Submit Video And Written Questions For CNBC's Town Hall With Tim Geithner (Airing Live, Sep. 10)

There was an interesting email in my in-box this morning from a CNBC producer, alerting us to the following event.  Tim Geithner has agreed to take questions from the unwashed masses, in a live Town Hall tomorrow night at 7pm est. 

This is your our chance.  We missed the opportunity with Digg, Geithner and the WSJ a few weeks ago, but you submitted some outstanding questions in comments that the Treas Head should see.  The rules encourage both written and video queries.

I will be submitting the following 9 questions:

•  Will you admit that with bank capital ratios at approximately 8% industry wide, and with most assets worth 40% less than purchase price, that essentially all banks are insolvent?  And will you also admit that we've chosen to ignore the problem and whistle by the graveyard with FASB's change to fair-value accounting rules?

•  In the discussion of bank losses, why are taxpayers asked and expected to bear the entire loss, while bank bondhholders who recklessly lent trillions to risky bank managements, are spared completely from the discussion?  They knowingly took the investment risk in search of higher returns and they haven't been asked to forfeit a penny of their bond holdings.

• China is currently spending reserves buying natural resources all around the world that will be needed in the next century.  Meanwhile we are wasting trillions propping up zombie banks, the mortgage market (Fannie & Freddie), AIG and the uncompetitive U.S. auto industry.  Which seems like a smarter long-term strategy to you, Mr. Secretary?

• Who made the decision to pay AIG counterparties at par (100 cents on the dollar)?  Was it your predecessor Henry Paulson at Treasury; was it Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, or was it Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs?  Keep in mind that former AIG CEO Ed Liddy has stated under oath in testimony before Congress that the Fed is the agency that told him to make these payments at par.

• Why was LLoyd Blankfein, CEO of AIG's largest counterparty, allowed to attend the meeting to decide the fate of AIG?  Do you not see a conflict of interest?

• Why did you agree to AIG counterparty payments at par, as Head of the New York Fed? As example, Lehman counterparties received only 11 cents on average.  And why did you not demand preferred shares from the banks in exchange for these payments?  Taxpayers received nothing in exchange.  Please explain this mistake as it greatly contributes to the perception that the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury are captured by Wall Street interests.

• As head of regulation for Wall Street at the New York Fed, what were your thoughts personally when then CEO of Goldman Sachs, Henry Paulson, successfully lobbied the SEC to grant a leverage exemption to the 5 largest investment banks in 2004?  Why did you not testify at this hearings, considering your role as regulator?

• Do you believe that the people who oversaw the build-up of this crisis, yet somehow missed it completely, should be the same regulators who establish the new rules.  Or do you agree with Dr. Nassim Taleb and others who think we need a new set of sheriffs?

• When you worked for the IMF, you were famous around the world for your strict demand that failed, politically-connected banks should not and would not be supported in any IMF bailout.  Why have you adopted the completely opposite approach to the U.S. banking crisis?

Make sure to submit your questions here

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Dr. Ron Paul: "The Two-Party System Doesn't Exist; There's Only One Political Party" (Tom Keene, Bloomberg Radio)

• "The Federal Reserve Accommodates Big Government"

Congressman Ron Paul from Bloomberg radio with Tom Keene broadcast September 1, 2009.  Everything is in here: an update on HR 1207 to Audit the Fed, an honest discussion of interest rates and Federal Reserve monetary policy, Senate traction on HR 1207, Constitutional Liberty and Freedom, the health care debate, the 1-party political structure, debt bubbles, Greenspan, Bernanke, inflation, the gold standard, the history of the Fed, TARP, Wall Street bailouts, transparency and more.

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Divide And Conquer: The Partisan Blame Trap

Guest post by Wil Martindale of LetThemFail.us

Based on conversations this weekend, it appears that otherwise seemingly reasonable American’s have fallen prey to the BLAME trap, set to pit 99% of the world’s population (the working class) against one another, to divert attention away from the manipulation and scheming of the 1% (stealing class) that rules over them.

At the risk of repetition, I will say again that the current unsustainable debt situation in America is not the grand scheme of the EVIL REPUBLICANS and the evil George Bush who led us into despair. The EVIL REPUBLICANS DO NOT have a ruthless agenda to destroy Obama at all costs by slandering his health care proposals with tales of DEATH SQUADS indiscriminately euthanizing seniors. And the EVIL DEMOCRATS are not out to socialize America by turning it into the Handout Nation of Crony Communism.

Republicans would do well to take note that it was NOT the evil Democrats who single-handedly steered us into a series of unending wars from Vietnam to Desert Storm and Iraq to Afghanistan. And Democrats would do well to take note that it was not the evil Republicans who deregulated derivatives under the Clinton administration, during the Greenspan era.

The sad fact is that all the unconstitutional policies which have steered our country into the direction of ruin are neither Republican nor Democratic in nature–they are the ideological policies of the Globalists. If you disagree with them, do not so much consider yourself a Democrat or Republican, but rather a Sovereignist: one who believes in the authority of the Constitution of the United States.

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Beware The Third Way: A Confluence Of Capitalism & Socialism

Guest post by Brett Buchanan from ItsNotRealMoney.com

What is certain about these tumultuous times is that in the end we will emerge a different nation. Transformed by a radical departure from our archetypical past today’s leaders shape the new world by way of proxy, substituting politically expedient rhetoric for the cold hard truths they fear a childish public would not understand. Design our lives without our consent, without our consult or choice, they will make our decisions for us because in their eyes we are incapable of making them ourselves.

In the wake of this great economic crisis we will be left alarmingly in debt to the rest of the world, debts which future generations will be forced to repay without ever having agreed to such burden. We will be a society of haves and have nots where the gap between the rich and the rest of us is painfully apparent to even the blindest person. We will be a nation eroded and unrecognizable to its core principles. We will suffer the subtle loss of freedoms as our government slowly chips away at our right to choose. This idea, that we are free to choose, is in fact the most important freedom we as a people were ostensibly gifted by the architects of our constitution. And it is on this freedom that our future hinges.

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Ritholtz On Clawbacks: "Think Of It As Bonus Foreclosure"

Barry Ritholtz on with Dylan Ratigan from August 18, discussing Pay Czar Kenneth Feinberg's decision to seek compensation clawbacks from top executives of bailed-out banks and auto manufacturers.

• "I'm talking about the CEOs of the banks who directly decided to elevate the risk levels in order to elevate compensation, knowing that they didn't have the collateral to incur the liability at the time."

• "Money is supposed to represent the creation of value and not stealing. Selling insurance for something you can't pay the claims on is stealing, only it's better because you get the money up front."

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Personal Letter From Satan To Henry Paulson

FROM THE OFFICE OF SATAN:

"Prince of Lies and Proud of It"

Dear Hank:

You have outdone yourself once again, my loyal servant, with these fraudulent, deliciously deceptive proposals to reform the utterly corrupt financial system you exploited so profitably as head of Goldman Sachs.

My plans for the destruction of the United States of America have been going along rather swimmingly until we rushed things a bit with Bear Stearns--ah, the wondrous power of pure, unmitigated greed!

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Goodbye Fannie & Freddie: Hello MCGE (Diana Olick Report)

Diana Olick is one of my favorites at CNBC.  She has covered the mortgage and foreclosure crisis more ably than anyone on financial television the past 24 months, and she has built substantial credibility simply by telling the truth without hype.

If you haven't seen this story yet, the MBA, has been shopping a reform proposal around Washington that would fundamentally shift GSE mortgage risk from taxpayers to the private sector through the creation of MCGEs (mortgage credit guarantor entities).  The chief architect of the MBA's plan Michael Berman stepped up for an interview yesterday to explain the proposal.

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Sheila Bair & Larry Kudlow (Complete CNBC Interview)

Maybe the best interview with with FDIC head Sheila Bair I've seen. There's a lot in this clip from last night's Kudlow & Company.  Article link and quotes are inside.

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It's Not AIG, It's The Government (Bob The Heart Attack Ranter Pt. 2)

Stop what you're doing and watch this. It's clean and quick--98 seconds of intensity. No profanity. Just a myocardial infarction.  He's heart-attack Bob.

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The CNBC Money Dummy: Maria Bartiromo Asks 44 Year-Old Guest Why He's Not On Medicare

Not wanting to be out-done by the senior who famously told his representative to 'keep the government out of his medicare', yesterday Maria Bartiromo asked a mid-forties Congressman "if Medicare is so great, why aren't you on it?" 

Let that sink in. Remember, she is marketed as one of the smart ones by CNBC.  After the Congressman explains that he's not 65, the Money Dummy still doesn't get it. The clip runs less than a minute.

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NY Fed Prez William Dudley Admits That Debt Monetization Is Real

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