Unemployment climbs again, but Bernanke says recession is over   Credit card defaults are rising  Banks reducing loans  More than 1,000 banks may fail in 3-5 years 

 

Obama must win healthcare, or this -

Conservatives are looking for a failure – any failure – in Obama’s campaign for change, to show he doesn’t have political knuckle and if Obama loses in the confrontation over finance regulation, or climate change, or if his stimulus doesn’t work, they say, the wheels fall off his change movement.  Neocon Kristol says the underlying problem is that Americans still don’t want government control. Kristol is wrong. Americans accept government regulation, and they want change, they don’t want decisions to be made by the rich and corrupt, and they understand the obstacles: Democrats in Congress who vote conservative. What’s missing: lefties know about the intricacies of Congress, but they still don’t know what they want.

Obama can’t free America from this chokehold because liberals still lack root convictions.  We are waiting for a leader – for Obama – to tell us what we want.  The right has ideology, rotted out as it is. And the right has a political style: defiance. With fangs. The left knows only accommodation. The left doesn’t know dog fight.  The left doesn’t understand right-radio talk shows which run on granite diction and the etiquette of a stomach pump: we have reached a point in our culture where not logic but loutish disrespect wins. If his healthcare push fails, Obama, for all his eloquence, will be nursing political nosebleed for the rest of his term. The right will claim vindication, and we will lose America to the hyperventilating Hannitys, Savages and Limbaughs who, at least, know what they want.

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 FORECLOSURES SKYROCKET

1 in 4 mortgageholders underwater now    HALF OF HOMEOWNERS WILL BE UNDERWATER BY 2011

 

What’s the connection between astronomical Wall St. profits and  the nation’s economic woes? Is it coincidence? – and why does this coincidence keep happening?

 

  —————- AMERICA DIVIDED: PRIVATE WEALTH   vs. THE GREATEST GOOD FOR THE GREATEST NUMBER ——————-

Robert Reich: Genuine financial reform will be almost as difficult to achieve as real universal health care. Immense private interests are amassed against the public interest in both cases because staggering amounts of money are at stake

AND THE RICH KEEP GETTING RICHER – WSJ

 

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The public likes Obama’s plans. But Washington DC doesn’t. Obama’s ideas to slash wasteful defense, agribusiness and healthcare practices threatens to upend the way business is done in America. So whole organizations in DC open up huge warchests and are going to work to sabotage Obama’s plans. For instance the healthcare industry has $20 million for lobbyists to battle Obama’s plan to tax the rich and provide for the poor. Farm industry and aerospace splash money on lobbyists to ensure no changes happen. And this is customary since America is not run by the public’s wishes but by corporations. In an earlier campaign speech, Obama disclosed what he thinks: he believes corporate practices are wrecking America. And those “dishonest accounting practices.” So in his budget, to begin this fight, he is kicking a few bee hives. We won’t see the width, depth and savagery of the upcoming battles because the moves are made by corporate mercenaries in suits and limousines. But we’ll see the outcome: by who, at the end, is wearing the grins. (And see below: “Ferocity expected…)

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Series: HOW THE ECONOMY RUNS WITH CONSUMERS UNDER SUFFOCATING DEBT

STUDY: THE HAPPIEST NATIONS ARE ALSO HEAVILY TAXED

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CONSERVATIVES ARE THE SINGLE LARGEST IDEOLOGICAL GROUP – Gallup poll

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APPROACHING COLLISION IN CONGRESS:  I

 Wall St. vs. the public interest. Those biggest bailed-out banks are at it again, lobbying Congress to undermine laws which regulate their biggest gambles, which helped tipped the nation into a banking crisis in the first place. Obama wants regulation and transparency. The banks want: back to business, their way, and no transparency. Wall St. won this fight before and with the help of massive lobbying doesn’t expect to go down this time, here.

APPROACHING COLLISION IN CONGRESS: II

Obama supports the Energy Bill which aims to reduce global warming and puts a cap on the carbon emitted by manufacturers and requires car makers to increase gas mileage. Business interests say the bill is a dangerous environmentalist (socialist) plan that won’t work, and they will not let it stand.

APPROACHING COLLISION IN CONGRESS: III

Obama supports the “Employee Free Choice Act,” which unions are clamoring for. GOP sees it as the devil’s work, here and here.

GOP vs. unions

report here. Republicans blame labor costs for ruining the car industry. (Actually labor is only about 8% of the cost of a new car, here). Preparations for battle: Citibank (newly bailed out) holds conference to block the EFCA, here. Fox News attacks unions, here. Both sides threatening Senators, here. Business PACs’ big money rolled out for opponents, here.

Gallup poll: a majority of Americans support unions – 59% – but only 8% belong, here.

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1 IN 10 AMERICANS NOW ON FOOD STAMPS

HEDGE FUND MANAGERS STILL MAKING BILLIONS

RECESSION: JANITOR JOB GETS 700 APPLICATIONS

Greenwald: HOW THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA PROTECT THE ELITE

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Gallup poll: Public wants Government, not business, to handle economy, with sharp Republican-Democrat division

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FEROCITY IN LOBBYISTS’ ASSAULT ON OBAMA’S HEALTHCARE PLANS

Health industry lobbyists have defeated every reform effort since WWII. Anti-reform campaign is spending 41% more on lobbyists, here. Protesters in the Senate, demanding single-payer, are removed by police, here.

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Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’ not working. Again.

NOBODY LISTENS TO LIBERTARIANS ANY MORE

This crisis, spreading its execrable wreckage and anxiety through our population, is a result of Libertarian principles.  A deregulated free market just doesn’t work. Why are Libertarian think tanks still open?

Poll: 87% say cause of crisis is deregulation. A majority says government needs to step in on economy: here.

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25 bank failures in 2008,  120 so far in 2009.  This crisis predicted to get worse. Workers will desperately need jobs. Corporations which take American jobs and outsource them to foreign countries are unpatriotic

American taxpayers, already fearful for their jobs, are being required to pay for bailing out corporations. Those corporations turn around and hire foreigners.  And the hard-earned money you pay as interest on your credit cards, as the credit companies likewise outsource jobs.

Not exactly for the common good.

And economists tell us this is rational behavior.

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Analysis: US productivity has climbed and climbed, but wages have not. If the minimum wage was on track it would now be $19, here.

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NATION GIVES ADVICE ON HOW TO LIVE ON THE STREETS

HALF OF AMERICANS TWO PAYCHECKS AWAY FROM HARDSHIP

“HORDES” OF AMERICANS DRIVEN TO SUICIDE OVER FINANCES,  here

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– Odd stuff happening over at the White House –

BUSH OFFICIALS WON’T BE PROSECUTED OBAMA HIRES TRIPLE CANOPY (ANOTHER PRIVATE ARMY LIKE BLACKWATER) FOR IRAQ OBAMA CAMPAIGNED HARD TO PROTECT HABEUS CORPUS, BUT NOW… OBAMA QUIETLY SUPPORTING BUSH’S WIRETAPPING OBAMA WANTS TO LIMIT RIGHT TO COUNSEL OBAMA CONSIDERING INDEFINITE DETENTION OF GITMO PRISONERS HERE’S A JAW-DROPPING LIST OF OBAMA’S BROKEN PROMISES by PAUL STREET

Why Does Our Government Still Spy On, Arrest and Persecute Dissidents? - Spence

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LEFT WING: TORTURE IS IMMORAL. RIGHT WING: USING TORTURE KEEPS US STRONG AND THE IMMORAL THING IS TALKING ABOUT IT

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Crises, market corrections and collapses are always distributed unequally, and the poor are hurt worst. But this collapse is different. This financial crisis will be recorded as a great social leveller; the worst hit will be the opulent and our segregated elite, here.  Only through their collapses will we learn about the existence of these financial pinnacle-walkers and it will be a time for us to gape and to wonder.

Watch the words “populist resistance,” and “populist strategy” now being use in media. They are euphemisms for the reactions of America’s poorer folks who find themselves out of house, out job, out of money, out of health care and out of a foreseeable future – people who have been running on empty for too long. Those reactions are from fear and anger bubbling. For “populist” read “the people,” and we understand what the media has noticed: the people (perhaps a hundred million of them) are really scared and really pissed. They are upset at the people who are supposed to be steering this ship, the ruling class. The people are noticing that the ruling class is always overflowingly wealthy, and can never get leading the country right, and are so self-absorbed, taking care of themselves, they never seem to notice the poor. The people are noticing that it doesn’t seem to make a difference whether it’s Democrats or Republicans who are in power: the difference that counts is wealth. (Everybody watched Titanic.) When the media stops referring to acres of people’s seething discontent as a strategy, the media might catch the real issue. It’s who’s in charge. Because in a democracy, that’s supposed to be the will of the people. So “populist resistance” means the people figuring out that anybody could run things better than the manicured men in Congress whose main concern is getting the right table at the right restaurant with a lobbyist for lunch. When the media starts noticing this abysmal disconnect between the government and the people governed, the people can finally take hope that  they don’t have to do something silly to get noticed.

Populist rage. We watch those highest-paid tv newscasters with their upholstered voices, discussing the people’s feelings, rage. These manicured professionals, making around $10 million a year,  show a swan-like elegance as they report on the next national crisis and the next. All Americans are following this and these news anchors present a regal image. But like swans, underneath the water their feet are paddling like hell: it’s a question for these icons: which way to turn?  They know they are caught in big change. The nation’s magnetic needle is swinging away from glitz and toward job fears and debt-rage. Watch.  These news celebrities mesmerize us; but their expressions have no more moral content than the weather.  The program director wants a show of frustration. They can role-play anger. The nightly news ends with smiles. Appearance management. And we wonder; do the fortunes these beautiful people make have something to do with our mangled public morality? We are a nation trained to trust in imagery.  In increments, only in increments, do we think to separate appearances from what is right.

REPORTER’S QUESTION TO OBAMA: “why haven’t you asked for something specific that the public should be sacrificing?”

As the internet grows, so does political anger. Blogs have a fundamentally different tone from television: many are angry. Yes, television editors keep the programming frothy and light. But there’s another difference. Television’s ever-interrupting commercials effectively break up the viewers’ thinking, keeps the dots disconnected, breaks up complex  ideas, keeps complex feelings from growing. Television shatters continuity. It discourages memory, which involves a time span. Filled with chirpy commentators and ever-flashing cosmetics, it is a visual medium and on tv, politicians with beautiful teeth are so impressive in the moment that we forget what they said at another time, and we cannot remember context. So politicians can pull the public around by the nose all year long, through contradictions and broken promises, smile after smile.

Blogs stay put, day after day. Meaning, memory is allowed – much more than other media like newspapers which disappear daily. Simply, blogs allow continuity. So comparisons across time are allowed. We can re-connect the dots. This is healing. Feelings return. For example, we can compare politicians’ promises with current performance. Compare before-after, and see how politicians break the public trust. And then the anger comes back.

This is the depth of the political danger we are in, because Americans are socialized to be a television nation. In Europe, angry people get on the streets and demand change. In America, angry people watch television. Get pleasantly fragmented, and can’t remember.