"Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said he warned Bank of America (BAC) CEO Ken Lewis that regulators could remove him and other executives at the company if they pulled out of a deal to buy Merrill Lynch, he told a congressional committee investigating the deal..."
In another article, "...Federal Reserve threatened to force the ouster of Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis if he didn't follow through..."
This may have taken place months ago, but when the Treasury Secretary, backed by the unsurmountable power of the Federal Reserve can just up and threaten to fire you, how is that Capitalism? Who is the owner of Bank of America, it's the Federal Reserve Chairman, and considering that Lewis didn't want to purchase Merrill Lynch is perfectly understanding.
No one in their right mind would have bought it, unless they were coerced by the most powerful people in the World. Oh wait that is what happened. Then they had to use some of that mythical TARP money to pay off it's losses. Who's money is that? Oh right, the taxpayers.
You could have saved that money for something that wasn't needed, yet you have to use fascist tactics, and fascists principles to continue this corrupt flow of politics. Oh right, we need to not politicize monetary policy, that would just ruin everything. Do you know what kind of mess this country would be in if that happened?
The Dow Jones might drop to 6000! Banks might fail! The dollar might collapse! Please, think about this, why was a CEO job threatened by the Government, where do we live? Is this Italy in the 1930s or is this the Land of the Free?
There is 290 co-sponsors as of September 17th, 2009, the annual celebration of Constitution day! If your Representative has so far refused to co-sponsor this bill, urge their support. If we can just get it on the floor to be voted on, it will pass, who in their right mind in today's atmosphere of the desire to hold the Government accountable would vote no to this? It would ruin their re-election!
Here.. Senator John McCain claims that American Isolationism brought about the force of Hitler and Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 40s, and the same such policy would allow Islamofascists (which makes one wonder how tribal nations like Iraq and Afghanistan would become fascists). to grow in power and be able to unite under a single banner to defeat the powers of the free world.
However, we are not isolationist. Never in our two-hundred plus years of existance have we ever been isolationist. What is Isolationism one may ask then? It is the process of executing a foreign policy of no trading or extremely limited trading with nearby nations and no acts of war or aggression, and conducting essentially no diplomacy anywhere. This was evident with many Asian cultures and most noteworthy was the Japanese.
However, America did follow a non-Interventionist foreign policy. It is one of humble intentions and has been a minority opinion in empires of old and today. Here is a quote from Jefferson's inaugural address in 1801 that is the best explaination I can think of this foreign policy:
"Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations--entangling alliances with none, I deem [one of] the essential principles of our government, and consequently [one of] those which ought to shape its administration." --Thomas Jefferson: 1st Inaugural Address, 1801
In other words, if you don't trade and don't wage war, you are a isolationist, but if you trade and do not wage war, or entangle yourself with alliances, you are a non-Interventionist. This is what so many of our founders, and Presidents and politicians subscribed to for so many years.
Where did we go wrong? How did we change? After the Civil War, northern politician began to look for dragons to slay, so to speak, and the Progressive Era began.. it all started with President McKinney with the Spanish-American war, and then with Roosevelt in championing the idea of imperialism. However, it did not come to pass as a real policy until Woodrow Wilson jumped into a war that had no threat to American security and used a two-year old sunken ship as an excuse to jump into the fray.
Politician today call it isolationism and say that it props up tyrants and threatens our national security but think about this:
Americans involvement in WW1 lead to Germany losing the upperhand in the war and later the creation of the monster of the Treaty of Versailles that lead to the rise of Hitler.
Americans involvement in the European theatre in WW2, with no threat from Germany lead to the rise of the Soviet Union and it's tyrant Joseph Stalin.
Americans involvement in the Korean Civil War and fifty year stay has lead to starvation to the northern part of the Korean Pennisula.
Americans involvement in Vietnam lead to millions of dead, more wounded and a nation that deserved not war.
Americans involvement in the Afghan-USSR war lead to the creation of the Taliban and the Radicalism of muslim "Freedom Fighters" or as they are called today.. "Terrorists"
We are not the land of the free anymore when we practice these interventionist foreign policies and support tyrants, wage war and kill more civilians than we kill "terrorists". It goes on and on, our foreign policy does not work. This foreign policy is what empires use to kill freedom and liberty. You do not wage war to defend democracy, that's an invention of Woodrow Wilson and it is a dangerous invention at that.
Imagine a world with nickle stores instead of dollar stores. Imagine a world where bankers do not sit around in complete secrecy, bailing each other out with tax-payer money. Imagine a world in which when deciding on a bank to use, you look at what they do with your money, whether or not you want to get a potential interest gain on that money.. imagine it.
This is a world that is not run by a cartel of bankers, one that does not keep secrecy as the most important part of monetary policy. People claim that oversight or abolishing the Federal Reserve would bring politics into monetary policy and that just CANNOT happen. Why?
Why do people believe this.. why oh why? Politicization of monetary policy would be way better than we have now. Right now, I can't really tell you a whole lot but provide some statistics for you:
Interest rates are 1% or lower all around the world, and here in America the Fed has reduced them to .25%, which is frighteningly low, and they have trillions of dollars sitting in the Federal Reserve waiting to be pushed onto banks to encourage lending once again.
Gold was once around twenty dollars an ounce.. that was before the existence of the Federal Reserve system. In 1914, when the Federal Reserve opened it's doors to the banking world and became the third central bank of the United States of America, it brought along with it was fractional reserve.
Not to get too far into what factional reserve is and what it entails, let me just say the dollar fluctuated around $20 to a gold ounce for a VERY long time, and it even deflated slightly through the 19th century. However, by the time the Bretton Woods agreement was made after World War II, gold at that time was already $35 to one ounce of gold.
What is it at today? Hovering around $1,000 and it is only going to go higher. The true problem with the policies that the Federal Reserve pursue do not help our economy but are on the verge of making the Wiemar Republic a reality here in America. Hyperinflation can happy here, we are not invulnerable and unless the reality of the Fed is realized in time, we will all pay for the benefit of a very few elite members of the political society.
I strongly urge the support of H.R. 1207, S. 604 and H.R. 2424.
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank has officially agreed to hold hearings on HR 1207! The hearings are tentatively scheduled for Friday, September 25 at 9:00 am.
