Capital flight is Next

Now Boarding at Gate C14: Capital Flight Airlines

by John Galt

June 10, 2009

Ah a beautiful picture of a commercial airliner flying off into the sunset. Except this particular flight is only symbolic of a new phase in the financial crisis which had many a blogger and most people with any sense of sanity deeply concerned:

Capital Flight

I have been warning since last year about the dangers of this happening. I have been screaming that government meddling in the economy, the distortions created by the actions with Bear Stearns, Fannie and Freddie, the banks and now the automobile companies would finally shatter the full faith and confidence of foreign bond and equity holders in our system. Yet the sheeple just graze on their American Idol peanuts like a bunch of ignorant fools while the financial industry says to Uncle Sam “just save me and the hell with the rest of the country” allowing illegal and unconstitutional interventions which distort the true nature of free markets. This dangerous precedent started under that buffoon Bush with the talk up then forced merger of Bear Stearns, an event most have forgotten about because the markets did not experience the ultimate plunge at that time. If one looks at the volume numbers though you could see that everyone, domestic and internationl institutions alike, were disturbed at the process used to incinerate the equity holders of BSC, and worse, the Federal Reserve’s blatant intervention into the management of the company’s assets which is still reflected in their holdings in Maiden Lane, LLC. that has proven to be a losing proposition thus far.

Fast forward now to the summer of 2008 where Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over by the government, then AIG, then Citigroup, etc., etc. In each case the corporation’s bondholders were made somewhat whole yet that process is still ongoing due to the complicated nature of some of the derivative contracts and other instruments this same government allowed to be created without any supervision or regulatory clue as to the impact on the financial system as a whole. When you have a bureaucrat with taxpayer dollars to guarantee horrid decisions made by private industries, aka “socializing losses, privatizing profits”, then you have distorted the true nature of capitalism and introduced doubt into the functionality and openness of our markets. The first major action last fall to validate the level of distortions started with Hank Paulson’s false bravado about the necessity of the creation of TARP which has turned into what many of us feared, a taxpayer backed slush fund to allow government takeovers of private corporations without due process. That was followed up with the folly of banning short sales on “financial” companies by the SEC which was a joke as many manufacturers were included in the original list and that accomplished zero, zilch, nada with regards to any stabilization of the system and in fact truly induced some foreign institutions and hedge funds to say “goodbye” to the American markets as open and free participation was now a government controlled function and not a function of the natural activity of markets.

That was under Bush, when the dangerous precedents were set.  Let’s fast forward to the current day and age several months later when a Socialist President Obama has usurped not just the rule of law, but the basic foundations for the establishment of capitalist markets and our system of finance.

To state that the events of the last ninety days are profound is an understatement. I wish to provide an example that most at home can relate to and will exhibit the audacity of hope, change and fascism we are witnessing on a national scale. Imagine you are living happily at home but due to some job problems at your wife’s place of work her pay is cut in half due to the scaling back of hours thanks to the economy. Your pay is also cut back but not to that degree and your household starts to have problems paying its bills. After paying your mortgage payment late a few months, your local bank representative urges you to attend a meeting to discuss this problem to prevent any action of foreclosure against you if you miss another payment. The bank rep says that only one of you need attend so you elect to go so your wife can work that day. You arrive at the bank and sit down with the head of the home loan division and he has a huge file in front of him that contains all of your mortgage paperwork, payment history, etc. The discussion begins about the problems you are having at home and you explain the troubles you are having. The manager looks  you in the eyes and says “Well, it would appear to me the solution is obvious. You will have to divorce your wife if  you wish to remain in your home. If you do not within the next fourteen days, we will begin foreclosure proceedings.”

That fictional scenario is exactly what happened when Obama fired the CEO of General Motors. The independent Chief Executive Officer was terminated by a non-member of the Board of Directors, a non-shareholding interest who’s only action was to act as a loan source for comany operations. That direct and illegal action should have been (and you were warned by these pages) your first hint that that “damned piece of paper” as Bush called it was no longer relevant. The other aspect one had best consider is that the takeover using taxpayer dollars of AIG, Citigroup and other institutions gave the government trading desks to command and the power to order purchases of various instruments to influence the direction of bond and equity markets. Yet few believed in the PPT and write it off as fluffernuttery; however, how can it be dismissed now when Smith Barney/Morgan Stanley’s trading desk along with AIG’s are now under the thumb of government oversight and this administration has demonstrated openly that regulatory oversight and free markets are irrelevant to their activity and desired goals. It can not now nor ever. The non-shareholder forced bankruptcy by the government with imposed redistribution of assets in the 363 filings for Chrysler and General Motors should prove that beyond the shadow of a doubt.

That being said, last night’s Supreme Court decision and lack of intervention has opened the door to a flight of critical proportions. With contract law now essentially up to the whim of a bureaucrat and not the private agreement between two individuals or corporations, there is no viable guarantee that investment dollars via bonds, preferred shares or common shares hold any validity. They now are as viable as a casino chip and to say that I am overstating this is foolishness on your part. Judge Andrew Napalitano on Glenn Beck’s program Monday evening on the Fox News Channel warned that if this case is not heard and the request for a full hearing denied, it would be almost impossible for any contract law to be worth the paper it was printed on as the Federal government, not the rule of law, would be the determining factor in the validity of any aspect of said contract.

The implications of this are obvious as we are now no different than the Russian Mafia run corporations that defaulted on foreign investors on a regular basis in the 1990’s, where the Russian government took over corporations and seized shareholder and bondholders interests without even batting an eyelash. Foreign capital has yet to return to the Republic of Russia with any volume or voracity and thus one has to ask the question:

Are we really that different?

The answer is obviously a resounding “NO” as any guarantee and faith that backed the rule of law behind our investing instruments is now null and void if the Obama administration feels the empathy to say so otherwise. The result will be a quiet, and I do mean very quiet, exodus out of dollar denominated assets and investments by foreign investors, including sovereign wealth funds and banks. As that exit accelerates and becomes more obvious it will be reflected in the TIC report and US Dollar index first and foremost. Once the US Dollar index drops below the 72 level again, the capital flight will become obvious to all parties involved in our nation and the destruction of our financial system will accelerate as the Federal Reserve will be forced to intervene by monetizing the debt at an accelerated pace to offset the selloff of our Treasuries and to prevent a further collapse of the real estate industry domestically. The problem is now set in place for this problem to feed on itself and there is no exit since the politically unpalatable choice of allowing the natural flow of business, bankruptcy and rebirth, to occur. Thus I look for the remainder of this year to be the most politically unstable period of time in modern American history, and for the world to exit our nation financially to preserve their systems to the best of their ability.

Please put your trays and seats in the upright position. Turbulence is ahead.

 

Obama Requires Your Sacrifice

Obama Makes You Sacrifice for Him

Ben Shapiro
Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Let us compare two historical situations. One took place several thousand years ago. The other took place on Monday. 

According to legend, during the 13th century B.C., there was a Greek king named Agamemnon. He was bound and determined to attack and raze the city of Troy. When Agamemnon sought to launch his ships for Troy, however, the goddess Artemis sent a stagnant wind to stop Agamemnon’s fleet. Agamemnon responded by calling out his daughter, Iphigenia, and sacrificing her to appease Artemis.

Fast forward to last Monday. In announcing the bankruptcy of General Motors, President Barack Obama spoke directly all those who would lose their jobs and their livelihoods. “I want you to know that what you’re doing is making a sacrifice for the next generation — a sacrifice you may not have chose to make, but a sacrifice you were nevertheless called to make so that your children and all of our children can grow up in an America that still makes things; that still builds cars; that still strives for a better future,” he said.

Obama is fond of calling upon Americans to make sacrifices — or rather, he is fond of forcing Americans into sacrificing themselves at a time and place of his choosing. Heroic sacrifice requires volunteerism, or at least an element of extraordinary choice; Obama’s sort of sacrifice runs along Agamemnon-esque lines. He names the time and the place, and you are expected to put your neck on the altar. 

Obama’s sacrificial ideology is particularly egregious because it targets minority groups who can do nothing to defend themselves. Obama targets the taxpaying minority, forcing them to pay for bank bailouts and auto gratuities while falsely promising that taxpayers will earn that money back (when do we get our checks?). He targets GM bondholders, the same folks whose retirement money has been keeping the ailing carmaker afloat; his new bankruptcy plan makes their holdings worthless. He demonizes Chrysler’s investors as “speculators” and attempts to portray them as villains in Chrysler’s demise. He forces banks to take TARP money, then defenestrates bank chiefs and caps executive pay. 

It would be one thing if Obama expected all Americans to sacrifice equally. Clearly, however, he does not. He, for one, isn’t willing to sacrifice — he’s ready to spend $24,000 of taxpayer money to take his wife on a date to New York. And Obama doesn’t expect his allies to sacrifice, either. The United Auto Workers, whom Obama has praised for its “sacrifice,” now owns a majority of Chrysler and a huge chunk of GM; not coincidentally, UAW gave millions to Obama’s campaign. Obama refused to bail out California unless it revoked pay cuts for members of the Service Employees International Union; not coincidentally, SEIU gave $33 million to Obama’s campaign. 

Obama’s self-centered idea of sacrifice — sacrifice yourself on Obama’s behalf, or he’ll sacrifice you — doesn’t stop at the water’s edge. America’s foreign allies are feeling similar pressure to sacrifice themselves for Obamemnon’s glory. Thus, Obama presses Israel to stop building new houses in Jewish Jerusalem while encouraging Palestinian Arabs to build illegal settlements within Jerusalem. Thus, Obama tacitly allows Iran to develop nuclear weapons and reaches out to the illegitimate mullahs while stifling any freedom movement within Iran. Thus, Obama allows China to violate human rights while offering them the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for their supposed work on global warming — all in order to entice China to keep buying our debt. Sacrifice, it seems, is only to be made by those who least deserve to make it. 

There is one crucial difference between Agamemnon and Obama: Agamemnon led his troops to victory at Troy. Iphigenia was merely an innocent bystander used to accomplish his purposes. Obama, by contrast, is bound to lead America to ruin precisely because of the sacrifices he is forcing upon the most productive Americans and our most important allies. 

Obama’s philosophy makes the sacrifice of individual liberty irrelevant to the broader communal good as he defines it. What we are losing on the Altar of Obamemnon is far more than a few bucks — it is the fundamental basis of free government.

Obama and the Marxists Kill The Golden Goose

Killing the golden goose

 By Henry Lamb

When the President announced last week that he would “cut out the middle man” and make direct government loans to students, he laid bare his contempt for free enterprise.  He is fulfilling a campaign promise by overhauling the system through which he claims “Private lenders are costing America’s taxpayers more than 15-million dollars every day and provide no additional value except to the banks themselves.”

Consider the INSANE philosophy behind his statement. If government cuts out the middle man and performs the service instead, it will be cheaper and more efficient, he reasons.  Apply this same reasoning to, say, the entire banking industry.  Government’s direct involvement in the banking industry can eliminate all those bonuses paid to greedy executives, and profits earned by greedy share holders, and make sure that loans are extended to low-income borrowers whether they qualify or not.  Direct government control of the banking business will surely make it fairer, and more efficient.

What a fantastic idea! Someone should have thought of this before.

Apply this reasoning to, say, the auto industry.  Government’s direct involvement can force the auto industry to dump the management that failed to produce the toy-cars that the government said would abate global warming.  Government control of the auto industry can eliminate those nasty, unnecessary monster cars, such as the Pontiac, and more.  Direct government control of the auto industry would certainly be more efficient, and would operate the industry in a more environmentally-friendly way.

Direct government control of the auto industry could eliminate the wasteful duplication of products and services.  Why should there be three major auto manufacturers?  The status quo requires three design departments, three different manufacturing operations, three different, but duplicative sales networks, and three different repair and maintenance systems.  Imagine all the savings that can be achieved by simply combining the auto industry into a single operation managed by government.

This principle, applied to all industry, could result in enormous savings, ensure social justice in the workplace, and avoid unsafe operations that jeopardize the environment.  Wow, who can object to this change?  This new direction by this new administration sounds great to a generation who can’t remember, or never knew, why America became the strongest, most prosperous nation on earth.

America’s greatness is due to the absence of government control.

Now this was truly a fantastic idea formulated by the founders who wrote the U.S. Constitution.  In two short centuries, America achieved what the rest of the world could not achieve in two millennia.  When people are free to pursue their own happiness, there are no limits on what can be achieved.  When government controls what people may pursue, achievement is limited to whatever government permits.

Imagine direct government funding of education; students will attend the school chosen by government, and study the courses approved by government.

Imagine direct government control of the banking industry; investors will earn no more than the government thinks is fair, and borrowers will be rewarded with loans only for purposes the government thinks is necessary.

Imagine direct government control of the auto industry; everyone will drive the car the government decides is environmentally sound, and only those who meet the government’s criteria for ownership will be able to get an automobile.

Come to think of it, someone did have this idea before.  It was the rage of the 1920s and 1930s.  It really took hold in the Soviet Union and throughout Eastern Europe.  Ignorant American rednecks rejected the League of Nations, and much of Roosevelt’s efforts to have government take control of industry and the market place. 

President Obama, and others who subscribe to this philosophy of direct government control, have persisted through the years.  By dramatically changing the public school curriculum over the years, and by manufacturing environmental crises to justify stringent government regulations, a majority of the people – who elected Obama – have apparently come to accept the idea that government control is better than freedom and individual responsibility. 

The old adage is true about the people who forget history; as surely as the Soviet Union collapsed, the Obama-initiated system of government control will also collapse – sooner or later.  Those who forgot, or never knew why America prospered for two centuries, cannot grasp the idea that America’s current economic problems are caused directly by our government’s prior intervention.

Government’s insistence that housing be made available to people who could not afford the loans the government guaranteed is the root cause of the housing bubble and the subsequent collapse of the sub-prime financial market.  Government’s insistence on “protecting” mud-holes and spotted owls – that don’t need protecting – have stripped private property rights and free market opportunities from a generation.

Obama’s insistence on “direct government control” over the market and over individual lives is killing the golden goose – the freedom – that is the engine of America’s greatness. 

America’s Road To Fascism

Mr. John Wallace posted this as a reply to the entry on Obama’s Fascist Takeover and I decided it needed it’s own entry.

To answer his question – the answer is already YES.  We are there, and now it just expands and tightens it’s control over us.

But read his entry to understand how we got here and what history teaches us what will happen next.

 

 

IS AMERICA ON THE ROAD TO FASCISM?

By John Wallace

Mr. G. Richard Wagoner, the chairman and chief executive officer of General Motors, was recently forced to resign his position because of pressure from the Obama administration. He was told that if he didn’t leave, the Obama administration would not give General Motors any more federal bailout money. President Obama also told General Motors and the Chrysler Corporation that if they wanted more federal bailout money, they would have to shrink and refocus their businesses according to his (the federal government’s) wishes.

In our country’s history, there have been some limited instances of the federal government exercising some sort of control over private industry, but that was during wartime. The current assault on American capitalism by the Obama administration is unprecedented in both its scope and speed and should raise the red flag of alarm for all freedom-loving Americans.

World history has shown us that the implementation of strict government controls over private industries has been one of the first steps in the introduction of various forms of Fascism to formerly free countries. The practice of a government taking control of private industries was refined by Benito Mussolini in Italy in the 1920’s and it is called ‘corporatism.’

According to Wikipedia, political scientists use the term ‘corporatism’ to describe “a practice whereby a state, through the process of licensing and regulating officially-incorporated social, religious, economic, or popular organizations, effectively co-opts their leadership or circumscribes their ability to challenge state authority by establishing the state as the source of their legitimacy, as well as sometimes running them, either directly or indirectly.” Mussolini described it more simply when he said, “Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.”

Some corporatist-style regimes of the 20th century included those of Benito Mussolini of Italy (1922-1945), Adolph Hitler of Germany (1933 to 1945); Francisco Franco of Spain (1936 to 1973); Juan Peron of Argentina (1943 to 1955) and even our own President Franklin Roosevelt (1933 to 1945) during the ‘New Deal.’ The Mussolini, Hitler, Franco and Peron regimes were brutal, totalitarian, Fascist dictatorships, but not all the regimes that had a corporatist foundation were fascist. The Roosevelt administration, despite its many faults, could not be described as fascist, but the ‘New Deal’ program was definitely corporatist.

Corporatism boils down to this: The government tells industry (and eventually labor unions) what to do and that they must do it for the supposed good of the country, or else their individual leaders will pay a price. Does this sound similar to what is happening to the auto industry today?

Where in the U.S. Constitution does it authorize the President of the United States to fire the head of a major private corporation just because he disagrees with his management policies? Where in the U.S. Constitution does it authorize the President of the United States to decide what kind of cars a private company will build? or what kind of car I will drive? President Barack ‘Mussolini’ Obama is taking this country down a very dangerous road and a road that America has never taken before.

Confucius said “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Are the ‘corporatist’ policies of President Obama and his administration just the first steps of many in a move towards a government takeover of our major industries? Are these policies much different than those that Mussolini and Hitler initiated in the early stages of their rise to power?

With the Politburo in our expanding federal government now having the power to hire and fire the leaders of major private corporations and to tell the auto makers what cars they can produce, will they soon be telling Americans what kind of cars they can drive; how much money they can earn; where they can go to school, what sodas they can drink, what foods they can’t eat, where they can travel, what national ID card they must carry at all times and it will impose any number of other restrictions on them. Look at California, where the state legislature is currently considering banning black cars by 2012, for some bogus global warming reason.

Thomas Jefferson said: “A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have.” Americans must remember that we cannot fully enjoy our freedoms and liberties in America unless we keep our government limited. As our government grows and becomes more intrusive, as it is today, it is our freedoms and liberties that are becoming limited.

Welcome to the United Socialist States of America!

If we continue on President Obama’s road to CHANGE (socialism), the American people will no longer be free. The question is: “Will we learn to accept our captivity at the hands of our new masters or will we be willing to do something about it?”

 

 

http://www.freedommovementusa.com/

Obama’s Fascist Takeover of the Auto Industry

“This is Obama, and symbols of change are important”

Still think America is a free market?

Think again.  We are now officially, a Fascist Democracy with a usurping despot as a wannabe emperor who has not yet revealed his true hand.

This weekend, Obama implemented the purest form of Mussolini-styled Fascism in his executive takeover of the American Auto Industry.

And Americans are applauding this – like the ignorant useful idiots they are.

Government will now control and run the Auto industry direct from the White House, telling them what kind of cars to make; who can make them , how much money anyone is allowed to make – and soon – what we will be allowed to buy.

But don’t take my word for it – Obama himself told Michigan politicians Carl Levin, his brother, Rep. Sander Levin, and Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, that he planned to put administration staff into the Detroit companies.

Get that?

Obama is putting his own staff in charge of running the auto companies.

Pure Fascism.

How long before Obama puts his staff in charge of running YOUR company?

In the case of the Auto Industry, Obama wants Detroit to make cars HE approves you and I drive.  Namely “green cars”, little tiny cars that run on solar cells or batteries.

In the bailout agreement, there are concerns Obama will direct over a dozen makes of trucks and SUVs that WERE making a profit for GM, to be eliminated.  In their place, will be little Soviet Savants that we will be allowed to drive.

How does Obama get us to buy his little Soviet cars?  Simple.  He will cause gas and oil prices to go through the roof.

We are already down in terms of domestic drilling capacity.  Obama just signed a 2 million acre land grab that eliminates any development of either energy or industry.

But it gets better, along with all of this government control of running private industry – now comes word that the Obama regime and his politburo have plans to not only set the salary of CEO’s and Executives, but to set YOUR SALARY.  

Yup, Obama and the Politburo Stalinists in Congress are going to tell you how much money you will be allowed to make.

More on that in the next entry on the blog.

The march to abject tyranny has just picked up the pace.

To cheers of millions of ignorant idiots filled with envy and rage being stoked by Obama and his Squadrists.

Obama The Marxist Demagogue

From the White House website – Ever wonder why official White House photographers always seem to shoot and pick photos that put halos of holiness on Obama as they promote him as mesiah and savior while he “changes” America into a Marxist tyranny?

Is it because Obama himself wants us to think he alone is savior of the auto industry, savior of the banking and healthcare industry?

Savior of all things, for all people …. or at least SELECTED peoples?

Obama thinks himself without limits, godlike in his mission, which is a mission to destroy the country and remake it in Marx’s image.

I’d say he is well on the way.

Obama by his own admission, will now decide where cars can be built and by whom they can be built.

Red State or Southern GM plants have been told to pound sand by this Fascist thug usurping the office of president.  One Czar after another Czar has been created to implement the policies of the Supreme Leader and his Politburo – to the cheers of millions of idiotic stormtrooping Union members, whom have hope Obama will confiscate the auto industry, and ‘turn it back over to the people’ – just like any Maoist dictator would in the Red revolutions before this one.

And as they cheer like the imbecillic sheep to the slaughter, Obama sets his next targets for destruction.

Because this is what Marxists do.

Perhaps America needs to understand what the true agenda of the Marxist is.

 

Barack Hussein Obama is a committed Marxist –– what are Americans going to do about it?

On Nov. 5, 2008, Americans woke up to a very real Marxist coup — although most didn’t realize it. I sat down and cried while a huge crowd gathered and were cheering. I intuitively knew something was very wrong. After watching Barack Hussein Obama destructively pursue his agenda as president, I now understand why.

Most Marxist coups rely on deception — and that was certainly true of this one. Just about everything Obama said during the campaign was a calculated lie. His handlers and key supporters were equally willing to lie and deceive to gain advantage.

Once Marxists seize power through deception, manipulation, exploitation, and corrupt interference with the political process, they never give it up. It is entirely possible that we will never see the end of the current regime of Marxists in America. In 20 years, the President of the United States might still be a man named Barack Obama. At the very least, we can expect Obama and his fellow conspirators to do everything in their power to ensure that outcome.

Failure equals success

Initially, the objectives of Marxism center in undermining the status quo — for only after the existing order is sufficiently weakened can it be dismantled and a thoroughgoing socialist system installed in its place.

We shouldn’t be surprised, therefore, that Obama has no intention of strengthening or improving our country. His deeply-held Marxist beliefs will drive him to create chaos, disruption, economic collapse, and moral corruption — accompanied by the silencing of his critics — so that from the ashes of American civilization, a socialist nation will arise to lead in collectivizing the world.

The vision of Marx — that from the utter destruction of Western civilization, a world order of near-total communalism will emerge — has never been proven to work, for the theory can’t be tested in advance. Thus, ideologues like Obama are foolishly willing to risk everything of value for a theoretical dream. Unfortunately, that dream is completely false and morally bankrupt. Only persons who lust for extreme power over others would buy into the unfounded premises, evil methods, and unmatched threat that we call Marxism.

Fascism Has Come: Obama Orders GM CEO To Resign

 

By INVAR

The Tyrant-In-Chief, his holiness Barrack The Hussein, is so full tilt into fascist tyranny, that it absolutely boggles the mind.

Today, The Politco reports that The Obama administration demanded Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, step down, and AP reported his departure early in the afternoon without giving any reason for the sudden resignation.

Dear Leader plans to give a Press briefing tomorrow outlining HIS PLANS for the government to run the auto industry after stating on Face The Nation: 

“We think we can have a successful U.S. auto industry. But it’s got to be one that’s realistically designed to weather this storm,” Obama said.

“That’s going to mean a set of sacrifices from all parties involved,” he said. “Everybody’s going to have to come to the table and say it’s important for us to take serious restructuring steps now in order to preserve a brighter future down the road.”

More sacrifices.  More government – controlled and operated industry.  This news comes just a few days after Timothy Geitner announced his calls for more powers in order to seize any business they deem is ‘in trouble”.

Fascism has come ladies and gentlemen, with thunderous applause and hopeful idiots handing liberty to tyrants on a silver platter of ‘too big to fail’.

Obama and his minions at ACORN who are busy stoking up rage against the wealthy and their families with threats of violence coupled with  Obama’s soon-coming civilian army, will evidently have the power to seize and control any business they choose.

It is now a precedent America, that a sitting president – now has the power to fire anyone he chooses, private business or no, and take over any business he wants.

Capitalism and free markets have  just been abolished.

Does anyone even care anymore, or has America gone so off the reservation into Marxism that liberty and freedom no longer matter, only the holiness and supremacy of the State matters?

King George III could not hold a CANDLE to the tyranny we willingly submit to today.

The UAW Stalinists aren’t going to be smiling when their Fuhrer will fire them on a whim because the latest  10lb “green car” doesn’t sell and they need Obama to force us to buy them at gunpoint.

The Fruits of An Auto-Industry Bailout