Why Obama and his Banker Bosses Want a Depression
Posted: April 12, 2011 | Author: bostonboomer | Filed under: Catfood Commission, income inequality, just because, poverty, Psychopaths in charge, Surreality, Team Obama, The Bonus Class, The Great Recession, The Media SUCKS, U.S. Economy, U.S. Politics, We are so F'd, worker rights | Tags: Banksters, Barack Obama, Michael Hudson, power elites, Real News Network, road to serfdom |49 CommentsVia Susie Madrak at Suburban Guerilla, Economist and historian Michael Hudson explains why U.S. elites are trying to bring about a full-fledged depression (December 16, 2010).
JAY: So President Obama’s deficit commission has reported. The press, the media, and most of the political punditry all seem far more worried about government debt than depression. Why?
HUDSON: Because they’re essentially appointed by the banking interest. When the government runs into debt, it has to borrow from the banks. They want to scale down government debt in order to scale down government taxes. So it’s part of a one-to punch against the economy, basically. To the deficit commission, a depression is the solution to the problem, not a problem. That’s what they’re trying to bring about, because you need a depression if you’re going to lower wages by 20 percent.
JAY: And why do they want to do that?
HUDSON: Because they have the illusion that if you pay labor less, somehow you’re going to make the economy more competitive, and the economy can earn its way out of debts–meaning their employers, the banks and the companies–and make more profits and pay more bonuses and stock options, and somehow their constituency, Wall Street and the corporate economy, will become richer if they can only impoverish the economy.
So essentially you can think of it as between a parasite and the host economy. A smart parasite in nature actually is in a symbiosis with the host and tries to steer to new food. It wants the host to find new food, doesn’t want it to get bigger; the parasite wants itself to get bigger. But to do that, it has to take over the host’s brain and make the brain think that the parasite, in this case the host, is the industrial economy, the real economy, production and consumption.
The parasite is basically the financial sector. That’s the deficit commission. That’s the largest financier of the Obama administration. Obama appointed Wall Street lobbyists for the deficit commission, and basically their mind is a one-track mind: reduce labor’s wages. So what we have here is a dumb parasite, not a parasite. That’s the problem that’s facing the American economy today. The problem is that the parasite’s not only taken over the brain of the economy, which was supposed to be the government, but it’s taken over its own brain in the process. And it actually imagines that corporations can make larger profits and the industrial–the financial system can survive if they just bring on a depression. In fact, it’ll be the exact opposite.
Hudson predicted the housing crash in a cover story in Harpers’ Magazine in 2006: The New Road to Serfdom.
Another article he wrote for Harpers’ in 2005 was influential in killing Bush’s push for privatization of Social Security: The $4.7 Trillion Pyramid: Why Social Security won’t be enough to save Wall Street
It looks like the elites are already succeeding in turning the U.S. into a third world country. According to the LA Times, Swedish giant Ikea opened a plant in Virginia in order to take advantage of the U.S.’s slave wages and hostile atmosphere for union organizing.
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Steve Benen says that isn’t supposed to happen here in the “land of opportunity,” but according to Professor Hudson, that’s exactly what our government and the top 1% want.
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They also don’t care about killing us with toxic chemicals as long as it doesn’t disturb the economy.
Of course not. We’re only pawns in their game.
shovel ready. 🙂
How about puke-ready?
More from Hudson:
I read this earlier over at Suburban Guerilla. Glad you posted it here. This is some seriously nasty stuff they’re planning.
Of course, they can’t pay back the money they “borrowed” from Social Security, so that’s part of the reason why they have to cut benefits. They have no intention of paying anything back. Most likely never did.
The other thing they’re itching to do is to privatize Social Security, which will then provide additional massive gambling money to Wall Street and the banks. Once they’ve looted everything they can – and given themselves huge bonuses – they’ll disappear when the crash comes and we still won’t have a secure retirement.
Have I mentioned lately how much I detest them all? Every last stinking one of them.
Indeed. The only “retirement” they are planning for us peons is the shovel ready kind….no joke
Obama considered offering the Repubs Social Security cuts in return for some more revenue from the rich.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/the-morning-plum/2011/03/03/AFfx4yJD_blog.html
That man (Obama) has nothing by my disgust…
Greg Sargent is in a permanent state of denial.
Yep, the only person capitulating and compromising is Obama. Republicans are never going to negotiate their position away even when the vast majority of U.S. citizens despise those positions. How they continue to get away with this is…..perplexing.
So let’s
presume…no Greg that would be *pretend* on your part.Thanks for the link- interesting read and I certainly agree that the finance industry/banks are parasites.
Rep. Peter DeFazio says Obama should start acting like a Democrat.
LOL! You know what I think? I think Obama should run for the Republican nomination in 2012.
Whose side was he on in ’08?
Hillary 2012
In a way he is…only Obama is actually “running” for real.
There is one party : Wall St. and one candidate : Obama.
Romney wants to run…but the GOP doesn’t want an electable candidate messing things up…if they did, they wouldn’t make the one semi-non clown keep so under the radar at this point. They would be prompting him day and night. At best they will do a “McCain” on Mitt….let him have the nomination to dress up the kabuki and then go fishing
I said this late in one of the other threads but I think Jesse Jackson should run against Obama. Right now I see three viable choices. Jackson, Hillary and Gore. Somebody needs to do it. We have got to get someone with some integrity and brains in that House before it is to late for all of us.
Perhaps we should email the guy and ask him if he’s interested in primarying Obama?
We need to do something-soon.
That would involve too much honesty.
Wow! That is one depressing vid that sums up everything we’re watching.
And the band plays on while DC dances on our graves. Btw, I read the article on IKEA and its labor disputes in VA. You would think that this would wake the public up–a foreign company that wants to take advantage of the American workforce.
What more needs to be said?
Hello, global serfdom!
Get out of my head!!
Hillary 2012
Cat Food Commission proposal would cost millions of jobs.
I guess that’s why Obama is going to embrace it.
Insanity. Firing teachers everywhere. Laying off government employees. Driving unemployment up. Gas prices skyrocketing. Costs of merchandise skyrocketing. Wal-Mart losing billions in same store sales.
Despite the alleged recovery we appear to be teetering on a precipice. I think what the rich and the wealthy don’t realize is that young to middle aged poor people will not just sit back and starve to death.
If the economy completely collapses due to a depression wealthy people will not be insulated from the wrath of the desperate that is sure to follow. These people have heard of the French revolution haven’t they? Strange that people never seem to learn from the past. Greed gets them every time.
Walmart’s business model imploding is no skin off my nose. This is a company that had no problem forcing suppliers to cut and cut lowering wages here and this is the company that encouraged businesses to go overseas to cut costs(how’s that working out now that the dollar is tanking and its becoming cheaper to employ people here wallyworld?)
No the union busting Walmart is getting what they deserve in my mind. I’m just sad it will take down thousands of employees if it goes.
Oh, I hope it does not go…Wallyworld is the only thing saving our family from utter ruin. (Husband is one of those thousands of employees.)
The point wasn’t to have sympathy for Wal-Mart. I put them in the mix because it demonstrates how the buying power of average Americans have decreased.
You are correct in your assessment of that company. It has been a major ravager of suppliers and has been a primary factor in millions of jobs going overseas.
However; can’t just put the blame on the company. People should have understood the ramifications for purchasing cheap goods manufactured overseas. Chickens coming home to roost and all.
Swedish giant Ikea opened a plant in Virginia in order to take advantage of the U.S.’s slave wages and hostile atmosphere for union organizing.
I was about to say and who do they think will buy this stuff? …then I realized they will ship it else where….they don’t care if we buy the stuff…as long as we have dirt floors to drop on after our 12 hour shift .
The company is idiotic then. Shipping items costs money. With the price of petrol they may find it to be a poor business decision.
They moved here because it’s saving them a ton of money to fill all their US stores with crap made here instead of shipping it in from Sweden, and that’s even before they factor in saving more than $10/hr in our low wage paradise. And as long as they keep making $10 chairs, they’re pretty much recession proof, last year profits were up 7% and US wages were slashed 20%.
I also believe that the desire to reduce labor costs is the reason why Obama has done nothing to reduce unemployment. A low supply of available labor means employers would have to pay workers more to hire and retain them.
fewer jobs also swells the ranks of the Army as well…that’s gotta been seen as a plus
Definitely paperdoll, and when that happens the army starts to get more selective on their recruits.
That’s true. Fewer jobs, more cannon fodder.
Hawaii has gotten in on the cover-up of Obumbles in a BIG way!! I know Hillary said that she won’t run again, but this HAS to be a signal to her that the road would be much easier for her…..
Hillary 2012
The birther crap was just fraudulent non-sense crap made up by Larry Johnson. The fact that anyone believes that Obama isn’t a natural born citizen is insane. His mother was from Kansas. He could have been born anywhere in the world and still been eligible to be President. The fact that he was actually born in Hawaii just completely destroys the credibility of those publicly supporting this fraud.
Reuters:
No worries, he’ll always have Booman:
Ah yes, the typical Obamacrat apology tour and ‘be afraid’ message. We suck but we suck less than the other guys. So, you must vote for us.
It’s not working this time. Not for me. I’ll go third party or vote with a nonvote. And like Booman, I think about that every day, too.
It would be interesting to see how things shake out if he actually had a primary challenge. Of course it would be so much kabuki, with the “challenger” treating him with kid gloves and allowing us to vicariously exorcise our sense of betrayal before getting back on the train. Still, watching the establishment Dems bobbing and weaving trying to play about 12 conflicting roles would be pretty interesting.
While House and Senate Republicans are screaming about cutting programs, this member of the House has a bill up since January to fund sonogram machines for organizations which counsel women against abortion.
Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL):
Sheesh.
Hey BB and Dak,
Did you know the IMF is racist? They must not realize that the U.S. has the first black president. That means his policies are all correct. They should support him or everyone will know they are racist. I mean don’t they know his White House is playing 11 dimensional chess??
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/dc1aadea-652e-11e0-b150-00144feab49a.html#axzz1JMDTL2p3
Asshats.
Hillary 2012
They’re just starting to treat us like a banana republic now. LOL.
Notice what they wrote:
Of course the Republicans will ignore the tax increase part or only pass those that affect the poor folk. Gotta cut more taxes for the rich since that will create jobs.
Someone upthread said something about being shovel ready. Who can afford the funeral? Unless you have lots of land to bury your own, looks like cremation will be the cheaper alternative and even that now is a couple of thousand.
I’m headed to Nepal for a sky burial. Let the vultures in the Himalayas recycle me …
My mother made her arrangements a number of years ago (after her mom died) and she and I would bug my father about making his. He said he wasn’t concerned, there was an ins. policy from Amstar and it would take care of it. I said “yeah, but that means we have to go pick out stuff and all”. I finally told him if he didn’t take care of it I’d go to K&B and get one of the big purple garbage cans, take it to the funeral home and tell them “make him fit”. LOL He never did make arrangements and mom and I had to do it at the time and K&B had been bought out by Rite Aid. 😦
This made me laugh Fredster…when my Nana died this past July, we put a couple things to be cremated with her. Her rosary, her Jesus medal, some pictures and notes my kids drew for her and a big ruby red grapefruit. She loved those grapefruits, and she was very allergic to them. In fact, when she was a teenager she was fired from her job as a cutter in a citrus canning plant because she would eat too much of the fruit she cut. Now when my Nano died back in 2003, we sent him with the 2 things he loved most…a crisp dollar bill and a real Cuban Cigar!
Yup, and if you got more “junk in the trunk” the cost goes up. Obese people = added fees.