Iran's Middle Eastern Summer Vacation, Monsoon Rains, End The Fed

Harold Meyerson
Charlie Cook

"It appears that the signs of a possible Democratic rebound were just a false alarm... Midterms also particularly show a decline in turnout among minority and younger voters, who trend Democratic." - Charlie Cook

"The great private-sector trickle-down machine has largely stopped working for small businesses." - Harold Meyerson

The current skirmishes happening in the Middle East is part of Iran's plan to stop the Palestinian peace talks. The all-out war involves the political spin afterwards, and trying to piss off the Israelis so that they will cancel everything and do something stupid like invading Gaza again. Israeli policy is to retaliate by overkill, and that is what Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran are planning on.

First, missiles were fired into Israel from Gaza. Israel responded by sending jets and bombing some more smuggling tunnels and a Hamas leader's house. Yesterday there was a firefight between Lebanese troops and Israelis soldiers that resulted in casualties on both sides. The Shia-led Lebanese troop that fired, said that Israeli soldiers crossed over into Lebanon, so they shot at them. But, they aimed for the commanders of the Israeli troop, not at the soldiers involved, so Israel claims that this was a planned attack, which it does seem to be. Israel then sent jets and bombed some armed personnel carriers at a Lebanese site nearby. Now, both sides are pointing their fingers and trying to complain the loudest, trying to win international sympathy. Their will be another incident before the week is over, of a slightly different nature, perhaps involving Syria or Turkey, although the turks seem pretty content from the good results they got from their flotilla raid and martyred aid workers...

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's handlers have learned one lesson from the Bush administration, which is to always have planned rallies whenever the little guy roams about the country making speeches. They bus in crowds and have them chant slogans and phrases against the US, trying to make it look spontaneous. Puppet reporters ask soft questions, just like at every George Bush news conference. I'll bet that the two men would have had a great friendship, maybe walked around holding hands before clearing brush in Crawford, Texas...

Anyway, during a motorcade last night on the way to one of these events, someone tossed a grenade and it exploded near the fake reporters car. Government spinmeisters said no, it was really a firecracker meant to cheer Mahmoud up... Evidently, it didn't work and he was not amused. No, those guards aren't beating up that man, they are really giving him a group hug...

Monsoon rains continue to flood Pakistan, now with thousands of homeless leaving the Punjab, going to God knows where. Perhaps there will be a lull in the detonation of Iranian-made bombs as everyone concentrates on trying to save innocent lives instead of trying to destroy them. Perhaps the Talibans will learn a new trick or two, and get used to helping their fellow countrymen, but I doubt it. The US is sending money and aid, but isn't allowed to distribute them in person. We have to give everything to the Pakistani government, where they get to skim off their customary 80% take, then distribute what's left to the needy. I have said before that the rise in humanitarian crisis will overtax our relief agencies, and already that is the case in Pakistan. Decisions are being made as to who gets to live and who must be left to die, and usually it is an ethnic decision. We saw this happen in Haiti, where there was only enough supplies to feed a million people, but over a million and a half were in need of food and water...

Harold Meyerson's opinion piece is a good read. He echoes what everyone else is reporting: "All things considered, American big business is doing just fine, thank you. Profits, productivity and exports are up. New hires, rehires and wage increases, as I have written, are nowhere to be seen. They're no longer part of the U.S. corporate business plan, in which higher profits are premised on having fewer employees. Sell abroad, cut costs at home -- the global marketplace that American business has created is paying off big-time.


Not so for American small business, which inhabits those less rarefied realms of the economy in which depressed domestic demand and bottled-up credit remain a mortal threat."

Many of the larger companies who laid off workers during the economic chaos created by Wall Street have found that they are reporting higher profits with less employees, and have no plans to rehire anytime soon. Many are seeking ways to lay off more, and make the remaining employees work more after paycuts, upping production. For example, Harley Davidson laid off over 2500 workers, saw their profits rise from those dumb tweakers, and now plans on laying off 1200 more by the end of the year. Merry Christmas. And the GOP attitude towards those laid off, is it's their fault for still being unemployed, we refuse to extend any benefits or help towards you...

As our manufacturing base further erodes, a fake economy based on investing in financial instruments has emerged. Instead of investing directly in companies, manufacturing, and products, we have a virtual world to invest in, that causes economic meltdowns in real time. Wall Street has consumed about 40% of the American economy, a black hole that sucks people's money and doesn't tell yo where that money goes.

It must go somewhere. If the supposed audit of the Federal Reserve takes place as it should, we might learn more. Evidently, the Pentagon isn't the only government body that can't or won't account for over $8.7 billion. The year before, the Federal Reserve used more than one trillion dollars over its approved budget, and they never were held accountable as to where that money was spent. The amount of taxpayer money that is "lost" every year is staggering. It is money that is lining the bank vaults of companies and individuals in some of the largest white collar crimes ever perpetrated upon the public. And we will never get the money back. And we may not be able to stop it, the money train will keep on rolling. Which is one reason that the banking industry really doesn't want Elizabeth Warren named as the head of the Consumer Protection Agency. So far, she cannot be bought and has fought against their scams when she was head of the TARP oversight committee. She might end up having the clout to slap the hands of Timthy Geithner and Ben Bernanke and the institutionalized brand of thievery.