Connecting the Dots; One persons view on the American Economy

I got this in my email, and I enjoyed reading it. Unsure of the author but Kudos to the author!

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Subject: Commentary on the financial mess

I think that this is a pretty insightful commentary by a pilot who flies life flight rescue helicopters in Texas.


Ok, let's all take a little time to connect the dots. And the dots are all over the place. Although, in catching up here, I suspect some of my thoughts will appear to be a little random since there is so much ground to cover.

First, nothing really bad is going to happen to the average public citizen on the street as a result of the current "crisis". If you have good credit, you can get a loan. Banks are still in the business of making a profit and they can't do it if they don't loan money. If you have bad credit, you will not be able to get a big loan, which is nature's way of telling you to get off your ass and take care of business.

Giving Paulson $700B would be insane at a level beyond belief. (And here is a good place to connect some dots.) Paulson came from Goldman Sachs. He had a net worth of about $750M, much of it tied up in Goldman Sachs stock. GS holds a 20% stake in AIG. Paulson has seen his net worth drop about $283M over the past several weeks. Propping up Wall Street would allow him to recover millions. Now, any wonder that he was practically on his knees to get a deal out of Congress?

Pelosi is a moron, but then I repeat myself. What she did in giving that pre-vote hate speech was either some kind of tactic to implode the plan, or she is one of the most stupid Speakers to ever hold the office. She isn't clever enough for the former so I suspect the latter.

More dots. The same Wall Street, Ivy League-trained, brainiacs who helped generate this mess are now telling the unwashed that a bailout is the only way out. They punctuate it with dire predictions of lost jobs, tardy payrolls, credit crunches, and hair loss. And we have the Administration and Congressmen agreeing to give them $700B because they believe these guys? I wouldn't trust these MBA's with my lunch money. Momma always said, "stupid is as stupid does".

So what if the stock market tanks? You only lose money if you sell low and you only make money if you sell high. And the only time you want the market to hit a high is when you are ready to retire and cash out. We don't have a stock market collapse. We have a great opportunity to get in there and buy some good deals. You might want to steer clear of financials however.

Your house isn't worth what you paid for it. No, I'm not talking about the drop in home values. I'm talking about the actual physical, glass, metal, wood, stone, thatched presence you call home. Values are dropping toward what they should really be, not some inflated equity producing mirage it's been over the past 5 years. I've been renting and refusing to buy for about that long because the prices were ridiculous. I'm house shopping now because I can get a good deal from someone who thought their house was actually an ATM.

Blame game dots. Despite the deniers, we have Bwaney Fwanks on video telling us several years ago that Fannie and Freddie were in great shape and needed no regulations even though his own President at the time was warning of a problem. Bush did the same thing. WHO blocked legislation? Bwaney Fwank and Chris Dodd, the biggest recipient of Fannie political contributions.

Oh pls, stop the crap about how the Republican minority is always able to block Democrat legislation while on the other hand, the Republicans are responsible for getting nothing through when they are in the majority. As if Democrat minorities never block legislation. You can't have it both ways. Think about it a minute before going to your standard BS reply. Go ahead, work it through your brain for just a few seconds. It will come to you. Ok, here is the answer. Dems and Republicans were co-conspirators.

No CEO is worth millions a year. We have an economic battlefield littered with corporate pay and million dollar Christmas bonuses that are simply incomprehensible. Fannie Mae's Franklin Raines pocketed $90M for 6 years of work. Now, does anyone really believe that any human is worth $1.25M A MONTH? Especially when they fail at their job? In China, Franklin Raines would have been executed and his family billed for the bullet. I'm not saying we should go that far but he should at least volunteer and put his own gun to his head along with the rest of the greedy CEOs.

But back to dots. Here's one for you. Anyone remember the "20th 9/11 conspirator", Jamie Gorelick? Working for the Janet Reno DOJ, she authored the doctrine of separating CIA and FBI intelligence sharing that was pivotal in the Government not being able to connect the dots about the hijackers and their aviation training. (Did she do this to monitor and protect Clinton?) After that debacle, she ends up on the Congressional committee that held hearings on 9/11. Unbelievable. (Was she there to protect the Clinton administration and to cover for Sandy Burgler's removal of document from the national archives?) Next dot. Gorelick ends up working at Fannie Mae and pockets $25M for about three years of work. Payback at worst. Incredible incompetence at best.

Next dot. As shown on other threads, Fannie Mae's largest political contribution went to Chris Dodd. Yep, same guy who teamed with Bwaney Fwank to stonewall government oversight of Fannie and Freddie. Sorry, my parisan left amigos. It's on video. Who you gonna believe, Bwaney Fwank or your lying eyes?

Next dot. Who is the second largest receipient of Fannie political contributions? Why, the junior no-time-in-grade Illinois Senator, Barrack Obama. (Try to keep up here, folks.) Why do you suppose that happened? Well, you have to go back to that "community organizer" thing in Chicago. Obama was schooled on "community organizing" by the founder of ACORN and served as a trainer for ACORN folks. ACORN, of course, is the organization that started leaning on banks to make loans to people who couldn't pay them back. They picketed, threatened, and otherwise bullied lending institutions into giving in or facing all kinds of disruptions. Then we have Clinton's Secretary of HUD, Andrew Cuomo who forced Fannie and Freddie to buy the bad paper of sub-prime borrowers so po' folk could "afford" a home they couldn't actually afford. Of course, one of ACORN's main objectives is to "organize communities" into registered voters. ACORN organizations and members are the subject of criminal investigations in 10 states for voter fraud and a number of ACORN members have already been convicted and sent to jail. More are sure to go. The Dems also tried to attach about $4M, IIRC, on to the bailout bill that would go to ACORN. What was that all about? Buying more votes maybe?

So to recap, we have dots of ACORN, OBAMA, Raines, Fannie Mae, Dodd, Obama, Bailout, and ACORN. Put some numbers on them, draw the connecting lines, and you have the outline of a crap sandwich these crooks, and Congrss (but I repeat myself again) are trying to feed to the public.

Other supporting morons.
GW. Please, no more speeches about how serious this is and how the country is circling the drain if we don't bail out Wall Street. I like you GW but I even tell my friends when the BS is too deep.

McCain. You dropped the ball on this one. With American sentiment running 100:1 against the bailout, you should have come up on the net absolutely opposed to the bailout. Instead, you really did prove that you don't know much about the economy. You missed the shot of a lifetime by not looking Obama square in the eye at the debate and demanding that he give back the $123,000 he took from Fannie Mae because that money came from hard working citizens who paid their mortgage. You could have made Obama buy a $123,000 ticket to the debate but you blew it.

Paulson. Do the right thing. Resign, go home, start the car up in the garage, and go to sleep.

DOJ. Either disband, or open up criminal investigations into the conduct of CEOs who were talking up their stock only weeks prior to their companies going under. I'm pretty sure there are laws against this. Convict and jail these greedy bastards. Maybe then, Harvard and the other MBA schools will add something to the curriculae about business ethics and the perils of screwing with the public's money.

Lindsey Graham. Remove your lips from McCain's ass, quit scaring people about their jobs, go back home and finish your career as a shyster lawyer.

Chris Cox, SEC Chairman. Go home with Paulson and sit in the passenger seat.

Parting shot. The most important reason we should not support a Government bailout is that the MBA whiz kids and the corrupt politicians who got us into this mess will learn absolutely nothing from the experience. They will go right back to the trough and work without shame or consequence because they know the Guvment will bail them out again. Just like folks who pay off their kids' credit cards, they will go out and do it again. They think they have us over a barrel. They don't. Nothing bad is going to happen to us. Banks will fail. Other will feed on them and get stronger. Companies who can't make payroll will fail. Others will feed on them and become stronger. People who thought their homes were banks will become poorer for the experience. Others, who waited and saved their money, will be living in a newer home and will get stronger.

I fly at bases in a couple of small towns. Nobody is talking gloom and doom. They just go to work every day and do their job. Oil prices are dropping, the dollar made the strongest gain against foreign money markets in 15 years, the price of gas is dropping closer to $3 a gallon, the county fair was a big hit again this year, and they are still playing football on Friday nights. It's all gonna be fine.

The best advice for anyone who is all verklempt about this is to visit the doctor for a hysterical paroxism and a couple of beers. It's all going to be ok.

Just my opinion. I could be wrong.

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