TALF – The Great Obama Scam
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Sorry about all of the recent economic posts, folks, but the more the current financial crisis unfolds, the more preposterous it gets! Frankly, I can't believe what I'm seeing, and I use this forum to vent a little, and, hopefully, to enlighten my readers and inspire them to take positive action. 😉
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Well, it looks like the current administration is a carbon copy of the old one. First it was TARP, a scam bailout of big banks and insurance companies like AIG. Then, the “stimulus” bill. Now comes TALF, the grand Geithner plan to buy up toxic assets and relieve the banks of the burden of worthless derivative assets (“structured products”) that they themselves created.
You’ll recall that in February, soon after Obama was sworn in, the House and Senate passed a “stimulus” bill. This bill, which no one in Congress bothered to read (of course) is supposed to “stimulate” the economy by creating around $800 billion more fiat money. But of course, money is not really money, is it? It’s debt.
Take out a bill of any denomination and read the top. It says “Federal Reserve Note.” A note is a promise to pay, a debt. The FRN is simply an IOU. All money in our economy is actually debt. If you don’t believe me, go to You Tube and watch a movie called “Money As Debt.”
Fiat money, or money by decree, can be created by the Fed because it is backed by nothing of value, and is itself intrinsically worthless. In fact, our currency, the dollar, is just another scam. If you look on any bill you will see the inscription “This note is legal tender for all debts public and private.” Legal tender laws force you to accept worthless Federal Reserve Notes in exchange for valuable goods and services. When the printing of money can be accomplished with no restraint, you get a destruction and a devaluation of the currency. And that is precisely what has happened, in case you just arrived from the planet Remulak and haven’t a clue.
Now, back to the stimulus bill. Recall that President Obama promised the most open, transparent administration in history. He pledged to not sign bills that hadn't been posted online for the public to read for at least five days BEFORE the final vote was cast.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised that the final version of the stimulus bill would be posted online for at least 48 hours before the vote. Here's what happened instead:
The 1,073 page bill, with an extra 421 page Explanatory Statement, was delivered, still unfinished, at midnight Thursday Feb 12th. The House passed the bill 14 hours and 24 minutes later. The Senate did likewise 3 hours and 5 minutes after the House. This “stimulus bill” still had handwritten notes in the margins at the time it was passed. (Source, DownsizeDC.org)
So much for campaign promises, and so much for integrity. But that was just the start. Now comes TALF, or Term Asset Backed Securities Loan Facility. This nutty plan will operate, in a nutshell, like this:
“Toxic assets,” (as they have been described by the White House Press secretary) are to be bought up using more fiat money that has been created out of thin air by the Federal Reserve. In anticipation of this new debt, Congress recently increased the Statutory Debt Ceiling from $9.662 trillion dollars to over $12.1 trillion. The Obama administration plans to print 2.3 trillion dollars of new money between March and Sep 30, 2009 (the end of the government’s fiscal year.) This money will go to “investors” who will buy up the “toxic” assets at their nominal value. Of course their real (market) value is unknown, but is certainly much, much less than their stated value. That’s why the banks are in trouble. They are carrying “assets” on their balance sheets that have no relationship to reality.
Congress, and the government, is apparently prepared to continue this charade. It’s nothing more than a game of musical chairs. A Ponzi scam. Print more bad money to bail out bad investment decisions. As long as the music doesn’t stop, the game can continue (the game of printing and creating more fiat money -- debt -- out of thin air) until hyperinflation causes a crash and the music stops.
What is the result of the crash? A readjustment back to true market value. So, you ask, why not do that in the first place before things get even worse? That’s the question you must ask your Congressional representatives and your President.
Sure, some people are going to get hurt, but those are the people who made bad choices. Don’t punish the rest of us who have been responsible and pay our debts! Governments, however, reward irresponsibility and punish honesty. Governments reward losers and punish winners. That is a recipe for failure, as we are seeing manifest right before our eyes.
What will happen, of course, is that after $800 billion of TARP and $800 billion of “stimulus” bills, and another $2.3 trillion of TALF, hyperinflation will result, as too much currency chases too few goods and services. Who gets hurt during inflationary periods? Why, the old and the poor, the very people the Democrats say they want to help. Not to mention honest, able people who have saved up their money and now see their purchasing power diminish as the Fed continues to create more and more money (debt).
The argument that new money will stimulate the economy is disingenuous at best, because everyone understands that it’s going to take a long time for that stimulus to actually result in the production of more goods and services in the private sector. The real problem is that all of this new money will eventually find its way back to the banks. It’s another disguised bailout, and it’s what the Democrats and the Republicans are hoping you don’t figure out.
The people in Congress should understand this, but they apparently do not. If your congressman or Senator votes(d) for these bills, they should be recalled.
(Guess what, people? The arguments you see on TV are all for show. Democrats and Republicans are actually quite friendly. They see each other outside the Capitol Building, have dinner, and socialize together. If you think there is a fundamental difference between Democrats and Republicans – despite what idiots like Bill Maher say -- I’ve got a used car I’d like to sell you.)
Back to TALF. Let me ask you something: if you lent $10,000 to your brother-in-law and you know he can’t pay it back, what do you do? Well, you write that $10,000 off your personal balance sheet. It’s just too bad, but you have to eat it.
The government’s plan, however, under TALF, is to go out and get a credit card and put $10,000 on it. Except that they are playing with trillions, not thousands!
How can you “buy back” worthless assets by creating more debt? You can’t.
But this is the insane plan of the Obama administration, the Geithner Treasury, and the Democrats. Of course, the hypocritical Republicans, who did the same thing when they had control of Congress, are now playing holier-than-thou.
What’s the point?
The point is, we can no longer trust the Republican or the Democratic parties. The Republican-Democratic debate is a false dichotomy, as I have pointed out in an earlier blog post. Until the electorate wakes up and refuses to put any more of these jokers in office, America will continue down the road to financial ruin.
What can you do?
Join Downsize DC at DownsizeDC.org (non-profit). Find out what’s going on in Washington D.C. and do something positive about it! And for God’s sake, get yourself educated on the subjects of money and finance. Start by going to You Tube and see “Money As Debt.”
There’s still time to save America, but we as citizens cannot accept “business as usual” from the Democratic and Republican parties.
P.S. I promise I’ll eventually put up parts 2 and part 3 of It’s Nitty-Gritty Time. I’ve been busier than a one-legged buttkicker the past month, working on my new project, called The Give-A-Shit-O-Meter. Coming soon to a website near you!
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