February 6, 1995 A populist revolt over the bail out of Wall Street speculators after the devaluation of the Mexican peso forced Bill Clinton to use his executive powers to rescue the Wall Street Welfare State. Three weeks ago, the bailout appeared to be a done deal with the leadership of both parties predicting swift passage. When a coalition of anti-NAFTA Democrats and first term Republicans refused to acquiesce, heavy hitters from America’s ruling class – The New York Times, the Federal Reserve Board, and past Presidents – bludgeoned the American people with apocalyptic warnings. The public didn’t buy it, with polls showing over 80 percent opposed to the plan. When Mexico devalued the peso six weeks ago, Wall Street bondholders saw their investments tank 40 percent in one week. This accelerated the flight of foreign capital from Mexico’s central bank and Mexico had no chance of repaying the $16 billion in junk bonds that were are due this year to the Big Boys on Wall Street. Thus, just like the Savings and Loan bailout five years ago, our financial elite demanded that the hard working middle class taxpayer come to their rescue before they fell behind on … [Read more...]
We need a Universal Safety Net for All Americans
The rollout of the Affordable Care Act is one of the most dismal policy failures ever to take place at the federal level. The ACA has resulted in the cancellation of millions of existing policies and rapidly rising health insurance costs. The mostly inoperable website has become a symbol of an overly complex, unworkable law. The Congressional Budget Office now estimates that 31 million Americans will be left uninsured when the ACA is fully in place. By definition it will have failed in its primary mission. The President’s plan does recognize, however, that there is a health care problem. The United States is the only industrialized democracy that allows its citizens to go bankrupt from health care bills. Millions of Americans are without health insurance (those that would like to see the true figures for the uninsured, which are substantially lower than the “official” figure should see Beyond Those Healthcare Numbers, by Gregory Mankiw, New York Times, November 4, 2007). Many millions more fear that a job loss or sudden illness will result in bankruptcy. If the Republican Party plans to recapture the middle class and working poor, this problem must be addressed. The … [Read more...]
The Real Cause of the Flood of Illegal Immigrants – Jim Himes and his cronies at Goldman Sachs
Jim Himes and the Democrats are often displaying their compassion for the illegal Mexican and Central American immigrants that have entered our country over the past decades. Yet, no one ever asks why these people – the vast majority who are decent and hard-working – came to the United States. The answer is simple. Jim Himes’ former employee Goldman Sachs, in their infinite greed, destroyed the Mexican economy in the 1990’s. Mexican politicians, like all politicians worldwide, have discovered that the best way to win elections is to promise services without raising taxes. To fund the resulting deficits, they issue bonds which are purchased by individual investors and institutions such as banks, brokerage firms, corporations and insurance companies. Purchasing bonds from a foreign country such as Mexico carries a certain risk, because the interest and principle payments are made in the country’s currency. If the country devalues the currency, the investors get taken to the cleaners. This is what happened in December of 1994. Mexican government officials had suckered Wall Street into buying bonds that paid inordinately high interest rates while promising not to … [Read more...]
