Well, Congress now has nationalized much of our financial markets. The bailout (with the Senate’s 300+ pages of additions to the original House bill) was passed 263-171.
Source link: http://archive.mises.org/8690/a-day-that-should-live-in-infamy/
A Day That Should “Live in Infamy”
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Strange, the same word (Live in Infamy) went through my mind the last few days
greetings from Germany
Marcus
I chose that phrase on purpose, in “honor” of FDR, whose actions in early 1933 to close the banks and take the nation off the gold standard may be the only action comparable to this. Of course, he used the phrase in reference to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
I called my Representative last night and spoke to a person (we’ll call him Mike) with whom I have been getting really familiar with in the last couple of months. I asked him if my Representative was going to vote for the bill and he stated, “yes, he will.†Mike and I discussed all of the ramifications of this bill, including a few of the more Austrian predictive ones. Mike agreed with me. I also asked him about the volume and mood of the phone calls he had been receiving. Mike said that the volume had actually increased from the first time the House voted and they were still overwhelmingly against the bailout. I was dismayed and asked Mike if our Representative is still going to vote “yeaâ€? Mike confirmed that our leader in Washington was going against the wishes of his constituents and was going to vote “yeaâ€.
Our political system no longer works and probably hasn’t in quite a while. In the last few months, my ideals and faith in this country have been shaken. I am now trying to move past the grieving process and come to some level of acceptance and action.
There goes your money… and maybe the currency too.
The market tanked of course. But the press spins this as “buy the rumor, sell the news”
Amazing. The only consistency is love of the total state.
The politicians kept saying that everyone was going to feel the pain if the legislation for the bailout wasn’t passed. Personally, I found it interesting that the market gains for the day immediately began to go south after congress voted for the bill.
:-\
Ugh. This is sickening. Anyone care to guess how long it is before even the vermin in the White House, the Fed, the Treasury and Congress realize their “rescue” failed?
I now feel this profound sense of despair and helplessness. I’m watching a disaster unfold in front of me that I’m powerless to stop. All I can do now is hope I’m wrong and things won’t be so bad.
Today the Dutch government nationalized two of our largest banks, Fortis and ABN/Amro. Truly a day that should live in infamy.
By Zeus, what can we do?
Well, hopefully now my meager stock of silver will shoot to the moon in value. It needed to die anyway, folks. Let us not be saddened that they hasten its demise. Think of it as a mercy killing.
If the U.S. Federal legislature, and the executive branch, expect its citizens to become loyal to them (instead of the other way around)…they’re in for a rude awakening. I say, no inflation without representation!!!
Better yet, no inflation PERIOD. Ugh.
Hey Kirk Olson, congratulations with the Fortis thingy. We Dutchmen should be proud! lol
I’m catching up a lot of reading and listening (the recent analyses in the media section are gold!) the last few days and I’m almost getting the idea for real that we’re being taking over. Not that we’ve already been for the last…. well forever. But seriously, I’ve been here since the 80′s and have never experienced these kind of events, not even when reading the history section over here. It doesn’t have to be an organized takeover, like a conspiracy or something. But is all this economic illiteracy or Keynesian power economics, and if the latter, to what goal? And if none, am I getting schizophrenic?
Our representative form of government has been gone for a quite some time. On the surface it appears to be representative, but in Washington behind closed doors a different agenda is pushed and the interests and welfare OF THE PEOPLE is not part of this New World agenda. Nexus, I feel the same way – powerless and helpless as our leaders sold us out for close to a trillion dollars. Actually you got to hand it Paulson and the Bush administration for creating such an urgency. It was this artificial sense of urgency that did not give members of the Senate or the House adequate time to look at alternative market-based solutions. When you put an urgency on legislation of this magnitude, there is usually a hidden agenda that necessitates the urgency because once the truth comes out, the people will be even more outraged and inclined to take action to stop it. That is why there was such a push to pass this bill quickly. This bailout legislation was nothing less than fiscal irresponsibility and a lack of accountability to the people. Who are these leaders representing? Whose interests are they looking out for? It certainly isn’t the average American on Main Street. We are to blame since we do not hold these leaders accountable and just keep voting them back into office. Let’s face it there are some members of both chambers that have been in Washington for 30 years. I think I have rambled enough. I am greatly saddened by the events of this week.
Ron Paul, as usual, spoke truth to power and told his “colleagues” that they were “leading” us to perdition.
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=1084#.
To which I can only add: hyperinflation and repudiation.
… and when the rescue fails, they will say, “It wasn’t big enough. It wasn’t done soon enough”, etc. gua-rone-teed.
This is the problem of data vs. theory — principled action vs. utilitarianism. Hans Hoppe has a great lecture on this here:
http://mises.org/mp3/HofL-2001/Hist20.mp3
As ARM’s continue to reset and fail how long until we see Bailout II? The next one will not receive nearly as much attention, as there was too much interest and opposition to this one. Whether it be states’ and municipalities’ ‘lost’ tax revenue or failed institutions, there will be more bailouts.
With main stream media geared up to hail the bailout ‘as a way to free up the market’ our challenge is very great. These lies used to disguise the intervention of the unConstitutional coup need to be countered by accessibility to the free market economics of classical liberalism.
Without doubt the Ludwig von Mises Institute and the Campaign For Liberty will continue to educate, and motivate more and more to educate others. Ron Paul, as a great statesman, will sound the clarion call of true economics and Peter Schiff will win over to non-interventionism rational people who have their savings in jeopardy because of the counterfeiting operation of the Federal Reserve in conjunction with the U.S. Treasury.
Time is short and the ignorance caused by the propaganda of the the unConstitutional coup is great and the indoctrination of at least seven generations weighs heavily on the American intellect because of socialized education. Can we raise awareness fast enough to counteract the next wave of anti-capitalistic rhetoric of the pawns of the unConstitutional coup?
If the voters oust enough of the special-interests-bound politicians and at least some of the newly elected representatives are bound by principle to uphold and defend the Constitution then that inward pressure combined with Ron Paul, Peter Schiff, the Mises Institute, internet access to sound economic education and unadulterated ‘news’ will make the next round of propaganda by the unConstitutional coup stick out like a sore thumb!
I can’t help but think that is all part of some bigger plan, like a New World Order. I know, that sounds too much like conspiracy theory, but why would our Senate and Congressmen do this when they must know it is only going to dig us deeper into a hole?
We need to maintain optimism and work towards better days. We can no longer be a nation of couch potatoes and arm-chair QB’s. Besides, when your money isn’t worth anything, where else are you going to go? We need to get America back to where it was using the sound economic principles that can be found on this very website.
For me it is time to start studying and get started on helping the campaign for liberty.
Shows you why so called “democracy” is a failed system so much for “representatives”…
To say the least, Bush probably didn’t care at this point. For one thing, he will be out of the office and the effect of the bailout will take several months to reveal itself. It makes me laugh how Nancy Pelosi and some other politicians quickly spat on the defeated bill (the one on Monday) after they supported it on Sunday (Unless I got it wrong). But we knew this was going to happen. It is just that they didn’t like the fine print…or they actually think they know better than the rest of the population.
Caveman (intellectually-speaking) -
“ Ugh. This is sickening. Anyone care to guess how long it is before even the vermin in the White House, the Fed, the Treasury and Congress realize their “rescue” failed?”
I don’t expect them to ever realize this. It will later be that they will believe they need to do it again but much larger.
Todd –
“ …
Our political system no longer works and probably hasn’t in quite a while. In the last few months, my ideals and faith in this country have been shaken. I am now trying to move past the grieving process and come to some level of acceptance and action. “
I have had an attitude of acceptance about this whole thing all along. Don’t stress yourself out over things you cannot change.
Hopefully many more people have lost faith in the national government, and when the currency quickly devalues, maybe many more people will lose faith in the government, and maybe it will be an end of the USSA. We can all secede from the District of Criminals then. Maybe this is wishful thinking. It can’t end fast enough for me.
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