It's stupid to blame ACORN: Bush, Bernanke and Paulson are Making All the Wrong Moves

It’s obvious by now that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and U.S. Teasury Secretary Henry Paulson have made all the wrong moves. Lot’s of people (including yours truly, see http://john-hively.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_archive.html) said it wouldn’t help the economy when Paulson asked congress to approve that $700 billion dollar Wall Street bailout three weeks ago.

Paulson, Bush and Bernanke can throw $10 trillion at the financial markets and that’s just good money following bad because the liquidity of the credit markets isn’t the problem with the economy. These guys are idiots who think we might be heading into a recession if this credit liquidity problem persists. Apparently, they haven't seen the obvious, and maybe that's why they keep making all those stupid moves.

These boys don't know we’ve been in a recession since at least November of last year. Second of all, the problem we have today is that so much wealth and income have been taken from the poor and the middle class through legislation and the financial markets that the demand for goods and services has become slack. Most of this legislation, such as free trade agreements, provide incentives for corporations to ship middle class jobs to low wage countries, hurting the demand sector. That's where Paulson and Bernanke are making their mistakes.

Strenthen the demand sector. Throw trillions of dollars at the people who are going to buy things instead of giving it to the banking fat cats who got us into this situation. Also enact legislation that will push wages up and dividends down. Withdrawing from Nafta and all other free trade agreements would seem to be a good beginning.

A massive increase of demand will certainly open up the credit markets because it would be profitable. Under current economic conditions, it's apparently not such a good idea for banks to let credit flow freely.

It's a pretty simple concept, but Republicans can't figure it out, and neither apparently can most Democrats. There are some exceptions, such as US Congressman Peter DeFazio.

Republicans are not likely to do the right thing because they have demanded income transfer programs for forty years and they’ve gotten what they desired: a massive transfer of income and wealth to President Bush’s self-proclaimed base of “the have and the have mores." That’s who the Republicans (and many Democrats) serve.

Of course, we can’t fail to mention the Republican push deregulation of financial and real estate markets. Does the name Republican Senator Phil (the whiner) Gramm ring a bell?

Let there be no mistake; this economic disaster is the creation of the Republican party and its failed ideologies. That's precisely why Bush, Bernanke and Paulson's policies are totally ineffective.

But this complete failure has those three and other Republicans foolishly looking at other excuses.

This morning Bill O’Reilly hosted a Republican intellectual crackhead on his radio show who insisted this financial calamity should be laid at the feet of a small community organizing group called ACORN. Oh, by the way, Barack Obama has distant and tenuous ties to that group. Therefore, it's all the fault of Obama and ACORN. Apparently, Bill is dumb enough to believe some of these moronic Republican claims that ACORN and Obama caused this multi-trillion dollar fiasco. No other placement of blame could be more stupid.

In the meantime, Bush, Bernanke and Paulson will continue to throw good money after bad in useless efforts to save Wall Street and the financial system from itself, as well as recue it from that darn poverty stricken ACORN group and its master, Barack Obama. How totally stupid!

That means we’re going to need a Democratic president and congress to rectify this situation in January.