The financial crisis serves as a testimony to the failure of the market to adequately correct itself. Over the past few decades the movement to deregulate and set free big business has proven to have flawed models and elusive benefits beyond the elite owners, managers and stakeholders. The promise of more choice and lower prices has not been fulfilled. And what's clear is that it is still not an effective policy to have foxes watch over hen houses.

The inability to see how what benefits shreholders may adversely affect customers and the market is illustrated by comments from leading executives like John S. Reed who appologized for co-engineering and presiding over the creation of Citigroup in 1988. In a rare interview Mr. Reed exclaimed when asked about why he previously supported positions and policies he now derides, “When you’re running a company, you do what you think is right for the stockholders. Right now I’m looking at this as a citizen.” Mr Reed also said it was wrong for lawmakers to repeal the Glass- Steagall Act in 1999 which prohibited banks that provided customer services (accounts and loans) from being part of banks that dealt with securities (stocks, bonds, derivatives, etc.).

Another major issue at cause is the complicity between government and business. The Fed failed to do its job of oversight and regulating the industry. And to further cloud the already bleak landscape, the guy who presided over the mistakes was just reappointed and named "Man-Of-The-Year" by Time magazine. Read more »

The US Senate passed a health care reform bill (HR 3590) in a rare Christmas Eve session by a party line vote of 60 to 39. The $871 billion Senate bill must now be reconciled with the House bill when Congress returns to work in January. This Senate bill marks a monumental moment in history, a moment when private interests, working in concert with so-called public government, openly plunder American citizens tax funds while also passing a law that forces citizens to buy private insurance. Dictatorships across the globe must envious. And it was all done by creating divisive public debate and stoking visceral and sometimes violent protest to successfully deflect attention from facts and the real issues, while creating a sense of 'rightness' in expressing either support or dissent.

I predict this will go down as one of the greatest mass communications schemes of all time, and combined with the selling of public support for anything private that fails, it paves the way for a new era that will be marked by bankrupt and ineffective public government, higher prices, fewer and fewer choices and the effective disenfranchisement of millions who once claimed to be among America's 'middle-class' (not to mention the poor who have been and will continue to be screwed).

Let's get right to it. Here are highlights of health care reform as passed by the Senate in plain language. Read more »

The big, multi-national, too big to fail banks like Goldman Sachs have co-opted democracy on a global level. And they are now in charge of a new very elite and lucrative power class that rules our country.

You remember the dot-com bubble, and how can you forget the recent housing/credit bubble. Well if you ever wondered what's driving record high gas prices that fuel huge profits while draining your pockets, check out Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi's report on the "Great American Bubble Machine." Here is a lucid and layman account of the scam being run on our free markets that pays profits while everything collapses, then pays the culprits too fix the mess they made. And all the money being used is ours.

It's really important that you get a grip and learn about these happenings so you can see how really bad it is. You need to know that you simply cannot trust what you see or hear on any radio, TV or Internet media source (including this one) just because they publish it or say so. There is only one way to get at the facts today -- get your information from at least four different sources and break things down into simple terms. Your God given common sense and life experience has taught you that things make sense. So when you are told they are so complicated you have to leave it to the "experts" to figure out, you know somethings up. Now there are aspects to running a large society that are complicated, but basic rules of transparency apply. Read more »

Back in February I wrote a piece titled "Insane" in which I pointed out what I believed then to be a critical flaw in President Obama's cabinet selections that represented a serious obstacle to achieving the "change" he promised. I write now to confirm unequivocally that President Obama's moves were in fact insane and they have effectively removed all substantive reform from the key policy initiatives of his young administration.

On foreign policy Obama has expoused rhetoric that won him a Nobel Peace Prize and established a new spoken platform for US foreign relations. But in substance this president escalated the war in Afghanistan -- which some consider to be an immoral" war, maintained the core tenants of the vague and questionable "War On Terror", and even extended US military aid to Israel for 10 years into the future -- an unprecedented event. Obama has functionally endorsed Israeli settlement expansion, removed references to expansion from administration talking points, and even repealed a small penalty for these controversial expansions that Bush 1 enacted (read the Noam Chomsky interview or watch this video).

On the economy the administration, working closely with Wall Street, has used taxpayer money to not only cover the losses from, but also to fund new investments in similarly risky and unregulated securities practices, while effectively removing or rendering ineffective all oversight and regulatory reform proposals that would have any hopes of curtailing the reckless and excessive greed that led to the financial collapse. Matt Taibbi, in Rolling Stone magazine, argues that President Obama's economic team is packed with Wall Street insiders intent on turning the bailout into an all-out taxpayer funded giveaway (see the video).

And on health care, after a loud vocal push for reform, the administration and Obama himself have approved a plan that substantively accomplishes two important things for insurers and health care providers: 1) it forces millions of uninsured Americans to buy their coverage -- effectively using our government and rule of law to create new customers for private businesses; and 2) it does this without a public run competitor or strong oversight authority to ensure quality coverage and affordable rates. The Urban Institute report states

Tomorrow night you go before the American people and the world to tell them of your decision to send more troops into Afghanistan, it is reported. The great thing about the future is we can shape it by our choices and actions. I hope this report proves to be innacurate.

There is much written about this decision on both sides. But none of that matters. The only thing that matters is what you think and do. The buck does stop with you. Not only will you be judged by your actions, but you will also signal the course of our nation, and confirm or deny the hopes of every American who supported and supports you. Let me be clear what the public thinks is totally unimportant. We will shift our opinions many times depending on how we favor the winds. But you promised to deliver three things we all want: 1) Change in our politics; 2) Change in how our government serves its citizens; and 3) Change in our position on the world stage. Read more »