Political Whispers: A Look Into Today's World of Dark Politics

GOVERNMENT AND FEDERAL BANK CLUELESS ON RECESSION

By Schuyler Thorpe
Author and Political Activist

If we all paid attention to what top economists and Alan Greenspan is saying–we’d be still waiting for the recession which has already gripped us all.

Forget waiting till the end of next year–when Greenspan’s forecasts suggest only a 1.5 percent GDP or less for the final three months of 2008–look at what’s happening now.

Now is more important than trying to see into the future by a full year.

We are in the throes of a recession–whether the clueless Fed or the stubborn Bush administration wants to admit it or not.

10 months ago, preliminary housing data suggested a downturn which the Fed, the government, and Wall Street basically ignored–despite persistent prodding from many outsiders to stabilize the housing market through sound fiscal intervention and a strengthening of the dollar–to give homeowners and the average American consumer reassurances and breathing room.

But they didn’t.

Summer of the 2007 gave what many had hoped was a wake up call to Wall Street, but that hope was short lived; as the fear melted away and stock brokers resumed their parochial fantasies that everything was still bright and peachy-keen.

Nevermind the fact that the dollar was steadily losing value and foreign investors were jumping ship left and right.

The Fed’s response in the next three months? Drop interest rates–the single-handedly most boneheaded move that the central bank could ever make!

The subsequent drops in interest rates haven’t made any difference on the housing meltdown or the credit crunch, but it certainly has made a dramatic impact on the purchasing power of the dollar.

Basic essentials are now more costly than they were five years ago. With wages depressed and inflation reaching new all-time highs, living on what you have becomes more of a challenge for those who barely have enough as it is.

And oil and energy prices are continuing their staggering climb towards $100 a barrel, with $4 gas not too far off into the distant future.

But the government’s response to this?

Nothing to help America overall. Nope.

Just 220,000 homeowners out of the estimated 3.3 million that are affected by the housing crisis–based on a ridiculous plan that does little to assist the majority with their mortgage problems. (But what would you expect from the Bush administration? This asshole government has been nothing more of a hindrance for the average consumer than a real-life godsend these days!)

And this trend is already having a devastating impact on the average consumer’s lifestyles.

With housing numbers falling to the lowest levels in 12 years, the cost of renting an apartment has skyrocketed dramatically; forcing many people to re-evaluate their place of living.

But the high demand for affordable housing may become a thing of the past; as tent cities have sprung up in some parts of the country–mainly because people on limited or fixed income cannot find a place to live.

Even those in foreclosure status may not be safe from the specter of becoming homeless themselves.

And the Fed’s new move for the new year? More interest rate cuts. Not what this nation and economy desperately needs.

But tell that to the five banks whom (collectively) injected almost a half-trillion dollars of liquid funds into the US’s sagging banking system in an effort to shore up its loan and hedge fund operations.

Money isn’t what this nation needs to get back on its feet. It needs sound fiscal policy and responsibility. It needs the Fed to stop with its interest rate cuts and start shoring up the dollar.

Or this recession–which has gripped this nation for the betterment of the last five months or so–will only get progressively worse, and not better as government officials are so optimistic about.

Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1 at yahoo.com

Labels: Bush administration, credit crunch, Federal Reserve Bank, government, housing meltdown, recession

posted by Schuyler Thorpe @ 6:28 PM