Freedom means many things to many people. One of the supposed freedoms we are born with is to exist in nature. This is not a right bestowed by Government or God, but is part of what and who we are. One of the greatest crimes against humanity is the pursuit of profits to line the pockets of the wealthy with scant regard for natural consequences.

Governments pursue economic advantage in order to be considered popular but ministers are not all powerful. Political systems that “evolve” seem more advantageous than ones which overturn established systems however when that evolution is corrupt, when it is masks the democratic interests (of the many) to bestow advantages upon the few, an aristocracy exists. Conservative politicians seek to align the efforts of the many (tax payers) to support rational goals – to reduce national debt – to benefit the actions of corporations who provide much employment to the citizens. Liberal politicians seek to balance the actions of corporations so that the population realises value for their contributions. Socialists seek to claim this wealth back.

When things go out of balance, then injustice occurs. Revolutions too often install a new system of corruption at the top that takes over the levers of power but the needs of the few being placed above the society they serve all too often take precedence over principals. Hence few revolutions result in governments that are considered “saintly” by the West. One example of a successful revolution is that of India, led by one man who sought not power, but social justice, Gandhi. One example of a corrupt revolution, that replaced one ruling class with another is Zimbabwe. The French and American revolutions were based around fundamental principles of liberty and equality even though these principals took hundreds of years to be reflected in peoples’ lives and it remains an on going project, there is still an ongoing aspiration.

The dissolution of the British Empire created the free nations of the Commonwealth and although Great Britain appears now diminished, it is an evolved Empire – one that has had its children. The deeds of the 20th century undid centuries of domination asserted by military superiority. In that way, one could view that revolution as socially progressive.

Except that international finance driven in large part by the migration of population and the need/opportunity to employ them and the economic systems of measurement have resulted in conglomeration, the growth of a world class of corporatisation commonly called “globalisation” against which there is considerable popular protest. Why?

When you consider that the profits of these huge corporatations may avoid taxation then a level of fairness is denied to the population. When you also consider that they are responsible for much of the pollution the world is starting to confront, then you begin to assess the costs above unfair taxation as criminality.

The economic troubles the world is facing are due to corporate irresponsibility. Seeking wealth for the very sake of being competitively powerful does not benefit anyone but cements a super class into an unassailable position and that is the instinct that our laws seek to moderate.

This article in theGuardian UK supports what Disturbing Trends has been saying for years: it is the cost free pollution that is seen as beneficial (provision of jobs) that distort economic systems – that provide an economic rationality to putting political systems in place that allow the rape of society (GW Bush, Margaret Thatcher, Sarah Palin) with no regard for the environment which the majority of us live in. This movement that seeks to discredit climate science is as real a threat as is the terrible expansion of human population in much of Asia and the corporate structure that both feeds it and takes advantage of it.

Humanity needs to reassess what it is doing. Polluting in the name of profit kills people. To herald it as rational is simply false.

Signs of an economic recovery are starting to appear. After recapitalising the financial system, President Obama kept the US economy liquid. This is may have averted more depressing news but as the bankers start to return funds they were lent by the tax payer the question arises, where to now for the US economy?

An economy is a little like an elastic steam engine. As it gets hotter and more pressure the boiler can inflate – and that reduces the pressure. There are little feed pipes that take excess steam away and it is also possible that you may have too many coals firing the engine – if there is coal burning, and there is not enough water to accomodate the heat generated, then less coal is required. The coal that burns that is not required is in danger of becoming unemployed. What is the point of burning coal that is not generating heat? With the extra coal burning, there is more of a tendancy for the boiler to overheat, and expand without producing more energy as the water pressure is not sufficient to supply it.

There are two economic arguments:

1) prevent inflation at all costs (conventional economics)
2) avert as much unemployment as possible, despite a bit of inflation (putting wealth into the hands of the people).

The trouble with doing 1) is that it creates a wave of unemployment.
The trouble with doing 2) is that it creates future inflation.

The economic crisis however created a new condition. It is not just the burnoffs from the Madoffs

full article

See also:
NY Times

There is a Stratfor article going around the the mainstream media covered it here in New Zealand with this article in the NZ Herald.

Disturbing Trends does not agree with a primary assumption that military dominance will maintain relevance, as the future all rather depends upon what individuals do. “Disturbing Trends” represent a few of those decisions – as they start to show their ugly signs. Predicting the future is not so much a science, as an art and if one is to be very good at it then there is a need to consider more than one side of the coin.

Military dominance only has so much value. The age of military dominance will eventually fade – like the human crime of pollution of the natural environment will be corrected by a burp by nature eventually, and in a few billion years – we really will be forgotten history as no evidence of our existence or crimes could remain unchanged.

Once military dominance is established then trade competition replaces war, so goes the conventional or political wisdom. But eventually, can “dominance” be the successful way for humanity to survive? War is no longer survival of the fittest. It is the random death of people. Anyone will do.

My prediction is that the current climate in our thinking will thaw, that we as humanity will be forced to stop thinking that we can damage our environment without destroying ourselves.

Humans are tough enough for a few to survive the worst effects of climate change and after a few million years to climb back into dominance. Distopian fiction seems to be about that hope, for example we used to fear authority (before 9/11) now we fear the disruption of authority (the mad king syndrome).

If Barack Obama were elected in ten years either side of when he was, then he would not have been expected to be a “saviour”. What does it mean? Some want to give him super powers so that he can be seen to fail even if he is merely successful. That is an old trick. Politics.

China’s rise to power is not in itself a new thing. It being able to dominate the world militarily is a Western fear. Look at this politically, here we have an authoritarian government of a successfully exporting nation, huge diversity and the same problems of poverty that other nations (USA, Russia, Eastern Europe, the UK) suffer as well.

There is definitely a set of priorities where much of the national spending (i.e. collective effort) of major economies is military potential far beyond the necessary. Not in so much in successful societies like Norway, Sweden or Switzerland where national wealth is not squandered on military display.

The US fall from its “superpower” status is fiction. It maintains military dominance. Yes, China is restricted by conventional issues like the shape of the land. It does not have military dominance except over its own people.

Something unexpected (alien invasion, plague, another flood, etc.) could disrupt things and make military dominance less of a survival tactic (for example, strong earthquakes could corrupt the US military).

For humanity to survive its own folly, it must rise above greed for the sake it self. The only way it could ever evolve is for its very existence to be threatened.

Humanity blinds itself to self created threats that evolutionarily proves to itself it can exercise power like that a God may wield.

The world of the future depends upon more individuals evolving beyond greed, acting as humanity for the cause of the common good. Our economic traps are designed to enable governments to finance conflict, the purposes of which are often remote to the humans living within the geopolitical borders being argued over.

If governments were not thus funded – if that were the product of the UN – it could only be due to a matter of more urgent concern. The trouble is that our military might is the junior cousin to the fact that we appear to be blind to the inevitable.

Over population is a strategy that has consequences that are impossible to avoid. No matter how many bloggers say “overpopulation”, no matter when the media talk about it, even if world leaders talk about it, it will not stop the human instinct and religious imperatives that have produced – the most successful of breeding instincts – look how much cleverer we are compared to just 3 thousand years ago. Or just 300 years ago. Or even three years ago.

The long term trend that we have to solve for a happy future for our great great grandchildren would mean an end to growth and competition as a way of measuring progress. Sustainability means we stop consuming natural resources.

It simply is not going to happen with our growth religion. Humanity is not going to sacrifice progress willingly until the select few have their DNA launched into space as a last wild attempt to avoid the final chapter of our story.

A dystopian future is likely to be the disruptor as we threaten the ground we walk on, their air we breath, and the food chain we rely upon.

Real civilization means living in accord with nature, not in competition with it. Real civilization means appreciating other human beings, not wreaking each others time on Earth with missiles and threats. War is not progress. It indiscriminate destruction is not natural selection.

Human nature exists. But there are two human natures – the clawing for survival – that can result in a humble nest and garden, or the murder of competitors that results in a freezer full of high protein snacks.

There are choices and there are ways that individuals think. The choice is easier to make now, than it ever will be again. There is an unusual combination of intellectually capable individuals on the world stage. More talk, less action. That is pretty good medicine.

President Obama has stated that it is time for American leadership to step up and he has picked the one time when the Right certainly have no right to complain about putting America to work solving its dependence on foreign oil economic imbalance in three years.

All it takes is the political will to spend on the economy while saving the banking system. The best and perhaps only way for a modern large economy to work is not so much trickle down as a sort of reverse trickle – or more correctly by “assimulative growth” – growth that absorbs and supports its own as well as taking on new ground. It is the point of winning a war, to be able to improve a worsening situation.

And this is an economic war of sorts, the banking system is poised like a blocked drain may cause part of a city to flood whilst leaving others dry battling against the forces. Only by expanding upward does it become obvious that our resources are limited by our number.

Only by rewarding the creativity and workmanship of his citizens to act as a force, to meet the demands of citizenship and help the wheel of wealth turn the right way again – for a time – can the Government is better not to simply dish out cash. But to use the oil to make productivity of Americans create their own wealth again by reducing the need to trade for oil. If Barack Obama has the community building skills to achieve this, then the Republicans should support it or lose any credibility they think they have.

It is the best news for the World at large, for years.

See also: Al Gore’s Blog

“Sustainable Development” used to mean the kind of financial growth that Bernie Madoff practiced. In a childs game of impressing people with graphs of his snake oil financial empire he gloated in his now repossessed houses and yachts about his ability to make capitalism work for him personally in very special ways.

Sustainable development eventually became, in the 1970s a mantra for civilizing the world. A hundred years ago this civilizing allowed the demise of colonialism. The fruits of which resulted in an extended upper class that ruled things from the ‘ouse of Lords or perhaps it was the cricket umpires, after all.

The inanity of passing along with wealth political power into dynastic arrangements have historically proven to be one way of doing things. We took thousands of years to realize that instead of being ruled by an inbred clan of monarchs we could choose our finest and give them seats in a decision making body that matched our courts in finding the truth, fairly and for all. Celebrating the monarchy is one way of providing civilian purpose in a God-less world.

The Taleban have their inane rules to govern human desire but in doing this they make important the unimportant. The trails of hair that grow from a man’s chin are not going to feed families or erect great monuments that inspire. The Taleban will always appear stupid to the rest of the world for demolishing history. Their cultural rules and habits are not really our business, and in the same breath, they must allow for the presence of other cultural springs in their community, or be damned. Mainly by logic.

In the same way, the communique to rescue the world from financial crisis through the World Bank and IMF aims to prevent years of decline by watering down the entire system, but there is a danger the old traditions will start to occur in a new “environment”. With regulation, the worst atrocities can be avoided.

It will work. Sort of. George Monbiot writes in the Guardian that it ignores the environment. He does have a point as the ice caps inexorably melt. It is like we are more concerned about saving the silverware than preventing the boat from sinking. At least we are worried about the silverware, but do not seem to mind that we through our babies into the surging seas to do so.

The alternative, letting the bankruptcies change our world into a right wing desert of survival of the very fittest or a generational decline, just seems like torture. Why go through the massive degree of pain, when it can simply not occur. There is a left wing cabal at work – as China’s influence rises – the West has gone socialist. President Hu has asked what the OECD is, although China is about to become a member – it is China who is defending their tax havens while the Western governments are hell bent on shutting them down.

Liberty and Equality for all to be greedy – is what Monbiot is afraid will come of all this. He is partially right. But the long term is the only way to measure the effects of Globalisation. Incorporation of Green transformational goals into global change and development is the way forward.

Globalisation is seem as a terrible thing by the protesters at the G20. They see it as exploitation. Unfairness. Their tune can now be “environmental” but is it actually just anti-progress. Anti-wealth?

It does not really matter what extremes of political opinion are provided that humanity takes stock of itself and reduces our numbers in the long term (no, not by genocide or economic force), by modernization of our morale codes.

It is not acceptable to destroy the future. It is unacceptable to hide profits from common taxation. The war against tax havens and avoidance will prevent dynasties erupting from wealth hidden from this bubble – dynastic insanity such as that of Osama Bin Laden is the result of too much money in too few hands.

American Insurance Group, or AIG was bailed out by the tax payer. It is now owned by the citizens of America. Part of the reason for the bailout were Credit Default Swaps that had to be simultaneously paid out after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. There is now a question as to which companies made these bets on failure and AIG has clammed up saying this is propriety information. Smug perhaps at the use of a legal term however it as it has now been pointed out that the American taxpayers own 80% of AIG so they are the proprietors and one can see very red faces across corporate America.

The question – the aspect that does not make sense. How can this corporate heist of public money go unanswered? It is a far greater attack on the American way of life than 9/11 ever was.

The real function of terrorism seems to elicit destructive reactions by Governments. It was the American voter that was fooled by the Bush propaganda. If Americans had spent more on their own welfare rather than worship the dollar – well – maybe the voters would have been a little more informed and not voted GW Bush into office in 2004.

The left and right attack each other. But they do not see the wood for the trees.

See also
NY Times

Russia – it used to strike fear into the hearts of capitalists. Now it is an economic pipsqueak but according to the dean at the Foreign Ministry’s school for future diplomats and a regular on Russia’s state-guided TV channels, Igor Panarin, Russia along with China will become the guardians of the new world order from the ruins of the financial meltdown.

The fire and brimstone of his predictions belong in Disturbing Trends! America will fail! It will break into six substates! Alaska will revert to Russian control! America will declare martial law this year and will collapse by 2010! Such great headlines.

Putin seems to share this view, apparently he has has likened the US to Nazi Germany’s Third Reich and blames Washington for the global financial crisis. Disturbing Trends likened the Bush administration to Nero – not the real Nero whom we really do not know all that much about – but the image of a leader fiddling as his city burned. It is a potent image even if it did or did not reflect the 5th Roman Emperor in history – but what we remember is not necessarily what happened.

Are the Igor Panarin and Vladimir Putin views symptoms of a return to government by desperation and rumour? Both are ex-KGB – and their world view seems a little hyper-patriotic if not inflammatory, certainly imaginative, and without a touch of irony. The logic may go that Sarah Palin’s house can be seen from Siberia too, and she is far too attractive to not be from Russian stock – her house must therefore be a house of Russia. You can hear it in thick KGB accents, followed by long drawn down breathy sighs.

Meantime the Chinese Government is saving the economic world – I believe not so much because American financiers deserve to be dug out of the ditch they dug, but that humanity senses a gap between the discord – a place where American, Chinese and Russian governments see eye to eye – human rights and dignity are more important things to defend than “freedom” when that really means sending children to fight in wars so fat man can gamble on the share market.

The evolution of a workable financial system for 6 billion people who will be 7 billion soon enough is proving a very tricky process for humanity. Russia is evidence that communism is more sensitive to corruption than capitalism ever was. (Has China’s system of authoritative capitalism based on years of totalitarian communism created a more moral form of capitalism than the Western variety?)

One can view the current economic crisis – not so much as a collapse of the American Way but a correction that came about due to overreach. The Soviet project died because corruption became a significant proportion of GDP. The “world” (actually right wing media commentary) then could see the collapse of that huge corrupt overreaching system as a “collapse due to communism” and bolster confidence that the superior capitalist system would hide their funds from tax gathering governments. Both “systems” are distortions that create market tension; you got to switch between them – with democracy, it seems.

This is a crisis because the assumed wealth – based on a belief in the financial instruments being traded – the assumed wealth was inflated effectively by unclear ownership. Derivatives are fine in a limited sense, but the trading of these worthless scraps of hope for failure – is a bit like selling the organs of corpses as medical spare parts or investing in post atomic war world futures.

Although financial regulation is a fine road for the new US Administration – it is the fantasy of the Russian view – the fantastic nature of their aspirations to a return to the illusion of world power – that reeks of the disingenuous. It reminds me of Bush and his revelations about the nature of evil in the world. Hyperbole.

If the conflict between government and capital growth is resolved (taxes are effectively a reduction in private capital power) by making it economically efficient to pay ones domestic taxes instead of seeking financial devices to avoid fiscal responsibility – then Government of the people by the people again has meaning.

When the wealth of the top 5% is protected from tax by financial wizardry, it is evidence of a bubble and it will burst.

Simplistically, the bubble is not real wealth. In the same way that bluster is not real power.

PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION

The role of God has the appearance of playing a very large part in the way we develop thought. That some will already find the bile of objection to definition of a deity rise, is in part the conditioning of faith upon the critical ability.

We divine wisdom we define as inherent knowhow that accumulates over time and exists as a diamond crown above the heads of those who have lived.

Faith appears to accumulate as indicated wisdom. It would be folly to say that such wisdom is not ‘worldly’ but indeed, it is focused on the non physical – a representation of love that only exists within that faith, that part of the person we call the “soul” that only seems receptive to or active in prayer and certain kinds of music.

A Llama is expected to accumulate wisdom through meditation – through nothingness. From nothing the only harvest is one that exists in the universe of thought. Modern media distractions shake the ability to accumulate wisdom by distracting and disconnecting the involvement.

Learning without experience provides no wisdom. “Oneness” is required for wisdom accumulation, that being a part of something requires that one submits to the will of another is an act of grace. Done with dignity, we call it “work” and devise instruments to transfer “value” so we can stay convinced that we are doing the right thing.

A financial crisis may be the result of too much faith – that type of “wisdom” that exists in the eyes of the desperate, the addicted gamblers who believe their future is tied to luck and that is a function usually of what they are saying to themselves as they cast the die. They even mutter little prayers to God, sometimes – even if they are agnostic or atheist.

Are the blindly relying upon a sense of faith to carry on risking their livelihood to make that point? Gambling, addiction and faith only belong together in the most cynical of sentences. But the wide eyed acceptance of the rules of the house and fickle chance dictate the relationship of this individual to any asset they may possess. In other words, it is their irrationality that is providing “wisdom” based on randomness, externally it can be seen as folly but inside the problem and the gambler is more than intent on their own self destruction. Active belief – a perverse sort of faith – lets them go on hoping.

FINANCIAL CRISIS

The financial crisis is a crisis of a too much faith for too long without recognising the distraction from action – that has resulted in the evaporation of wealth, seemingly from all. When wealth is calculated by bankers who put their hands out for economic relief we start asking ourselves what is the point of all this economics.

We have accumulated all this “wisdom” to no effect. Knowledge is thrown back and forth as economists and governments disagree on the solution to the problem.

We are driven by conflict and achievement. We are not driven by a race to relax. The enjoyment of reward is a major factor in motivating people in business. It (money) is seen as confidence – the strange sister of faith, they seem to be the same but in fact they are opposed. When money value is negotiated no wisdom is passed with that change of value. Confidence comes about when faith is not broken. Like a run of doubles. As the confidence rises, the faith actually declines. The winning streak is bound up in confidence, the losing streak is all about faith.

It is not so much an economic crisis but a crisis of confidence in the frightening mathematics. Financial instruments and currency are a form of instant contract – they assume faith – but the gambler, the criminal, the banker – they lose the concept of money as value as they are no longer participating in the “being a part of responsible humanity” model. They are instead being a part of the mechanisms of belief transfer between disparate entities. They broker distance and difference with a purely conceptual and fluid exchange of value – with no other manifestation resulting – except the accumulative assumed difference created by displaced value.

FAITH IN HOPE

The Obama philosophy is to restore the effect of economics to action away from the belief of the gambler and back to a confidence in a job well done.

It is to bring back to the concious mind (of the world) the ability to act without greed. To act from a better place – for the family – for the spirit of community and for each other. Interaction requires that the wealthy spend money and pay the not yet wealthy for their valuable contributions.

The actions of those who wish to prop up the world on faith without action, the gamblers and speculators who want to dissolve their relation with others by inflating cost without adding value are incrementally taking from everyone.

Real contributions to the world do not have to be tangible. They do have to be valuable. The world economic state gives us reason to act in ways we could not when constrained by greed.

It is not just a better world. It is a world where confidence can again have the effect of building experience.

President Obama’s effort to raise funds to inject into the system will have a number of effects. One of them is not “problem solved”. Pretending that providing more capital to the people will somehow reactivate the flattened markets may have been generated by media expectations but it simply is not real.

It is aimed at saving a number of American families from going to the wall while the bankers sort out the stale paperwork. It also addresses the generalized shortage that prevents the middle class from spending, but the over charging by credit card companies combined with hyper aggressive status marketing has led the average consumer into a very expensive position. There is simply no escape from New Zealand’s (Australian owned) banks charging of rates up about 22% or even 23% in today’s market it is nothing short of criminal.

Pressure by the Governments to bring down the interest margin to a more reasonable level is supported by numerous lower rate debt transfer programs. But the banks want to keep their outrageously distorting rates due to the increased risk they face on the debt.

This is outlandish. Maybe the banks should market a program of credit card debt reduction instead of increasing limits to encourage more spending.

The dual effect of cheap Chinese productivity and excessive consumption in those countries now facing a devaluation of their currency means that those countries will suffer. That both are major trading partners in much of the “Western” world means the disease can spread.

Apparent complacency on the part of the new National New Zealand Government was raised to new heights as John Key seems to continue to find photo opportunities at the edge of any dark cloud. To the extend of lending his name, and image, to a campaign to sell his blue cast when it’s fixed the Prime Minister’s broken arm. Broken by clumsy misstep on a New Year stage exit. An accident.

Having suffered similar injuries all I can say is that it seems to me that John Key is trying to project a positive image as he feels he must and so far his entire political life has been preparing for what he now has, but his bloody arm! What a tragedy for the early days of his office. It is great to set an example as a very wealthy man but, no matter how you look at it, there is something quite odd about the Prime Minister’s medical cast being up for auction in the first place. Especially it being what puts him in the news. Call it connected, the MeSpace generation self declaration as affirmation of being? He must be finding the UFO like blue cast a bit distracting when he looks in the mirror each moring to affirm for himself “You are the Prime Minister. You are. It is not a dream. (That other thing, now, that was a dream!)”

What is our new leader doing “Right NOW” ? Maybe it is not in the public interest to publish his coordinates or even detail every action. But openness from the White House means sanity and representing actions for what they are rather than painting the pretty picture that your dumb manager insisted upon.

But it is in our interests that articulation of hope translates into actions that keep people in their jobs and bettering the world. The empowering of the average person is not going to do much more than increase their chances of pulling through intact. Luck changes. We are paying for all our assumptions about greed driven economics.

Karma may be a better model. Anything is better than what these Monetarists have dealt – by distorting the markets into false confidences based on distortions of the truth has violated the trust of investors.

How do you restore confidence? By open regulation and the frankness we are coming to recognise as the style of this president who does not pause.

It is an extraordinary start to what looks like extraordinary times. They have to be or we are all going to be licking food stamps.

Make the blown out derivatives and securities irrelevant. Cancel the illogical contracts with law. The USA has not been able to reconcile with itself due to years of leadership that has quite literally put faith ahead of logic. Even voting Barack Obama was clearly an act backed by faith ahead of the competition.

To have faith, you must be able to believe in the person. The competition for the White House was not exactly credible, and more-so in retrospect. The only viable candidates for President did not include Republicans. It is now almost ridiculous to contemplate the alternative. The USA is in serious danger. The bailout is merely treating the symptom and it is not what will solve the crisis. It is a breathing space and what we do with it collectively will extend or shorten the continuance of this crisis.

It is a crisis made by the cumulative effect of doing the wrong thing with finance so badly and for so long nobody noticed. It was not just that the Iraq war was fought over false rationale, but that it cost hundreds of billions of dollars year after year. The vacuum accumulates and requires more and more each year to keep up momentum.

The only path out of debt requires that you stop borrowing and start paying. President Obama’s call is not just for funds to keep American lives intact; rents and mortgages being paid so that liquidity does not suddenly just vanish.

The next step is that we must embrace the breathing space – and advance our own economic progress. How many of us reluctantly go to work out of need instead of the old pioneering spirit and a need to make one’s mark? The old fashioned values of extraordinary acts by ordinary people being valued must return. The selfish indulgent culture of “me” epitomized by the recent Time person of the year (“You”) and the rise of the alter of the self indulgent amateur (the Web 2.0 “revolution”).

We need to stop playing with these toys we invented and incorporate and scale them into our lives to become more productive. We need to learn to do more than merely being terribly well accepted or merely cute.

I am not knocking Web 2.0 culture. I am saying it is time to recognize that our nascent electronic culture can advance itself at a faster pace than before. We can take advantage of this breathing space with vastly improved networks. The baby stars of the internet today are like the stars of early film. The potential of the medium is to free us from the bonds of slavery to the great vacuum. The potential to organise humanity more efficiently so that the extraordinary contributions of individuals become valued productive contributions.

The new growth is progress and quality. Not so much work more or harder but to make your actions count. The inverse of war. Collective constructive effort and planning; the gearing of communities; the peaceful resolution of conflict; the preservation of intellectual capital and the promulgation of knowledge – has established a new valuable to society. A new evolution.

It took Bush 8 years to fail to do this. It would have saved an awful lot of public purse squeezing, but then again that was the Bush objective. To bring about financial Armageddon.

Conversely, it has taken President Obama about 48 hours to start moving on regulations that Bush has ignored since September due to his “faith in the market”. The market has behaved pretty much as you would expect with the policies Bush championed.

I predict that if Obama can get his Democrat house to agree to this – that the recession start to be over and may just take one year instead of ten.