Blatant conflicts of interest.
Category: Politics, Religion & Money
A Fiscalculation
There’s no need to be as pessimistic as C3PO. What do these five partisan political hacks know, anyway?
Five Former Treasury Secretaries: Our Democracy Is Under Siege
They lack training and experience to handle private, personal data — like Social Security numbers and bank account information. Their power subjects America’s payments system and the highly sensitive data within it to the risk of exposure, potentially to our adversaries. And our critical infrastructure is at risk of failure if the code that underwrites it is not handled with due care.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/opinion/treasure-secretaries-doge-musk.html
The fact is, I have a problem with Rubin, Summers, and Geithner. In 1999, with Ayn Rand disciple Alan Greenspan taking the lead, they got Bill Clinton to go along with the disastrous idea that the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 was no longer needed. Nine years later, America’s barely regulated financial markets would have self-destructed Capitalism if not for a government-sponsored dose of Keynesian Economics. It was Geithner who lobbied Obama to not punish the Wall Street bankers who created the mortgage-backed securities mess. Anger over Wall Street’s excesses is where I saw overlap between the liberal Occupy Wall Street crowd and the conservative Tea Party that morphed into the MAGA movement after Trump took advantage of the Tea Party’s refusal to accept a Black president. So now, with Trump’s approval and encouragement, the world’s richest man is calling the shots.
Bill Clinton left office with a budget surplus greater than $200 billion. That could have been the seed money to start a sovereign wealth fund like the one Trump is suggesting. Instead, George W. Bush blew it on a windfall refund to taxpayers. The way things are, with the Treasury spending far more money than it takes in, the only way to start a sovereign wealth fund would be to use some of the country’s assets as loan collateral. That money would be outside of the national debt, so if the government were to default on a loan, the lender would take, let’s say, the Grand Canyon in payment.
Who Watches the Watchmen?
I meant to post this a few days ago when it was a fresh podcast, but it’s still relevant.
Where’s Project 2029?
Highlights from Project 2025, presented in words and pictures. At the moment the site seems to be, like the Republican view of billionaires, overtaxed.
That Musky Stench
This isn’t just a crime, it’s a coup. Next? Social Security. The first benefits to be cut will be for people on disability.
Musk’s DOGE granted access to US Medicare and Medicaid systems
Musk’s DOGE operatives who are freely roaming around the Treasury’s payment system aren’t experienced, responsible professionals. They’re children.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/doge-musketeers-secret-team-elon-221351736.html
The Inevitable Outcome
With Republicans in full control of the federal government, the big banks will be free to do whatever they want. This will greatly increase the likelihood of another financial crisis.