"So why take the medicine now, even if it will contract economic output ferociously and require cutting the government nearly in half?

Simple: The longer we wait the worse it gets."


Mathematically true, but politically unaccptable to politicians who want to be re-elected.


Bush Jr. should have done the right thing and allowed a deep recession in 2001.
But It's the economy, stupid, doesn't get one re-elected. Deep recessions are not popular with voters. If you don't kick the can, we will vote you out of office. THUS THE OPPOSITION PARTY IS LIKE A SHARK SMELLING BLOOD IN THE WATER, WHEN THE ECONOMY IS WEAK.

Bush was attacked in 2002 by democrats, trying to regain congress, on a weak "jobless" recovery. Party before country. Same too, for the republicans= party before country.

Thus the can gets kicked on down the road. And kicked, and kicked, and...

I know a number of useful idiots who 1) have absolutely no idea they're idiots (because they have a college edjikashun) and 2) won't even take the time to run the numbers in Excel. Unfortunately, now that Rush has talked about it, many of these useful idiots will be even more entrenched with their opinions. They're not big into the Second, at least...

"Only 20 years back? Well, that's a start...another 10 back and he'll really be enlightened...and up to speed."

Actually, if you look at Karl's chart:

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?get_ga....

You can see it really started with "guns and butter" during the medicare/Vietnam era. Thanks LBJ.

Yep and we're really workin on the Guns and Butter these days.

genesis wrote..

The people are waking up. Oh, it's slow, but they're doing it. And the small number who are awake and really, really*****ed off are going to turn into a very large number of extremely*****ed-off Americans in short order.

I've been awake for almost 20 years now. It is interesting to see reality peeking through the cracks.

Not sure how much longer TPTB can keep up the facade.

I've recently woken up and 'gotten it' myself, but in my case 'it' is something different. And I've sensed 'it' for a long while, but the events of the past two weeks have crystalized 'it' in my mind, and I have a perfect example of 'it' that I can share. This Ticker's as good as any place to do so, seeing as how Rush has made a career out of doing what I'm about to describe.

I just got through watching Charlie Rose, and former Treasury Sec'y Robert Rubin was explaining why raising taxes and increasing domestic spending is what we HAVE to do right now to get ourselves out of this mess. Why does he believe this? Because that's what they did when he was in the Clinton administration, and despite the naysaying GOP gloom-and-doomers in Congress at the time, it worked great - we had the largest peacetime expansion in US history, phenomenal job growth, surpluses as far as the eye can see, etc.

This is a perfect illustration of what passes for serious political thought (and, as a result of hacks like Rubin, actual policy as well) in the world today. The process goes like this:

1) I have a specific agenda based on my personal ideology and/or what will benefit me and my cronies the most.
2) I scour history and find an example where actions consistent with my agenda were taken in the past and they worked.
3) Completely regardless of the differences in circumstances, I point with pride to this historical 'fact', and say "We did this then, and it turned out fine, so we must do the same thing now."
4) Conversely, if my opposition, whose agenda naturally conflicts with mine, makes a similarly-derived proposition (and they will), I scour history again and find an example where actions consistent with that agenda failed, and say, "See, we did it that way then, and it was a disaster."

That's pretty much it. No need to think critically or gather as much concrete data and information about the issue you are considering. Forget about extenuating circumstances, actual current conditions, or existing trends. Hell, even ignore physical and mathematical reality. Just pick a policy that best meets your agenda, find an example where it was perceived to have worked, and use it as rationalization for whatever it is that you want to do. The past ends always justify the current means.

This sort of argument is fine if you're sitting in your local tavern, sharing a few beers with your buddies - and that used to be primarily where you heard it. Now it is coming out of think tanks, lobbying firms, corporate boardrooms, investment banks, city halls, state legislatures, and of course Congress and the White House...almost to the exclusion of all other forms of analysis.

I think the results are beginning to speak for themselves.

Geschrei wrote..

I just got through watching Charlie Rose, and former Treasury Sec'y Robert Rubin was explaining why raising taxes and increasing domestic spending is what we HAVE to do right now to get ourselves out of this mess. Why does he believe this?

Charlie Rose gets his invite to Bohemian Grove; what's he complaining about? He's a FAVORITE of the Trilateral boys for his spin.

Anyway, it's over. They are gonna kick the can more; just did. When the market corrects, the Fed moves to protect bond holders and QE3 begins. Maybe, maybe one more brief rally, and this week will tell, but I'm pretty sure it's the top now. My opinion.

The sheeple waited too long to 'get it'. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/....

45% still support Obama. Sorry, they don't get it at all.

Quote:

just got through watching Charlie Rose, and former Treasury Sec'y Robert Rubin was explaining why raising taxes and increasing domestic spending is what we HAVE to do right now to get ourselves out of this mess. Why does he believe this? Because that's what they did when he was in the Clinton administration, and despite the naysaying GOP gloom-and-doomers in Congress at the time, it worked great - we had the largest peacetime expansion in US history, phenomenal job growth, surpluses as far as the eye can see, etc.

I disagree with they increased domestic spending. Via, baseling budgeting, spending always increases, but they held that growth of spending down. That's how the achieved balance. Revenues were growing, and growing greater than the increase in spending.

Here's a chart from FRED, showing the YoY increase in spending and revenue since 1950.

What I would like to see is *real*, inflation adjusted, spending and revenues, but to do that, I'd have to do something work here on my own with the data, and I'm too damn lazy to try it, and would have to remember a bunch of stuff I've forgotten. :)

I know it is a very populist to knock on Rush. He earned every cent by going upstream in a raging torrent. It was Rush Limbaugh that broke the Leftist lock on the media. That is why he is hated by the Left.

Each and every one of us has had their epiphany moment. Some of us got it in junior high school, some recently. Rush appears to finally have had his.

I have listened to him since he was on the "Original 56" stations, and there has been something recent that is noteworthy in almost a full quarter century of dominating an entire broadcast spectrum.

Over the past few months, he as consistantly referred to the "Ruling Class," and makes no distinction as to party. You can hear the greater disdain for the "establishment" GOP than for the establishment Dems. I think Rush could lurk on TF and not be noticed because he fits in with the popular meme on TF.

Everyone has their moment. You had yours. I had mine. Rush has had his.

BTW, that's 20 million people per day, every day, hearing that message. What more do you want?

PS. I got on the Mike Medved show and chewed his ass today. That guy IS the problem. He doesn't get it and is a complete fool regarding economic issues. If you want to hammer on a right-of-center talk show host, hammer Medved.

1-800-955-1776

Stop the left/right bull****, Eleua. You know it's hore****. It's been proven here on TF. 'Red' team 'Blue' team is what got us into this mess, while the cat burglar got out the back door.

It's so old. If you are too dumb to use Google and find the Trilateral Commission and the CFR, God help you. It ain;t no conspiracy; it's FACT.

Big banks bought and sold the GOP - and the Democrats - a long freaking time ago - but there's always one clown in the back with the elephant suit on.

I agree with Eleua

I know when I 'got it' as far as the money is debt thing but it took a while for me to finish putting all the other pieces together.

I don't think Rush gets it all the way yet or he would be better at explaining it. He will though and when he does—we will have 20 million more Patriots with the knowledge of how the con works

then — look out!

Uh Bo...El didn't start it here...if you read up a few posts (or more) there was plenty of left v. right happening prior to his post...he just added his $0.02.

I happen to agree with him.

Rush finally "got it" and is now sharing it with an audience we'd wet ourselves over, on a daily basis.

Medved is a part of the problem, economically speaking...I totally agree...hammer away.

****, hammer Michael Savage too...I'm very tired of seeing his "investment advice" all over Facebook (gold will save the world, apparently)...if I had his number, I'd post it here.

The con is easy to figure out. It's called the Federal Reserve, which has devalued the USD$ 93% since 1913. Now look who made it, who profits from it. It ain't rocket science. No, but Limbaugh is gonna keep rambling on about Democrats and play the blame game.

Want someone to blame? Look at the names. Left/right, they all there. Did you elect them? Nope, but they are running the show. Now think back to when this country started getting really ****ed up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilateral_....

Quote:

The Trilateral Commission is a private organization, established to foster closer cooperation among the United States, Europe and Japan. It was founded in July 1973 at the initiative of David Rockefeller, who was Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations at that time. The Trilateral Commission is widely seen as an off-shoot of the Council on Foreign Relations.[1]

Speaking at the Chase Manhattan International Financial Forums in London, Brussels, Montreal, and Paris, Rockefeller proposed the creation of an International Commission of Peace and Prosperity in early 1972 (which would later become the Trilateral Commission). At the 1972 Bilderberg meeting, the idea was widely accepted, but elsewhere, it got a cold reception. According to Rockefeller, the organization could "be of help to government by providing measured judgment."
Zbigniew Brzezinski,[2] a professor at Columbia University and a Rockefeller advisor who was a specialist on international affairs, left his post to organize the group along with:
Henry D. Owen (a Foreign Policy Studies Director with the Brookings Institution)
George S. Franklin
Robert R. Bowie (of the Foreign Policy Association and Director of the Harvard Center for International Affairs)
Gerard C. Smith (Salt I negotiator, Rockefeller in-law, and its first North American Chairman)
Marshall Hornblower (former partner at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering)
William Scranton (former Governor of Pennsylvania)
Edwin Reischauer (a professor at Harvard)
Max Kohnstamm (European Policy Centre)
Other founding members included Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker, both eventually heads of the Federal Reserve system.
Funding for the group came from David Rockefeller, the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, and the Ford Foundation.
[edit]Activity history

In July 1972, Rockefeller called the Trilateral Commission's first meeting, held at Rockefeller's Pocantico compound in New York's Hudson Valley. It was attended by about 250 individuals who were carefully selected and screened by Rockefeller and represented the very elite of finance and industry. The Trilateral Commission initiated its biannual meetings schedule in October 1973 in Tokyo. It was through these early meetings that the group affected its most profound influence, the integration of Japan into the the global political conversation. Before these exchanges, the country was much more isolated on the international stage.[3]
A Trilateral Commission Task Force Report, presented at the 1975 meeting in Kyoto, Japan, called An Outline for Remaking World Trade and Finance, said: "Close Trilateral cooperation in keeping the peace, in managing the world economy, and in fostering economic development and in alleviating world poverty, will improve the chances of a smooth and peaceful evolution of the global system." Another Commission document read:
"The overriding goal is to make the world safe for interdependence by protecting the benefits which it provides for each country against external and internal threats which will constantly emerge from those willing to pay a price for more national autonomy. This may sometimes require slowing the pace at which interdependence proceeds, and checking some aspects of it. More frequently however, it will call for checking the intrusion of national government into the international exchange of both economic and non-economic goods."
In May 1976, the first plenary meeting of all of the Commission's regional groups took place in Kyoto, attended by Jimmy Carter.[4] Today it consists of approximately 300–350 private citizens from Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, and North America, and exists to promote closer political and economic cooperation between these areas, which are the primary industrial regions in the world.[4] Its official journal from its founding is a magazine called Trialogue.
Membership is divided into numbers proportionate to each of its three regional areas. These members include corporate CEOs, politicians of all major parties, distinguished academics, university presidents, labor union leaders and not-for-profits involved in overseas philanthropy. Members who gain a position in their respective country's government must resign from the Commission. The North American continent is represented by 107 members (15 Canadian, seven Mexican and 85 U.S. citizens). The European group has reached its limit of 150 members, including citizens from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom.[citation needed]
At first, Asia and Oceania were represented only by Japan. However, in 2000 the Japanese group of 85 members expanded itself, becoming the Pacific Asia group, composed of 117 members: 75 Japanese, 11 South Koreans, seven Australian and New Zealand citizens, and 15 members from the ASEAN nations (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand). The Pacific Asia group also includes nine members from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
[edit]Criticisms

A number of prominent thinkers and politicians have criticized the Trilateral Commission. Senator Barry Goldwater wrote in his book With No Apologies: "In my view, the Trilateral Commission represents a skillful, coordinated effort to seize control and consolidate the four centers of power: political, monetary, intellectual, and ecclesiastical. All this is to be done in the interest of creating a more peaceful, more productive world community. What the Trilateralists truly intend is the creation of a worldwide economic power superior to the political governments of the nation-states involved. They believe the abundant materialism they propose to create will overwhelm existing differences. As managers and creators of the system they will rule the future." Similarly, academic Noam Chomsky criticized a report issued by the Commission called The Crisis of Democracy for suggesting that there was an "excess of democracy" in the 1960s, and views it as an attempt to restrict democracy, saying the report represents "the ideology of the liberal wing of the state capitalist ruling elite". He has also criticized what he saw as an undue influence from the commission in the administration of Jimmy Carter.[5]
Many conspiracy theorists believe the Trilateral Commission to be a central plotter of a world government. As documented by journalist Jonathan Kay, 9/11 conspiracy theorist Luke Rudkowski gained notoriety in April 2007 by interrupting a lecture by former Trilateral Commission director Zbigniew Brzezinski and accusing the organization and a few others of having orchestrated the attacks of September 11th to initiate a new world order.[6] Organizations like the John Birch Society and conspiracy theorists such as American paleoconservative Alex Jones also regularly tout this idea.[7] These fringe opinions have reached mainstream conservative thought through voices such as Mike Thompson, Chairman of the Florida Conservative Union, who said: "[The Trilateral Commission] puts emphasis on interdependence, which is a nice euphemism for one-world government."
[edit]Membership

Trilateral Commission bylaws exclude persons holding public office from membership. [2]
"Several of whom had been involved with the Trilateral Commission, but then that's almost everybody at one time or another."[8] This comment was made during an exit interview by the White House Adviser on Domestic and Foreign Policy, Hedley Donovan, under President Jimmy Carter, in reference to when he was gathering a group of foreign policy figures to convene during the Soviet brigade in Cuba. [3] [4] Although initially opposed to Trilateral, “President Reagan ultimately came to understand Trilateral’s value and invited the entire membership to a reception at the White House in April 1984”, noted David Rockefeller in his memoirs.[9]
[edit]Current Chairmen
North America: Joseph S. Nye, Jr., University Distinguished Service Professor and former Dean, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; former Chair, National Intelligence Council and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs.[10]
Europe: Peter Sutherland, Irish businessman and former politician associated with the Fine Gael party; former Attorney General of Ireland and European Commissioner in the first Delors Commission; former Director General of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the precursor to the World Trade Organization; Chairman of BP and Goldman Sachs International.[11]
Pacific Asia: Yotaro Kobayashi, Chief Corporate Adviser, Fuji Xerox Company, Ltd.;[12] Board member of Callaway Golf Company, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), Sony Corporation, and American Productivity & Quality Center; life-time trustee of Keizai Doyukai (Japan Association of Corporate Executives); Chairman of the Aspen Institute, Japan.[13][14]
[edit]Current Deputy Chairmen
North America:
Allan Gotlieb, Senior Adviser, Bennett Jones LLP, Toronto, ON; Chairman, Sotheby's, Canada; former Canadian Ambassador to the United States[15]
Lorenzo Zambrano, Chairman and CEO, Cemex SAB de CV, Monterrey, Mexico (since 1985); board member at IBM and Citigroup[16]
Europe:
Herve de Carmoy, Chairman, Almatis, Frankfurt-am-Main; former Partner, Rhône Group, New York & Paris; Honorary Chairman, Banque Industrielle et Mobilière Privée, Paris; former Chief Executive, Société Générale de Belgique[17]
Andrzej Olechowski, Founder, Civic Platform; former Chairman, Bank Handlowy; former Minister of Foreign Affairs and of Finance, Warsaw[18]
Pacific Asia:
Han Sung-Joo, President, Korea University [5], Seoul; former Korean Minister for Foreign Affairs; former Korean Ambassador to the United States[19]
Shijuro Ogata, Former Deputy Governor, Japan Development Bank; former Deputy Governor for International Relations, Bank of Japan[6][20]
[edit]Current directors
North America: Michael J. O'Neil[21]
Europe: Paul Révay[21]
Pacific Asia: Tadashi Yamaoto[21]
[edit]Former Chairmen
North America:
Thomas S. Foley (2001–2008)[22]
Paul A. Volcker (1991–2001) Honorary and former North American Chairman;[23] Chairman of President Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board;[24] former Chairman, Board of Governors, U.S. Federal Reserve System [7] from 1979 to 1987; Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Group of Thirty; former Chairman, Wolfensohn & Co., Inc., New York; Frederick H. Schultz Professor Emeritus, International Economic Policy, Princeton University;
David Rockefeller (1977–91) Founder of the Trilateral Commission and Honorary North American Chairman; Chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank board from 1969 to 1981; Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1970 to 1985, now honorary Chairman; a life member of the Bilderberg Group.[25]
Gerard C. Smith (1973–77)[21]
Europe:
Otto Graf Lambsdorff (1992–2001) Honorary European Chairman[26]
Georges Berthoin (1976–92) Honorary European Chairman[27]
Max Kohnstamm (1973–76)[21]
Pacific Asia:
Kiichi Miyazawa, Acting Chairman (1993–97)[28]
Akio Morita (1992–93)[21]
Isamu Yama****a (1985–92)[21]
Takeshi Watanabe (1973–85)[21]
[edit]Former directors
North America:
Zbigniew Brzezinski (1973–1976), U.S. National Security Advisor to U.S. President Jimmy Carter (1977–1981); Counselor, Center for Strategic and International Studies[8], Washington DC; Robert Osgood Professor of American Foreign Affairs, Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University; former Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs; Policy Planning Council of the Department of State (1966–1968).[21][29]
Europe:
Pacific Asia:
[edit]Executive Committee
Erik Belfrage, Senior Vice President, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken; Director, Investor AB, Director, Saab, Stockholm[21]
C. Fred Bergsten, Director, Peterson Institute for International Economics, Washington DC; former U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs[21]
Georges Berthoin, International Honorary Chairman, European Movement [9]; Honorary Chairman, The Jean Monnet Association; Honorary European Chairman, The Trilateral Commission[21]
Jorge Braga de Macedo, President, Tropical Research Institute, Lisbon; Professor of Economics, Nova University at Lisbon [10]; Chairman, Forum Portugal Global; former Minister of Finance[21]
François Bujon de l'Estang, Ambassadeur de France; Chairman, Citigroup France, Paris; former Ambassador to the United States[21]
Richard Conroy, Chairman, Conroy Diamonds & Gold [11], Dublin; Member of Senate, Republic of Ireland[21]
Vladimir Dlouhy, Senior Advisor, ABB Group[12]; International Advisor, Goldman Sachs; former Czechoslovak Minister of Economy; former Czech Minister of Industry & Trade, Prague[21]
Bill Emmott, former Editor, The Economist, London[21]
Nemesio Fernandez-Cuesta, Executive Director of Upstream, Repsol-YPF; former Chairman, Prensa Española, Madrid[21]
Michael Fuchs, Member of the German Bundestag; former President, National Federation of German Wholesale & Foreign Trade, Berlin[21]
Antonio Garrigues Walker, Chairman, Garrigues Abogados y Asesores Tributarios [13], Madrid
Toyoo Gyohten, President, The Institute for International Monetary Affairs [14]; Senior Advisor, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, UFJ, Ltd., Tokyo[21]
Stuart Harris, Professor of International Relations, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS), Australian National University; former Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Canberra[21]
Carla A. Hills, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Hills & Company [15], Washington, DC; board member, Time Warner Inc. with Ted Turner[30]; former U.S. Trade Representative[16] (1989–1993); former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development [17]; former United States Assistant Attorney General; chair, The Inter American Dialogue and of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, co-chair, The International Advisory Board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, member, The Executive Committee[31] of the Peterson Institute for International Economics[21][32]
Karen Elliott House, Writer, Princeton, NJ; Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs [18], John F. Kennedy School of Government [19], Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; former Senior Vice President, Dow Jones & Company, and Publisher, The Wall Street Journal[21]
Mugur Isărescu, Governor, National Bank of Romania [20], Bucharest; former Prime Minister of Romania[21]
Baron Daniel Janssen, Honorary Chairman, Solvay, Brussels[21]
Béla Kadar, Member of the Hungarian Academy [21], Budapest; Member of the Monetary Council of the National Bank [22]; President of the Hungarian Economic Association; former Ambassador of Hungary to the O.E.C.D., Paris; former Hungarian Minister of International Economic Relations and Member of Parliament[21]
The Lord Kerr of Kinlochard, Deputy Chairman and Senior Independent Non-Executive Director of Royal Dutch Shell; Member of the House of Lords [23]; Director of Rio Tinto, the Scottish American Investment Trust, London; former Secretary General, European Convention [24], Brussels; former Permanent Under-Secretary of State and Head of the Diplomatic Service, Foreign & Commonwealth Office[25], London; former British Ambassador to the United States[21]
Sixten Korkman, Managing Director, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy [26] (ETLA) and Finnish Business and Policy Forum (EVA), Helsinki[21]
Otto Graf Lambsdorff, Partner, Wessing Lawyers, Düsseldorf; Chairman, Friedrich Naumann Foundation [27], Berlin; former Member of German Bundestag; Honorary Chairman, Free Democratic Party; former Federal Minister of Economy; former President of the Liberal International; Honorary European Chairman, The Trilateral Commission, Paris[21]
Lee Hong-Koo, Chairman, Seoul Forum for International Affairs; former Prime Minister of Korea; former Korean Ambassador to the United Kingdom and the United States[21]
Marianne Lie, Director General, Norwegian Shipowners Association, Oslo[21]
Cees Maas, Honorary Vice Chairman of the ING Group and former Chief Financial Officer, Amsterdam; former Treasurer of the Dutch Government[21]
Roy MacLaren, former Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom; former Canadian Minister of International Trade[28]; Toronto, ON[21]
Minoru Makihara, Senior Corporate Advisor, Mitsubishi Corporation, Tokyo[21]
Sir Deryck C. Maughan, Managing Director and Chairman, KKR Asia, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., New York, NY; former Vice Chairman, Citigroup[21]
Minoru Murofushi, Counselor, ITOCHU Corporation, Tokyo[21]
Indra K. Nooyi, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, PepsiCo, Inc., Purchase, NY[21]
Yoshio Okawara, President, Institute for International Policy Studies, Tokyo; former Japanese Ambassador to the United States[21]
Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in the Obama administration; Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies and Global Economy and Development Programs, Brookings Institution, Washington, DC; former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs; former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs, National Security Council; foreign policy advisor to President Barack Obama.[21][33]
Luis Rubio, President, Center of Research for Development (CIDAC), Mexico City, DF[21]
Silvio Scaglia, Founder, Chairman and Financial Backer of Babelgum, London; Chairman, S.M.S. Finance S.A., Luxembourg[21]
Guido Schmidt-Chiari, Chairman, Supervisory Board, Constantia Group; former Chairman, Creditanstalt Bankverein, Vienna[21]
Carlo Secchi, Professor of European Economic Policy and former Rector, Bocconi University; Vice President, ISPI, Milan; former Member of the Italian Senate and of the European Parliament [29][21]
Tøger Seidenfaden, Editor-in-Chief, Politiken, Copenhagen[21]
Petar Stoyanov, former President of the Republic of Bulgaria; Member of the Bulgarian Parliament; Chairman, Parliamentary Group of United Democratic Forces; Chairman, Union of the Democratic Forces (Bulgaria); Sofia[21]
Harri Tiido, Undersecretary for Political Affairs, Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tallinn; former Ambassador of Estonia and Head of the Estonian Mission to NATO[30], Brussels[21]
George Vassiliou, former Head of the Negotiating Team for the Accession of Cyprus to the European Union; former President of the Republic of Cyprus, former Member of Parliament and Leader of United Democrats; Nicosia[21]
Marko Voljc, Chief Executive Officer, K & H Bank, Budapest; former General Manager of Central Europe Directorate, KBC Bank Insurance Holding, Brussels; former Chief Executive Officer, Nova Ljubljanska Banka, Ljubljana[21]
Panagis Vourloumis, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Hellenic Tellecommunications Organization (O.T.E.), Athens[21]
Jusuf Wanandi, Vice Chairman, Board of Trustees; Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Jakarta[21]
Serge Weinberg, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Accor; Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Weinberg Capital Partners; former Chairman Management Board, Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR); former President, Institute of International and Strategic Studies (IRIS), Paris[21]
Heinrich Weiss [31], Chairman, SMS, [32] [33] Düsseldorf; former Chairman, Federation of German Industries, Berlin[21]
[edit]Others who are or have been members
Rona Ambrose: Member of Parliament, Canada
John B. Anderson: former US Congressman
Bruce Babbitt: Interior Secretary under Clinton[34]
Francisco Pinto Balsemão
Jim Balsillie: Chairman and Co-CEO of Research In Motion.
Raymond Barre: former French Prime Minister
Lloyd Bentsen: former US Senator and Secretary of the Treasury under Clinton[1]
Catherine Ann Bertini: Former United Nations Under Secretary General in Management, former Director of World Food Program.
Maurizio Bevilacqua: Member of Parliament, Canada
Ritt Bjerregaard: Mayor of Copenhagen, Denmark. Danish Social Democrat MP, former Secretary of Education, member of various cabinets; European Commissioner for Environment, Nuclear Safety and Civil Protection in the Santer Commission from 1995 to 1999. (Attendee 1992,1998,2002).
Tom Bradley (politician): former Mayor of Los Angeles
John H. Bryan: former CEO of Sara Lee bakeries, affiliated with the World Economic Forum and a director on the Boards of Sara Lee, Goldman Sachs, General Motors, British Petroleum and Bank One.
James E. Burke: CEO of Johnson & Johnson from 1976 to 1989.
Sven Burmester: Writer and Explorer, Denmark; former Representative, United Nations Population (Attendee 1998,2002,2005)
George H.W. Bush: Former President of the U.S.[35]
Frank Carlucci: President of Carlyle Group, U.S. Secretary of Defense from 1987 to 1989.
Jimmy Carter: Former President of the U.S.[36]
Gerhard Casper: Constitutional scholar, faculty member and former President at Stanford University; successor trustee of Yale University and part of the Board of Trustees of the Central European University in Hungary.
Dick Cheney: Former Vice President of the U.S.[35]
Warren Christopher: former Secretary of State under Clinton and Deputy Secretary of State under Carter
Henry Cisneros: HUD Secretary under Clinton[34]
Joe Clark: former Canadian Prime Minister
Bill Clinton: Former President of the U.S.
Hillary Rodham Clinton: 67th United States Secretary of State
William Cohen: former Republican Congressman and US Senator, U.S. Secretary of Defense under President Clinton.
Tim Collins: CEO of Ripplewood Holdings LLC investment company; also part of the Yale Divinity School and Yale School of Management board of advisors and U.S.-Japan non-profit organizations.
John Danforth: former US Senator
André Desmarais: President and Co-Chief Executive Officer, Power Corporation of Canada, Montréal, QC; Deputy Chairman, Power Financial Corporation[37]
John M. Deutch: Institute Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA; former Director of Central Intelligence; former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense
Hedley Donovan: (deceased) former editor-in-chief of Time magazine,[38] White House Advisor on Domestic and Foreign Policy under Carter, Trilateral Commission founding member[34][36]
Lawrence Eagleburger: former Secretary of State under George H. W. Bush
Bill Emmott: Former editor of The Economist magazine.
Aatos Erkko: Chairman, SanomaWSOY
Lene Espersen: Danish Minister of Culture, former Minister of Justice (Attendee 2002,2005)
Jeffrey Epstein: [39]
Daniel J. Evans: former Governor of Washington
Gaston Eyskens: former Prime Minister of Belgium
Dianne Feinstein: Democratic U.S. Senator, former Mayor of San Francisco, member of the Council on Foreign Relations; chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security.
Martin Feldstein: Professor of economics at Harvard University; president and CEO of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from 1982 to 1984; former director of the Council on Foreign Relations; member of the Bilderberg Group and of the World Economic Forum.
Hugh Fletcher: Chancellor of Auckland University and CEO of Fletcher Challenge.
Lykke Friis: Pro-Rector University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Former Head of European Department, Federation of Danish Industries. (Attendee 2005)
Ross Garnaut: Head, Department of Economics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra.
David Gergen: (personal website) Political consultant and presidential advisor during the Republican administrations of Nixon, Ford and Reagan; also served as advisor to Bill Clinton.[40]
John Glenn: former astronaut, former US Senator and U.S. Presidential candidate[34]
Maldonado Gonelha
Allan Gotlieb: Canadian Ambassador to Washington from 1981 to 1989, chairman of the Canada Council from 1989 to 1994.
Bill Graham: former Canadian Minister of National Defence and Minister of Foreign Affairs under Paul Martin; for most of 2006, interim parliamentary leader of the Liberal Party.
Hank Greenberg: Former chairman and CEO of American International Group (AIG), the world's largest insurance and financial services corporation.
Alan Greenspan: Former Chairman of the Federal Reserve[35]
John Gutfreund: Former CEO of Salomon Brothers
Alexander Haig: former Secretary of State under Reagan
Sirkka Hämäläinen: Member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank, Frankfurt-am-Main; former Governor, Bank of Finland
Edward Heath: former British Prime Minister
Mugur Isărescu: Governor of the National Bank of Romania since 1990 and Prime Minister from December 1999 to November 2000; he worked for the Minister of Foreign Affairs then for the Romanian Embassy in the U.S. after the 1989 Romanian revolution.
Max Jakobson: former Finnish ambassador to the United States
Sergei Karaganov: Presidential Advisor to Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin; member of the International Advisory Board of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1995 to 2005.
Henry Kissinger: U.S. diplomat, National Security Advisor and Secretary of State in the Nixon and Ford administrations; former Chairman of the International Advisory Committee of JP Morgan Chase.
Horst Köhler: Former president of Germany
Max Kohnstamm: Diplomat and historian, son of Philip Kohnstamm.
Joseph Kraft: syndicated columnist[34]
Otto Graf Lambsdorff: Chairman of the German Free Democratic Party from 1993 to 1998; Minister for Economic Affairs for West Germany from 1977 to 1984.
Liam Lawlor: Irish politician who resigned from the Fianna Fáil party; died in a car-crash in Moscow in 2005.
Pierre Lellouche: French MP of the conservative Union for a Popular Movement party led by Nicolas Sarkozy.
Gerald M. Levin: Former CEO of Time Warner, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Mario Vargas Llosa
Peter Lougheed: former Premier of Alberta
Allan MacEachen: former Leader of the Government in the Senate (Canada)
Whitney MacMillan: Chairman Emeritus of Cargill
Jorge Braga de Macedo
Francis Maude: MP for Horsham, the only British MP currently a member of the Trilateral Commission, former Conservative Party Chairman, son of the late Sir Angus Maude MP
Kiichi Miyazawa: Japanese Prime Minister in 1991–1993; Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1974 to 1976, Chief Cabinet Secretary from 1984 to 1986, Minister of Finance in 1987 and again from 1999 to 2002.
Walter Mondale: former Vice President of the U.S. under Carter[34]
Akio Morita: Co-founder of Sony Corporation; vice chairman of the Keidanren (Japan Federation of Economic Organizations) and member of the Japan-U.S. Economic Relations Group.
Brian Mulroney: former Canadian Prime Minister
Lowell Murray: Canadian Senator
Indra Nooyi: CEO of PepsiCo
Andrzej Olechowski: Polish director of Euronet, USA; on the supervisory boards of Citibank Handlowy and Europejski Fundusz Hipoteczny; president of the Central European Forum; Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Poland from 1989 to 1991; Minister of Foreign Economic Relations from 1991 to 1992; Minister of Finance in 1992 and of Foreign Affairs from 1993 to 1995; economic advisor to President Lech Wałęsa from 1992 to 1993 and in 1995, etc.
Paul H. O'Neill: former Secretary of the Treasury under George W. Bush and former chairman of Alcoa
Henry D. Owen: former Brookings Institution Director and Ambassador at Large for Economic Summit Affairs.
Dinesh Paliwal: Chairman, President and CEO of Harman International Industries
Lucas Papademos: European Central Bank Vice President
Gerry Parsky
Martha Piper: Former President and Vice-Chancellor of University of British Columbia
Lee Raymond: Former CEO and Chairman, ExxonMobil, vice chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Enterprise Institute, director of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., director and member of the Executive Committee and Policy Committee of the American Petroleum Institute
Charles Robb: former US Senator
Mary Robinson: President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997 as a candidate for the Labour Party; United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002.
Dufferin Roblin: former Premier of Manitoba
Carl Rowan: syndicated columnist[34]
Brent Scowcroft: former National Security Advisor[34] under former Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush; Vice Chairman of Kissinger Associates, Inc.[41]
[42]
William Scranton: former Governor of Pennsylvania
Tøger Seidenfaden: Editor-in-Chief, Politiken,Denmark . Member since 2005.
Donna Shalala: Secretary of Health and Human Services under Clinton[34]
Gerard C. Smith: First U.S. Chairman of the Trilateral Commission; chief U.S. delegate to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks of 1969.
Anthony M. Solomon: former President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Ted Sorensen: former special adviser to President Kennedy[4]
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa: Leader of the Social Democratic Party (Portugal) from 1996 to 1999.
Ron Southern: Chairman of the Board and majority shareholder of ATCO
Thorvald Stoltenberg: Norwegian politician, holds a seat on the Trilateral Commission's Executive Committee.
Peter Straarup: Chairman of the Executive Board, Danske Bank, Copenhagen, Denmark; Chairman, the Danish Bankers Association. (Attendee 2002,2005)[citation needed]
Robert Taft Jr.: former US Senator
Mihai Tănăsescu: Romania's representative to the IMF, Minister of Finance of Romania (2000-2004), member of the Social Democratic Party[43]
James R. Thompson: former Governor of Illinois
Niels Thygesen: Denmark. (Attendee: 1992,1998,2002)
George Vasiliou: President of the Republic of Cyprus from 1988 to 1993, founder and leader of the Cypriot United Democrats party.
Takeshi Watanabe
Caspar Weinberger: Secretary of Defense under Reagan[34]
Paul Wolfowitz: Former President of the World Bank, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense and a prominent member of the neo-conservatives in Washington.
Andrew Young: former United States Ambassador to the United Nations
Robert Zoellick: President of the World Bank, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, former U.S. Trade Representative[35].
Karel Schwarzenberg: former chancellor of Czech President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, currently a leader of a political party elected to the Czech parliament
Toomas Hendrik Ilves: President of Estonia[44]
[edit]See also

Council for Excellence in Government
Rand Corporation
Bohemian Grove
New world order (politics)
Internationalism (politics)
Rockefeller family
[edit]

TL;DR

I want to echo monorailfan's post about how the younger generation doesn't pay for it.

Simple.

Don't work.

Trillions of dollars of Gov't debt just represents claims on labor in the future. Just don't work above a simpler life, nothing to claim.

Eleua wrote..

PS. I got on the Mike Medved show and chewed his ass today. That guy IS the problem. He doesn't get it and is a complete fool regarding economic issues. If you want to hammer on a right-of-center talk show host, hammer Medved.

+1

Did he call you a name? Honk his bicycle horn? Mock you?

Oh, and Obama appointed a brick of Trilaterals - like the four before him.

Quote:

As pre­vi­ously noted in Pawns of the Global Elite, Barack Obama was groomed for the pres­i­dency by key mem­bers of the Tri­lat­eral Com­mis­sion. Most notably, it was Zbig­niew Brzezinski, co-founder of the Tri­lat­eral Com­mis­sion with David Rock­e­feller in 1973, who was Obama’s prin­cipal for­eign policy advisor.

The pre-election atten­tion is rem­i­nis­cent of Brzezinski’s tutoring of Jimmy Carter prior to Carter‘s land­slide elec­tion in 1976.

For anyone who doubts the Commission’s con­tin­uing influ­ence on Obama, con­sider that he has already appointed no less than eleven mem­bers of the Com­mis­sion to top-level and key posi­tions in his Administration.

According to offi­cial Tri­lat­eral Com­mis­sion mem­ber­ship lists, there are only 87 mem­bers from the United States (the other 337 mem­bers are from other regions). Thus, in less than two weeks since his inau­gu­ra­tion, Obama’s appoint­ments encom­pass more than 12% of Commission’s entire U.S. membership.

Is this a mere coin­ci­dence or is it a con­tin­u­a­tion of dom­i­nance over the Exec­u­tive Branch since 1976? (For impor­tant back­ground, read The Tri­lat­eral Com­mis­sion: Usurping Sov­er­eignty.)

Sec­re­tary of Trea­sury, Tim Gei­thner
Ambas­sador to the United Nations, Susan Rice
National Secu­rity Advisor, Gen. James L. Jones
Deputy National Secu­rity Advisor, Thomas Donilon
Chairman, Eco­nomic Recovery Com­mittee, Paul Volker
Director of National Intel­li­gence, Admiral Dennis C. Blair
Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of State, Asia & Pacific, Kurt M. Campbell
Deputy Sec­re­tary of State, James Stein­berg
State Depart­ment, Spe­cial Envoy, Richard Haass
State Depart­ment, Spe­cial Envoy, Dennis Ross
State Depart­ment, Spe­cial Envoy, Richard Hol­brooke
There are many other inci­dental links to the Tri­lat­eral Com­mis­sion, for instance,

Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Clinton is mar­ried to Com­mis­sion member William Jef­ferson Clinton.

Gei­thner‘s informal group of advi­sors include E. Gerald Cor­rigan, Paul Volker, Alan Greenspan and Peter G. Peterson, among others. His first job after col­lege was with Henry Kissinger at Kissinger Associates.

Brent Scow­croft has been an unof­fi­cial advisor to Obama and was mentor to Defense Sec­re­tary Robert Gates.

Robert Zoelick is cur­rently pres­i­dent of the World Bank

More: http://www.augustforecast.com/2009/01/27....

Any wonder why now?

Quote:

By Patrick Wood, Editor
Jan­uary 7, 2010

Tim­othy Gei­thner is a rising star within the mem­ber­ship of the Tri­lat­eral Com­mis­sion: He is highly edu­cated, has exten­sive reg­u­la­tory expe­ri­ence, and is wiling to bend, break or obscure the rules to favor his global elite bosses.

In November 2008 when Gei­thner was Pres­i­dent of the NY Fed­eral Reserve, just before becoming Obama’s Sec­re­tary of the Trea­sury, recently dis­cov­ered e-mails reveal that Gei­thner and the NY Fed pres­sured the bailed-out AIG into keeping it’s mouth shut about which banks were receiving tax­payer funds in exchange for toxic assets known as “credit swaps.” (This story was made pos­sible by copies of e-mails between Fed and AIG offi­cials that were recently secured by Cal­i­fornia Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Dar­rell Issa (R-CA.))

Fur­ther­more, the NY FED and AIG then con­spired to offi­cially hide the event when AIG was required to make a reg­u­la­tory filing to the SEC on December 24, 2008: The Fed crossed out the ref­er­ence on its records and AIG excluded the facts on their filing.

In November 2008, the NY Fed was offi­cially in charge of nego­ti­a­tions between AIG and those banks that were “to big to fail.” More than a dozen banks, including Goldman Sachs and Societe Gen­erale SA, received pay­ments of $62.1 bil­lion from AIG for worth­less mortgage-backed con­tracts. What a sweet­heart deal they got, too: 100 cents on the dollar!

No wonder that Gei­thner wanted to hide the details.

On behalf of the tax­payer, AIG was sup­posed to nego­tiate steep dis­counts for these worth­less con­tracts. Yet, in October, the NY Fed had ordered AIG to not seek dis­counts from the banks, which directly dinged tax­payers for at least $13 billion.

Around November 24, 2008, when Gei­thner learned that Obama intended to nom­i­nate him for the top Trea­sury job, he was offi­cially recused from mat­ters dealing with spe­cific com­pa­nies. In other words, he ran like a rabbit and insu­lated him­self from any fur­ther involve­ment that might be dis­cov­ered during his Senate con­fir­ma­tion hearings.

Gei­thner suc­cess­fully obscured his still-hidden deal­ings with AIG and was sub­se­quently con­firmed to be the head watchdog and guardian of America’s money center.

This level and sophis­ti­ca­tion of cor­rup­tion is without par­allel in the his­tory of the world. It is cal­cu­lated, brazen and blatant.

Remember that in Sep­tember 2008, then-Secretary of the Trea­sury Henry “Ham­merin’ Hank” Paulson demanded $700 bil­lion in bailout funds from Con­gress with no strings attached. Paulson lit­er­ally extorted the money by claiming that America would com­pletely col­lapse in days or weeks if he didn’t get the money autho­rized imme­di­ately. The fact that Paulson was for­merly CEO of Goldman Sachs, a com­pany with heavy rep­re­sen­ta­tion in the Tri­lat­eral Com­mis­sion, didn’t deter his demands nor Con­gress’ total capit­u­la­tion to them.

U.S. tax­payers should demand that Con­gress imme­di­ately start impeach­ment pro­ceed­ings to remove Gei­thner as Sec­re­tary of the Trea­sury. Per­haps the threat of a publicly-broadcast Senate trial would moti­vate Obama to fire him before other incrim­i­nating evi­dence could be presented.

From a layman’s per­spec­tive, crim­inal charges facing Gei­thner might start with some­thing like these:

Per­jury – lying to and with­holding infor­ma­tion from the U.S. Senate while under oath
Theft - ille­gally diverting bil­lions of Trea­sury funds to selected global banks
Con­spiracy to con­ceal a crim­inal act – coercing AIG to file
false reg­u­la­tory state­ments with the Secu­ri­ties and Exchange Com­mis­sion
(SEC)
Malfea­sance – com­mis­sion of an unlawful act in the course of an offi­cial capacity
The August Review has long pointed out and doc­u­mented cases where mem­bers of the Tri­lat­eral Com­mis­sion have dis­cov­ered ways to raid the U.S. Trea­sury for pri­vate gain. A few of these arti­cles include:

America Plun­dered by the Global Elite – May 18, 2005
Plun­dering the Public Purse – March 21, 2008
BAILOUT: America’s Finan­cial Ruin – October 6, 2008

http://www.augustforecast.com/2010/01/07....

IT'S DESTRUCTION OF AMERICA BY DESIGN!!! I JUST LAID OUT THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE IN THREE POSTS.

STOP THE LEFT/RIGHT BULL****.

Agreed there is a plan, question is, can they control it once it goes into a tailspin, or are they just gonna let it burn and watch it all from their private islands??

I heard Rush today and my jaw dropped- I immediately thought of Karl. What struck me was the tone of his voice- the resignation, very unlike him. The light did go on, and he didn't like what he saw.

Rush has been honest about what he knows and believes from the beginning. On economic issues he's lagged a bit due mostly to a natural optimism. But he's still been way ahead of the masses, even if all the "geniuses" at TF have been ahead of him. The important point is that he gets it now and will hammer it home until the masses get it too. And that will be to all our benefit.

The left only hates him because he's effective, just like they hate Sarah Palin and others who connect with the people and tell them the truth.

Wow, this Ticker is very timely for me. I don't have cable TV anymore, so I've been tuning into talk radio while in the car. I thought I had gone crazy when I listened to and agreed with Rush yesterday (I've never been a fan of his). Then I tuned in today and realized that he has had an epiphany and/or has been reading the Tickers. Good for him. We'll see if he keeps it up.

As for the rest of talk radio, most of it is utter crap. Michael Medved is a liberal hiding behind a conservative facade. Good on you, Eleua, for calling him out! Sorry I missed it.

A while back I had sent an email to Rush telling him the Market Ticker should be required for him and his listeners. Maybe he listened.

Above, I was wondering about real federal spending. I found some data, but am still digesting it all.

The interesting thing is real spending per capita, that is how much the federal government spends per person in constant dollars. This is a way to factor out population growth as well as inflation.

Guess what? That figure was roughly constant, flatline all through the 90s. It started turning up big time around 2000, and the slope increased even more with the Crash. Federal spending was just keeping up with inflation and population growth, nothing more, though the 90s, then started a ramp job and has now gone parabolic.

I would like to look at revenue in the same way, but haven't found that yet.

Tell me when you guys figure out that Limbaugh is one of "them". All he is is an entertainer and his job is to take righteous conservative anger and diffuse it. He has had opportunity after opportunity to reform himself over the years and has nibbled at each one, only to step right back into the establishment fold before anything significant happened.

Scotsman,

your note about Rush's 'tone of voice' is what I heard too. Could be faked by a pro but, sounded real to me. Sort of sounded like he had the wind knocked out of him and was labored to be saying what he's saying.