Most Popular
1. It’s a New Macro, the Gold Market Knows It, But Dead Men Walking Do Not (yet)- Gary_Tanashian
2.Stock Market Presidential Election Cycle Seasonal Trend Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
3. Bitcoin S&P Pattern - Nadeem_Walayat
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
4.U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - Raymond_Matison
5. How to Profit from the Global Warming ClImate Change Mega Death Trend - Part1 - Nadeem_Walayat
7.Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - Nadeem_Walayat
9.It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - Stephen_McBride
10.Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - Richard_Mills
Last 7 days
US House Prices Trend Forecast 2024 to 2026 - 11th Oct 24
US Housing Market Analysis - Immigration Drives House Prices Higher - 30th Sep 24
Stock Market October Correction - 30th Sep 24
The Folly of Tariffs and Trade Wars - 30th Sep 24
Gold: 5 principles to help you stay ahead of price turns - 30th Sep 24
The Everything Rally will Spark multi year Bull Market - 30th Sep 24
US FIXED MORTGAGES LIMITING SUPPLY - 23rd Sep 24
US Housing Market Free Equity - 23rd Sep 24
US Rate Cut FOMO In Stock Market Correction Window - 22nd Sep 24
US State Demographics - 22nd Sep 24
Gold and Silver Shine as the Fed Cuts Rates: What’s Next? - 22nd Sep 24
Stock Market Sentiment Speaks:Nothing Can Topple This Market - 22nd Sep 24
US Population Growth Rate - 17th Sep 24
Are Stocks Overheating? - 17th Sep 24
Sentiment Speaks: Silver Is At A Major Turning Point - 17th Sep 24
If The Stock Market Turn Quickly, How Bad Can Things Get? - 17th Sep 24
IMMIGRATION DRIVES HOUSE PRICES HIGHER - 12th Sep 24
Global Debt Bubble - 12th Sep 24
Gold’s Outlook CPI Data - 12th Sep 24
RECESSION When Yield Curve Uninverts - 8th Sep 24
Sentiment Speaks: Silver Is Set Up To Shine - 8th Sep 24
Precious Metals Shine in August: Gold and Silver Surge Ahead - 8th Sep 24
Gold’s Demand Comeback - 8th Sep 24
Gold’s Quick Reversal and Copper’s Major Indications - 8th Sep 24
GLOBAL WARMING Housing Market Consequences Right Now - 6th Sep 24
Crude Oil’s Sign for Gold Investors - 6th Sep 24
Stocks Face Uncertainty Following Sell-Off- 6th Sep 24
GOLD WILL CONTINUE TO OUTPERFORM MINING SHARES - 6th Sep 24
AI Stocks Portfolio and Bitcoin September 2024 - 3rd Sep 24
2024 = 1984 - AI Equals Loss of Agency - 30th Aug 24
UBI - Universal Billionaire Income - 30th Aug 24
US COUNTING DOWN TO CRISIS, CATASTROPHE AND COLLAPSE - 30th Aug 24
GBP/USD Uptrend: What’s Next for the Pair? - 30th Aug 24
The Post-2020 History of the 10-2 US Treasury Yield Curve - 30th Aug 24
Stocks Likely to Extend Consolidation: Topping Pattern Forming? - 30th Aug 24
Why Stock-Market Success Is Usually Only Temporary - 30th Aug 24
The Consequences of AI - 24th Aug 24
Can Greedy Politicians Really Stop Price Inflation With a "Price Gouging" Ban? - 24th Aug 24
Why Alien Intelligence Cannot Predict the Future - 23rd Aug 24
Stock Market Surefire Way to Go Broke - 23rd Aug 24
RIP Google Search - 23rd Aug 24
What happened to the Fed’s Gold? - 23rd Aug 24
US Dollar Reserves Have Dropped By 14 Percent Since 2002 - 23rd Aug 24
Will Electric Vehicles Be the Killer App for Silver? - 23rd Aug 24
EUR/USD Update: Strong Uptrend and Key Levels to Watch - 23rd Aug 24
Gold Mid-Tier Mining Stocks Fundamentals - 23rd Aug 24
My GCSE Exam Results Day Shock! 2024 - 23rd Aug 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

Dog Days Of Summer, Politicians Rest Before Returning To The Fray. The Political War Will Continue

Politics / US Politics Aug 05, 2011 - 03:53 AM GMT

By: Danny_Schechter

Politics

Best Financial Markets Analysis ArticleNow that the debt drama is over for the moment, we can all safely retreat in what was once called the “Dog Days Of Summer” and chill out if the volatile weather allows us to. We can think back to that old song, “Summer time and the living is easy” even as we all know that for millions “the living” is anything but.


The House and Senate have become ghost-like chambers because all its members, so filled with strident indignation and inflexible talking points just a week ago, are now off on their paid vacations hyping their political war stories to grandchildren.

Imbued with a sense of triumph, the Tea Party is huddling to come up with ongoing tactics to hold the system hostage while the party leaders plan the new “Super committee” with 12 chosen acolytes (how Biblical, that number 12!) to map the next round of fiscal blood-lettering.

All the superhero buzz in the movies and cartoons has no doubt influenced their choice of words and the pretense of the super wisdom of a few as a “Joint Select Committee On Deficit Reduction” is empanelled to become the next arena of combat with a chosen elite now dominating a factious process where an organized minority can outflank a slow moving majority.

So much for the appearance of democracy!

The lobbyists are already gearing up for the next battles, as the Times reported, ”to figure out how to influence the panel to protect the programs and tax breaks from which they benefit.” The military contractors and health care industry operatives are digging in to defend their turf.

Meanwhile, the deal did not settle any problems and may have made them worse. The Hill newspaper reports, “The Dow Jones Industrial Average has lost more points in the last two weeks than it did after the House initially failed to approve a bailout of U.S. banks at the height of the financial crisis in 2008.”

At the White House, the campaigning is set to go into overdrive with a bus tour of the devastated Mid West. Obama is saddling up to talk up the one need he has been downplaying for years---the need for jobs.

He is retooling as a born again populist to champion the unemployed who may never find jobs again.

He is doing so in the face of new statistics that report the economy in worse shape than it was before the recession.

Some 47 million Americans now qualify for food stamps, up 13 percent from a year earlier.  Unemployment is not budging and more and more job seekers are giving up after finding that if they have been out of work for more than six months, they can’t even get interviews for what jobs there are. Youth and minority unemployment are at depression levels. The ranks of the poor rise as those still working are squeezed as never before.

And housing? Eftnews.com reports, " Dragged down by such anchors as a bulging pipeline of foreclosures and a dearth of buyers, it will be many more months -- if not years -- before a housing market rebound takes hold."

Yet the Commander in Chief, unlike the people who live in the region, won’t have problems with the cost of gassing up the bus. His “bundlers” are already at work shaking the money tree.

Money News reports: “A just-released study by the Center for Responsive Politics shows that President Obama is relying more on Wall Street to fund his re-election this year than he did in 2008, according to CNBC, which obtained an advance copy of the report.”

“Obama and the DNC combined are on pace to far exceed the amounts Obama raised from Wall Street donors in 2008, both in raw dollar amounts and as a percentage of what he raises overall.”

This may be why he has already thrown his progressive supporters in the words of one dissenting Democrat “under the bus” because he and his handlers calculate they may not like him now but they will vote for him in the end, or fear more gains by the far right.

Some on the right are reportedly going after the “bundlers” who broke fund-raising records in the Bush Campaign, in essence talking far right while cultivating the old money centrists.

The “experts” predict that even in this time of economic decline, the political pumps will be well primed as the election draws closer and gains steam by sucking the media oxygen out of other stories with a press corpse that loves to cover politics like sporting events rich in polls and conflicting sound bites.

The newspapers are filled with stories about the noveau rich gobbling up luxury goods and high priced cars. 

Not everyone is hurting!

Yet an increasing number of these people on all sides are reporting more dissatisfaction with all the politicians. 

The National Journal reports on a new poll,  “The survey…revealed a deep lack of faith among the public in Congress's ability to get things done. When it comes to important problems facing the country, only 7 percent of respondents said they have a lot of confidence that Washington could make progress over the next year and 23 percent said they have "no confidence at all.”

Some liberals may finally be recognizing that their immersion in partisan politics took their eyes off the economic ball with little or no grass roots organizing.  It seems clear that as the Tea Party pushed politicians from the right, there was no counterweight or unified effort on the left.

President Obama not only betrayed the activists of the left who championed his candidacy in 2008 but, also, his own legacy as a community organizer.  He created, but then deemphasized his “Organizing for America” initiative to activate his base for traditional inside the beltway horse-trading.

He gave up on the “outside game” and let the right pick it up without a fight.

Now we are hearing about all kinds of plans by organizations like MoveOn that became more of a money raising machine than a political movement is joining hands with fired Obama appointee Van Jones to build a save the dream movement and express some visible support for the unemployed and millions losing homes and hope.

Former Vice President Al Gore is calling for a non-violent “American Spring” modeled on events in Tunisia and Egypt.
Keith Olbermann, the TV Anchor who left NBC to join Gore’s network Current cautions that “first the public has to get mad.”

Personally, I think the public is mad, but also depressed by the lack of leadership and a sense they can win. Popular calls to hold Wall Street accountable have gone nowhere as Wall Street money keeps politicians in tow and activists tweet each other into distraction. Activists rail at the president online but do little to get in his face and demand another course of action.

This may change in the fall but I am not holding my breath. It is easier, as we say, “to talk a good game” than play one.

News Dissector Danny Schechters film and book Disinformation. For more information, Http://www.plunderhecrimeofourtime.com.

    News Dissector Danny Schechter has made a film and written a book on the “Crime Of Our Time.” (News Dissector.com/plunder.) Comments to dissector@mediachannel.org

    © 2011 Copyright Danny Schechter - All Rights Reserved
    Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors


© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in