8 replies to this topic

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"It isn't every day that the Sierra Club finds itself welcoming a nomination to George W. Bush's Cabinet while ultraconservatives decry the move," said Carl Pope, the Sierra Club's executive director.

"But on issues like global warming, Hank Paulson appears to favor managing risk rather than cooking the books," Pope said. "It is heartening that someone of Mr. Paulson's stature in the financial world is willing to say that immediate action must be taken to combat global warming."

Last year under Paulson's direction, Goldman Sachs issued an eight-page position paper on environmental policy, saying it accepts a scientific consensus, led by United Nations climate experts, that global warming poses one of the greatest threats this century.

Like Bush, the Goldman Sachs statement endorsed a market for businesses to buy and sell rights to emit greenhouse gases, saying it will spur technology advances by companies "that lead to a less carbon-intensive economy." But, it added, "Voluntary action alone cannot solve the climate change problem," a position contrary to the Bush administration's view.

The Nature Conservancy, under Paulson's direction, likewise supports a mandatory approach. It supports legislation by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., to cap U.S. greenhouse gases at 2000 levels, within five years. The Senate defeated the measure last year.

http://www.washingto...60101181_2.html


The banking cartel is using the green agenda to suppress energy production.



Spelunking the Bailout Bill -- Carbon Tax Audit



Another provision that has alarmed the good folks over at the Capital Reseach Center is a clause authorizing a "carbon audit of the tax code." CRC's Green Alert warns:

This appears to be an attempt by global warming fanatics to lay the foundation for an economy-killing carbon tax just like the "cap-and-tax" system that is now destroying European industry.


http://www.reason.co...how/129258.html

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Thousands of protestors demonstrated agains the proposed $700 Billion bail out plan for the finance and banking industry, yet the national news media in America didn't even report it! Why not? It seems strange that this barely generated a gander from the big news outlets like ABC, CNN, CBS, NBC etc. all of whom have a presence in New York City.

http://www.liveleak....=096_1222744802

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As Icelanders are threatened by hunger, their president thinks that the most important thing is to fight climate change.
Eventually widespread violence will get his attention.



http://afp.google.co...xbfHmQMQWmcsTaA

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Western governments are aggressively wrecking their economies:


From an energy perspective, it is now clear that any adequate response to the oil supply/price problems we will have after this U-shaped recession is over will be impossible. Most of the funds that might have been put into infrastructure changes (long-haul railroads, light rail, restructuring the geography of living & work, adding large amounts of renewables to the grid, etc.) have already been given to the banks.

The "save Wall Street to save Main Street" rhetoric has not only served to facilitate one of the largest rip-offs in history, but it has doomed the "real economy" to a state of perpetual recession, or worse. We had a taste of Things To Come when oil hit $147/barrel, and we had another in the last few weeks when crude oil production in the United States fell below 5 million barrels per day for the first time since 1946. This latter was due to the hurricane disruptions, but such production numbers will become routine after 2012. You read that correctly -- since 1946.

Dave Cohen

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Western governments are aggressively wrecking their economies:

The Age of Prosperity Is Over
This administration and Congress will be remembered like Herbert Hoover

Whenever the government bails someone out of trouble, they always put someone into trouble, plus of course a toll for the troll. Every $100 billion in bailout requires at least $130 billion in taxes, where the $30 billion extra is the cost of getting government involved.

If you don't believe me, just watch how Congress and Barney Frank run the banks. If you thought they did a bad job running the post office, Amtrak, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the military, just wait till you see what they'll do with Wall Street.

Some 14 months ago, the projected deficit for the 2008 fiscal year was about 0.6% of GDP. With the $170 billion stimulus package last March, the add-ons to housing and agriculture bills, and the slowdown in tax receipts, the deficit for 2008 actually came in at 3.2% of GDP, with the 2009 deficit projected at 3.8% of GDP. And this is just the beginning.

The net national debt in 2001 was at a 20-year low of about 35% of GDP, and today it stands at 50% of GDP. But this 50% number makes no allowance for anything resulting from the over $5.2 trillion guarantee of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac assets, or the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). Nor does the 50% number include any of the asset swaps done by the Federal Reserve when they bailed out Bear Stearns, AIG and others.

But the government isn't finished. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid -- and yes, even Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke -- are preparing for a new $300 billion stimulus package in the next Congress. Each of these actions separately increases the tax burden on the economy and does nothing to encourage economic growth. Giving more money to people when they fail and taking more money away from people when they work doesn't increase work. And the stock market knows it.

http://online.wsj.co...0024970697.html

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As a result, many Wall Street institutions are using billions and billions of taxpayer dollars to pay for fat cats’ bonuses.

Goldman Sachs, which is getting $10 billion from the bailout plan, is paying out $6.85 billion in bonuses, according to media reports. That’s $210,000 per employee. And that’s despite a 47% drop in its profit and 53% drop in its share price.

Morgan Stanley, which is also getting $10 billion from our government, is doling out $6.44 billion in bonuses or $138,700 per employee, even though its profits tumbled 41% and its shares are off by 69%.

And even the failures at Lehman Brothers are collectively getting over $1 billion in bonuses.
Some conservatives have been bemoaning the “nationalization” of America’s big banks. Yet we didn’t nationalize anything — we don’t control those banks. They’re free to spend the bailout money as they please.

And we got hosed.


If Only We Got A Deal Like Buffett Did …

Just compare the deal Uncle Sam got for Goldman Sachs shares to the deal Warren Buffett made.

Warren Buffett invested $5 billion in Goldman Sachs in return for preferred stock and warrants to purchase common stock in the future. Buffett’s preferred shares pay a sweet 10% dividend.

But Goldman and the other big financial institutions needed more money to cover their bad bets.

So, 20 days later, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson came along and made an investment for preferred stock and warrants in nine banks. Only the government’s preferred shares pay a measly 5% dividend.

It gets worse …

United Steelworkers Union president Leo Gerard recently wrote in a letter to Paulson that seems to ooze anger:

“Dollar for dollar, Buffett received at least seven and perhaps up to 14 times more warrants than the Treasury did, and his warrants have more favorable terms.”

Is it relevant that Paulson used to be the head of Goldman Sachs, one of the financials being bailed out?

Heck yeah!

Under his stewardship, Uncle Sam ended up paying $125 billon for what Warren Buffett thought was worth just $62.5 billion.


http://www.istockana...id_2769735.html

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Washington Approves the Bailout


http://www.hulu.com/...ves-the-bailout

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We're in Deep State

Gone are Hank Paulson and Neel Kashkari; in their place are Treasury chief of staff Mark Patterson and CFTC chief Gary Gensler, both former Goldmanites. (Gensler was the firm's co-head of finance.) And instead of credit derivatives or oil futures or mortgage-backed CDOs, the new game in town, the next bubble, is in carbon credits — a booming trillion- dollar market that barely even exists yet, but will if the Democratic Party that it gave $4,452,585 to in the last election manages to push into existence a groundbreaking new commodities bubble, disguised as an "environmental plan," called cap-and-trade. The new carbon-credit market is a virtual repeat of the commodities-market casino that's been kind to Goldman, except it has one delicious new wrinkle: If the plan goes forward as expected, the rise in prices will be government-mandated. Goldman won't even have to rig the game. It will be rigged in advance.

http://isteve.blogsp...deep-state.html

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Congressman Stearns: Mr Paulson How Do You Have Any Credibility?