Wednesday - October 15, 2008Welcome to Socialism, America... Whether You Like It or NotI didn't think Henry Paulson could get any more brazen in overstepping the bounds of his proper authority. But when I woke yesterday morning and began to read the news, my jaw dropped yet again. Now he has literally strong-armed healthy banks into nationalization. I was already calling him King Henry, but now I realize it's time to endow him with a new title. How about Überkaiser...? Nah... Now that I think about it, I say we go with Führer. It's so historically rich, practically trips off the tongue, and is oh so fitting. Saturday - September 20, 2008Henry Paulson: Crony and Snake in the GrassHenry, Henry, Henry... I see you. I see what you are. I see what you're doing. And I wouldn't trust you if my life depended on it. Which, at the moment, it kind of does. If you, dear reader, are a taxpayer--and I'm guessing you do fall into that category--Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's "bold plan" to guard against recession both at home and abroad should have you hopping mad and incredibly suspicious. The plan, which we have yet to see in a finalized form, would give congress the power to buy bad debt from private industry. The price tag mentioned in the media this morning? I hope you're sitting down... $700 BILLION dollars. Wednesday - September 17, 2008The Federal Reserve Marches OnAfter today's news that the Federal Reserve will "loan" insurance conglomerate AIG $85 billion, I feel horrified but hardly surprised.... The Federal Reserve is currently taking full advantage of Wall Street's failures and, in so doing, succeeding wildly at fulfilling its covert mission: to empty the pockets of the American taxpayer. Thursday - March 30, 2006Revolution Revisited?: Reflections on the Student Protests in France“No government has ever been
beneficent,” Woodrow Wilson once asserted, “when the attitude of the
government was that it was taking care of the people. The only freedom consists
in the people taking care of the government.”
The French love to be contrary. I'm not talking out of school. I'm telling you what they proudly say about themselves. They are also stubborn and possess a remarkable ability to cling tenaciously to concepts, opinions, and strategies that most of them openly admit no longer serve them. Their recalcitrance has dug them quite a deep hole. There is now so much wrong with the French political, social, and economic systems that finding a coherent place to begin discussion becomes a monumental brainteaser. French students, however, have honed in on one: Dominique de Villepin’s "First Employment Contract," or Contrat premier embauche (CPE), slated to go into effect in April. Will these latest rumblings of discontent in France ultimately erupt into what that nation needs, something wholly new? |