The Fall of America, Inc.

I most definitely do not want to restore our brand. Our "brand" has reduced our democracy to a kleptocracy - rule by thieves. An unholy alliance between Washington and Wall Street has resulted in lobbyists writing legislation, no bid contracts, open looting of the National Treasury in favor of incompetent, irresponsible, insatiably greedy managers at key financial institutions and a death spirial of the middle class.

We need to return to the original vision of America - where government represents the PEOPLE, not the richest CORPORATIONS. Where actions by rogue corporations that cause terrible harm to society are prohibited by law, regulated fiercely and punished severely.

Actions that damage our economic sovereignty and, by extension, our national security are tantamount to treason and can no longer be tolerated. If the system can't be changed to rein in this behavior once and for all, the system is, frankly, not worth saving.

In January 14th of this year, I proposed a comprehensive language to lead our organizations. It???s called MBS! (See http://www.fivestarmanager.com).
Would be desirable to analyze the managerial failures of those organizations, probably responsible for the crisis we face today
The answer could be in the lack or failure of any of the basic premises involved in the MBS.
Another question: Is the practice of MBS in our organizations an utopia?
Are our societies in a state of no return and the knowledge, the practice of rationality and values are an impossible?
The most important thing today is to know that happened and what we must do, to avoid repeating the history.
Luis G. Jaramillo

Nins is mistaken. I can't believe I am in the position of defending the Bush administration, buy the Gramm Leach Bliley Act was passed in 1999, two years before "W" took office.

On October 10, the Alaska Legislative Council found Sarah Palin guilty of abusing power. Immediately Ms. Palin said "if you read the report you'll see that there was nothing unlawful or unethical about replacing a cabinet member." This quote by Palin is only 50% true. The Legislative Council report says it was LEGAL for her to fire Commissioner Monegan, since as Governor she has the right to hire and fire her staff at will. The report also says that her firing of Commissioner Monegan was an UNETHICAL abuse of power.

Palin tells you half of the truth, and lies outright about the other half. You know the old saying: If you tell a lie, make sure it contains some truth so it will be believable.

From the report:

Palin tried to force the Commissioner to prosecute Trooper Wooten (her former brother in law) for illegally shooting a moose. The Commissioner explained to Palin that if they charged Wooten they would also have to bring charges against Palin's sister, who was present on the hunt, had the moose permit and illegally let her husband use it. They would also have to prosecute Palin's father, who cut up the moose and stored it in his freezer, sharing the meat with the Palin family. In other words, the Palins were OK with Wooten illegally shooting the moose when it happened. They participated in the hunt and kept the meat. But a year later when Wooten was divorcing Palin's sister, suddenly the Palins turned him in for illegally killing a moose.

The Palins turned Wooten in to the State Troopers disciplinary commission about a year and a half before she became Governor. The Troopers investigated Wooten, finding that some of Palin's allegations were true and some were false. The Troopers disciplined Wooten with a few days' suspension. When Palin tried to get Monegan (the new Commissioner) to re-open the case once she was Governor, Monegan told her he couldn't do it. All the allegations had already been investigated and Palin had no new evidence. Trooper Wooten belongs to a union, and he can not be fired just because the Governor doesn't like him.

So, the Palins hired a private investigator to trail Wooten, trying to catch him doing something wrong. The investigator took photos of Wooten dropping his kids off at school, using his patrol car. The Palins file a complaint, saying it is illegal for him to ferry his kids in a patrol car. They try and get him fired for this, except it turns out that since Wooten was working a swing shift, his Commander had given him a waiver to bring his kids to school in the car.

Wooten and Palin's sister have been divorced 3 years, yet the Palins continue to persecute Wooten. Palin just can't forgive and get past this family drama.

Read the report yourself (it takes a few seconds to load):

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Components/Interactives/Politics/Election2008/branchflower
_report_to_the_legislative_council.pdf

This link of a CSPAN video clip may help set the context, as these hearings were at the time of McCains attempt at S.190.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

"Video Unearthed Democrats in their own words Covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam that caused our Economic Crisis"

Oh, and all the defeatists are coming out of the woodwork as well. "Give up!" "Withdraw!" "It can't work". Sorry, you tried it with Iraq (it's not working so we must pull out because that's the only solution) and it won't work here either. You are more than welcome to leave our capitalist paradise and say, move to Cuba. Just leave the free-thinkers alone, we'll sort it out ourselves. And take your white flag with you.

If anyone, anywhere, can factually demonstrate that larger government and higher taxes lead to more growth I will order my hat rare. There are no examples in history of conservative economics being discredited. In fact, it's the opposite: the only examples are that cutting taxes and removing government from free enterprise promotes extreme growth. Just look at Ireland and Spain as examples. It's insane to use the excuse that market dislocations discredit capitalism and support socialism. That's exactly what deepened and lengthened the Great Depression until enough businesses fought back against the government's socialist experimentation. But, these people have been biding their time and are now coming out of the woodwork to prove that capitalism and free markets don't work. Laughable.

"But in continental Europe, workers are still treated to long vacations, short working weeks, job guarantees and a host of other benefits that weaken their productivity and will not be financially sustainable."

This just isn't true statistically -- if you look at the OECD data you will find that in terms of GDP per hour worked that the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Norway all have higher productivity levels than the United States. France has 93% of US productivity and Sweden has 89%.

By way explanation: Whatever they may say, it should be obvious that neither Fukuyama nor anybody else at this stage has any idea what sort of "ruling ideology" will emerge from the catastrophe we're now in. We can't tell, for instance, that the sort of liberal democracy/free market capitalism, championed by Fukuyama in the past, will prevail. His own analysis in this article, makes that clear.

The Fall of Francis Fukuyama: So I guess 1990 wasn't the "end of history" after all. Go back to the drawing board or, better, stay in the real world from now on. And, while you're at it, if it's the American approach that's been called into question, answer the question: "How does that suggest that European labor practices should be called into question?!"

Hegel is no substitute for history

Mostly good article but it's not consistent with Fukuyama's earlier writing.

This link of a CSPAN video may help set the context, as these hearings were at the time of McCains attempt at S.190.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

"Shocking Video Unearthed Democrats in their own words Covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam that caused our Economic Crisis"

Mr Fukuyama I am sure is a brilliant man in his field of International Political Economics, but what makes his evaluation of the state of the current economic and financial crisis any better than another professor of economics from another university or from a corporation? I realize that any magazine such as Newsweek has certain restraints regarding how much to include in their edition, but is it right to include just one opinion? Don't get me wrong, I think Mr. Fukuyama's article is very thought provoking, and I in no way detract from it. I just would like to read differing evaluations from other economists that are of his peer group regarding our current situation. I feel that one person's opinion should not be held inviolate, unless he's God. One should be able to look at all facets of an argument, and then make a decision. But, I can't afford to buy Time, US News and World Report, The Economist, Barrons, Financial Times, etc., to get all the different slants on the news. Thanks goodness for the Internet. For Servant 43: Have Obama send you his bills and you bundle them up and sell them on the financial market as collateralized securities.

All these expenses that Obama has promised are going to cost a lot of money! Who will pay? Only those over $250K of income? They are too smart. They will take their money to other countries as so many companies have done with their jobs. Then who will pay? Who ever is left holding the bill.

Obama wants to give humanitarian aid to every country that asks for it while bombing Pakistan one of our allies! What if - God for bid - we kill even one innocent citizen of Pakistan in the process? Will NATO attack us to protect Pakistan? Will Pakistan bomb its enemies living on our soil? They have nuclear bombs you know! The absurdity should stop the foolish talk. We should get permission from Pakistan before making outlandish statements like bombing allies without explicit consent from their leaders. How would you feel if Russia, Iran or North Korea bombed us to kill their terrorists living in our country?

People are afraid of what the polls are telling them is currently happening. Fact - with Obama, taxes will go up. His record states that and even he admits it. People know that higher taxes means a worse economy. The people have spoken the only way they know how - With Money. They pulled out of the stock market from fear of Obama and they have stopped buying to save up money to pay all the new taxes.

"The era of trickle down economics is over". Wait..."The era of crushing the middle class is over". Scratch that..."The era of over hyped republican idiots destroying our economy is over". There we go. Whether the republicans liked it or not, government is a necessity for capitalism to succeed as long as it's run intelligently and paid for. Regulations are needed to reign in modern day robber barons and prevent the messes we currently find ourselves in. The lists are long and painful. How can the CEO of AIG make a half billion dollars since 2000 while the retirements of most Americans is in ashes. Oh wait, thats a republican's wet dream. The rich get richer and the middle class and poor get shafted. Since the late 70's the wealth gap between the rich and poor has widened to mind boggling levels. The country has exported manufacturing to the point where we don't make anything anymore. They argued that by having other countries such as China and Mexico become wealthier, they would in turn buy more American products. Wait a minute, we don't make anything anymore, hmmm, interesting concept. The catch 22 economic policy. They argued Americans needed to go back to college in order to compete in the new information economy but a college education has increased more in cost than almost any other item unless you take out numerous loans and saddle yourself with debt. Americans were brainwashed that retirement pensions were old fashioned and 4
01ks were the panacea to working class Americans....not. It's over, a new generation will be in charge come January 2008 and the

In a few weeks we will make a choice that will decide our future.
I follow an economist named Bob Proctor. He has called the top and bottom of every market crash since the 70s correctly.
Also, he perfectly predicted the current real estate market meltdown and the picture he paints about what will happen in the next couple years
is terrifying.He thinks it will be worse then the great depression.
The banks in the U.S. are going under one after the other. Countrywide ,Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch , Fanny and Freddy Mae ,AIG
The government took them over because they are essentially bankrupt. Even with the goverment nationalizing hundreds of billions of dollars in debt the stock market is crashing
the credit markets are frozen and all of us may suffer beyond anything in the last 80 years.
McCain just like Bush " doesn't understand the economy".
That not just my opinion its his own words. Not only does he not understand how to fix it but he does not understand exactly what is broken.
It is no surprise that he doesn't. The people that make up these securities use complex mathematical models very few people understand.
Bush and McCain both can take the credit for this mess since they helped deregulate the laws that were protecting us.
Bush's economic advisor Phil Graham wrote the deregulation bill that allowed banks to take huge risks with all of our future.
Now, Phil Graham is the head of McCain's economic policy.He is also McCain's choice for the next secretary of the treasury.
No one in this country can afford for that to happen. The last time Bush met with his economic advisors was in March. He didnt realize that anything was wrong. Phil Graham had the guts to say that we are in a mental recession after he helped create the worst economy meltdown in our lifetime. Check out this link to the truth http://my.barackobama.com/keatingvideo
It will take the best and brightest minds in the world to get us out of this nightmare. As bad as Bush has done, McCain would be
even more destructive because things are in much worse shape. The next president will not inherit a surplus like Bush did but a crashing economy and a 11,600,000,000,000 (trillion) dollars deficit. Most of it Bush created and it will take decades to pay it back.
If you do what you have always done then you will get what you have always got.
When it comes to policy Bush and McCain are the same 90 percent of the time.
So why are the polls even close then ?
Mccains team just said they no longer want to talk about the economy.Instead they would like to spend time talking about obama
which means running the biggest smear campaign in history.
They think they can just tell you lies and you wont be smart enough to see through it
Let's teach him we are smarter than that .
Elect Obama Biden 2008


Check out this video of sarah palins interview and ask your self if she understands what she is talking about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r36Xc0GG4iQ

In a few weeks we will make a choice that will decide our future.
I follow an economist named Bob Proctor. He has called the top and bottom of every market crash since the 70s correctly.
Also, he perfectly predicted the current real estate market meltdown and the picture he paints about what will happen in the next couple years
is terrifying.He thinks it will be worse then the great depression.
The banks in the U.S. are going under one after the other. Countrywide ,Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch , Fanny and Freddy Mae ,AIG
The government took them over because they are essentially bankrupt. Even with the goverment nationalizing hundreds of billions of dollars in debt the stock market is crashing
the credit markets are frozen and all of us may suffer beyond anything in the last 80 years.
McCain just like Bush " doesn't understand the economy".
That not just my opinion its his own words. Not only does he not understand how to fix it but he does not understand exactly what is broken.
It is no surprise that he doesn't. The people that make up these securities use complex mathematical models very few people understand.
Bush and McCain both can take the credit for this mess since they helped deregulate the laws that were protecting us.
Bush's economic advisor Phil Graham wrote the deregulation bill that allowed banks to take huge risks with all of our future.
Now, Phil Graham is the head of McCain's economic policy.He is also McCain's choice for the next secretary of the treasury.
No one in this country can afford for that to happen. The last time Bush met with his economic advisors was in March. He didnt realize that anything was wrong. Phil Graham had the guts to say that we are in a mental recession after he helped create the worst economy meltdown in our lifetime. Check out this link to the truth http://my.barackobama.com/keatingvideo
It will take the best and brightest minds in the world to get us out of this nightmare. As bad as Bush has done, McCain would be
even more destructive because things are in much worse shape. The next president will not inherit a surplus like Bush did but a crashing economy and a 11,600,000,000,000 (trillion) dollars deficit. Most of it Bush created and it will take decades to pay it back.
If you do what you have always done then you will get what you have always got.
When it comes to policy Bush and McCain are the same 90 percent of the time.
So why are the polls even close then ?
Mccains team just said they no longer want to talk about the economy.Instead they would like to spend time talking about obama
which means running the biggest smear campaign in history.
They think they can just tell you lies and you wont be smart enough to see through it
Let's teach him we are smarter than that .
Elect Obama Biden 2008


Check out this video of sarah palins interview and ask your self if she understands what she is talking about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r36Xc0GG4iQ

In a few weeks we will make a choice that will decide our future.
I follow an economist named Bob Proctor. He has called the top and bottom of every market crash since the 70s correctly.
Also, he perfectly predicted the current real estate market meltdown and the picture he paints about what will happen in the next couple years
is terrifying.He thinks it will be worse then the great depression.
The banks in the U.S. are going under one after the other. Countrywide ,Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch , Fanny and Freddy Mae ,AIG
The government took them over because they are essentially bankrupt. Even with the goverment nationalizing hundreds of billions of dollars in debt the stock market is crashing
the credit markets are frozen and all of us may suffer beyond anything in the last 80 years.
McCain just like Bush " doesn't understand the economy".
That not just my opinion its his own words. Not only does he not understand how to fix it but he does not understand exactly what is broken.
It is no surprise that he doesn't. The people that make up these securities use complex mathematical models very few people understand.
Bush and McCain both can take the credit for this mess since they helped deregulate the laws that were protecting us.
Bush's economic advisor Phil Graham wrote the deregulation bill that allowed banks to take huge risks with all of our future.
Now, Phil Graham is the head of McCain's economic policy.He is also McCain's choice for the next secretary of the treasury.
No one in this country can afford for that to happen. The last time Bush met with his economic advisors was in March. He didnt realize that anything was wrong. Phil Graham had the guts to say that we are in a mental recession after he helped create the worst economy meltdown in our lifetime. Check out this link to the truth http://my.barackobama.com/keatingvideo
It will take the best and brightest minds in the world to get us out of this nightmare. As bad as Bush has done, McCain would be
even more destructive because things are in much worse shape. The next president will not inherit a surplus like Bush did but a crashing economy and a 11,600,000,000,000 (trillion) dollars deficit. Most of it Bush created and it will take decades to pay it back.
If you do what you have always done then you will get what you have always got.
When it comes to policy Bush and McCain are the same 90 percent of the time.
So why are the polls even close then ?
Mccains team just said they no longer want to talk about the economy.Instead they would like to spend time talking about obama
which means running the biggest smear campaign in history.
They think they can just tell you lies and you wont be smart enough to see through it
Let's teach him we are smarter than that .
Elect Obama Biden 2008


Check out this video of sarah palins interview and ask your self if she understands what she is talking about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r36Xc0GG4iQ