The standing stones of the just have fallen, even their shadows are no more. It galls me and irritates me like sand in my teeth this fantasyland America. A Nightmareville, a dream gone horribly wrong, what sort of country is this that just abandons its own people? Sentences them to a slow death and poverty all to protect the private kingdoms of greed.
My god, this country once built more automobiles than anyone else on earth and now its factories are shuttered as its name plates vanish. Replaced by imports manufactured by workers earning $5.00 per hour. Last year a record low in new cars sales at thirteen million or one new car per thirteen workers. Deduct fleet sales, government purchases more like one new car per twenty five workers or fifty workers.
One million less new cars sold this year than will be placed on the scrap heap, shredded and sold as junk to Asia where remorseless hammers pound out new products in slave wage factories.
Bloomberg - Bank of America Corp. (BAC) was accused by a top official at the Iowa attorney general's office of engaging in a divide-and-conquer strategy by undermining support for the settlement of a nationwide probe into foreclosure practices, a person familiar with the matter said.
The bank tried to get attorneys general to break away from those supporting the proposed accord, Iowa Assistant Attorney General Patrick Madigan said during a recent conference call, according to the person. A second person familiar with the settlement talks said the bank sought to sow dissent among the states, eight of which have publicly criticized the proposal's terms.
The banks which acted illegally now look to subvert even the process which lets them off with a slap on the wrist. The sufferings of millions of men, women and children are subverted and discounted all in the name of greed. This is what America is about, only here; only in this place could such a thing be possible.
Bloomberg - Even with last month's gains, housing may remain a weak component in the economic recovery that began in June 2009 as unemployment, falling property values and stricter loan rules push foreclosure filings to a record level.
"We continue to just tread water along the bottom," said John Herman, a senior fixed-income strategist at State Street Global Markets LLC in Boston. "The housing market is fairly depressed. We think home prices will fall further."
"Fairly depressed"? Home prices have fallen further and for a longer period than in the last Great Depression and yet they dare to speak of recovery. How can that be? Two thirds of all wealth in America is held in real property and as the market slowly bleeds to death they dare to speak of recovery.
They speak of recovery while out of the other side of their mouth they talk of budget cuts. They talk of birth certificates instead of building the economy and spending cuts while the two corporate parties whisper to one another with a wink, tax cuts. The truth is they don't want to build the economy, they like this one just fine the way it is.
Exported jobs means high unemployment, high unemployment means lower wages and falling union membership. They are bleeding the economy like a medieval physician in hopes to keep the patient alive but too weak to fight about it. An economic coup de tat, a nation of hamburger stands and Wal-Mart greeters.
A nation of Eloi reared on psychotropic television, waiting for a recovery that's not coming while holding the bag wide open expecting fresh snipe for dinner.
The other day the durable goods report showed an increase for the third month in a row based primarily on aircraft orders. Aircraft which increasingly are built with imported components so rather than manufacturing aircraft they are merely assembling them. If I import shoes from China and shoe laces from Mexico what has been accomplished? Those thirteen million American new cars are built in increasing numbers in Mexican factories. These American automakers have plans to double their production in Mexico by the end of the decade while the Obama Administration proposes using America's international trading bank to co-sign loans for Mexican car buyers.
So called Free Trade is the hammer which drives the pin in your shackles. There is nothing free about it, rather than bringing the scabs to the coal mine they have simply taken the coal mine to the scabs. American meat packers place help wanted ads in Mexican newspapers and feign innocence as the illegal workers are hauled away as criminals. Maybe they were hauled away just before payday? I suspect it would be so in this economy.
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