How does a centralized pan-South American/Caribbean bank with ties to Iran effect US influence in our hemisphere? This event coincides with the New York Times publishing Waving Goodbye to Hegemony, a long but worthy read which pieces together a world view absent US global dominance.

Given the our nation's current financial crisis, the long standing history of the Monroe Doctrine, and a US president who seems happiest when indulging fantasies of channeling Teddy Roosevelt, will Chavez's move here be viewed as tantamount to an act of war, or are these billions of dollars just drops in the bucket?

From Yahoo! Finance: "Chavez welcomed the Caribbean island of Dominica into the ALBA -- an acronym that means "dawn" in Spanish -- joining Nicaragua, Bolivia and Cuba. Attending as observers were the prime ministers of Antigua and Barbuda and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, along with officials from Ecuador, Honduras, Haiti and St. Kitts and Nevis.

Chavez said a new fund created by Venezuela and Iran to support projects in third countries would have links to the ALBA Bank."

Labels: ALBA Bank, economy, Hugo Chavez, iran, Monroe Doctrine, Venezuela

This is the standard story going out on the wire.

"To be useful, a fiscal stimulus package should be implemented quickly and structured so that its effects on aggregate spending are felt as much as possible within the next 12 months or so," Bernanke said. But he said any package should be "explicitly temporary" to avoid running up the government's long-term debt.

He said extending the Bush tax cuts -- which are set to expire in 2010 -- could have a positive impact on the stock market today. But Bernanke stopped short of suggesting that the Bush tax cuts should be made permanent, telling lawmakers he supports "the law of arithmetic."

"What comes in at least has to equal what goes out at some point," he said.

That's all you need to understand America, now move along. What's that? You want to know the facts? Bah! You don't need facts! If you did, CNN would have given them to you.



Here are statistics from the Federal Reserve through 2006. You can clearly see the progression of consumer debt. It's far worse than the White House let's on.

Labels: Ben Bernanke, economy, George W. Bush

And this is a good thing?

From the page: "An Associated Press review of birth numbers dating to 1909 found the total number of U.S. births was the highest since 1961, near the end of the baby boom. An examination of global data also shows that the United States has a higher fertility rate than every country in continental Europe, as well as Australia, Canada and Japan. Fertility levels in those countries have been lower than the U.S. rate for several years, although some are on the rise, most notably in France.

Experts believe there is a mix of reasons: a decline in contraceptive use, a drop in access to abortion, poor education and poverty."

Labels: Demographics, economy

It's been far too long since I dug deep and let my conspiratorial freak-flag fly. So tonight, incensed by an aggressively bad baseball game in which the Sox were thumped by the Indians 13-6 in 11 innings, and inspired by a fresh cup of reheated coffee, rapid dissent is gonna earn some of that black-background conspiracy blog cred.


In his radio address this week President Bush took our nation down yet another rabbit hole. While the world adjusted to the idea of Al Gore as a Nobel Laureate, and the Democratic led Congress dabbled in foreign policy by indelicately putting a thumb in the eye of our most significant material and logistic ally in the Middle East, and the American people on both sides of the aisle silently cursed the veto of the SCHIP bill, President Bush was kicking off a media blitz for support of a suite of Latin American trade pacts.

The trade agreements with Peru, Colombia, and Panama will “strengthen our ties with our friends,” Bush said, and “will help counter the false populism promoted by hostile nations”; a direct stab at Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Representative Sander Levin (D-MI), Chairman of the Trade Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee went one further, "It is only the beginning of a necessary, active grappling with the challenges and opportunities of globalization," he said.

Only the beginning...That's the operative phrase here, because this week's radio address comes on the heels of former Mexican President Vincente Fox's book tour during which he told CNN's Larry King that he and George W. Bush had agreed to long term plans for our nations to extend and strengthen the provisions of the NAFTA treaty and ultimately establish a pan-American, Euro-like currency.


The concept of the Amero has been around for a while now, but it seems as if George W. Bush is actually laying the foundations for a single, hemispheric currency (can we call it the Hemi?). While most reports state the proposed Amero would encompass Canada, Mexico and the United States, it seems apparent from Bush's address that the leaders of our nations also intend on inviting the countries of Latin and South America into the dark brotherhood.


Who'da thunk it? George Bush really does want one ring to rule them all. One thing is for sure, any idea that can draw the combined ire of both the John Birch Society and the Sierra Club has got to be awesome! Didn't he say he was a uniter?

Labels: amero, economy

It's a new strategy for the GOP: everyone loves the underdog. The party that currently holds sway over all three branches of our government will spend the next few weeks blaming the diminished returns of the American economy, the failed Road Map process in the Middle East, and the woeful state of American national security on their critics in a bid to fashion themselves as underdogs in the upcoming election. The President and his top advisers this past week framed critics of the administration - morally and intellectually confused adherents to the "blame America first" school of thought - as the chief cause of domestic and foreign policy failures.

In a stunning invocation of Godwin's Law, President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld equated those who oppose the administration's handling of the War on Terror with Nazi appeasers and Communists sympathizers. It was an attempt to portray to the public a well-meaning administration hamstrung in its efforts to fight the good fight not by sheer incompetence and hubris, but by feckless naysayers who just don't "get it."

For the first time in six years the GOP is approaching the American voter like a ne'er-do-well spouse asking for just one more chance to make things right. Without a single successful venture to point to in six years of power the GOP is blaming everyone but themselves for failures under their watch.

Will it work? Can the election spin machine turn a brash-talking cowboy president into a sympathetic Joe just trying to do right by his heart? It's already started. MSNBC's Joe Scarborough - a former GOP member of Congress - led off the first salvo with his "Is Bush an Idiot?"(video) piece a couple of weeks ago. The normally hawkish Scarborough caught some flack for the piece but it served its purpose. Those inclined to defend the President did, and the undecided in the crowd stopped thinking of President Bush as world's only nuclear armed six-gun slinger and started to wonder if maybe folks were being too hard on the guy. Phase one was complete.

Phase two came with the announcement that more GOP Congressional seats than previously believed are up for grabs in this year's midterm election. These members of Congress don't need to associate themselves with the president or his administration - that's a losing proposition - they only need to follow the President's lead and attack their morally and intellectually confused opponents who either don't get it, or simply don't take threats to American national security seriously.

Which leads me to phase three: seriously. Expect to see this buzzword, or at least the concept, in more frequent use. The electioneers know they have a major problem with satirists like Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, and Stephen Colbert(video). These commentators reach an audience of tens of millions of people showcasing the failures and ineptitude of the administration weekly. In the GOP underdog strategy, their impact will be marginalized by the notion that their dissent is a stumbling block to what might otherwise be successful GOP policies. Furthermore their criticisms will be wholly discounted not because they are without merit, but because they come from comedians out only for laughs. In short, these critics of the administration do not take the threats America faces seriously. The goal of this phase of the underdog strategy is to diminish, if not neutralize, the impact of any observations contrary to the GOP party line: stay the course, no matter what.

If you see the underdog strategy at work in your own state races post relevant links and your observations in the comments section below.

When criminals in this world appear,
And break the laws that they should fear,
And frighten all who see or hear,
The cry goes up both far and near for
Underdog,
Underdog,
Underdog,
Underdog!

Labels: Donald Rumsfeld, economy, FUD, George W. Bush, war on terror

Last Wednesday, June 7, 2006, President Bush signed Executive Order 13404 authorizing a Task Force on New Americans.

The order calls for the creation of a body, chaired by the Secretary of Homeland Security and comprised of the following members: the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and the Secretary of Education. Its purpose is to "help legal immigrants embrace the common core of American civic culture, learn our common language, and fully become Americans."

The focus of this drive to indoctrinate new Americans is mastery of the English language. This is apparently now a national security issue.

I disagree. The issue that endangers our national security is that most old Americans only know one language. The majority of our citizens are crippled in international markets, lack the skill to navigate basic social interactions in foreign languages, and have no concept of what this "globalization thing" really means for them as individuals. Our relative xenophobia is finally coming home to roost.

The world is at our doorstep. As increasingly complex global markets emerge every day our fate as economic prisoners of our own ignorance only becomes more clear. To avert this fate our President has effectively mandated a national language with this executive order following a less than decisive debate in Congress regarding the same issue last month.

Mandatory English lessons for immigrants is the wrong way to ensure all Americans recognize common core values and experience shared cultural identities. If the goal is to create a strong, cohesive nation then mandatory foreign language training for all Americans in our public schools along with English as a second language (ESL) for immigrants is the solution.

The war against American xenophobia in this age of globalization is a generational war. It will take time. But, if our nation is to survive globalization, then we must all first become global citizens.

Labels: economy, Executive Order 13404, Immigration, national language

For the subsistence-level, tribal peoples of the world a new age is dawning. It is the age of the worker.

"Developing" nations have been annexed wholly, or in-part, by multi-national corporations seeking new markets, cheap labor, and lax environmental laws. However, these corporations have a problem.

What happens when the villagers don't want your goods, your jobs, or your money? After all, what use is TV to a village with no electricity? A tribe that has spent generations developing a sustainable relationship with nature and culture incompatible with western ideals (i.e. capitalism, democracy, monotheism, etc.) has no need for the trappings of modern life - nor the sweat-shop labor necessary to enjoy them. The solution: Destroy the tribes.

Militias armed by western governments and multi-national corporations stalk these nations systematically killing men and raping women. Ethnic cleansing? Perhaps. But it's also an effective way of depopulating the countryside while flooding urban centers - some next door, some half-way around the globe - with refugees...most of whom are women and children. The result: An instant source of cheap, victimized, terrorized, labor at the mercy of their employers.

The corporations get their workforce, their merchandise, and a dumping ground for their pollution. The murderers and rapists on the ground melt back into the night - all the richer from the spoils. And finally, we - the first-world we - get our campaign pullovers on the cheap.

Labels: Africa, economy, refugees, slavery, UN

This just in from Fast Company via FARK.com:

"The giant retailer's low prices often come with a high cost. Wal-Mart's relentless pressure can crush the companies it does business with and force them to send jobs overseas. Are we shopping our way straight to the unemployment line?... Last year, 7.5 cents of every dollar spent in any store in the United States (other than auto-parts stores) went to the retailer."

Labels: economy, Wal-Mart

The economy is doing great! If you’re one of the 338,000 documented unemployed Americans out there – don’t worry. Good times are just around the corner.

Despite the fact that the US Treasury will be borrowing an unprecedented amount of scratch this year to keep our nation running, the powers-that-be assure us that our economy is on the mend. Pay no mind to the squandered surplus, the tick-like swelling of the trade deficit, or the record unemployment. This is America, damn it. The land of opportunity. A place where people can get rich(er) every day.

The Bush Administration’s economic strategy has Reagan-era financial pundits salivating. Trickle-down is back, and it’s stronger than ever. The catch is this time around the average slob knows damn well that while the rich may spend their money here in the states, they stash it in off-shore tax shelters in the meantime. The result? Less tax revenue collected for those pesky government services the “Liberals” are always whining about. Bah. Who needs welfare, Medicaid, or a decent public education anyway? Isn’t it high time the US shrugged of the poor, the sick, the huddled masses of world? Who needs them?

According to our government’s most recent assessment, things are just dandy. So much so the President – after declaring homosexuals second-class citizens – has removed himself from the burdensome task of running the most powerful nation on Earth for a month.

There was once a time that the President of the United States believed it would be inappropriate to campaign for re-election while US citizens were held hostage in Iran. Times have changed. This President had no such trial of conscience when considering whether or not he should vacation while the US economy spirals out of control for “the rest of us” not in the millionaire club, and while US troops continue to wage a war entirely of his own making.

It is a disgrace that the Commander-in-Chief should choose to “relax” while our fellow citizens fight and die. I’m sure the news of Mr. Bush’s vacation will be a real hoot to those troops counting the days they have to live through before they can finally come home to their families.

Enjoy your summer Mr. President. Your fall is fast approaching.

Labels: economy, George W. Bush

So when is the last time you heard the word "nosedive" used in reference to the US economy?

This is not good. In fact, it is BAD.

I was particularly heartened by this confident passage:

"Fed officials have indicated that their battle plan has been influenced heavily by reviewing the mistakes made by the Bank of Japan, which has been unable to jump-start that country's economy over a decade despite driving short-term interest rates to zero."

Isn't that just nifty. Maybe we should also build ourselves a giant, sinking airport while we're at it.

Will Iraqi oil be enough to get us out of this mess?

Labels: economy, iraq, Japan