Politics and Press

The interaction of the press and politics; public diplomacy, and daily absurdities.

The Bush Watch

ON THE NEW U.S. ECONOMY

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Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.   –   John Maynard Keynes

As the U.S. economy falters due largely to lending practices that at best were idiotic and unethical and at worst illegal, the government has decided it needed to step in, and has done so at a potential cost of $700 billion. While not as much as the Iraq War has cost surely this must cement George W. Bush’s reputation as the worst American president of all time. This in spite of the inevitable stories in the press seeking to find good things to say about him as his administration slowly, ever so slowly, sinks below the surface.

The following are responses to the government’s bail out project from two of Politicsandpress’s correspondents.

Item from our European Correspondent:

“Hey, hey Ben + Hank finally came up with the plan to end the “turmoil”. Of course it involves having our grandchildren repay the Chinese who will fund it. It really is better than the previous final solution of getting all the worlds central banks to “inject” $180b into “the economy”. That was a good one. Some pundit summed it up for me: ”Having discovered that the brakes don’t work the bankers have supplied the car with a louder horn.” But this new one that Ben + Hank are going to “…work ALL WEEKEND perfecting” (the sacrifices these men make for us) is the one our grandchildren will pay for.

As I understand it from the press its premise is:
“…a comprehensive approach to address the illiquid assets on bank balance sheets that are … the underlying source of the current stresses in our financial institutions and financial markets.” (And all this time I thought the underlying problem was that Amercuns weren’t repaying their debts.)

Anyway, the way this will work is:
“…the new [taxpayer of the future] entity would “purchase assets at a steep discount from solvent financial institutions and then eventually sell them back into the market” through an auction.”

Cool. Buy stuff that is worth nothing (a debt that won’t/can’t be repaid) and later sell at a tooth fairy auction. Ben + Hank expecting to make money on this? Break even? Non-inflationary? They’re not even bothering to tell those lies.

So anyway, anyway, I am all for it cause it kicks the can down the road to a point after which I will have kicked the can.

Washington, DC responds:
The “market” just loves kicking the can. Investments go bad due to the ingenuity of the greedy little men in the world of finance [and the ignorance of the man of the street] with a large helping of gumm’t indifference – and oh yeah add the disastrous balance of trade – and the result is a $500, or is it a $800, billion bailout by our grandkids – ain’t capitalism wonderful? I’m hoping this will put a stop to the religious fervor of the followers of Milton Freedman and his laissez faire capitalism – well, that is too much to hope methinks, how about putting a dent in it.

Getting to know you – Dubja style

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Despite vociferous criticism of the press recently that is is longer doing its researched investigative job, occasionally a story comes out that shows that some informative journalism still takes place. The Vancouver Sun, for instance, published in its August 6 edition, startling information about US State Department grasp of foreign affairs, when, after a 3 and a half year wait, it received information it had requested under the freedom of information act, about the protocol guide prepared for President Bush and his staff before Bush’s first visit to Canada in Ottawa and Halifax from Nov. 30-Dec 1, 2004. Documents included by the U.S. Office of the Chief of Protocol prepared the president for the culture shock he would experience when travelling far from home.

Under social customs and courtesies, designed to prevent USERS from accidently offending the natives, were the following:
“On being introduced the customary greetings are firm handshake, customary “Hello” or Bonjour” in Quebec.”
“During conversations remove sunglasses.”
“While indoors remove hats.”
“Canadians, for the most part, place importance on education, skill, modesty and politeness”.

Under advice on deciphering a foreign tongue
‘”eh” is pronounced “ay”, is used mostly in rural areas and roughly translates as: “You know?” or “Isn’t it?”‘

While concluding “that most Canadian gestures are the same as those in the US it notes some exceptions:
“To call someone to you, use the entire hand rather than the index figure.”
“In Quebec, the thumbs down sign is considered offensive.”

In a follow-up analysis of the visit, the document also deals with serious political matters such as expected anti-US demonstrations, noting that protesters ranged from anarchists to raging grannies:

but “The Belly Dancers Against Bush were nowhere to be seen… they do tend to be active in the summer, for obvious reasons.”

No we assure you that these are not the fantasies of Rick Moranis, Joe Flaherty, John Candy, Martin Short, Andrea Martin and my brother and me in one of our finest hours. If you don’t believe me, put in your request for freedom of information documents, and in three and one half years, you will see why my brother and I can no longer do satire like we could in the good old days when we blew up things real good. Now it’s done by bureaucrats who should be stand-up comedians. By the way, your president by then will probably be a chap who recently announced that he would like to talk to the president of Canada. If he ever had made the trip 100 kilometers north of his home base (which he hasn’t), he would find out there was no such thing. Oh no, not another one! I wonder if he knows which country is by far the US’s largest trading partner and which country is by far the leading source of its fuel. There must be some documents on the topic in the secret vaults that he could take a look at before it’s too late.

A Trip to Bush’s Fantasy Land

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Here is a kind of scary excerpt from a George Bush interview with German TV:

Q Do you think there’s a point where you’d say only a military option is a possibility for us?

THE PRESIDENT: I would never say that. I would say that we would always try to try diplomacy first. In other words, I — I’ve committed our troops into harm’s way twice, and it’s not a pleasant experience because I understand the consequences firsthand.

Firsthand???? When and where was that? Cheerleading for Yale at Harvard?