Corruption

Niall Ferguson attacks President Obama

Niall Ferguson: "Obama’s Gotta Go”

 is what Ferguson wrote in the news issue of The Newsweek.

One must take into account that Niall Ferguson had been an adviser to John McCain which points out his own ideology which might have clouded his view when writing his article.

Furthermore Niall Ferguson wrote, “Why does Paul Ryan scare the president so much? Because Obama has broken his promises, and it’s clear that the GOP ticket’s path to prosperity is our only hope.”

In in article he uses detailed numbers to validate his argument but he does not consider the question why Obama could not keep his promises. 

President Obama took office during the worst financial crises since the Great Depression after the passage of the United States' Smoot-Hawley Tariff in the 1930s. 

President Obama took office during a time when the income tax for the wealthiest in the United States was and still is at a historical low.

President Obama took office during a time when bankers got reworded for causing this financial crisis.

Nonetheless President Obama took on the challenge to tackle Healthcare despite overwhelming opposition from the right (GOP) as well as interest groups who feared a loss in their revenue, like insurance companies who otherwise could charge whatever they want. Surely what President Obama got was not perfect but only a compromise.  It would have been better if  the U.S. would have gotten a single payer system like the Europeans or in Asians have. However, to call President Obama's compromise a failure shows where Niall Ferguson interests are situated.  

Moreover  Niall Ferguson complains about President Obama's diplomacy. He calls him weak because President Obama is not like J.W. Bush and probably also Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan a war president. Do we really want to go back to the time of J.W. Bush and start a war again just because we want to look tough? Being cautious is not a sign of weakness but wisdom. 

And now Niall Ferguson’s solution is, to elect a man to become president who is a millionaire but who is clearly  not interested in the struggling American middle-class but in the ones who supported him with billions during this election cycle. In addition Niall Ferguson argues for a vice-president who wants to make the American people suffer in the same way as those in Greece, Spain, Portugal etc.  So the Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan pact can continue to give more money to the banks which have caused this misery in the first place.

Niall Ferguson suggest to have valued added tax like in Germany which would be even unfairer as the current tax giveaway to the super-wealthy. It would make life for the poor as well as the middle-class even more difficult.

Writers like Niall Ferguson are out to protect their wealth regardless of the suffering of the common man around the world. I often wonder about this kind of journalism. I wonder about the ones who have their own private agenda, the ones who protect their own interests as Niall Ferguson does and see in the GOP ticket as a path to more prosperity for themselves and the ones who have more than they ever need.

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan: Back to the Failed Top-Down Policies

Money Matters Most in Politics?

Just this past week Republican Scott Walker was reelected despite his move to eliminate unions in the state where American Unions were first founded. He has been supported by a Tea Party group attack ad which talks about the “labor-union mobs”!

What do we have learned from this controversial victory? Money Matters Most in Politics. As the great political strategist Lyle Lovett sang, “No finance, no romance.”

 Doesn’t this say everything about what is wrong with American politics these days? Walker’s campaign raised an astonishing $30.5 million compared to his opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who raised just $3.9 million. Why do we allow outside groups to compound this asymmetry by letting them pour tens of millions into other states like Wisconsin where the vast majority of this money went to the pro-Walker side? Is this still considered democracy where M-O-N-E-Y decides an election instead of values and integrity? In my opinion this borders on corruption and has nothing to do with real democracy anymore.

 Has a new class Warfare Has Already Begun? 

Just look at the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Does Mitt Romney really care about the common American or is he too  caught up with this new conservative trend that nothing matters any more but money. Do the ones who don’t have the money to buy a voice matter anymore or will they be left in the gutter to rot away?

It looks like America is on a path where people don’t get a voice because they don’t have the money to be heard. We are gazing at the Middle East with astonishment wondering how people could risk their lives for freedom. Well, let me tell you, it doesn’t take much anymore for people around the United States to stand up and fight for their democracy again. The past Occupy Wall Street Movement had been suppressed by the ones who have the money because it had become too annoying to the ones who have the money. But one can only take so much beating !

 Has M-O-N-E-Y once again become the roots of all evil?

C-SPAN's Washington Journal covers State Integrity Investigation

Found on iWatch News

Watch the Center's Executive Director Bill Buzenberg answer questions on the ins and outs of the State Integrity Investigation on C-SPAN's Washington Journal program with John McArdle. Buzenberg explains how to read the investigation's report cards, which state legislators are already calling for reform and why New Jersey's government beat the entire nation in transparency laws.

With Money and Momentum, Scott Walker Gains Ground in Wisconsin Recall Campaign

"With Money and Momentum, Scott Walker Gains Ground in Wisconsin Recall Campaign" writes Brown Deer of the Time. Scott Walker is one good example why we have to worry about a possible return of the GOP in November.

During the last midterm, many people voted for similar Politician from the Tea Party because they had been disappointed with Obama. Many people had believed that President Barak Obama would be able to turn Washing simply around, not realizing that he has been and still is depended on the cooperation of the congress. Moreover Obama probably didn’t want to look like someone who would take advantage of the Democratic dominated congress of his first term. He had believed and probably still believes that good politics can only work in a democracy when one is working together as a whole country to solve problems as severe as the financial crises.   

What the President had not expected was an ever more stubborn and ideological congress that would simply block everything he proposed. Moreover Republicans are now simply saying that the President didn’t deliver on his promises.

Well, if we vote for the GOP this fall, we are going to have to expect a government that will act like Scott Walker who eliminated the unions and was called by Mitt Romney a “hero or Governor Rick Snyder who simply used his expanded “emergency” powers to eliminate democracy.

Do we really want to go this route?

Money, Power and Wall Street: Part Four

Watch Money, Power and Wall Street: Part Four on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Money, Power and Wall Street: Part Three

Watch Money, Power and Wall Street: Part Three on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Money, Power and Wall Street: Part Two

Watch Money, Power and Wall Street: Part Two on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Money, Power and Wall Street: Part One

Watch Money, Power and Wall Street: Part One on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.