The most important people...

The most important people in the world: block captains. Why?

We are the local connection to the political system. The political system determines public policy. There are only two powers in politics:

1. Money
2. People

Take responsibility for our future. Be a block captain. And do it your way.

Give me 3 hours and I'll give you 4 great years!

Dear Neighbors,

We have 25 days to go. That translates to 600 hours. This week, I need 3 of those hours to help change the future of this country. Can you help?

We need people to knock on doors THIS WEEKEND! On Saturday we are meeting at the Exton Post Office in the Exton Square Mall.

Saturday 11am- http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/canvass/gshvbx

Saturday 3pm- http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/canvass/gshvs9

AND we are meeting on Sunday at Kerr Park in Downingtown (Wallace Ave)

Sunday 12:30- http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/canvass/gshvly


We also need phonebankers at the office! Please reply to this email to schedule!

Mon-Sat 10-1, 1-5, 5-9

Sunday 12-5, 5-9

Thanks!

Eddy K. Foster - Field Organizer

Barack Obama's Campaign for Change
(c) 610-306-0672

Paulson profited from rule change that led to collapse

...Many events in Washington, on Wall Street and elsewhere around the country have led to what has been called the most serious financial crisis since the 1930s. But decisions made at a brief meeting on April 28, 2004, explain why the problems could spin out of control. The agency’s failure to follow through on those decisions also explains why Washington regulators did not see what was coming.
On that bright spring afternoon, the five members of the Securities and Exchange Commission met in a basement hearing room to consider an urgent plea by the big investment banks.
They wanted an exemption for their brokerage units from an old regulation that limited the amount of debt they could take on. The exemption would unshackle billions of dollars held in reserve as a cushion against losses on their investments. Those funds could then flow up to the parent company, enabling it to invest in the fast-growing but opaque world of mortgage-backed securities; credit derivatives, a form of insurance for bond holders; and other exotic instruments.
The five investment banks led the charge, including Goldman Sachs, which was headed by Henry M. Paulson Jr. Two years later, he left to become Treasury Secretary.
A lone dissenter — a software consultant and expert on risk management — weighed in from Indiana with a two-page letter to warn the commission that the move was a grave mistake. He never heard back from Washington.
One commissioner, Harvey J. Goldschmid, questioned the staff about the consequences of the proposed exemption. It would only be available for the largest firms, he was reassuringly told — those with assets greater than $5 billion.
“We’ve said these are the big guys,” Mr. Goldschmid said, provoking nervous laughter, “but that means if anything goes wrong, it’s going to be an awfully big mess.”... NYTimes

Credit crunch scare used to steal more taxes

Have you had enough of supply-side economics yet? Think about it. Which is the reason that a business expands?

a. someone gave the boss a bunch of free taxpayer money.
b. customer orders exceed production capacity.

The answer is that our economy is demand driven. When Reagan first campaigned in primaries on supply-side economics, George H. W. Bush called it "voodoo economics." The wall street "geniuses" have run off with billions of investor money, now the institutions are failing, and they want the taxpayer to pump more money to the top (see choice a. above). If we don't give them our wallet, "there will be a credit lockdown! Just look at the crunch now! " Read on for more perspective on this:

...The bottom line is that we have badly over-leveraged banks who are on the edge of collapse and we have a credit tightening due to an economic downturn. These problems are related, but even if we could snap our fingers and make the banks healthy again tomorrow, we would still have a serious credit problem due to the recession. In other words, many of the businesses and people who have been appearing on news shows because they could not get credit would still not be able to get credit. (Although they probably will not be appearing on the news shows once the bailout passes.)

Just to remind everyone the cause is the loss of more than $4 trillion in housing equity due to the collapse of the housing bubble. The collapse of this bubble has not only devastated the construction and real estate market, it also has forced consumers to cut back. Tens of millions of homeowners no longer have any equity against which to borrow. Even those who still have equity realize that they will have to increase their savings to support themselves in retirement.

And all this came about because the experts who are now insisting that we need a bailout had previously insisted that there was no housing bubble and that everything was just fine. It is always important to keep things in context. -- Dean Baker on Huffington