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Random Thoughts
Prestidigitation, Politicos and Bikinis
by
Gaurang Bhatt, MD
 Prestidigitation or sleight of hand is what a magician does when he
pulls a card from his sleeve while the attention of the audience is
diverted by his speech or a visual distraction by a provocatively clad
curvaceous companion performing some antics. Politicians all over the
world, use this subterfuge to bamboozle the ignorant, unthinking,
uninformed, mercurial public to blind them with a contrived attention
grabbing feint, while their nefarious dirty tricks pass unnoticed by the
public eye. The media collaborates in the tamasha and circuses by
ignoring the main issue or inflaming their passions about other trivia
of much less significance. The American president and congress have
honed this technique to perfection and the US electorate is the ideal
and proverbial mug bred over centuries to be a dumb, fawning and
domesticated animal jumping to fetch. The Indian case involves exciting
religious, linguistic or ethnic passions.
| In 1776, taxes by the British parliament were used for a power grab by
the rich to incite the average Joe public to foment the so-called war of
independence, even though the taxes were less onerous than those imposed
on the British public. Whispers about how the British were the sole
obstacle to the landless being able to usurp Indian land because of
their unjust treaties with the Indian nations. An unmentioned hidden
agenda was to renege on the personal debts of the American land owners
to British merchants in London. It was concealed from the public eye. At
other times, race, religion, immigration have been used (Japanese
internment, yellow peril of the Chinese, Soviet communism, Spanish
language, Mexican immigration). In the present meltdown, blame is
diverted mainly to the irresponsible policies of center left and naive
do-gooders to legislate GSE (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) lending and
insuring practices to the ordinary less well off to buy a house or the
irresponsible borrowers for taking out loans they could not repay. The
reckless lenders, their lack of due diligence, the securitization of
mortgage, credit card and auto loans, the imprimatur by greedy rating,
mortgage and credit default swap rating agencies like S&P, Moody�s, MBIA,
Ambac, MGIC, AIG to name a few, are swept under the rug, as are the
follies of investment and big banks (Wachovia, Countrywide, CITI, BofA,
Wells Fargo, Bear Stearns, Lehman, Merrill, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan,
Goldman Sachs). |
It is critical to look
behind this curtain of the wizards of Oz and not be fooled by
what is on stage. It is important never to forget what some
Smart Alec commented about a woman�s bikini, �What it reveals is
interesting, but what it hides is essential, so don�t abandon
your goals for diversions�. |
Congress debated endlessly to increase the duration of unemployment
compensation, minimum wage increase and COBRA health insurance
extension, while ignoring the fact that laid off workers were being
pushed off to sky dive without a parachute and conniving at the hundreds
of millions of dollar golden parachutes which were being handed out to
the CEOs of Citibank, Merrill Lynch etc. The present chief of AIG, Liddy
appointed by the Congress is being hounded from pillar to post, the
former chiefs responsible for the debacle at AIG, Citibank etc. , are
showcased by the media as expert paragons of virtue. Paulson, former
chief of Goldman Sachs, in his new avatar as Treasury Secretary let Bear
Stearns and Lehman go under, but bailed out AIG on the pretext of
systemic risk. No one knew until recently that the largest chunk of
government and taxpayer money went to protect Goldman Sachs (13 billion
dollars). He used the analogy of the sky is falling to pass a 750
billion first bailout which was largely spent hastily without due
diligence to buy junk assets from his crony institutions with
substantial losses to the taxpayer. The Congress first hesitated to show
its opposition but caved in on the second try to make whole its big
contributors. This was just theater to fool the public.
This is like a medical researcher publishing a factually incorrect paper
in a prestigious journal and a few months later publishing another paper
rescinding the first one and then claiming two publications on his
curriculum vitae without contributing anything to the advancement of
science or wisdom. Such is the case of Robert Rubin who went from
Goldman Sachs to Treasury Secretary and was the chief architect of NAFTA
and repeal of the Glass Steagall Act under the closet Republican Bill
Clinton. He then became Vice Chairman of Citibank during the time that
Citibank went on a rampage of improper and at times unethical, if not
unlawful behavior (In Japan and Germany and mortgage backed securities
which have now become toxic assets) and contributed to the present mess.
Now he mouths off on the airwaves as the wise sage. Lawrence Summers and
Timothy Geithner have a similar career. Obama�s choice of them as his
key policy makers is like appointing the fox to guard the chicken coop.
Obama�s genuflexion to the Israeli lobby by abandoning Freeman�s
appointment to head national intelligence and appointing Hillary Clinton
as Secretary of State does not bode well for his Middle East policies.
It is consistent with his opportunistic pandering, when he announced at
the AIPAC conference that Jerusalem was the sole possession of Israel
with no Palestinian claim. His appointment of Dennis Ross, a markedly
partisan and partial negotiator in his tour of duty in the Israel
Palestinian talks, as a special envoy in charge of Iran, tells us that
no rapprochement is likely. His video message to Iran is just a gambit
by which he can claim that he tried peaceful measures before a military
attack on Iran by Israel or the US. His keeping on of Gates as defense
secretary and surging troops in Afghanistan, failure to close Guantanamo
and Bagram and silence on illegal renditions is a sure indication that
war in Afghanistan will go on for decades. His plan to keep 50,000
troops for years in Iraq shows that he is just the new stooge in
different colored outer garments of the military industrial complex,
just like Fancy Fallacy (speaker) and Hoary Writ (Senate majority
leader). Obama�s pussyfooting over single payer government administered
national health insurance, which would eliminate the 15% cut that health
insurance executives siphon off to the detriment of health services of
the population that he is their Benedict Arnold, not ours.
That brings me to the Republicans crowing socialism and reckless
overspending with ballooning deficits. Where were they from the Reagan
to the �W� era when massive tax cuts without spending reduction were put
in place? A new drug plan for seniors was enacted with lying numbers and
left to the drug companies to decide the price to be paid by the
government. Bill Tauzin who midwifed the birth of the bill in the
darkness of night while the Republican leadership twisted and broke
rules, left Congress for a million dollar a year industry job as his
reward for the rape of the taxpayer. Phil Gramm did the same for his
removal of oversight of the CFTC, once headed by his wife, who
subsequently became a board of directors member at Enron, the main
beneficiary of the deregulation that led to 147 dollar oil and the
credit default swap imbroglio which led to the AIG fiasco.
Christopher Dodd and Barney Frank, who would be better named
Mephistopheles Dud and Boloney Fraud, both knew about the 165 million
dollar bonuses that AIG gave out, and yet claimed surprise. Dud has done
this before for a favorable loan rate that he received from Countrywide
Financial as his privilege from the senate seat, he inherited from his
father due to the stupidity of the electorate of Connecticut, whose
other poisonous gift to the nation includes Senator Joseph Lieberman
determined to fight Israel�s wars to the last drop of blood of the last
American. It was probably Geithner who persuaded Dud and Fraud to insert
the clause in the House Senate Conference bill to permit the payment of
the AIG bonuses. Their spurious claim is the sanctity of contracts which
is only applicable to their rich campaign contributors and not to the
labor unions (UAW) who were coerced into abrogating their contract and
accepting reduction in wages as a precondition to the government bailout
of GM.
The Republican hue and cry about not nationalizing the banks which are
largely owned by the government or in hock to the government is just
another ploy to keep the money spigot of endless capital infusion open,
so that the big guys can benefit in years to come from rising share
prices taxed at a lower capital gains rate. Geithner, Summers and their
crowd are just passing through the revolving door of a short government
service stint, before emerging on the other side to claim their rich
desserts of speaking engagements or million dollar jobs in the sectors
they allowed to prosper at public expense like Reagan, Bush, Clinton,
Greenspan and others, while our progeny are saddled with interest and
debt payment for generations to come. If the public had any sense they
would vote for only that candidate who is not a Democrat, Republican or
incumbent, and would put all elected leaders on trial after their term
ended, like the Spartans did with punishment for malfeasance being
death.
The arousal of passions to scapegoat the 165 million bonus recipients is
to obscure and hide from public sight the thousand times larger bailout
of the big banks and brokerages through AIG. This is why it is critical
to look behind this curtain of the wizards of Oz and not be fooled by
what is on stage. It is important never to forget what some Smart Alec
commented about a woman�s bikini, �What it reveals is interesting, but
what it hides is essential, so don�t abandon your goals for diversions�.
March 22,
2009
Image under license with
Gettyimages.com
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