Here we go again with the corporate welfare?

So here were go again, another big bank facing huge loan write offs, anyone want to guess how long it will be before Bank of America or perhaps Wells Fargo will be at the Fed with cap in hand asking for a big bail out like Bear Stearns? My guess is there will be at least one more big bank headed that way, if not several more. We are always told that the consequences of letting on of these banks go under would be catastrophic - apparently because it will spark off a bank run where everyone rushes to their own bank and asks for their money. At this point people will realize that dirty little secret that banks only have 10% or thereabouts of their deposits in hand as cash and can't possibly give everyone their money. Then there is mass panic, markets crash, economies take a dump and bad times are here again. This kind of thing used to happen all the time when there was much less control about how much cash banks had to have on hand and before the government was in the business of bailing out banks.

Of course it is not actually a secret that banks don't have everyone's money - anyone who has done Economics 101 should remember that - it's quite a revelation. But then again while it is not a secret it is not someone banks, economists or the government every shout out about. They all hide behind the FDIC insurance that you'll always get your first $100,000 bank come what may (assuming your account has that insurance, not all do), even if the bank pisses it all away on a big new downtown HQ and goes belly up in the night after a particular bad binge drinking session.

But despite the alleged consequences (and no one has seen a bank run in decades) I still see this stuff as corporate welfare, because on the face of it it just encourages bankers to keep on with their bad behavior - it is exactly the wrong kind of feedback to give them and will cause the opposite of evolution in business practices. Even if Bear Stearns was sold off for a song at the end of the day someone took the benefit of that huge infusion of cash from the Fed - prior profits and many benefits from soaring stock prices were creamed off for years while they cashed in on sub-prime mortgages. Also there's a whole raft of bankers and executives who will just cruise to the next cushy job - probably taking fat payoffs from Bear Stearns at the same time. Just where is the incentive for them to do anything differently next time a chance to slash and burn our economy comes along?

Those who are continually asking for more deregulation and getting government out of everything but killing people must be crazy - or they are stinking rich and know that actually boom and bust cycles like the old times are bad for everyone except them. I mean at what time were all those vast fortunes of the Rockefellers, Stanfords, Hearst and the like made? Yes, while we had little or no banking regulation - open season on everyone's money, winner take it all time - just like the good ol' wild west!

If I had my way I'd shut these corporations down completely - revoke their charter, ban all the exec from running a corporation for a number of years and bail out *only* the investors, to their FDIC amount. People would get used to the idea they shouldn't be more than $100,000 in any one bank, there would be more banks more competition, and banks themselves would be more careful about screwing up. Then again what do I know, I'm not an economist and I don't have more than $100,000 anywhere to loose.

Perhaps it is time for people on the street to start voting about their disgust of how this is all panning out. They can do it voluntarily with their money, no need to wait for a bank run - if everyone withdrew just 10% of their cash from banks it would really send a message. Or if just 10% of people took out all of their money that would do the trick and you can pick pretty much any reasonably small demographic and mobilize them to do something. Probably just the threat of it happening would cause a panic. So this year perhaps, instead of "buy nothing day" we'd have "withdraw everything day". Now wouldn't that be interesting - I have a feeling I know which would get more publicity.

We are not alone!

Great news - we are not alone! No, it isn't a message from the stars decoded by SETI, or a monolith dug up on the moon - just the latest U.S. Religious Landscape Survey by the Pew Forum. Their massive survey has concluded that a full 16.1% of adult Americans are either atheists, agnostic or believe "nothing in particular". That's a huge result and well inline with other recent surveys that conclude a very significant percentage of American's could care less about religion. And that is without any consideration of those who are quick to label themselves as one thing or another if only out of habit or just to fit in, but actually know, practice or care less about that particular religion. I mean we all know of have heard of people who profess to some religion or other just for "tradition" or because their parents raised them that way or just because its a gamble that has no downside after death.

But let me tell you, 16% of adult Americans is a huge number of people and most likely they are all plenty sick and tired of hearing about religion and seeing it dictate the misdirection of our countries forces, resources and future at the expense of humanity as a whole. I just hope some people in Washington finally take note and decide that maybe, just maybe, it is time they stopped pandering to the some elite band of Christians or other that excepting Catholics, all number fewer than the "none of the above" crowd. I mean just look at all the myriad categories of Evangelicals and Protestants, let alone the rest, can anyone say "Factions" or "Splinter cells"??? Why would anyone ever believe that given their own way and opportunity at the helm each one of these factions would denounce all others as the wrong kind of religion and seek to stamp out and destroy them while at the same time as they themselves go off and faction even more as they race backwards to Old Testament values (think stoning, slavery and stuff that make even hardcore Sharia laws look civilized).

Obama get some balls!

Hopefully that title got your attention. I'll be the first to admit I'm an Obama supporter - I wish somehow Edwards had got the nomination but given the current field my choice is Obama. I actually think it is high time this country had a female President, a break in the long history of old white men running the world is clearly long overdue. But I just don't think Hillary is the woman for the job, I have a strong feeling she would be a bad president for future female candidates. So I just hope I live long enough to see some future woman candidate get the support of the nation, become President and do a great job.

Oh well, want I really wanted to blog about was Obama and this whole "scandal" about him being photographed in Muslim clothing. I was getting somewhat irritated that Obama in denying he was a Muslim never took the opportunity to denounce the idea that being a Muslim is a problem, and even being a Muslim President is a problem. But then I came across a column by Naomi Klein from The Nation that said exactly the same thing and I felt vindicated, I'm not the only person thinking Obama is copping out and treading a dangerous path towards sucking up to "special interests". Sure he's probably thinking this is a really bad time to be pissing off all those Christians and making Hillary happy, but face it - is there ever a good time to be controversial in American politics? Isn't it just a huge game of who can suck up to the most demographics the most, and piss off the fewest demographics the least? Never mind about "doing the right thing" any more...

Lets not forget that at one time the country was apparently having a hard time contemplating even a Catholic President (Kennedy), and that back then a black President would have been unthinkable. And not too much before that a woman president would also be unthinkable - long after they were actually allowed to vote. If someone were to fault Obama for being black would he not run to the bully pulpit to level their preposterous racist hate speech? And wouldn't Hillary or any right thinking Democrat do the same thing?

So why do a turnaround and tacitly accept vilification of Muslims or the notion that a Muslim might ever been President of this country? Surely it is only the severe erosion of the church and state separation by out current President that would ever make the religion of the President an issue - ever. Period. When religion, racism, sexism, hatred, bribes, corruption, money are all kept out of government then these things are just not a problem - any honest hardworking person is a potential candidate who can be weighed entirely on valid merits and not bogus ones dreamed up by FUD mongerers with nothing better to do than spend their lives pandering to their own favorite special interest - themselves.

So come on Obama, this is your chance to label racial, religious and other intolerance exactly that - intolerable! Tell those bigots that if they want to label religion a problem then they are part of the problem that is bringing this country down. You either accept all religions or you have to throw out all religions - even (and especially) in government. Otherwise one day we'll have Christians arguing about which particular brand of Christianity is the right one for a President (which arguably what they are doing already hence no President Romney)

If Obama can speak out about religious intolerance towards Muslims then where's he going to stand when the come for the blacks, the gays, and the atheists?