[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Sign-in]  [Mail]  [Setup]  [Help] 

Status: Not Logged In; Sign In

A Comprehensive Guide To Choosing The Right Protein Powde

3-Time Convicted Violent Criminal Repeatedly Threatened to Kidnap and Kill Judge Cannon and Her Family

Candace Owens: Kamala Harris is not Black Â…

Prof. John Mearsheimer: Israel NOT Going To Win In Lebanon

Iran to destroy all Israel gas fields, power plants at once if Tel Aviv makes mistake: Deputy IRGC chief

Army Vet Calls Out FEMA for Prioritizing Migrants Over Hurricane Victims, Takes Matters Into His Own Hands

Unemployment among 25-34-year-olds with degrees nearly doubles in 4 months

Silver breaks 13-year resistance, signaling potential new secular trend

Two Ukrainian officials found with $6M cash, yet Hurricane Helene victims struggle for aid?

Elite colleges shocked: Students "Don't know how' to read books."

Is Washington's 'high threat' volcano about to blow? Scientists baffled by record spike in earthquakes around Mount Adams

FEMA whistleblowers revealed a treasonous misuse of taxpayer funds.

Exposing how useless FEMA is in Asheville, NC.

Kamala Harris Admin ARRESTED a man for bringing a helicopter full of supplies to Hurricane Helene victims.

MSNBC brings on an anti-Trump impeachment witness, only to be stunned when he announces he's voting for Trump.

She escaped the religious sect she grew up in. Now she says Trump’s MAGA movement is eerily similar

Federal Law REQUIRES Car Makers to MONITOR You

Candace Owens: When are you going to address this, KAMALA?

Democrats Celebrate a Seemingly Impressive September Jobs Report – What They are Not Telling You

The Boiling Point – America Have You Had ‘Enough,’ Yet?

Shopping Malls Implementing Curfews And Teen "Waiting Zones" To Try And Curb Chaos, Theft And Fights

US Public Debt Grew $115 Billion A Day For the Past 3 Days Totaling $345 Billion.

Dramatic Footage Shows Tanker Blown Up In Critical Maritime Chokepoint As Disasters Mount For Biden-Harris

The Remdesivir Papers: Did Service Members Deserve to Die?

“My Blood is Boiling”: Furious Elon Musk Goes Off on FEMA for Blocking SpaceX Engineers from Assisting

“The Stench is Unbearable”: Dead Bodies Piling Up, FEMA Abandons NC Residents Amid Hurricane Helene

Cash and the Constitution

Disaster Relief (INSIDER) Tells Why FEMA Won't Let Citizens Help.

The $212 Billion Dollar Food ingredient poisoning your Brain

"Last Election EVER" - Elon Musk vs Mark Cuban: Billionaires BATTLE Over Dangers If Trump Loses 2024


Editorial
See other Editorial Articles

Title: The Death of American Leadership
Source: [None]
URL Source: http://www.counterpunch.com/roberts02022009.html
Published: Feb 2, 2009
Author: Paul Craig Roberts
Post Date: 2009-02-02 13:18:44 by christine
Keywords: None
Views: 111
Comments: 5

Vast numbers of people in the United States and abroad are hoping that President Obama will end America’s illegal wars, halt America’s support for Israel’s massacre of Lebanese and Palestinians, and punish, instead of reward, the shyster banksters whose fraudulent financial instruments have destroyed economics and imposed massive sufferings on people all over the world. If Obama’s appointments are an indication, all of these hopeful people are going to be disappointed.

Obama chose as his Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the man who helped Bush’s Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson, engineer the $700 billion dollar rip off of the US taxpayer, money that was gifted to the banksters who destroyed Americans’ pensions, jobs and health care coverage.

These banksters, and the negligent federal regulators that enabled them, should be put in prison, not handed hundreds of billions of dollars.

Obama’s National Economic Council is just as depressing. Clinton’s Treasury Secretary, Larry Summers, is its head. Summers recently declared that he had no inkling that a financial crisis was about to hit. Why did Obama put a person without a clue in charge?

Summer’s colleagues are just as bad. Obama has appointed Diana Farrell, lead author of a phony study that claimed offshoring of American jobs is a win-win game for Americans, as deputy director of the National Economic Council. Farrell is affiliated with McKinsey & Company, a firm that helps American corporations offshore their operations. In his book, Outsourcing America, economist Ron Hira tore Farrell’s McKinsey report to shreds.

Why not appoint Ron Hira and Nouriel Roubina, who predicted the crisis, to the National Economic Council?

The discouraging fact is that even when faced with crisis in the economy and in foreign policy, the American political system is incapable of producing any leadership. Here we are in the worst economic crisis in a lifetime, perhaps in our history, and on the brink of war in Pakistan and Iran while escalating the war in Afghanistan, and all we get is a government made up of the very people who have brought us to these crises.

The era of American leadership has passed. America’s shyster financial system has brought economic crisis to the world. America’s wars of aggression are seen as serving no purpose except the enrichment of the military industries associated with Dick Cheney. The world is looking elsewhere for leadership.

Vladimir Putin made a play for this role at Davos, where his speech at the opening ceremony was the most intelligent speech of the event.

Putin reminded the World Economic Forum that “just a year ago, American delegates speaking from this rostrum emphasized the US economy’s fundamental stability and its cloudless prospects. Today, investment banks, the pride of Wall Street, have virtually ceased to exist. In just 12 months, they have posted losses exceeding the profits they made in the last 25 years.”

Putin made his case that the existing financial system based on the US dollar and American financial hegemony has failed.

Putin showed that his economic understanding was superior to that of the Obama team when he said that creating more debt on top of the “hopeless debts,” as Obama is doing, would “prolong the crisis.”

With another swipe at America’s failed economic leadership, Putin said it is time to get rid of virtual money, false financial reports, and dubious credit ratings. Putin proposed a new reserve currency system to “replace the obsolete unipolar world concept.”

Putin said that a secure world requires cooperation which requires trust. He made it clear that the Americans have proven that they cannot be trusted.

This was a powerful message. It got a lot of applause.

Post Comment   Private Reply   Ignore Thread  


TopPage UpFull ThreadPage DownBottom/Latest

Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 5.

#4. To: christine (#0)

Putin proposed a new reserve currency system to “replace the obsolete unipolar world concept.”

Sounds globalist to me...

Prefrontal Vortex  posted on  2009-02-02   14:20:28 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#5. To: Prefrontal Vortex (#4)

Putin proposed a new reserve currency system to “replace the obsolete unipolar world concept.”

Sounds globalist to me...

Maybe so... But with an 'honest' framework and basis.

Putin is well aware of the 'agenda' being played out and who is behind it.

Notice that there haven't been many 'takers' yet... The 'gluttons' and 'fatcats' have more work to do in squeezing every last 'shekel' from the deceived masses.

SCPO Blackshoe Retired  posted on  2009-02-02   15:35:26 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


Replies to Comment # 5.

        There are no replies to Comment # 5.


End Trace Mode for Comment # 5.

TopPage UpFull ThreadPage DownBottom/Latest


[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Sign-in]  [Mail]  [Setup]  [Help]