How Greenspan Skewered America

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Original Article at

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_mike_whi_051205_how_greenspan_skewer.htm

 

December 5, 2005

 

How Greenspan Skewered America

 

No one has done more to ensure the ultimate demise of the American

middle class than Alan Greenspan.

 

No one.

 

In the stately pantheon of class-warriors, Greenspan's spectral-image

looms larger than any other; the foremost proponent of hardnosed

social-Darwinism and exclusionary economics. Even his carpet-bagging

consort, G.W. Bush, pales in comparison.

 

In just under 5 years the Fed-master has engineered a coup so vast and

devastating that $1.3 trillion of borrowed revenue has been adroitly

shifted from the beleaguered middle class to the privileged 1% that

Greenspan represents.

 

Whoa!

 

It is the biggest heist in the history of the planet, and it was

designed and executed within the leather-bound citadel of the Federal

Reserve.

 

Thanks, Alan.

 

The partnership of Bush and Greenspan has been the moral equivalent of

the sacking of Rome; maxing out the nation's credit card while every

last farthing has been drained from the public till. Greenspan's

tenure has left America bobbing atop an ocean of red ink ready to

capsize with the first gust of recession.

 

Greenspan was a key player in facilitating the Iraq war, pushing

interest rates to their lowest level 6 months before the war to keep

the economy on life-support while the propaganda campaign burst from

the front pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post.

 

It worked like a charm.

 

The American people were hoodwinked by White House fabrications and

anesthetized by cheap money. They began a borrowing frenzy that

sluiced zillions into a hyper-inflated housing market that is timed to

detonate just as wistful Alan picks up his gold watch and heads for

the exit.

 

Good thinking, Alan.

 

Now, after years of mismanagement, Greenspan is offering caveats about

the chaos he's leaving behind. In his typical gibberish the chairman

has warned of " painful " adjustments if deficits are not brought under

control.

 

" Painful " or life threatening?

 

It was Greenspan, the budget-busting tote for the patrician-class, who

defended the lavish Bush tax cuts that put the country on the

fast-track to doomsday. Now, he's joined Grover Norquist and the

" privatization-kooks " who want to dismantle the tattered ruins of the

social safety net and christen the new epoch of predatory capitalism.

Alan is a big supporter of " survival of the fittest " economics; the

notion that people at the bottom of the societal food-chain deserve to

be there so their Nietzschean overlords, like the Fed-chair, can rule

supreme.

 

As Greenspan applies the last few turns of the screw (raising interest

rates twice more before he leaves) we're bound to see the

credit-shackled middle class begin an orderly march towards the

nearest cliff where they will quickly disappear lemming-like into the sea.

 

Seriously, the American people have no idea of the economic firestorm

that's just around the corner.

 

The economy is underwritten by $8 trillion of debt, requiring massive

$2 billion infusions of foreign capital EVERY DAY. As former Fed-chief

Volker noted, " It can't go one for ever. "

 

No it can't. Besides, it's all part of a neoliberal plan that has been

successfully executed throughout the third world; plunging the host

nation into insurmountable debt with the help of crooked regime (Bush

and Co.) and then pulling the rug out from under the shocked public.

The massive and calculated deficits are intended to create a crisis of

insolvency, resulting in the same type of " shock therapy " and

" structural readjustment " programs the IMF applies to bankrupt nations

around the world. Greenspan has moved the country closer to his goal

of dismantling popular social programs so the captains of industry can

privatize the public's assets.

 

So, how did Greenspan pull it off?

 

How did he keep the somnolent American public from noticing the

widening deficits and the alarming transfer of wealth from one class

to another?

 

The answer is; low interest rates, the toxic elixir that can

incapacitate an entire nation, leaving its people drowsy and

indifferent to imminent disaster.

 

Recently, Greenspan has begun warning of the difficulties ahead,

cautioning that our problems will only be " compounded by a

protectionist reversal of globalization " . In other words, prepare

yourself to compete with the lowest paid worker in Canton province.

The hemorrhaging of high-paying jobs that sustain the middle class

doesn't bother the Fed-chief. Greenspan has the same irksome sense of

equity as his ideological-twin at New York Times, Tom Friedman.

Friedman has been preaching the gospel of " free market " capitalism for

years. Neither one tries to conceal their contempt for organized labor

or the redistribution of profits. Friedman's Brigadoon is identical to

Greenspan's; a land of milk and honey where 99% of the denizens live

in abject poverty scraping to get by and where the not-so-invisible

hand is savagely affixed to the throat of a permanent underclass.

Welcome to Greenspan's nirvana.

 

Greenspan also warned that the budget " will substantially worsen in

the coming years unless major deficit-reducing measures are taken. "

 

" Deficit-reducing measures " ? You mean, like rolling back the Bush tax

cuts?

 

Hell no; class-warrior Alan said " he did not believe that major

increases in taxes were the solution " .

 

Of course, not. Why should the fat-cats in the silk suits and Ferraris

have to pay their share? After all, we can just raise the payroll tax

again (Greenspan's earlier plan) and take another pound of flesh from

the middle class? No one will notice.

 

Baby boomers retirement?

 

Not to worry; Greenspan suggests we extend the age of retirement to

some imaginary date when the wealthy will stop fleecing the poor and

the national ledger will magically balance.

 

Cradle to grave; Americans are being prepared for the slaughter. The

chances for upward mobility or even subsistent living are being

eclipsed by the day. The yolk that one shoulders at birth will follow

him until his death.

 

Greenspan's racketeers have absconded with the nation's bounty behind

a smokescreen of low interest rates. They lulled us to sleep with

soothing words of " no-interest loans " , no down payments, and a real

estate windfall for anyone bold enough to sign on the dotted line.

 

Now, the grim reality has begun to set in. Interest rates are rising,

the dollar is reeling, energy costs are skyrocketing, consumer

confidence is plummeting, and gold is shooting through the roof. When

China and Japan decide to jettison their worthless US Savings Bonds;

Greenspan's mighty fortress will collapse in a heap.

 

The American people are crazy to think that a privately owned

institution like the Federal Reserve will ever function in the public

interest. The Fed operates behind an iron-curtain of secrecy to

protect the interests of its primary constituents; the parasite class.

It was authorized under executive order by Woodrow Wilson who was

coerced into putting the country's future into the hands of its

central bankers so he could finance World War 1. Bankers have always

understood that the one who holds the purse-strings calls the shots.

This explains what Thomas Jefferson meant when he said, " Banking

establishments are more dangerous than standing armies. "

 

While Greenspan teeters off to retirement, he can be confident that

his trap has already sprung. The country is dead-broke and will be

forced to comply with the demands of its creditors. The impending

" austerity measures " will be used to reshape the fabric of American

life; a complete reordering of society to meet the standards of a

modern capitalist utopia; Greenspan's paradise, the United States of

Destitution.