[eDebate] cheney's curious investment portfolio: is he betting on economic collapse

[Jake Stromboli]

The VP's Curious Investment
Portfolio Is Cheney
Betting On Economic Collapse?
By Mike Whitney
7-5-6





Wouldn't you like to know where Dick  Cheney puts his money? Then you'd know 
whether his "deficits don't  matter" claim is just baloney or not.
 
Well, as it turns out, Kiplinger Magazine  ran an article based on Cheney's 
financial disclosure statement and, sure  enough, found out that the VP is 
lying to the American people for the umpteenth  time. Deficits do matter and 
Cheney has invested his money accordingly.
 
The article is called "Cheney's  betting on bad news" and provides an 
account of where Cheney has socked  away more than $25 million. While the 
figures may be estimates, the investments  are not. According to Tom 
Blackburn of the Palm Beach Post, Cheney has  invested heavily in "a fund 
that specializes in short-term municipal  bonds, a tax-exempt money market 
fund and an inflation protected securities  fund. The first two hold up if 
interest rates rise with inflation. The  third is protected against 
inflation."
 
Cheney has dumped another (estimated)  $10 to $25 million in a European bond 
fund which tells us that he is counting  on a steadily weakening dollar. So, 
while working class Americans are loosing  ground to inflation and rising 
energy costs, Darth Cheney will be enhancing  his wealth in "Old Europe". As 
Blackburn sagely notes, "Not  all bad news' is bad for everybody."
 
This should put to rest once and for  all the foolish notion that the "Bush 
Economic Plan" is anything  more than a scam aimed at looting the public 
till. The whole deal is intended  to shift the nation's wealth from one 
class to another. It's also clear  that Bush-Cheney couldn't have carried 
this off without the tacit approval  of the thieves at the Federal Reserve 
who engineered the low-interest rate  boondoggle to put the American people 
to sleep while they picked their  pockets.
 
Reasonable people can dispute that Bush  is "intentionally" skewering the 
dollar with his lavish tax cuts,  but how does that explain Cheney's 
portfolio?
 
It doesn't. And, one thing we can say  with metaphysical certainty is that 
the miserly Cheney would never plunk  his money into an investment that 
wasn't a sure thing. If Cheney is counting  on the dollar tanking and 
interest rates going up, then, by Gawd, that's  what'll happen.
 
The Bush-Cheney team has racked up another  $3 trillion in debt in just 6 
years. The US national debt now stands at  $8.4 trillion dollars while the 
trade deficit has ballooned to $800 billion  nearly 7% of GDP.
 
This is lunacy. No country, however powerful,  can maintain these staggering 
numbers. The country is in hock up to its  neck and has to borrow $2.5 
billion per day just to stay above water. Presently,  the Fed is expanding 
the money supply and buying back its own treasuries  to hide the 
hemorrhaging from the public. Its utter madness.
 
Last month the trade deficit climbed  to $70 billion. More importantly, 
foreign central banks only purchased  a meager $47 billion in treasuries to 
shore up our ravenous appetite for  cheap junk from China.
 
Do the math! They're not investing in  America anymore. They are decreasing 
their stockpiles of dollars. We're  sinking fast and Cheney and his pals are 
manning the lifeboats while the  public is diverted with gay marriage 
amendments and "American Celebrity".
 
The American manufacturing sector has  been hollowed out by cutthroat 
corporations who've abandoned their country  to make a fast-buck in China or 
Mexico. The $3 trillion housing (equity)  bubble is quickly loosing air 
while the anemic dollar continues to sag.  All the signs indicate that the 
economy is slowing at the same time that  energy prices continue to rise.
 
This is the onset of stagflation; the  dreaded combo of a slowing economy 
and inflation.
 
Did Americans really think they'd be  spared the same type of economic 
colonization that has been applied throughout  the developing world under 
the rubric of "neoliberalism"?
 
Well, think again. The American economy  is barrel-rolling towards earth and 
there are only enough parachutes for  Cheney and the gang.
 
The country has lost 3 million jobs from  outsourcing since Bush took 
office; more than 200,000 of those are the  high-paying, high-tech jobs that 
are the life's-blood of every economy.
 
Consider this from the Council on Foreign  Relations (CFR) June edition of 
Foreign Affairs, the Bible of globalists  and plutocrats:
 
"Between 2000 and 2003 alone, foreign  firms built 60,000manufacturing 
plants in China. European chemical companies,  Japanese carmakers, and US 
industrial conglomerates are all building factories  in China to supply 
export markets around the world. Similarly, banks, insurance  companies, 
professional-service firms, and IT companies are building R&D  and service 
centers in India to support employees, customers, and production worldwide." 
("The Globally integrated Enterprise" Samuel  Palmisano, Foreign Affairs 
page 130)
 
"60,000 manufacturing plants"  in 3 years?!?
 
"Banks, insurance companies, professional-service  firms, and IT companies"?
 
No job is safe. American elites and corporate  tycoons are loading the boats 
and heading for foreign shores. The only  thing they're leaving behind is 
the insurmountable debt that will be shackled  to our children into 
perpetuity and the carefully arranged levers of a  modern 
police-surveillance state.
 
Welcome to Bush's 21st Century gulag;  third world luxury in a 
Guantanamo-type setting.
 
Take another look at Cheney's investment  strategy; it tells the whole ugly 
story. Interest rates are going up, the  middle class is going down, and the 
poor dollar is headed for the dumpster.  The country is not simply teetering 
on the brink of financial collapse;  it is being thrust headfirst by the 
blackguards in office and their satrapies  at Federal Reserve.
 
fergiewhitney at msn.com

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