A bet on Obama turns to Gold for Goldman

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America's Best Investment the Last Year - Obama's Presidential Campaign

So we just suffered through the worst year since the Great depression and the collapsing economy wiped out more than half of people's savings and investments along with a big chunk of their home and other real estate values. The stock market has now recovered about 40-50% of it's value. The Dow Jones hit 10,000 for the first time in a year.

Home prices have stabilized although below the value of the past few years. Unemployment is way up but economists say we are out of the recession. Oil prices have settled at about twice what they were before the economic crash. Even billionaires like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett lost a lot of value over the past year.



At least things seem to have stopped losing value and we can catch our breath. All in all we seem happy to be where we are which is far worse off than we were a year or two ago. Still some people managed to make a lot of money on the pain and suffering of the rest of the world, a whole lot of money.



There was an investment you could have made that would have made you wealthy in the past year. If you were a Goldman Sachs employee your investment in Barack Obama's presidential campaign resulted in the highest earnings per quarter for employees in history in this, Goldman's 140th year in business. Goldman employees donated about $1 million to Obama's campaign, helped raise a total of over $21 million from the Wall Street financial community and of course have helped guide his career since his start in politics.

Goldman's financial contributions to Obama amounted to about $32 per employee (there are 31,700 Goldman employees). The money Goldman earned in 2009 and is paying for wages and benefits just through the last nine months since Obama took office average $527,192 per employee. Imagine if you gave someone $32 last year and already were paid back over half a million dollars.



Goldman generated $35.6 billion in revenue so far this year, an increase of 49% over last year. 47% is allocated to the employees, a total of $16.7 billion. The only better year was 2007 when $16.9 billion was set aside and the only better quarter was the last quarter of this year.



Besides the billions of dollars in pay this year, the stock value has also been astronomical for Goldman's. They are the only financial services company to achieve such staggering success as their stock value increased from $53.31 a share when Obama was elected to about $187.32 today, an increase of over 3.5 times in less than a year.

Compare Goldman's to the next largest investment bank and another Obama backer JP Morgan. Morgan also had a great year but allocated just $8.79 billion to employees, half of the Goldman allocation. The Morgan stock hit $23.38 when Obama got elected and today is up to $46.83, double the value but far below the Goldman record pace.

Goldman was a major player in the sub-prime mortgage market and oil futures market whose wild swings drove the world into economic chaos. They also were selling mortgage packages to clients while they were spending their own money betting the mortgage market would collapse. It earned them the record earnings in 2007 and cost them $60 million in state fines so far. However, the fine was paid with no admission of guilt to limit the corporate liability and allow the expense to be deducted. Some people have all the breaks it seems.



In addition, Goldman received $10 billion in bank bailout funds last year and billions more from the AIG bailout. The bank funds were repaid so the federal government could not challenge the payoffs to their employees. Yet to be determined is the long term relationship between Goldman and Obama to explain why one of the largest investment banks in the world took a state senator from Illinois under their wing and led him to the presidency of the nation.



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God and Patriotism are Dead in America - But not the Independents who will bring them back

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It seems as if a full scale war is on in Washington by the Obama gang to destroy God and destroy patriotism in America. One is almost ashamed to speak of God and government or to put the needs of our country above the special interests.



Certainly Obama's administration has done little but reinforce that special interest needs will be the priority from his staffing to executive orders to legislation and spending. Never has a new president done so much so fast for such a small segment of the nation's population. Selected special interests from Wall Street powerhouse Goldman Sachs to the Chicago politicians to radical unions have been hugely rewarded while the American public has been skewered on the grill.



Legislation is not passed that does not reward cronies and contributors and spending bills are setting a record pace for deficit spending and increasing the national debt while trying to pay back the privileged few. Even altruistic efforts like health care reform, which is desperately needed by the public, have a far deeper and more sinister purpose of lining the pockets of a chosen few at the expense of many.



When it comes to eliminating God from the national consciousness the record may even be stronger. After all those years of listening to Reverend Wright rail against the whites with a degree of hatred and racism seldom seen from the pulpit, Obama made one photo op of going to church when he was inaugurated and then his displays of religion and God stopped once he took the oath of office. In nine months he has still not found a church for his family to attend. No matter which way you turn God and all signs of God are disappearing from the one nation under God that existed. How can that be?

The Supreme Court is about to rule on whether a Cross can be banned from federal land. If that is the case will the Cross then be banned from Arlington Naitonal cemetery? And if the Cross violates the First Amendment then the ACLU muct also file to ban the Star of David from all public land including Arlington Cemetery.





As the liberals trash the conservatives while the conservatives trash the liberals and the Democrats trash the Republicans while the Republicans trash the Democrats it seems as if the media and politicians are oblivious that the Independents continue to grow in strength.



There is no difference in politics whether you are a liberal, conservative, Democrat or Republican, you are all bought and paid for by corporations, unions or other special interests. Money is the lifeblood of politics and politicians are the endless spigot of money for those special interests.

Both parties scream about Wall Street but not one thing has been done by either party to prevent another economic collapse. There is no transparency, no new rules, not even prosecutions of all the criminals who executed the fraud on the American public.



In fact, the very people in the banks and financial institutions have been bolder than ever in manipulating the markets and preparing new markets, to wit the cap and trade energy market, thanks to the new $100 million man Al Gore.

There is no credit available to the public in spite of a trillion dollars in aid to banks and corporations. Not even the trillion dollar stimulus helped ease the credit crunch. What in the world are all those trillions in spending doing? Oh yes, multi-million dollar bonuses and other perks.

Here's news for the politicians. The public really does support health care reform but Congress, the President and media are the last people to know what that means. People want better prices, more choices and a chance to use alternative care whenever possible. They do not want the insurance companies or unions or government to tell them what to do, what doctor they can see, or how much it will cost.

Give us competition but don't say the public option is the only way to achieve it. Instead of giving full coverage to the millions of uninsured why not set up government owned health care clinics to stop them from going to emergency centers. Both the insured and uninsured will benefit from this. Fix tort reform by limiting penalties to actual damages and limit legal fees for both sides.



Tell Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to stop making secret deals with the pharmaceutical companies to protect them from generic drugs, thus keeping the cost of drugs way above necessary. Also how about a little of the transparency Obama promised. Obama should have his chief of staff fully disclose whatever deal he made with big pharma and tell us why the big pharma companies are spending over $100 million on television ads to endorse the Obama health care bill which isn't even in bill form yet.



Stop the banks and credit card companies from gouging us with hidden fees and higher interest rates when they took government money and they still won't loan us money. If Obama really wants transparency stop all corporate, non-profit and union campaign contributions and spending for political purposes as it is the biggest money machine next to Wall Street and has compromised the ability of our elected officials to act in our interest.

Now these are just some of the issues middle America, Main Street America, the town hall terrorists or whatever the media and politicians choose to call us, the issues that concern us the most. They are not conservative or liberal issues. Neither the Democrats nor Republicans have addressed them and both parties are responsible for them.



Our nation's politicians and media have no clue the people are abandoning both parties and joining a growing populist body as the new American Independents. Our platform is fairness, common sense and corruption free government. We want God and patriotism to be restored to their proper place in the American system. This nation was founded under Christian values and rights granted by God and we are tired of the Congress, President and courts taking it away from us.

We are tired of your trashing of America and your tolerance of all the media who trash patriotism in America. Stop apologizing for our country. When we exercise our constitutional right to free speech you condemn us as goons, thugs, hired guns and even a threat to you. Well we are a threat to you, to your political future for you have taken enough, given enough away to your contributors and abused your powers in government long enough.



We are proud of the patriotism we feel and do not believe your world view and corporate relationships have anything to do with patriotism. You have failed us. The two political parties have failed us. Wall Street and the banks have failed us. The media has failed us. We have just each other to rely on and that bond of spirit between people is far more important than the bond of bucks that guide you.

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One Year since Financial Meltdown - Still no Regulatory Reform, Transparency, Prosecutions or Control of Lobbyists and Special Interests

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Obama got the unexpected campaign gift a year ago Saturday, September 12, 2008, that powered him to the presidency when the US economy collapsed under the weight of fraud, greed and lack of government regulation. In spite of the fact Wall Street King Goldman Sachs was one of his strongest supporters, this economic debacle was the defining moment when it became obvious Obama would win the presidency.




Suddenly his promises for real change in federal policy, transparency in government, regulatory reform to get those crooks on Wall Street and campaign reform to stop the lobbyists who seem to control congress with their campaign contributions caught the attention of a public worn out by government.

Obama was an unknown and in the end in spite of all the political carnage left by the Bush years which should have given Obama a 15-18% victory margin Obama was only able to win by 6%, but he did win. Then came an endless series of appearances by the new president reiterating his campaign pledges to the people.

One year later Obama has bailed out the crooks on Wall Street, banks, insurance companies, investment houses, auto makers, even labor unions whose contracts brought down the auto industry. His first year as president has brought us the largest deficit in history, about $1.58 trillion, while he has driven the national debt to over $12 trillion, yet another record.




What about those high and lofty campaign promises? Since the economic collapse a year ago we have spent $2 trillion trying to dig out from under the hole left to us by Wall Street and Detroit yet there has not been a single regulatory reform passed by congress to control or stop any of the illegal, unethical and immoral practices that got us here in the first place.




The administration has agreed to look into the CIA to see if they can prosecute them for using torture tactics on terrorists but the investment houses and bankers whose greed nearly destroyed the world's economy and most certainly destroyed millions of American's 401 and other retirement accounts not only remain in business as usual but have even gotten billions of dollars in bonuses.

Obama also promised transparency yet his own White House personnel vetting system has no transparency, nor does his Treasury efforts with TARP, Federal Reserve efforts with many bailouts, his allocation of stimulus money, even millions of dollars in his campaign contributions.




The new Administration is even more secretive when it comes to reporting on personnel and spending than the Bush administration. More lobbyists than ever now prowl the halls of Congress looking for the next elected official to buy off and they are spending tens of millions of dollars buying up congress. Even Obama has hired a handful of lobbyists on his staff though he trashed the lobbyists when a candidate for president.

As for special interest money, the money Obama blames for most everything that goes wrong in America, nothing has been done to stop the flood of money to elected officials. Campaign reform has been all but forgotten and Obama cannot afford to address it when he may need all the money possible to save the Democrats in next year's elections.




So he has failed to fix anything that contributed to the mess we are in and maybe that is what we should expect from our elected officials. His many lofty campaign promises were just more of the same political rhetoric, intended to get votes so he could control the special interests. Yet some special interests, the chosen ones smart enough to contribute to Obama along the way, not only avoid punishment but thrive under his watch.

How about no new programs until he gives us what he promised? Real change. Transparency. Regulatory Reform. Prosecution of crooks. Restrictions on lobbyists. Stop special interest money from owning politicians. Progress to date - none.

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Bush Bails Out Obama as Obama Takes Credit for Bush Bank Bailout

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Leave it to politics to turn the tables as the only successful Obama economic program to date was not part of his recovery program at all but was the bank bailout by the Bush Administration. Obama is taking credit for the program that has already made a $4 billion profit for the US Treasury.




Of course only the banks Bush gave money have repaid. Once the Democrats took control with the election of Obama the bank bailout became the housing bailout (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac), the insurance bailout (AIG), and the union/automaker bailout (GM and Chrysler). None of them have repaid the government billions yet.

Still it didn't keep Obama from taking credit for the bank repayments and the profit to the government. Not only does Obama never missed a chance to blame Bush for everything bad that has happened since Obama took office but now he won't give Bush credit for anything that might go right.




The Banks and the profit made include:
Goldman Sachs $1.4 billion
Morgan Stanley $1.3 billion
American Express $414 million

In addition five other banks including Northern Trust, Bank of New York Mellon, State Street, U.S. Bancorp and BB&T each paid between $100 million and $334 million in profits. These figures do not include 14 smaller banks who paid about $35 million in profits.




Of course another element of the bailout, the effort to stimulate home sales, has had little impact. The same is true of the program to buy the toxic loans currently held by the banks and capable of disrupting any economic recovery. But then you can't get what you were promised under this Administration so get used to it.

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Why are People Shouting To Be Heard at Health Care Forums?

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The Democrats and the Obama gang are going to great pains to paint a picture of organized disruption of the Congressional Health Care forums around the nation during the current Congressional recess. Is it any surprise this could happen?

These are the same Democrats and Obama gang that slammed a sham of a trillion dollar stimulus bill down our throats with no effort to get Republican or public input. The same gang that slammed bank, insurance and auto bailouts for another trillion dollars down our throats with no Republican or public input.

They are now trying to slam a health care reform that no one has read and can't be understood down our throats with a hidden cost of a trillion more with no Republican input and they even tried to force it through Congress again with no public influence.





However Congress, even though under the ironclad control of the Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid Democratic triumvirate for the first time dared to buck the leadership strong arm tactics and refused to pass a bill without public influence and now the public is finally being heard.

People are mad, damn mad about the bankruptcy of America underway and about the misrepresentation of the intent of Obama initiatives like the stimulus and bailouts along with the billion dollar bonuses also approved by the Obama administration.

Health care legislation does not address one of the most ridiculous runaway costs, the cost of lawyers in pursuing claims against doctors and hospitals which has driven required insurance costs through the ceiling. Obama says leave the lawyers and their million dollar fees alone even while attacking other costs in the industry.





No surprise here as he previously substantially increased the cost of the stimulus public works projects by requiring union wages be paid and has done everything to extend the influence of unions throughout our economy, even where states have flatly rejected the union influence with right-to-work laws. It will prove to be one of the most expensive pork barrel expenditures of the Obama liberal agenda.

There is no conspiracy to disrupt Congressional town halls. Democrats in Congress have ignored the public and have no intention of pursuing bi-partisan work on the legislative agenda and people are letting them know that maybe our Congressmen and women are the problem, not the solution.

Many Obama supporters have realized the Obama promise and the Obama reality are two different things and the thugs in his Administration using White House power to threaten any politicians that do not support them are nothing more than bullies using the White House for a pulpit.





The first chance the public has had to be heard on the liberal, some say socialist agenda of Obama and the first chance they have had to demand explanations and answers from their own elected Congressmen has stunned the Democrats but how stupid is that? All they had to do is watch the collapse of the Obama and Congress poll ratings over the past few months and listen to the thundering herd of dissent over broken promises and failed trillion dollar solutions.

People want them to slow down and get it right this time but slowing down and getting it right will mean the liberal agenda and public takeover of health care will be fully exposed and that is something Obama and Pelosi cannot allow to happen.

If the Democrats and the Republicans would both shut up and let the public be heard for the first time. If our elected representatives would ask the people they were elected to represent what they want before they slam something down our throats. And if the people in Washington would figure out they are our employees, that is our White House and Capitol, those are our laws not theirs being debated and that is our money not theirs being squandered, then maybe some sense would return to Washington.





If not then throw the whole damn bunch out because they were not sent to our nation's capitol to tell us what to do but to do what we want. Instead of complaining that the public is mad just shut up and listen for a change.
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Obama's 3rd 100 Days - Now What?

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Will the next 100 days finally reveal the real Obama so America can get on with evaluating the new occupant in the White House? Don't count on it as what we have seen so far has been such a contrast in styles, a reversal in policies and a world class spending spree that the Harvard fraternity-like mood in our nation's capitol is unlikely to change.





Is there anything we have learned so far? More of the usual when it comes to politics. While Obama may have a far left leaning agenda his actions are no different than the Republicans. All the crooks on Wall Street remain on Wall Street and not in jail, except for the token self-admitted crook Madoff.

Obama's pledge to stop politics as usual stopped nothing and in fact resulted in record shattering spending, deficits and false hopes that will be paid for generations to come. Pork barrel is alive and well. Foreign enemies he was going to engage with his Ivy League charm get bolder by the day and now we have to resort to coddling them and allowing them to get away with stealing elections and kidnapping Americans as a pre-condition to talking to them.





Not only has the Obama administration ignored the Republicans and Independents in Washington even though he was elected to be the president of "all the people," but he has moved partisan politics to new levels of blatant discrimination by threatening to get even with those who do not support his freight train to socialism.

His $2 trillion first year deficit put more money in the pockets of his friends and campaign contributors than the special interest groups he so casually took for granted as a Democrat. The auto unions lost tens of thousands of jobs under his policies. Educators still work in lousy schools and student achievement standards continue to flounder.

His assault on Catholics and Christians seem as if he single-handedly intends to wipe God out of the foundation of America and leave issues of morality a shambles as he promises one thing to the faithful and Pope while doing just the opposite in his actions.

All those local government unions that supported him have suffered furloughs, layoffs and reductions in force while those rich bankers that backed him have received billion dollar bailouts, billion dollar bonuses and get out of jail cards for life I guess.





To demonstrate his fiscal restraint he allowed billions and billions of dollars in outrageous private sector bonuses while bailing out the companies, instead of prosecuting those getting the bonuses for destroying the national and world economies by manipulating the housing, oil and alternative energy stock and commodity markets. Speculation that leads to the destruction of national economies hardly seems like grounds for a $100 million bonus for one person.

His answer to a health care system that is out of control is to create another layer of greed with a public socialized system to compete with the greed mongers already there. The health care crisis is a matter of cost pure and simple.

the cost of health facilities
the cost of treatment versus cure
the cost of doctors intent on making millions rather than helping people
the cost of insurance companies with no incentive to reduce costs when all they have to do it raise premiums
the cost of pharmaceutical companies trying to squeeze every last cent out of our health insurance and government aid programs before they lose their patent rights
the cost of frivolous lawsuits by lawyers that continue to force up the price of malpractice insurance paid by the policy holders, not the insurance companies, lawyers or doctors
even the cost of regulators to keep track of the cost of health care.





Mr. Obama, you Harvard people make things too difficult. If you really want to fix a system out of control from greed, then get rid of the greed and stop pampering the greedy. The problem with health care is no different than Wall Street. You leave the door open and greed will dominate because your administration has shown nothing to indicate you can or will stop it any more than any previous Democratic or Republican president.

You coddle the rich while slamming those whose support you took for granted. Is that a legacy you want to leave behind? You refuse to reform political campaigns because in truth you bent the rules to spend the most in history to get elected. Nothing has happened to reform campaigns, clean up Wall Street, get corruption out of politics or help people. Your legislative agenda has been a boondoggle for the rich, protecting the haves while continuing to penalize the have nots.

If you are Christian like you claim though your actions certainly are no example, then find a church and go to it and stop trying to drive God out of the constitution and foundation of our nation. We came here to found a nation under God, not against God and not one that ignores the role Divine Providence plays in our lives.





Americans are not stupid. The collapse of your poll numbers should tell you that. We know you are using the office we elected you to for your own self-serving purposes. We know those closest to you are being helped while many more are paying the price. Maybe you will help all the people in the end but America will survive whether you are honest with us or not, whether you are honest with yourself, whether you become the king of socialism, or whether you dedicate yourself to helping all the people all the time rather than the chosen few that are your faithful and blind followers.

We don't care if you join Bill Clinton and Al Gore and go make a few hundred million dollars after you are president, just don't make it while you are president at our expense. Try vacationing where normal people go, not just $40,000 a week vacation homes for the elite and rich. Tell Michelle $400 sneakers are not a good example to set in the White House when greed and materialism got us here in the first place.





You made history getting elected, not for what you might do once you were elected. So far your record in office and your shot gun approach to governing has diminished your reputation. Perhaps it is time you take a courageous step and declare that in spite of your ability to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for political campaigns you will not run for re-election in 2012, and you might very well regain some of the credibility you have lost. For the first time you will prove you are not intoxicated by power and money but by what is best for all Americans.

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Obama's Bad Boys and How to Punish Them in Style - Bank of America and North Korea

Okay, today's lesson is how to punish the bad guys and look good to the public while really not hurting the bad guys too much in the process.

Bank of America

First we have Bank of America, the giant bank that teetered on the brink of bankruptcy because of a series of stupid and possibly illegal actions. This was the bank Bush and Obama virtually forced to absorb the investment firm of Lehman during the financial meltdown. So in return for doing the government's dirty work with Lehman, the Bank of America gets a $25 billion bank bail out from the US taxpayer. It then says it must pay $5.8 billion in bonuses to the very employees that nearly bankrupted Lehman, bonus payments which the Obama administration allows to happen.




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To punish them, however, the Security and Exchange Commission under Obama charges the Bank with lying to their stockholders about the Lehman bonuses and negotiates a fine of $31 million for the action. So, the Bank violates the law and gets fined $31 million while also being given $25 billion in taxpayer money. In addition the $5.8 billion in bonuses get paid. So we the people nailed the bad guys for $31 million while letting them get away with $31.8 billion. It seems to me we just lost $31.49 billion with the Obama settlement.

Gored Again by Gore in North Korea

Speaking of good friends of the president, there is the case of former Vice President Al Gore who we have already shown made about $100 million off the environment while telling the US Senate every cent he gets from his environmental work goes to non-profit groups. He stands to make over a billion more if Congress would pass the Obama "Cap and trade" scam which was devised by Gore and his partner Goldman Sachs. Yes, the same silent partner serving Obama.





Now Gore has two of his staff captured by the North Koreans, staff who call themselves journalists, who supposedly "accidently" wandered into the most secure Communist country left on earth. They were sentenced to 12 years in prison, rather harsh except North Korea has made it a practice to bully the Obama boys ever since the president promised to sit down and talk with them. Until now Obama said he would only talk to them if Russia, China and Japan among others were involved.





Today the White House sent in former president Bill Clinton on a private jet to negotiate for their release. I don't suppose there is any connection between Bill and Hillary, his wife and the Secretary of State, who has been getting run over by Obama's legion of foreign policy advisors. And it is also probably just coincidence that the journalists are Al Gore employees, his former VP.

So the White House pulls an end run on our allies cutting China, Russia and Japan out of the negotiations with North Korea with this sham all for political expediency to make Barack and Hillary look like they are actually accomplishing something in foreign policy which they are not. Al Gore, who has already made tens of millions off the administration, gets his employees saved at taxpayer expense and it will not be cheap.





Congress should investigate the circumstances of this action and at a minimum demand Gore pay the cost. Why in the world were his employees wandering into North Korea in the first place? Does this incredible action of sending a former US president into a hostile country to save a couple of people who violated the law of Korea in the first place have anything to do with the fact Iran has now captured three more stupid Americans who supposedly wandered into Iran last week and now it looks like both the bad boys, Iran and North Korea, have the Obama administration right where they want them.





Look for us to pay millions if not billions to these former enemies to get them to sit down and talk about all the wonderful ways we can work with and help countries dedicated to destroying our government. If this is the future direction of the Obama foreign policy then I think we need to re-examine our role in the world. Policeman or patsy, which are we?