Another day another "Sarah Palin is right" column on economics, and again, from all places, Reuters! James Pethokoukis the money and politics writer for Reuters has this to say:
The state of the dollar probably hasn’t been a first-tier political issue in the United States since, say, the presidential election of 1896. Back then, it manifested as whether or not America would stay on the gold standard or switch to a bimetallic one. (The William Jennings Bryan "cross of gold" speech and all that.)
The aftershocks of the global financial crisis may now be propelling the dollar back to the political forefront. The greenback’s continuing slide makes it a handy metric that neatly encapsulates America’s current economic troubles and possible long-term decline. House Republicans for instance, have been using the weaker dollar as a weapon in their attacks on the Bernanke-led Federal Reserve.
For more evidence of the dollar’s return to political salience, look no further than the Facebook page of Sarah Palin. The 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee — and possible 2012 presidential candidate — has shown a knack for identifying hot-button political issues, such as the purported "death panels" she claims to have found in Democratic healthcare reform plans. In a recent Facebook posting, Palin expressed deep concern over the dollar’s "continued viability as an international reserve currency" in light of huge U.S. budget deficits.
She might be onto something here, politically and economically. A recent Rasmussen poll, for instance, found that 88 percent of Americans say the dollar should remain the dominant global currency. Now, the average voter may not fully understand the subtleties of international finance nor appreciate exactly how a dominant dollar has benefitted the U.S economy. But they sure think a weaker dollar is a sign of a weaker America.
And that’s the political problem for the Obama administration. Its benign neglect of the dollar is another example of an economic policy — along with TARP and the $787 billion stimulus — that the White House thinks is helping the economy, but many Americans find wrongheaded.
As usual, this all started with a Facebook posting from Sarah:
Further Proof of the Need for Energy Independence
The British newspaper The Independent reported today that Gulf oil producers were negotiating with Russia, China, Japan and France to replace the dollar in pricing oil with a basket of currencies.[1] According to the Wall Street Journal, Arab oil officials have denied the story, but even the possibility of such a talk weakens the dollar and renews fears about its continued viability as an international reserve currency.[2] In fact, today a United Nations official called for a new global reserve currency to replace the dollar and end our "privilege" to run up huge deficits.[3] We can see the effect of this in the price of gold, which hit a record high today in response to fears about the weakened dollar.[4]
All of this is a result of our out-of-control debt. This is why we need to rein in spending, and this is also why we need energy independence. A weakened dollar means higher commodity prices. This will make it more difficult to pay our bills – including the bill to import oil.
In his book Architects of Ruin, Peter Schweizer points out that the Obama administration is focusing primarily on "green energy," while ignoring our need to develop our domestic conventional energy resources.[5] We’re ignoring the looming crisis caused by our dependence on foreign oil. Because we’re dependent on foreign nations for our oil, we’re also at their mercy if they decide to dump the dollar as their trade currency. We can’t allow ourselves to be so vulnerable to the whims of foreign nations. That’s why we must develop our own domestic supplies of oil and gas.
Though the chant of "Drill, baby, drill" was much derided, it expressed the need to confront this issue head-on before it reaches a crisis point.
Bottom line: let’s stop digging ourselves into debt and start drilling for energy independence.
- Sarah Palin
[1] See http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/the-demise-of-the-dollar-1798175.html
[2] See http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125484066563367821.html
[3] See http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.e272eaa74dccc30f21c6ff7638b0f37b.461&show_article=1
[4] See http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091006/ts_afp/commoditiesgoldmetalsprice_20091006144514
[5] See http://www.peterschweizer.com/
*Note: Schweizer’s book is a real eye-opener. The sections on ACORN are quite informative.
This was rapidly followed by the Reuters piece by Tabassum Zakaria.
The Financial Times, the salmon-colored authoritative newspaper that is closely read by traders and other financial types around the world, had an eye-opener for readers this morning.
It wasn’t the front-page, four-column wide headline, "Obama’s critics pounce on falling dollar as fears grow over currency."
It wasn’t the graphic showing a red downward line over a dollar bill.
The jolt comes at the start of the second paragraph in the top story of the day on the dollar, "Sarah Palin…."
The newspaper, whose articles can move markets, quoted the former Republican vice presidential candidate and ex-Alaska governor from her Facebook post on the need for energy independence. Palin links the dependence on foreign oil and large U.S. deficits to declines in the dollar .
"We can see the effect of this in the price of gold, which hit a record high today in response to fears about the weakened dollar," Palin wrote.
Palin’s power for using her Facebook page to affect public opinion is not to be taken lightly. Remember "death panels" which turned the healthcare debate into rabid townhall meetings this summer — that phrase emerged from Palin’s Facebook page
This was followed up by a second column by Zakaria:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Leading Republicans echoed Sarah Palin on Thursday in attacking President Barack Obama over the weakness of the U.S. dollar.
Analysts warn it is risky business playing politics with the U.S. currency, which has traditionally been off limits as a play to score points against political opponents.
That taboo appears to have been broken.
Palin, the former Republican vice presidential candidate and ex-governor of Alaska, launched her dollar criticism on her Facebook page. She linked dollar weakness to U.S. dependence on foreign oil, large U.S. deficits and questions about whether the dollar deserves to retain its vaunted status of reserve currency.
"We can see the effect of this in the price of gold, which hit a record high today in response to fears about the weakened dollar," Palin wrote on Facebook this week.
"All of this is a result of our out-of-control debt. This is why we need to rein in spending, and this is also why we need energy independence."
Republicans in Congress said the previous Republican administration of former President George W. Bush also deserved blame for dollar weakness but, since taking office on January 20, Democrat Obama was calling the shots.
"I agree with her," Senator Charles Grassley, top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said when asked by Reuters about Palin's dollar criticism.
"A lot of the recession we are in now goes back to Bush. But the extent to which we passed the $787 billion stimulus bill that is not doing any good -- this president is responsible for," he said.
"It is not the Bush administration anymore. It is nine months into this administration. You can't blame Bush anymore," Grassley added.
The story went on to say:
"I don't view this as a partisan thing. It is bad for America to have a policy of a weak dollar," assistant Senate Republican leader Jon Kyl told Reuters when asked about Palin's comments.
"All Treasury secretaries say, 'Oh, our policy is to have a strong dollar.' But the question is what do they do. I don't think either this administration or the Bush administration have followed the appropriate policy," Kyl said.
With the 2010 Congressional elections a year away, Republicans are seizing on opportunities to throw the Democrats off their stride. More Republicans were expected to take up dollar weakness as a tool to hammer the Obama administration, analysts said.
"It'll be a straight line, dollar equals deficit," Ethan Siegal, an analyst at The Washington Exchange, said.
"For the out party in the modern era there's nothing off limits anymore," he said. "The dollar certainly is not off limits."
STAR POWER
Palin still has star power. Her comments resonate with a good segment of the conservative Republican base and with Americans who view her as talking "common sense" in the face of the country's elites, analysts said.
Her written comments on the dollar made the front-page lead story of the Financial Times on Thursday.
Palin has successfully used Facebook to rally supporters of her viewpoint. The "death panels" term that rocked the healthcare debate during raucous summer town hall meetings sprung from a Palin Facebook post.
"She was the vice presidential candidate in the last election, that's marquee status right there. There are no other Republicans who can say that who want to be the next president of the United States," Siegal said. "So she gets a seat at the table just because of that."
What was interesting was a second day comment from Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. When asked about attacking the dollar’s weakness, he said:
"I don't think it's particularly smart."
He also said that it was "a potentially shaky way to go" to have Sarah lead the charge. However, Ornstein added later that the view among some Americans that Palin reflects a more down-to-earth view was a "powerful, powerful theme."
Indeed it is a powerful theme.
Sarah is absolutely on the right track here, and there is a heck of a lot more going on than meets the eye. This is more than just poor economic policy from Barack Obama and his communist party. I’ve never been much on conspiracy theories. Most unwind too easily to be believable, but with Barack Obama, these things write themselves.
Barack Obama is a totally unknown quantity. We, the American people know absolutely nothing about this guy. I mean nothing. All of this guy’s records are sealed so tight that even the New York Times won’t be able to leak them! Birth records, school records, everything.
And the stuff we do know about, all of the connections to domestic terrorists William Ayers and Jeff Jones, and his strong ACORN and SEIU connections are incredibly troubling, especially when you consider that Ayers either wrote Obama’s first book, "Dreams From My Father" or contributed heavily to it, proving that Obama lied big time about Ayers being "just a guy in the neighborhood."
Of course we now know that Jeff Jones, who along with Ayers co-founded the ultra-violent Weather Underground wrote much of Obama’s $1 trillion dollar economic "stimulus package."
It actually starts to become an easy case to make that Obama, a totally inexperienced, and completely undistinguished State Senator, whose claim to fame was voting "present" a record number of times, was chosen as a sort of Manchurian Candidate by far left communists like Ayers and Jones. The case is stronger when you realize that Obama’s mother, and her parents were active communists.
But you know, that’s only part of it. As dangerous as Ayers and Jones are, and as committed to destroying America as we know it they are, they have absolutely nothing on the self proclaimed owner of the democrat party, George Soros.
George Soros, a multi-billionaire who was a Nazi collaborator in his younger days, made his fortune in currency speculation. I have often compared Soros to a character in a James Bond novel. Not one of the far out villains, but more of an Ernst Stavro Blofeld type. The kind who uses his resources to manipulate markets and usurp governments.
Soros is famous for destroying the British pound and becoming very wealthy doing it. Although there is way more information on Soros than one could ever publish in one blog entry, here is a nice place to get you started.
The thing that makes Soros so dangerous is all of the far left radical groups he funds. Some of these groups like MoveOn.org, the Open Society Institute, and Citizens for American Progress have innocent sounding enough names, though they are anything but, and Soros is involved in literally hundreds of these far left groups! To give you an idea, check out these "special initiatives" from Soros’ Open Society Institute.
Soros is also heavily involved in ACORN and SEIU, which of course brings us to his star player, Barack Obama. Most consider Soros to be Obama’s puppet master, the real brains behind all of this. That is certainly an easy sale to make, considering what we are seeing.
Photo above: Obama at fund-raiser at Steven and Judy Gluckstern's home, April 9, 2007. George Soros is seated to the right of the stairs.
Now Sarah’s digs at Obama in her Facebook posts were not just about the U.S. dollar, but at our total lack of a coherent (and realistic) energy policy. Only a fool would think that our national security, as well as our nation’s financial security isn’t in jeopardy with the current state of affairs.
We have long pointed out that the so-called "green movement" has been co-opted by radical communists like Jeff Jones and departed "green jobs" Czar Van Jones, both members of the Apollo Alliance, a group funded by Soros. Again, terrorist Jeff Jones wrote much of Obama’s trillion dollar stimulus, a total failure by any measure, that heavily focuses on a "green economy"
It should be noted that George Soros is investing heavily in "green technology." BusinessWeek reports that Soros is investing as much as one billion dollars in "green."
The upcoming climate talks in Copenhagen are less than two months away, and everyone is looking to throw in his/her two cents. On Oct. 10, it was billionaire George Soros’ turn to get in on the act. Giving a speech in Denmark, the man who famously ‘broke the Bank of England’ in the early 1990s now plans to invest $1 billion in clean energy technology. Another $100 million — doled out in $10 million increments annually over ten years — will fund the newly-created Climate Policy Initiative, a foundation targeted at environmental policy.
That’s a sizeable amount of cash, though Soros didn’t specify where the $1 billion would be spent other than saying ‘stringent conditions’ will be used to evaluate potential investments. And in an ironic twist, Soros, who made a sizeable chunk of his fortune through currency speculation, put his support behind carbon taxes, not cap-and-trade systems. His reason? Financial investors can too easily manipulate carbon markets.
Now of course, Soros isn’t the only guy who stands to make his company healthy if only enough people can be hoodwinked into buying the "global warming" hoax. General Electric’s Jeffrey Immelt is on Barack Obama’s speed dial, and a member of several of Obama’s "advisory boards."
It’s no surprise that NBC and MSNBC, which are owned by GE, are basically stenographers and cheerleaders for all things Barack Obama! It also shouldn’t shock people as to the reasons why every year NBC/Universal shoves "green" down every viewer’s throat throughout the story lines on every one of their shows on not only on NBC, but the Discovery Networks, USA Network, and dozens more, during "green week!"
One can only imagine the writers for shows like Law and Order, banging their heads trying to weave a "clean and green" theme into the gritty New York City violence they tackle, or how the folks over at Psych manage to have Shawn and Gus talk "green." Although, maybe it’s appropriate that a fake psychic should be a pitchman for a fake calamity!
Make no mistake about it, General Electric stands to make billions of dollars off of this, which is why the news shows over at NBC/MSNBC run such strong interference for Barack Obama against the American people!
But Soros isn’t just about the "global warming" hoax. Nope, Soros is playing both sides of this deal. In August, Sarah called out Obama on a sweetheart deal that got almost zero coverage in the media.
YOUR TAX DOLLARS HARD AT WORK: FIRST CARS, NOW FOREIGN OIL
Today's Wall Street Journal contains some puzzling news for all Americans who are impacted by high energy prices and who share the goal of moving us toward energy independence.
For years, states rich with an abundance of oil and natural gas have been begging Washington, DC politicians for the right to develop their own natural resources on federal lands and off shore. Such development would mean good paying jobs here in the United States (with health benefits) and the resulting royalties and taxes would provide money for federal coffers that would potentially off-set the need for higher income taxes, reduce the federal debt and deficits, or even help fund a trillion dollar health care plan if one were so inclined to support such a plan.
So why is it that during these tough times, when we have great needs at home, the Obama White House is prepared to send more than two billion of your hard-earned tax dollars to Brazil so that the nation's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, can drill off shore and create jobs developing its own resources? That's all Americans want; but such rational energy development has been continually thwarted by rabid environmentalists, faceless bureaucrats and a seemingly endless parade of lawsuits aimed at shutting down new energy projects.
I'll speak for the talent I have personally witnessed on the oil fields in Alaska when I say no other country in the world has a stronger workforce than America, no other country in the world has better safety standards than America, and no other country in the world has stricter environmental standards than America. Come to Alaska to witness how oil and gas can be developed simultaneously with the preservation of our eco-system. America has the resources. We deserve the opportunity to develop our resources no less than the Brazilians. Millions of Americans know it is true: "Drill, baby, drill." Alaska is proof you can drill and develop, and preserve nature, with its magnificent caribou herds passing by the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS), completely unaffected. One has to wonder if Obama is playing politics and perhaps refusing a "win" for some states just to play to the left with our money.
The new Gulf of Mexico lease sales tomorrow sound promising and perhaps will move some states in the right direction, but we all know that the extreme environmentalists who serve to block progress elsewhere, including in Alaska, continue to block opportunities. These environmentalists are putting our nation in peril and forcing us to rely on unstable and hostile foreign countries. Mr. Obama can stop the extreme tactics and exert proper government authority to encourage resource development and create jobs and health benefits in the U.S.; instead, he chooses to use American dollars in Brazil that will help to pay the salaries and benefits for Brazilians to drill for resources when the need and desire is great in America.
Buy American is a wonderful slogan, but you can't say in one breath that you want to strengthen our economy and stimulate it, and then in another ship our much-needed dollars to a nation desperate to drill while depriving us of the same opportunity.
- Sarah Palin
Of course, there is a lot more to it than first met the eye. Now the first question is obviously this: If one is worried about the environment, then why is it OK to drill off the coast of Brazil? Now of course, common sense, tells us that if it IS OK to drill off the Brazilian coast, it should be more than OK to drill off the American coastline!
Does anyone in their right minds think that a Brazilian oil company can drill in a more environmentally friendly manner than an American company? Of course not.
But as Paul Harvey used to say, it’s time for the rest of the story! You see, it wasn’t $2 billion that Barack Obama loaned the Brazilian oil giant Petrobas, it was $10 billion! But even that, as idiotic as it seems, isn’t the real story. Nope the real story is this: Just days before Barack Obama made this generous loan of taxpayer dollars, George Soros bought into Petrobas, making it his largest financial holding!
Now here is where it all starts to come together, where it all becomes clear.
America has more than enough oil, natural gas, and coal to be energy independent for generations. We could use these God given natural resources for decades while we build more nuclear powerplants, and create real workable alternative energy sources. I mean this is a no-brainer.
So why don’t we just do it?
Well, again, when you step back, and really see what is going on here, and understand George Soros’ modus operandi, his standard operating procedure, it all become crystal clear.
First, it is imperative that America remain weak and at the mercy of foreign oil. Never mind we send between $700 billion and $1 trillion a year out of the country to buy it. Never mind this incredible transfer of treasure funds many of our enemies.
Being at the mercy of foreign nations for our energy undermines not only our national security, bet weakens our financial security as well. This in turn is severely weakening America’s status as a superpower, something the democrat/communists have been all about for at least a century.
The most diabolical scheme at work though is all about the "green," and I don’t mean the environment. George Soros made his bones destroying currencies for fun and profit! Now that he has his hand picked communist, Barack Obama in place, a man who absolutely hates America in it’s present form, and someone who has vowed to "fundamentally change" America as we know it, all of the pieces are falling together for Soros.
All of the various "green" groups that Soros has funded for decades have greased the skids for Soros by spreading lies and propagating the "global warming" hoax. These lies have caused many Americans to think that using our God given natural resources is somehow wrong, maybe even evil!
Our dependence on foreign oil has weakened us tremendously over the decades.
Enter the democrat/communist party. Their policies have caused us all much heartache, but one has to sit back and wonder. Other than normal stuff, and the war, what was the issues of the 2006 election that swept Republicans out of power in Congress and installed the democrat/communists in control of both Houses?
It sure wasn’t the economy! While slowed, our GDP was growing at a respectable clip, and unemployment was at historically low numbers, lower than the average of the 1950's, the 1960's, the 1970's, the 1980's, and the 1990's!
Incredibly, in less than two years after the democrat/communists came to power, the economy basically crashed, allowing Barack Obama to win the 2008 election.
Since that nightmarish event, Barack Obama and the democrat/communist party have spent more money and racked up more debt than all of the previous administrations combined. That’s right, Obama and his band of merry communists have spent more money in nine months than all of the previous Presidents had in 233 years, combined!
Now one could chalk this up to sheer stupidity, and incompetence, but I am beginning to think that’s the whole idea. I mean what’s easier to defend, and deflect, being called incompetent and stupid, or downright evil?
Look, by spending unbelievable amounts of money, and tripling the deficit in just nine months, with trillions more in spending coming down the road with ObamaCare and cap and tax, Obama and the democrat/communists are destroying the dollar and it certainly looks like it’s on purpose.
And who benefits more from a destroyed dollar than the self proclaimed owner of the democrat party, communist George Soros?
Of course the secondary benefit to will go to the democrat/communists and Obama. If the dollar collapses, and panic ensues, and it will, Obama and the communists will have their crisis they can use to justify their "fundamental change" they want to bring to America. It will be their excuse to void the Constitution and do something else, creating their communist state. And Obama is on record saying he thinks the Constitution is "fundamentally flawed." And yet, he swore an oath to protect it. Uh huh.
Treason is a tough word to use, so how about we just stick to incredibly corrupt. The case against the democrat/communist Congress is strong. There are so many crooks in that august body that they should all be required to wear orange jumpsuits with numbers on them! But that all pales in comparison to the corruption that exists in the White House and this President.
Even more frightening is how easily these people flaunt their corruption. I mean did anyone with half a brain think that Obama’s trip to Copenhagen was anything but an attempt to line his corrupt Chicago buddies pockets?
All I know is this. If we can survive until then, the litmus test for anyone who hopes to be elected to Congress in 2010 or the presidency in 2012 must be the promise for a complete and total investigation of everything Obama is involved in, as well as a complete look at George Soros, General Electric, ACORN and SEIU, for starters.
In the meantime, patriotic Americans should be burning up the phone lines at the Capitol talking to their Senators and Congressmen.
The Barack Obama administration is the most corrupt in U.S. history, and I fear they are just getting started, that we haven’t seen nothing yet!
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