Wall Street to Iowa Caucuses: You ain't got a clue

Posted Jan 4th 2008 10:52AM by Gary Sattler
Filed under: Other Issues, Conventions and Conferences, Rants and Raves, Personal Finance, Politics, Presidential Elections

I was motivated to write this by a recent blog post by Jonathan Berr entitled, Iowa to Wall Street: Drop dead. In that post Jonathan made one assertion to which I take exception. Mr. Berr claims that the American voter is scared and that our fear shall rule the ballot box this coming November. With all due respect (and much is due) to Jonathan Berr, I must make this one assertion, it's not fear that we shall carry to the ballot box in November, it's anger. We as a public are very angry and we have every right to be mad as hell.

We're mad because we know that as major banks were writing off losses they brought upon themselves, they sold those debt portfolios to collection agencies and pools of lawyers who relentlessly chased those dollars until the cows came home. Yeah, it's a loss on the books but those debts are still real and collectible. Do they honestly think we don't know that?

We're angry because our government is silently allowing the sale of large stakes in major domestic financial institutions to foreign entities.

We're upset that our government is underwriting the foolishness of producing ethanol from foodstuffs for use in internal combustion engines when good sense tells us that ethanol should be made from waste and used at it's source for electrical generation.

We're mad as hell that we're potentially facing a government made up mainly of turncoat Democrats who sanctioned a war with their votes and now haughtily claim they were misled. They're liars or they're stupid... which is it?

We're dismayed that our government employs nearly 30% of our domestic workforce and provides them with better benefits than most of the people who are supporting them. We're sick of busting our tails to feather the nests of proletariat wannabes who think they know better than us what we need.

And now, we have a nice slimy pool of career politicians all trying to perform their best Bill Clinton impersonations while admitting between the lines that they are speculating on the executive office with droning rhetoric that they hope we'll relate to. Oh, please let me hear it again Bill, "I feel your pain."

Ballots of fear in November? Not on your life. The ballots to be cast in this coming election shall be rife with the anger of a nation being quickly sold into ruin, and for my part I have yet to see a presidential candidate deserving of my one paltry vote.

Perhaps I'll just write my own name on the ballot, kiss my own baby and buy myself a cup of coffee as I watch the Mexican flag being raised over my county courthouse.

Or maybe I'll just move to Australia.

Tags: Afganistan, banks, caucuses, Clinton, crisis, debt, Edwards, election, ethanol, featured, Giuliani, government, Iowa, Iran, Iraq, Obama, presidential, recovery, Romney, war

Print this

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

1-04-2008 @ 11:10AM

sara said...

Everyone was misled. Get over it. Bush has made a huge mess and blaming democrats just won't work this time.

1-04-2008 @ 11:32AM

Jeff said...

maybe you should move to Australia... that way you can really not take ownership, and continue to project your republican led downfalls onto the democrats.

1-04-2008 @ 12:22PM

beanspants said...

since this was filed under rants and raves, i've got to give it a perfect 10 for being a proper vitriolic rant.

1-04-2008 @ 6:20PM

R.J.Hoffman said...

Mr. Gary E Sutter:

Congratulations on your thesus "Wall Street to Iowa Caucuses: You ain't got a clue": I am no lover of Wall Street, they peform a very necessary function and sombody has to do it, and I don't begrudge their getting rich at it.

However, The private sector public majority has a right to be mad at the lovers of big government, puesdo Republicans, Democrats, Liberals, Socialists and fellow travelers. Why does the 30% of our domestic workforce working for the Government enjoy lavish benefits and early retirment at the expense of the private sector workers? It's enough to make anyone angry. And bigger government is what all the politicians promise to get elected.

Also, What happened to the Federal and State Bank examiners who supposed to protect the public when they allowed the banks to give loans to anyone regardless of credit standing with no money down. The real estate salespeople and loan brokers got rich and the banks sold fraudlent loans to Wall Street. They should be forced to buy them back. What a mess.

The Federal Reserve caused this mess by keepimg interest rated too low too long. Now they want to solve the problem by lowering them again.

It is like refilling the punchbowl after the party is over to cure a hangover. And there will be a big hangover and people will go to the poles to vote very mad.

1-04-2008 @ 6:25PM

Sheldon L said...

I can agree that more people are fed up than fearful which is the premiss of the story. What each of us is fed up about will vary.

Is "fed up" a pun?