Thread: STATE OF THE REPUBLIC 2009

STATE OF THE REPUBLIC 2009
PART 1 of 2

By Marilyn M. Barnewall
December 30, 2009
NewsWithViews.com

This year of 2009 ends and 2010 begins. How did America do this year? I always like to write a year-end review. Since this has been a particularly dismal year economically and since this will be my last article for a few months, the following words are my way of saying “if you know this, you’ll know what to expect in 2010.â€

STATE OF THE REPUBLIC 2009
PART 2 of 2

By Marilyn M. Barnewall
December 30, 2009
NewsWithViews.com

What’s going to happen in 2010?

NewsWithViews.com readers are very well informed. Letters from readers tell me so. Writers like C. J. Williams, Selwyn Duke, Devvy Kidd, Jon Christian Ryter, Edwin Viera, Chuck Baldwin and many others use their writing skills to achieve that objective. I’ve noticed something else, though. Some people want to be informed but don’t want to do anything to implement change. Being informed is enough for them.

Well, if you don’t want to lose your country, being informed is not enough. Attending Tea parties isn’t enough. Like it or not, want it or not, Americans need to deploy. People – including you and me – must realize, like our troops around the world, that we have a mission. Our mission is to make sure that when our guys come home from the Battles of the Sandbox they return to the same nation they swore to defend to the death, not a socialist/fascist country, but a Republic.

One sure thing about the economy is this: Barring a miracle, there is no recovery possible.

The bubble created by government bailout borrowing will likely burst this spring. The pin that pricks that bubble will likely be the mortgage mess and foreclosures expected from the next round of Adjusted Rate Mortgage (ARMs). The failure of government’s financing programs for already foreclosed homes and homeowners in danger of foreclosure will also be a factor.

Walk down Memory Lane with me. The primary problem that caused the real estate bubble to burst occurred when Bill Clinton put the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) on steroids. CRA, or 12 U.S.C. 2901, was a mistake from its beginning in 1977, making mortgage loans available to people, mostly minorities, who could not afford to repay them. These bad loans were bought by investment companies, formatted into derivatives, leveraged up to 40 times and were sold internationally.

The government has taken over the banking industry (the auto industry, too, and is working on the insurance industry), and blames bankers for not making more mortgage loans. Hmmm. Does that make sense? It’s a little like the car czar telling Government Motors to get a specific model on the production line, providing bad management incapable of doing what he tells them, then complaining that workers aren’t getting the job done. Whose fault is it? The car czar’s poor management skills and lack of auto industry experience? Or is it the fault of workers on the production line who do what management tells them?

Banks cannot loan the public’s money to people unable to repay. For some reason, Tim Geithner and Ben Bernanke don’t understand this basic principle of commercial banking loan repayment.

In Part I of this article, I suggested that the people with whom Barack Obama has surrounded himself lack business experience and common sense. The “let us refinance your mortgage and keep you from foreclosureâ€