Friday, July 6, 2012

JOBS - THIRTY MONTHS OF OBAMA'S LIES and ILLEGALS


THE ONLY JOBS PLAN OBAMA IS TO PROTECT THE JOBS OF HIS CRIMINAL BANKSTER DONORS AND TO EASE AS MANY ILLEGALS INTO OUR JOBS AS POSSIBLE.

OBAMA HAS SABOTAGED E-VERIFY, AND PUT LA RAZA SUPREMACIST HILDA SOLIS IN AS HE SEC. of ILLEGAL LABOR!



Obama administration repeats same jobs line—for the 30th month




When the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced the nation's latest national employment figures Friday, the Obama administration stressed that people should not "read too much" into the data.

Mitt Romney's campaign pounced, and flagged the fact that the White House has repeated that same line nearly every month since November 2009.

See below for the roundup of articles from WhiteHouse.gov that Romney's campaign posted on its site. In many of the posts, the authors for the administration do acknowledge that they repeat themselves:

June 2012: "Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report and it is informative to consider each report in the context of other data that are becoming available." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/07/06/employment-situation-june)

May 2012: "Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report and it is helpful to consider each report in the context of other data that are becoming available." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/06/01/employment-situation-may)

April 2012: "Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report and it is helpful to consider each report in the context of other data that are becoming available." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/05/04/employment-situation-april)

March 2012: "Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, and it is helpful to consider each report in the context of other data that are becoming available." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/04/06/employment-situation-march)

February 2012: "Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report; nevertheless, the trend in job market indicators over recent months is an encouraging sign." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/03/09/employment-situation-february)

January 2012: "Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report; nevertheless, the trend in job market indicators over recent months is an encouraging sign." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/02/03/employment-situation-january)

December 2011: "Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/01/06/employment-situation-december)

November 2011: "Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/12/02/employment-situation-november)

October 2011: "The monthly employment and unemployment numbers are volatile and employment estimates are subject to substantial revision. There is no better example than August's jobs figure, which was initially reported at zero and in the latest revision increased to 104,000. This illustrates why the Administration always stresses it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/11/04/employment-situation-october)

September 2011: "Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/10/07/employment-situation-september)

August 2011: "Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/09/02/employment-situation-august)

July 2011: "Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/08/05/employment-situation-july)

June 2011: "Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/07/08/employment-situation-june)

May 2011: "Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/06/03/employment-situation-may)

April 2011: "Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/05/06/employment-situation-april)

March 2011: "Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/04/01/employment-situation-march)

February 2011: "Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/03/04/employment-situation-february)

January 2011: "Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/02/04/employment-situation-january)

December 2010: "Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/01/07/employment-situation-december)

November 2010: "Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/12/03/employment-situation-november)

October 2010: "Given the volatility in monthly employment and unemployment data, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/11/05/employment-situation-october)

September 2010: "Given the volatility in the monthly employment and unemployment data, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/08/employment-situation-september)

July 2010: "Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative. It is essential that we continue our efforts to move in the right direction and replace job losses with robust job gains." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/08/06/employment-situation-july)

August 2010: "Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/03/employment-situation-august)

June 2010: "As always, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/07/02/employment-situation-june)

May 2010: "As always, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/06/04/employment-situation-may)

April 2010: "Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/05/07/employment-situation-april)

March 2010: "Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/04/02/employment-situation-march)

January 2010: "Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/02/05/employment-situation-january)

November 2009: "Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative." (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2009/12/04/employment-situation-november)

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THE ENTIRE REASON THE BORDERS ARE LEFT OPEN IS TO CUT WAGES!

"We could cut unemployment in half simply by reclaiming the jobs taken by illegal workers," said Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, co-chairman of the Reclaim American Jobs Caucus. "President Obama is on the wrong side of the American people on immigration. The president should support policies that help citizens and legal immigrants find the jobs they need and deserve rather than fail to enforce immigration laws."
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Obama soft on illegals enforcement



Arrests of illegal immigrant workers have dropped precipitously under President Obama, according to figures released Wednesday. Criminal arrests, administrative arrests, indictments and convictions of illegal immigrants at work sites all fell by more than 50 percent from fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2009.

The figures show that Mr. Obama has made good on his pledge to shift enforcement away from going after illegal immigrant workers themselves - but at the expense of Americans' jobs, said Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the Republican who compiled the numbers from the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE). Mr. Smith, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said a period of economic turmoil is the wrong time to be cutting enforcement and letting illegal immigrants take jobs that Americans otherwise would hold.

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MOST OF THE FORTUNE 500 ARE GENEROUS DONORS TO LA RAZA – THE MEXICAN FASCIST POLITICAL PARTY. THESE FIGURES ARE DATED. CNN CALCULATES THAT WAGES ARE DEPRESSED $300 - $400 BILLION PER YEAR!

“The principal beneficiaries of our current immigration policy are affluent Americans who hire immigrants at substandard wages for low-end work. Harvard economist George Borjas estimates that American workers lose $190 billion annually in depressed wages caused by the constant flooding of the labor market at the low-wage end.” Christian Science Monitor

THE ENTIRE REASON THE BORDERS ARE LEFT OPEN IS TO CUT WAGES!
"We could cut unemployment in half simply by reclaiming the jobs taken by illegal workers," said Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, co-chairman of the Reclaim American Jobs Caucus. "President Obama is on the wrong side of the American people on immigration. The president should support policies that help citizens and legal immigrants find the jobs they need and deserve rather than fail to enforce immigration laws."

FROM JUDICIAL WATCH org

Illegal Immigration

Today, between eight and fourteen million illegal aliens reside in the United States, draining our nation’s economy, while presenting a security threat to the people of the United States. Public officials have not only repeatedly failed to protect our borders from this illegal alien invasion, but they have also been complicit in the effort to undermine our nation’s immigration laws.

Judicial Watch has an active investigation into the Obama administration’s policies and actions on immigration. For instance, Judicial Watch had uncovered documents indicating collusion between the Department of Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union with respect to legal challenges of Arizona’s SB 1070. Recently, Judicial Watch obtained documents revealing that administration officials misled Congress regarding the scope of deportation dismissals in Houston, Texas. Additional documents were obtained that detail a behind-the-scenes effort by the administration to suspend deportation proceedings against “DREAM” Act aliens and other illegal immigrants. Judicial Watch also routinely obtains smuggling statistics and has revealed details of a shocking sex slave trafficking operation in Houston, Texas.




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Guess LA RAZA his happy with OBAMA’S endless hispandering! THEY SHOULD BE!

There  are only eight states with a larger population than LOS ANGELES COUNTY, where 47% of those with a job are ILLEGALS USING STOLEN SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS! This same mex gang infested county puts out $600 million in welfare to illegals!

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“The inspections have determined that hundreds of companies throughout the U.S. have significant numbers of illegal immigrants on their payroll yet none have been punished, according to a Houston newspaper that obtained internal ICE records through the Freedom of Information Act. At least 430 audit cases listed as “closed” by the agency had high percentages of workers with “questionable” documents yet they faced no consequences.”

THE ENTIRE REASON THE BORDERS ARE LEFT OPEN IS TO CUT WAGES!



“We could cut unemployment in half simply by reclaiming the jobs taken by illegal workers,” said Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, co-chairman of the Reclaim American Jobs Caucus. “President Obama is on the wrong side of the American people on immigration. The president should support policies that help citizens and legal immigrants find the jobs they need and deserve rather than fail to enforce immigration laws.”

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 “The principal beneficiaries of our current immigration policy are affluent Americans who hire immigrants at substandard wages for low-end work. Harvard economist George Borjas estimates that American workers lose $190 billion annually in depressed wages caused by the constant flooding of the labor market at the low-wage end.” Christian Science Monitor

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The California Budget Project, a liberal study group in Sacramento, brought the income squeeze down to the state level in its Labor Day analysis.

Using state tax data, the project said that the average adjusted gross income of all California taxpayers - whether filing individually or jointly - fell from $82,268 in 2000 to $68,434 in 2008, after adjusting for inflation. TOM ABATE SFGATE.com

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Labor secretary: Obama doing good job on economy

Monday, September 6, 2010

(09-06) 04:36 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is defending President Barack Obama's efforts to combat the recession and unemployment, saying his focus has been on helping the jobless and underemployed.

In a Labor Day appearance on ABC News'"Good Morning America," Solis said Obama is doing a good job.

Solis says the Obama administration knows people are hurting from the weak economy. She pointed to last year's $814 billion economic recovery act and administration proposals for job training and hiring incentives for businesses.

On CBS'"Early Show," she said that over the last eight months, the U.S. economy has added some 90,000 private sector jobs each month.

Critics have cited persistent unemployment rates of nearly 10 percent and only faint signs that businesses are rehiring workers.

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Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, a former California congresswoman with close ties to the influential La Raza movement, announced the “We Can Help” project with great fanfare a few days ago.”

FROM JUDICIAL WATCH. org – get on their emails!

Labor Dept. Helps Illegal Alien Workers

Last Updated: Tue, 04/06/2010 - 11:04am

The Department of Labor has launched a special program to assist and protect illegal immigrant workers in the U.S., referred to as “vulnerable” and “underpaid” by the presidential cabinet member who heads the agency.

Hundreds of new field investigators have been deployed to reach out to Latino laborers in areas with large numbers of illegal alien employees. Their message, in Spanish, is “we can help” bring workplace protections to the nation’s most vulnerable and underpaid workers, including those who have no legal right to live in the Untied States.



(THE OBAMA PLAN TO PUT ILLEGALS INTO OUR JOBS AND VOTING  BOOTHS!)



Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, a former California congresswoman with close ties to the influential La Raza movement, announced the “We Can Help” project with great fanfare a few days ago. A total of 1,000 investigators from her agency will focus on enforcing labor and wage laws in industries that typically hire lots of illegal aliens without reporting anyone to federal immigration authorities.

(WHO WORKS FOR THE RIGHTFUL JOBS OF AMERICAN CITIZENS? WHO ENFORCES THE LAWS THAT PROHIBIT THE EMPLOYMENT OF ILLEGALS, EVEN IF THEY HAVE A STOLEN SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER? NOT THE LA RAZA DEMS, OR HISPANDERING BARACK OBAMA!)

Solis told Latino workers that “your president, your secretary of labor and this department will not allow anyone to be denied his or her rightful pay, especially when so many in our nation are working long, hard and often dangerous hours.” She assured illegal immigrants that “if you work in this country, you are protected by our laws.”

The same day Solis publicly announced the Obama Administration’s new project, a Labor Department investigator visited a day laborer center in northern California to promote it. The federal employee actually chatted warmly with the illegal immigrants about how to find jobs without being exploited, according to a local newspaper report. “We’re the feds but the good ones,” he told the day laborers in Spanish. “We’re here to help workers.”

The agency has also launched a Spanish television advertising campaign to spread the word and created a web site. Workers in industries from construction to food service are urged to contact the Labor Department of wage and hour violations. An investigator may be deployed to the work site or the employer may be taken to court.

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MEXICANOCCUPATION.blogspot.com

OBAMA HAS FILLED HIS ADMINSTRATION WITH PRIMARILY LA RAZA PARTY MEMBERS.

Here’s his Sec. Labor, HILDA SOLIS:



While in Congress, she opposed strengthening the border fence, supported expansion of illegal alien benefits (including driver's licenses and in-state tuition discounts), embraced sanctuary cities that refused to cooperate with federal homeland security officials to enforce immigration laws, and aggressively championed a mass amnesty. Solis was steeped in the pro-illegal alien worker organizing movement in Southern California and was buoyed by amnesty-supporting Big Labor groups led by the Service Employees International Union. She has now caused a Capitol Hill firestorm over her new taxpayer-funded advertising and outreach campaign to illegal aliens regarding fair wages:





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Michelle Malkin

The U.S. Department of Illegal Alien Labor

President Obama's Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is supposed to represent American workers. What you need to know is that this longtime open-borders sympathizer has always had a rather radical definition of "American." At a Latino voter registration project conference in Los Angeles many years ago, Solis asserted to thunderous applause, "We are all Americans, whether you are legalized or not."

That's right. The woman in charge of enforcing our employment laws doesn't give a hoot about our immigration laws -- or about the fundamental distinction between those who followed the rules in pursuit of the American dream and those who didn't.

While in Congress, she opposed strengthening the border fence, supported expansion of illegal alien benefits (including driver's licenses and in-state tuition discounts), embraced sanctuary cities that refused to cooperate with federal homeland security officials to enforce immigration laws, and aggressively championed a mass amnesty. Solis was steeped in the pro-illegal alien worker organizing movement in Southern California and was buoyed by amnesty-supporting Big Labor groups led by the Service Employees International Union. She has now caused a Capitol Hill firestorm over her new taxpayer-funded advertising and outreach campaign to illegal aliens regarding fair wages:

"I'm here to tell you that your president, your secretary of labor and this department will not allow anyone to be denied his or her rightful pay -- especially when so many in our nation are working long, hard and often dangerous hours," Solis says in the video pitch. "We can help, and we will help. If you work in this country, you are protected by our laws. And you can count on the U.S. Department of Labor to see to it that those protections work for you."

To be sure, no one should be scammed out of "fair wages." Employers that hire and exploit illegal immigrant workers deserve full sanctions and punishment. But it's the timing, tone-deafness and underlying blanket amnesty agenda of Solis' illegal alien outreach that has so many American workers and their representatives on Capitol Hill rightly upset.


With double-digit unemployment and a growing nationwide revolt over Washington's border security failures, why has Solis chosen now to hire 250 new government field investigators to bolster her illegal alien workers' rights campaign? (Hint: Leftists unhappy with Obama's lack of progress on "comprehensive immigration reform" need appeasing. This is a quick bone to distract them.)

Unfortunately, the federal government is not alone in lavishing attention and resources on workers who shouldn't be here in the first place. As of 2008, California, Florida, Nevada, New York, Texas and Utah all expressly included illegal aliens in their state workers' compensation plans -- and more than a dozen other states implicitly cover them.

Solis' public service announcement comes on the heels of little-noticed but far more troubling comments encouraging illegal alien workers in the Gulf Coast. Earlier this month, in the aftermath of the BP oil spill, according to Spanish language publication El Diario La Prensa, Solis signaled that her department was going out of its way to shield illegal immigrant laborers involved in cleanup efforts. "My purpose is to assist the workers with respect to safety and protection," she said. "We're protecting all workers regardless of migration status because that's the federal law." She told reporters that her department was in talks with local Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials who had visited coastal worksites to try to verify that workers were legal.

No word yet on whether she gave ICE her "we are all Americans, whether you are legalized or not" lecture. But it's a safe bet.

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MEXICANOCCUPATION.blogspot.com

From the above blog, email articles to those concerned about Obama’s endless push for amnesty.

FAIRUS.org

JUDICIAL WATCH.org

ALIPAC.us

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WE ARE MEXICO’S WELFARE and PRISON SYSTEMS!

“Mexico’s government has provided its nationals with valuable tools to help them cross the border safely but Dominguez is the first American resident, with a salary provided by U.S. taxpayers, to openly promote such a gadget. A few years ago Mexican officials published a 32-page booklet (Guia Del Migrante Mexicano) with safety tips for border crossers and distributed hand-held satellite devices to ensure the violators complete their journey safely.”


PRI BUYS PRESIDENCY OF NARCOMEX WITH GIFT CARDS! THEIR LONG HISTORY OF STAGGERING CORRUPTION BEGINS ANEW


Posted: 05 Jul 2012 03:57 PM PDT

Photo
Just a few moments ago, I got an anonymous email from someone with a photo of a receipt from the Soriana grocery store. The receipt is dated July 4th and was printed at about 10 p.m. from a Soriana store in Monterrey.
The sender artfully placed a red arrow on a line of the receipt that reads: “PRI benefits.”
So is the PRI behind a vote-buying scheme that tilted the outcome of the July 1 presidential election? I can’t answer that. But certainly the evidence indicates that in some parts of the country – Mexico City, the state of Mexico, San Luis Potosi and now Monterrey – people went to the Soriana grocery chain with gift cards and bought foodstuffs thinking that the cards were a gift from the Institutional Revolutionary Party. Was this a “donation” from Soriana to buy goodwill for the PRI? I don’t know that either. Click here, here and here to read more about this case.
Moments ago, the PRI sent out an indignant communiqué saying it wants prosecutors to investigate whether its opponents committed a crime by alleging that the PRI had bought votes in what is quickly being dubbed “Soriana-gate.”
A PRI spokesman, Eduardo Sanchez, said videos that have been circulating on YouTube about the alleged vote buying contain only one interview with a person who said a PRI official offered them the gift card.
“It’s part of the lies and the farce. They brought people to the stores and told them they were from the PRI, which is false,” Sanchez said in the statement.

Judicial Watch Sues DOJ for Records Detailing Government Pilot Program Testing the Dismissal of Immigration Charges against Illegal Aliens | Judicial Watch - OBAMA EXPANDS LA RAZA SUPREMACY TO BUY ILLEGALS' ILLEGAL VOTES

Judicial Watch Sues DOJ for Records Detailing Government Pilot Program Testing the Dismissal of Immigration Charges against Illegal Aliens | Judicial Watch


AMERICA – POSTED! NO LEGAL NEED APPLY! BUT WE STILL GET THE BILLS FOR THE LA RAZA WELFARE AND CRIME STATE IN OUR BORDERS!

JOE LEGAL and JOSE ILLEGAL… who will vote for obama? JOSE ILLEGAL GETS AMERICAN JOBS WITH A STOLEN SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER. OBAMA HAS PROMISED ILLEGALS HE WOULD SABOTAGE E-VERIFY, WHICH THE LA RAZA DEMS IN MEXIFORNIA HAVE OUTLAWED!

JOE LEGAL STILL GETS THE TAX BILLS TO PAY FOR JOSE ILLEGAL’S “FREE” ANCHOR BABY BIRTHING AND WELFARE, “FREE” EDUCATION, “FREE” DEM DREAM ACTS, “FREE” OBAMACARE and MEX CRIME TIDAL WAVE.

CAN OBAMA PUNK JOE LEGAL TO VOTE FOR HIS “CHANGE” AGAIN?

OBAMA HAS PROMISED ILLEGALS GREATER LOOTING IS AROUND THE NEXT ELECTION. THEY JUST NEED TO GET REGISTERED TO ILLEGALLY VOTE!




MOST OF THE FORTUNE 500 ARE GENEROUS DONORS TO LA RAZA – THE MEXICAN FASCIST POLITICAL PARTY



(THESE FIGURES ARE DATED. NOW CALCULATED TO BE $300 TO $400 BILLION PER YEAR!)





“The principal beneficiaries of our current immigration policy are affluent Americans who hire immigrants at substandard wages for low-end work. Harvard economist George Borjas estimates that American workers lose $190 billion annually in depressed wages caused by the constant flooding of the labor market at the low-wage end.”Christian Science Monitor

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Much more can be done on immigration before election

By Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) - 06/19/12 07:42 PM ET


Congress doesn’t have to wait until Election Day to respond to what the American people care about. Poll after poll shows that the American people are overwhelmingly concerned about jobs and the economy. They also consider national security an important issue. By making some changes to our immigration system, Congress can take action now to address the issues Americans care about the most.

We could open up millions of jobs for unemployed American workers by requiring all U.S. employers to use E-Verify. Last year, the House Judiciary Committee approved a bipartisan bill that does just that, the Legal Workforce Act.

E-Verify is a Web-based program that quickly identifies illegal immigrants in the workforce and protects jobs for legal workers by checking the Social Security numbers of new hires. The program is free, quick and easy to use. It only takes about a minute to run a newly hired employee through E-Verify and persons eligible to work here are immediately confirmed 99.5 percent of the time. More than 375,000 employers already use E-Verify, and 2,200 new businesses sign up each week.

Considering its track record, it’s no surprise that a recent poll found 82 percent of Americans surveyed support the expansion of E-Verify. And with 13 million Americans unemployed and 7 million illegal immigrants working here, now is the time to expand this popular program.

We could also boost job creation and improve our economy by allowing the United States to retain some of the world’s best and brightest foreign graduates of American universities. Foreign students receive nearly 4 out of every 10 master’s degrees awarded in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields and about the same percentage of all doctorates. These students have the potential to come up with an invention that could save thousands of lives or jump-start a whole new industry. They also have the ability to start a company that could provide jobs to tens of thousands of American workers.

Unfortunately, our immigration system does not always put American interests first — we select only 5 percent of our immigrants based on the skills and education they bring to the United States. Our immigration laws should not force the country to forfeit retaining some of the most talented students from around the world. We should make tweaks to our immigration system to allow more of the top foreign graduates of American universities to stay and work here.

Our immigration system should also better protect our country and citizens from foreign nationals who wish to do us harm. Recent events underscore the need to strengthen and improve visa security; we know terrorists use loopholes and weaknesses in our immigration system to enter the United States. In fact, all of the 9/11 terrorists entered the country legally on visas. And terrorists will continue coming to the United States legally if we do not improve and tighten our visa security process.

The Secure Visas Act, approved by the House Judiciary Committee last year, helps prevent terrorists from obtaining U.S. visas by expanding the number of visa security units overseas to areas designated as “highest risk” for terror threats. Visa security units ensure that thorough background checks are conducted on all visa applicants, not just a select few. The bill also allows U.S. officials to expedite the removal of terrorists who are in the United States on a visa. Visa security is critical to America’s national security.

The safety of all Americans could be further enhanced by enacting the Keep Our Communities Safe Act that was approved by the House Judiciary Committee last year. This bill is designed to prevent dangerous criminal immigrants from being released into our communities.

Recent Supreme Court decisions have ruled that under current law, illegal and criminal immigrants cannot be detained for more than six months when they cannot be removed to their home country in the near future. Because some countries refuse to take back their criminal immigrants, federal authorities have had no choice but to release thousands of dangerous criminal immigrants into our neighborhoods.

Tragically, there have been at least eight preventable deaths because of this loophole. We cannot continue to let dangerous criminal immigrants slip through the cracks of our legal justice system. We have a responsibility to make sure the laws of this land protect Americans rather than endanger them. The Keep Our Communities Safe Act provides a legislative remedy to this problem by allowing dangerous criminal immigrants to be detained beyond six months if they cannot be deported.

Election Day might be just five months away, but that shouldn’t stop Congress from doing its job now. Congress still has an opportunity to work across party lines and take up immigration bills that will help put Americans back to work and make our country safer.

Smith is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.



U.S. Spends $6 Mil On Migrant Education | Judicial Watch - OBAMA EXPANDS THE GRINGO-PAID LA RAZA WELFARE STATE IN OUR BORDERS

U.S. Spends $6 Mil On Migrant Education | Judicial Watch

Holder Vows Solidarity With Latino Leftists: “Uno Para Todos, Todos Para Uno.” | Judicial Watch

Holder Vows Solidarity With Latino Leftists: “Uno Para Todos, Todos Para Uno.” | Judicial Watch

HISPANDERING OBAMA HAS TOLD HIS DEPT of LA RAZA SUPREMACY NOT TO PROSECUTE HIS CRIMINAL BANKSTER DONORS!

HOLDER'S JOB IS TO HARASS AMERICAN STATES ON BEHALF OF OBAMA AND LA RAZA WITH LAWSUITS, ILLEGALS VOTING AND NO E-VERIFY!

BOTH OBAMA and HOLDER SHOULD BE DEPORTED TO MEXICO!


AMERICA – POSTED! NO LEGAL NEED APPLY! BUT WE STILL GET THE BILLS FOR THE LA RAZA WELFARE AND CRIME STATE IN OUR BORDERS!

JOE LEGAL and JOSE ILLEGAL… who will vote for obama? JOSE ILLEGAL GETS AMERICAN JOBS WITH A STOLEN SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER. OBAMA HAS PROMISED ILLEGALS HE WOULD SABOTAGE E-VERIFY, WHICH THE LA RAZA DEMS IN MEXIFORNIA HAVE OUTLAWED!

JOE LEGAL STILL GETS THE TAX BILLS TO PAY FOR JOSE ILLEGAL’S “FREE” ANCHOR BABY BIRTHING AND WELFARE, “FREE” EDUCATION, “FREE” DEM DREAM ACTS, “FREE” OBAMACARE and MEX CRIME TIDAL WAVE.

CAN OBAMA PUNK JOE LEGAL TO VOTE FOR HIS “CHANGE” AGAIN?

OBAMA HAS PROMISED ILLEGALS GREATER LOOTING IS AROUND THE NEXT ELECTION. THEY JUST NEED TO GET REGISTERED TO ILLEGALLY VOTE!




MOST OF THE FORTUNE 500 ARE GENEROUS DONORS TO LA RAZA – THE MEXICAN FASCIST POLITICAL PARTY



(THESE FIGURES ARE DATED. NOW CALCULATED TO BE $300 TO $400 BILLION PER YEAR!)





“The principal beneficiaries of our current immigration policy are affluent Americans who hire immigrants at substandard wages for low-end work. Harvard economist George Borjas estimates that American workers lose $190 billion annually in depressed wages caused by the constant flooding of the labor market at the low-wage end.”Christian Science Monitor

*

Much more can be done on immigration before election

By Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) - 06/19/12 07:42 PM ET


Congress doesn’t have to wait until Election Day to respond to what the American people care about. Poll after poll shows that the American people are overwhelmingly concerned about jobs and the economy. They also consider national security an important issue. By making some changes to our immigration system, Congress can take action now to address the issues Americans care about the most.

We could open up millions of jobs for unemployed American workers by requiring all U.S. employers to use E-Verify. Last year, the House Judiciary Committee approved a bipartisan bill that does just that, the Legal Workforce Act.

E-Verify is a Web-based program that quickly identifies illegal immigrants in the workforce and protects jobs for legal workers by checking the Social Security numbers of new hires. The program is free, quick and easy to use. It only takes about a minute to run a newly hired employee through E-Verify and persons eligible to work here are immediately confirmed 99.5 percent of the time. More than 375,000 employers already use E-Verify, and 2,200 new businesses sign up each week.

Considering its track record, it’s no surprise that a recent poll found 82 percent of Americans surveyed support the expansion of E-Verify. And with 13 million Americans unemployed and 7 million illegal immigrants working here, now is the time to expand this popular program.

We could also boost job creation and improve our economy by allowing the United States to retain some of the world’s best and brightest foreign graduates of American universities. Foreign students receive nearly 4 out of every 10 master’s degrees awarded in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields and about the same percentage of all doctorates. These students have the potential to come up with an invention that could save thousands of lives or jump-start a whole new industry. They also have the ability to start a company that could provide jobs to tens of thousands of American workers.

Unfortunately, our immigration system does not always put American interests first — we select only 5 percent of our immigrants based on the skills and education they bring to the United States. Our immigration laws should not force the country to forfeit retaining some of the most talented students from around the world. We should make tweaks to our immigration system to allow more of the top foreign graduates of American universities to stay and work here.

Our immigration system should also better protect our country and citizens from foreign nationals who wish to do us harm. Recent events underscore the need to strengthen and improve visa security; we know terrorists use loopholes and weaknesses in our immigration system to enter the United States. In fact, all of the 9/11 terrorists entered the country legally on visas. And terrorists will continue coming to the United States legally if we do not improve and tighten our visa security process.

The Secure Visas Act, approved by the House Judiciary Committee last year, helps prevent terrorists from obtaining U.S. visas by expanding the number of visa security units overseas to areas designated as “highest risk” for terror threats. Visa security units ensure that thorough background checks are conducted on all visa applicants, not just a select few. The bill also allows U.S. officials to expedite the removal of terrorists who are in the United States on a visa. Visa security is critical to America’s national security.

The safety of all Americans could be further enhanced by enacting the Keep Our Communities Safe Act that was approved by the House Judiciary Committee last year. This bill is designed to prevent dangerous criminal immigrants from being released into our communities.

Recent Supreme Court decisions have ruled that under current law, illegal and criminal immigrants cannot be detained for more than six months when they cannot be removed to their home country in the near future. Because some countries refuse to take back their criminal immigrants, federal authorities have had no choice but to release thousands of dangerous criminal immigrants into our neighborhoods.

Tragically, there have been at least eight preventable deaths because of this loophole. We cannot continue to let dangerous criminal immigrants slip through the cracks of our legal justice system. We have a responsibility to make sure the laws of this land protect Americans rather than endanger them. The Keep Our Communities Safe Act provides a legislative remedy to this problem by allowing dangerous criminal immigrants to be detained beyond six months if they cannot be deported.

Election Day might be just five months away, but that shouldn’t stop Congress from doing its job now. Congress still has an opportunity to work across party lines and take up immigration bills that will help put Americans back to work and make our country safer.

Smith is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.



31% Give Obama Positive Marks on Handling Economic Issues - Rasmussen Reports™ 100% of Obama's Criminal Bankster Donors Give Him Positive Marks for Handling Their Ongoing Looting

31% Give Obama Positive Marks on Handling Economic Issues - Rasmussen Reports™


http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2012/05/case-of-barack-obama-and-his-criminal.html





OBAMA PROMISED HIS CRIMINAL BANKSTER DONORS NO PRISON TIME AND NO REAL REGULATION. DID HE DELIVER?





The JPMorgan scandal also throws into relief the government’s failure to prosecute those responsible for the 2008 financial meltdown. Despite overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing and criminality uncovered by two federal investigations last year, those responsible have been shielded from prosecution.



Records show that four out of Obama's top five contributors are employees of financial industry giants - Goldman Sachs ($571,330), UBS AG ($364,806), JPMorgan Chase ($362,207) and Citigroup ($358,054).



The JPMorgan debacle



15 May 2012



The economic and political fallout from JPMorgan Chase’s sudden announcement last Thursday night that it lost more than $2 billion from speculative bets on credit derivatives continued to grow on Monday. The biggest US bank announced the forced retirement of Ina Drew, who headed up the bank’s London-based Chief Investment Office, which placed huge bets on the creditworthiness of a collection of US corporations. Other top executives and traders are expected to be sacked or demoted.



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Lou Dobbs Tonight


Thursday, July 9, 2009


And Harvard economics professor JEFFREY MIRON will weigh in on the state of the U.S. economy—and why the only plausible argument for bailing out banks crumbles on close examination.



"There is a populist and conservative revolt against Wall Street and financial elites, Congress and government," Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg warned in an analysis this week. "Democrats and President Obama are seen as more interested in bailing out Wall Street than helping Main Street."

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August 21, 2010



Janet Tavakoli.President, Tavakoli Structured Finance

August 15, 2010

How to Thwart the Assassins of the American Dream OBAMA'S ASSAULT ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE FOR BANKSTERS and ILLEGALS!



Arianna Huffington's new book, Third World America: How Our Politicians are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream, paints a grim picture of the State of the Union:

"Every day, Americans, faced with layoffs and tough economic times, are forced to use their credit cards to pay for essentials such as food, housing, and medical care -- the costs of which continue to escalate. But, as their debt rises, they find it harder to keep up with their payments. When they don't, banks, trying to offset losses in other areas, turn around, hike interest rates, and impose all manner of fees and penalties..."

Third World America, (P. 77)

Our mediocre grammar school and high school educational system continues its downward slide. The Great Recession is squeezing school budgets. We are failing our children, our most important resource of all.

In 2009, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the nation's infrastructure a near failing D rating:

"Flip on a light switch, and you are tapping into a seriously overtaxed electrical grid. Go to the sink, and your tap water may be coming to you through pipes built during the Civil War. Take a drive, and pass over pothole-filled roads and cross-if-you-dare bridges. The evidence of decay is all around us." (P. 95)


The over-hyped American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 earmarked only $72 billion of the $787 billion appropriation of taxpayer dollars to projects to improve the country's infrastructure.


Meanwhile, multi-national corporations avoid taxes, sheltering $700 billion in foreign earnings to end up with a measly $16 billion (2.3%) tax bill. GM is among those companies, yet it took almost a half billion dollars in bailout loans. Boeing and KBR Halliburton are among the defense contractors that avoid taxes, while enjoying government contracts worth tens of billions.


Banks (not Fannie and Freddie) Crippled the Housing Market


Fannie and Freddie do not make loans. They purchase mortgage loans and earn fees for guaranteeing payments on the loans. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, in 2006, Fannie and Freddie accounted for 33% of total mortgage backed securities issuance. In the first half of 2010, they accounted for around 64% of new issuance. They were forced to pick up the slack and buy more when Wall Street's private label securitization Ponzi scheme blew up.


Fannie and Freddie are Wall Street's dumping ground. They would have had problems on their own, but their problems would not have been close to their current scale, and they did not create the housing bubble.


Congress twisted arms to make Fannie and Freddie buy more than $300 billion of phony "AAA" rated mortgage-backed securities from banks, not counting loans that didn't meet their stated requirements. Today Fannie and Freddie want banks to repurchase tens of billions of these loans, since they fail to meet representations and warranties, and the banks are fighting this obligation.



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WHAT DID THE BANKSTERS KNOW ABOUT OUR ACTOR OBAMA THAT WE DIDN’T KNOW?



Records show that four out of Obama's top five contributors are employees of financial industry giants - Goldman Sachs ($571,330), UBS AG ($364,806), JPMorgan Chase ($362,207 ) and Citigroup ($358,054).

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OBAMA’S PAYMASTERS!



Top subprime lenders included Wells Fargo; Countrywide, purchased by Bank of America; Washington Mutual, now part of JPMorgan Chase; CitiMortgage, part of Citigroup; First Franklin (now closed), purchased by Merrill Lynch, which was purchased by Bank of America; ChaseHome Finance, JPMorgan Chase; Ownit, partly owned by Merrill Lynch, which was later purchased by Bank of America; and EMC, part of Bear Stearns, which was purchased by JPMorgan Chase. Most of the rest depended on massive loans from Wall Street. Many of these lenders were sued by states for fraud and paid billions in settlements.



According to Inside Mortgage Finance, the top mortgage backed securities underwriters during 2005-2006, only two of the subprime abuse years, included now defunct Lehman Brothers ($106 billion); RBS Greenwich Capital ($99 billion); Countrywide Securities, which is now part of Bank of America ($74 billion); Morgan Stanley ($74 billion);Credit Suisse First Boston ($73 billion); Merrill Lynch ($67 billion); Bear Stearns, which is now part of JPMorgan Chase ($61 billion); and Goldman Sachs ($53 billion).

The above doesn't even include the credit derivatives, collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), and structured investment vehicles (SIVs) that amplified losses. Yet, Arianna notes how America imploded while bankers soared:


"Someone like [Robert] Rubin is able to wreak destruction, collect an ungodly profit, then go along his merry way, pontificating about how 'markets have an inherent and inevitable tendency -- probably rooted in human nature -- to go to excess, both on the upside and the downside.' This from the man who, as Bill Clinton's Treasury secretary, was vociferous in opposing the regulation of derivatives -- a key factor in the current economic crisis -- and who lobbied the Treasury during the Bush years to prevent the downgrading of the credit rating of Enron -- a debtor of Citigroup." (P. 150)

Robert Rubin operated an economic wrecking-ball from prestigious positions of influence including former co-chairman of Goldman Sachs, director of the National Economic Council, former Treasury Secretary under President Bill Clinton, board member and senior "risk wizard" counselor at Citigroup, member of the President's Advisory Committee for Trade Negotiations, member of the SEC's Oversight and Financial Services Advisory Committee, unofficial econmic adviser to President Obama, and co-chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations.


Rubin is just one example of the many bankers, who helped destroy the economy while creating a connected financial oligarchy.



Hide Billions of Losses, Take Bailouts, Collect Billions, Skip Jail

Instead of apologizing for screwing up, the banks demanded the Great Bailout. At the start of the meltdown, the IMF and the U.S. administration estimated losses of $2 to $2.5 trillion. Unemployment and the losses are now shockingly worse. What was merely a recession escalated into the Great Recession.

How big are the actual losses? No one knows.

After destroying the value of major banks, culprits used their enormous political influence -- funded with taxpayer dollars -- to get Congress to force the accounting board to change accounting rules (as of April 2009) so banks don't have to recognize losses until they sell the assets.

According to William K. Black, after the much tinier S&L crisis, there were over 1,000 successful felony prosecutions, several thousand successful enforcement actions, and roughly 1,000 successful civil actions.

This time Congress gave us the Great Cover-up. Bank officers dodged jail time and collected billions in bonuses. As one of my South American friends observes, he's witnessed this third-world corruption before, and this time it's in English.


Banks Stall the Recovery and Prolong the Great Recession


Unemployment marched upward, delinquencies soared, and banks stalled foreclosures. The longer banks delay foreclosures and sales, the longer they can avoid acknowledging losses. Phony accounting and zero cost funding from taxpayers created an illusion of recovery.


Stalling helps banks while they pressure Congress to bail out failed mortgages with taxpayer dollars. Instead of working out mortgages with homeowners, they can wait for a government program to buyout or subsidize their failing loans. The markets aren't recovering, because banks own colossal chunks of mystery-meat assets.



It's a black hole of debt. If banks were forced to price these assets at market values and sell them, the market would clear, and the market would make a faster recovery. When Japan did this, it stalled its economy for twenty years, and it still hasn't recovered.

Voters Must Demand the Solution


Voters must demand that Congress uncovers and publicizes facts and prosecutes the financial system's massive multi-year frauds. This will mean thousands of felony prosecutions, enforcement actions, and civil actions.


Congress completely failed in genuine regulation and enforcement. It must start over on financial reform, regulate derivatives, commodities trading, update Glass-Steagall, and more. It will have to break-up the Too Big to Fail financial institutions.

CEOs of our Systemically Dangerous Institutions (SDI's) fail to manage them, because no one is capable of doing it. Like a morbidly obese junk food addict, banks won't even get on a scale. Our banks refuse to properly measure (account for) the problem.


Third World America elegantly summarizes the way forward. Arianna Huffington names the culprits and gives a roadmap for solutions. The rest is up to us. We deserve better than a third world economy divided by ultra-rich on one side and debt-ridden middle class and dirt poor citizens on the other. Citizens must demand a clean-up of corruption and a foundation for healthy growth.



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HUFF POST



IS THERE A GLOBAL WAR BETWEEN FINANCIAL THEOCRACY AND DEMOCRACY?



BY LES LEOPOLD



Senate and House conferees are about to reconcile a financial reform bill that is virtually designed to institutionalize "too big to fail." And when they do we'll lose another battle in the ongoing war between global financial markets and democratic nation-states.



This war has been going on for decades -- but democracy hasn't always been in full retreat.


The New Deal Conquest: During the Great Depression democratic forces gained the upper hand in the war. We realized that financial markets, which are driven by the largest banks and financiers, had to be tightly controlled. We knew that global speculation on currencies only deepened the Depression and had to be strictly limited. We knew that an iron curtain was needed between commercial and investment banking to protect Main Street depositors from market madness (that was the Glass-Steagall Act). And most importantly we knew that the key to preventing economic upheaval was to limit the wealth of the super-rich and to increase the wealth of working people through progressive taxes, Social Security, wage and hour laws, and the promotion of unionization. The Bretton Woods agreements forged by the Allies during WWII set up strict rules for global finance, rules that kept financiers in check for more than a quarter century.



And it worked pretty damn well. As economist Joseph Stiglitz points out, this era saw only one financial crisis (Brazil, 1964), and working people in western democracies made huge gains. Since the era of deregulation took hold in the late 1970s, the world has suffered over a hundred financial crises and middle-class incomes have stagnated.



The Deregulatory Counter-Offensive: By the late 1970s, bankers regained the advantage through the spread of a new faith in self-regulated markets. The economic apostles of unfettered markets lobbied against progressive taxes, unions, and social welfare programs. The new orthodoxy was: Let the elites collect the money--they'll invest wisely (instead of consuming), and all boats will rise. This near-religious revolution rapidly spread through the economic and policy establishment. Regulations were dismantled right and left, and the revolving door between government and Wall Street started spinning. The American financial catechism ruled the world. And on Wall Street, the money tap was open. It did not trickle down.



Then, suddenly, in 2008, the market gods destroyed themselves as the unregulated financial casinos crashed and burned, just like they did in 1929. For a few months, it seemed like the deregulatory theology become a global heresy. It was obvious that Wall Street's reckless speculation and its bold new wave of financial engineering had caused the Great Recession. (See The Looting of America for an accessible account.). It was also clear that if government didn't come to the rescue, Wall Street would lay in ruins, along with the rest of the economy. This was the perfect moment for democracy reassert democratic control on financial markets, just as we did during the New Deal. We blew it.



The Victory at Too Big to Fail: At the moment when Wall Street was on its knees, we decided to bypass serious reform. Instead, we rebuilt Wall Street, using taxpayer money and guarantees - more than $10 trillion worth. We let bankers use our bailout money to pay themselves $150 billion in bonuses -- at a moment when over 29 million Americans were jobless or forced into part-time jobs. We allowed the top hedge fund managers to walk off with over $900,000 an hour (not a typo) in 2009. Windfall profits taxes? No. In fact we let hedge fund honchos pay an extra-low tax rate by calling their income "capital gains." We didn't restore Glass-Steagall, we didn't break up "too big to fail" financial institutions. In fact the biggest banks became even bigger, courtesy of the U.S. government.



The Invasion against Democracy: The war is escalating. Right now, financial elites aren't just fighting a defensive battle against new regulations. They're playing offense: They're whipping up deficit hysteria around the globe and calling for drastic cuts in middle class programs. Why? They want to ensure that their loans to governments aren't threatened by rising public debt. Ironically, the public debt they're so worried about was created in large part by them -- the result of huge bailouts and other expenses stemming from the crash they caused. Although the bankers want us to dismantle what remains of our worker-oriented policies, welfare for the financial elites is still fine and dandy.



This is the most dangerous counter attack in the history of finance. We had better know a great deal more about the attackers. Who makes up this shadowy force called "global markets"? Who fights their battles? Do they have a high command?



Not really. There is no executive committee of financial elites. There's no international conspiracy, no Elders of Zion. Instead these markets are pulled and pushed by about 50 very large banks and financial institutions. This is where much of the nation's $2 trillion in hedge fund money roams. This is where the top six US banks frolic. They don't have to sit around a table strategizing. They instantly sense threats to their power. They instantly smell profitable openings and they're poised to grab what they can, whenever they can. They thrive on turmoil, which gives them new "proprietary" trading opportunities to exploit. Volatility means big bucks, especially now that the largest players know that the government will back up even their wildest gambles. History has just proven that they are way too big to fail.



Of course they still have to lobby government officials--many of whom either were bankers, or will be once they leave office. But their most powerful lever on government is through the market itself: Here, by moving vast quantities of money around, they can instantly veto policies they don't like. If the EU talks seriously about financial transaction taxes, the markets go down the Euro grows weaker, and interest rates rise--making it more expensive for governments to borrow the money they need to operate. Politicians have learned to "listen" to the markets and are conditioned to placate them.



Should a nation state get out of line (Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, etc), the markets slap them silly. Politicians rush to the scene and start slicing social spending. If instead they demand new taxes on financial elites to reduce public debt, the markets respond with even more fury. Money flees.



All the external machinery of democracy still clanks along. We still pull the levers in the voting booth. But the decisions that affect us the most are made in a profoundly undemocratic way. Faceless financial markets exercise far more control over politicians than the voters who elected them.



So the problem isn't just the corporate campaign contributions, or corporate media control or the academic consensus supporting our financial theocracy. It's the raw power of the markets. They've been roaming free and virtually unregulated for more than a generation, and now their power is unparalleled. Just months after they brought our economy crashing down, they're right back to their old tricks, setting the stage for the next crash and the next bailout while getting filthy rich along the way.



Bill Clinton nailed it on the head when he reportedly said:



"You mean to tell me that the success of the economic program and my reelection hinges on the Federal Reserve and a bunch of fxxxing bond traders?" (See Agenda by Bob Woodward)



No Retreat, No Surrender? There's no room for pacifists in this war. Clearly, Wall Street and its global minions are not seeking a truce. Instead, they're coming after our Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs. They want us to work longer before we retire and get less when we do. They want us to pay more for health care and get less of it. They want less public money to go to schools, teachers and public infrastructures. And they want us to get used to a jobless recovery with double digit unemployment rates. (And when millions and millions of people are unemployed, we can't maintain high labor standards, and our wages and benefits erode.) In short, they want to undermine all the policies and programs that have built and sustained middle class life.



Already government officials in the UK, Germany and here are telling us we must endure austerity for "decades to come." As Fed Chair Ben Bernanke candidly put it:



"We can see what problems can arise in a country if investors lose confidence in the fiscal position of that country, so it is very important that we address this problem."



Of course, he's not going to point out that this austerity is only for the masses, definitely not for the financial elites. Or that the underlying cause of the debt investors are so worried about is the giant economic crater caused by the very same financial elites who now might "lose confidence" in financing a middle class society.



We shouldn't kid ourselves about the pitched battles ahead. Fighting back won't be easy, and winning will be even harder. People in country after country will have to mobilize themselves in defense of real democracy, in defense of each nation's right to provide its people with a decent quality of life. In my opinion, that includes sustainable jobs with decent benefits and a solid public infrastructure that promotes equity, protects the vulnerable and enriches the environment.



Unfortunately, no one can guarantee that democracy will prevail in the war against financial theocracy -- just recall the totalitarian chaos in Europe during the Great Depression. But don't count it out, either. It's true that many of us regular folks have been diverted by the media, distracted by the Internet or lulled into a stupor by pharmaceuticals. But when we realize that we've been shoved into a corner with no way out, we'll act. A popular struggle will begin. And when it does, we'll at least have a fighting chance to recapture our democratic souls.



Les Leopold is the author of The Looting of America: How Wall Street's Game of Fantasy Finance destroyed our Jobs, Pensions and Prosperity, and What We Can Do About ItChelsea Green Publishing, June 2009.



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US bank profits soar while lending drops

By Patrick Martin
26 May 2012

US bank profits rose sharply during the first quarter of 2012, according to figures compiled by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the eleventh consecutive quarter in which net earnings were higher than the previous year.

Aggregate profits of all the banks and savings institutions insured by the FDIC rose to $35.3 billion in the January-March period, up from $28.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011 and the highest quarterly profit figure since 2007.

The five-year record profits come on top of bumper earnings in 2011, the most profitable year for banking since 2006. While jobs and wages for working people remain deeply depressed, the financial sector, which caused the economic slump, is doing better than ever.

This applies particularly to the financial giants. Two-thirds of all US financial institutions reported increased profits, but the vast bulk of these profits were concentrated in the largest banks, those with assets over $10 billion. While they make up only 1.4 percent of all banks, these institutions raked in 81 percent of the net earnings.

While profits rose 23 percent compared to a year earlier, net operating income revenue was up only five percent. This means most banks boosted their profits not from lending activities, but through bookkeeping operations, like reducing the amount they set aside to cover loan losses (down $6.6 billion compared to the same quarter in 2011).

Overall, banks cut their total lending by about one percent in the first quarter of 2012 compared to the previous quarter. This once again disproves the rationale for the Bush-Obama bank bailout: the claim that rescuing the banks would enable them to resume lending on a wider scale and thus fuel an economic recovery in the United States.

Consumer lending fell in most categories, with the biggest drop in credit card debt, $38.2 billion, a 5.6 percent decline typical of the post-Christmas quarter. Home mortgages fell by $19.2 billion and home equity lines of credit by $13.1 billion. Auto loans rose by $4.5 billion.

Loans to businesses were mixed, with construction and real estate development loans declining by $11.7 billion, offset by an increase in loans to commercial and industrial borrowers, which rose $27.3 billion, or 14 percent.

Combining both consumer and business lending, bank credit fell by $56.3 billion compared to the fourth quarter of 2012, reversing the previous nine months in which aggregate lending increased.

Acting FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg said in a statement, “The overall decline in loan balances is disappointing after we saw three quarters of growth last year.”

There were some signs of distress. More than 10 percent of banks reported net losses in the first quarter, while the proportion of loans and leases not up-to-date on payments remained high.

The FDIC report comes just over two weeks after Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke told a banking conference in Chicago that big banks and corporations now faced credit conditions that “have improved significantly in a number of areas.”

Bernanke said that large companies and wealthy individuals could find credit easily, but admitted that for small business owners the conditions were “challenging,” a word that should be translated into ordinary English as “desperate.”

Bank loans to small businesses were still 15 percent below their 2008 peak at the end of last year, he said.

With the slowdown in the US economic “recovery” that has been reflected in stagnant job figures for the last two months, the credit situation facing working people, students and small businesses is likely to worsen.