More bad news for the washed up lefties.

Trump did exceedingly well on a cognitive test, top White House doctor says
The Washington Post

The president received a score of 30 out of 30 on the test that he requested, Navy Rear Adm. Ronny L. Jackson said. Read the full story

For a lot of them, that is exactly the reason -- they're just keep-it-simple-stupid bigots. As the Irish say, "baloney is the unvarnished lie; blarney is the varnished truth." Guess which line our compliment of trolls are well versed in.

jefflisse. Good points all, although Legend is absolutely correct in the context of the Fed's original charter, varnished for public consumption. Over the decades, however, I think it has devolved into only another symptom, albeit significant, of the much larger problem of oligarchical fascism. Unfortunately, it's one of those infamous public/private relationships prone to mission creep and hidden corruption on behalf of out-of-control wealthy investors in the shadow banking system.

As stated many times on Thom's show by various scholars on the subject, the Federal Reserve, which is not really a federal agency (other than being chartered with specific duties and certain public restraints), has no reserves, and is staffed and controlled by a rotating bevy of private bankers -- their wet dream from time immemorial of how a country's central bank should function. Let's return to our Founders' original intent and allow the People's government to issue and control 100% of the money supply and get it out of private hands with ulterior motives.

#13. As already stated, quantitative easing was also a symptom, not a cause, just one aspect of a larger, much more complex bubble machine. Blind partisan right-wingers, like this blog's subterranean nest of troglodyte Trumpshites, are wont to blame Obama unfairly for everything bad but never give him credit for his Herculean efforts to make the real economy better for the middle class and the working poor, despite the eight-year, treasonous backlash from rabid Republicans, pouting like spoiled brats because they were routed in 2008. (When the Tea Party Came to Town by Robert Draper.)

For eight, long, dysfunctional years under a treasonous military deserter (soused most of his life with cocaine and alcohol) as their president and an unprincipled, arrogant pissant, warmongering draft dodger ("I can do more good by staying in college.") as the "Vice," Republicans proved to the American people where their hearts really lie -- with the richest of the rich who are violently opposed to ceding any of their unconstitutional power back to those who rightfully own it.

Too bad corporate media has corrupted the electorate's shared memory of the last time the party of the super rich was "given a chance" to prove they could govern on behalf of the People. And man oh man, what a monstrous failure that was! Now, barely a year into their next bad choice -- going down in history as the worst administration ever -- the world is once again subjected to anti-democratic, Ayn Rand/Koch-head nonsense.

(And what is it with Republicans that they always seem to gravitate toward and identify with presidential candidates who suffer from severe brain disorders or clinical personalty disorders, sometimes both -- from Nixon to Trump, with the possible -- possible -- exception of "read my lips" Herbert Walker Bush, just your average powerful white man butt-grabber? Love em or hate em, at least Democrats offer up independently thinking individuals with much higher IQs, who can string together multi-syllable words into intelligible sentences and policy initiatives.)

Like Legend said, the charts don't lie. Trolls do.

Legend.

The Federal Reserve was formed in 1913 by the "robber barron's" of the time. Or as I like to call them.. the "Merchant Prince's".They saw the anti- trust laws enacted by Teddy Roosevelt as a threat to their power. Sooo.... They bought out politicians in Washington and in 1912 submitted the "Glass Willis Proposal" to congress. And, with the right palms greased it was signed into law by president Woodrow Wilson in Dec 1913.
And they didnt do it for any other reason, than to consolidate their power and influence by currency manipulation.
And to this day, it is still owned by giant, behemoth financial and fossil fuel entities from not just this country, but also Europe and elsewhere..
And these entities are owned by the 1/10th of the 1%...
The "Merchant Prince's!"

And whatever they have done in the past, and are still doing today. Is only done to benefit them!!
They don't care about you and me...

deepspace #8

Like I've said before... You've got a way with words! .
I couldn't have worded it anywhere near as good.

Yep. The Federal Reserve kept the bubble from bursting (worldwide) in 08 by injecting digital money (zeros and ones, not even printed on worthless paper) into giant computers of all those ( too big to fail) financial banks... To be distributed to all the insane players that were in trouble ((and even ones that weren't) of catastrophic failure. I've read different articles about it through the years. They cant pinpoint the exact amount, other than to say, to the tune of tens and tens of trillions of this digital money was injected!!
I really have a hard time. Wrapping my head around it.. F#*@N insanity!!

And these psychopaths didnt learn ANYTHING from the 08 collapse..
In fact they doubled down and are now doing the same crazy shit on steroids!!
Boy, is it all going to come crashing down soon!!
God help us all...

And Legend wonders why I'm so pessimistic.
" Just kidding Legend"

Along with the chart in post #31, page one:

http://www.macrotrends.net/1358/dow-jones-industrial-average-last-10-years

I always thought the famous "bikini graph" succinctly summed up in one glance the difference between Republican and Democratic economic policies:

https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=bikini+graph&chips=q:bikini+graph,online_chips:rachel+maddow&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj-sY6BoNzYAhVpjFQKHZvTCgIQ4lYILCgF&biw=819&bih=552&dpr=1.56

(That link should drive the trolls goofy!)

There are two economies: one for the rich and one for everyone else. Obama could have done so much more for OUR economy had the Republicans not blocked him every step of the way. At this late date, THEIR economy is sucking up all the resources instead of pouring it back into the real -- OUR -- economy where it belongs. Trump is not only riding the coattails of what the Obama Administration ultimately accomplished despite Republican resistance, he is stealing the fruits of our labor and redistributing it to the top, which will inevitably cause another doozy of a crash.

One way to look at "quantitative easing" is as just another public/private scam perpetrated against taxpayers in the ongoing crusade to bailout the shadow banking system by absorbing the potential losses of the richest gamblers on Earth, to keep liquidity in the system so the whole shebang will float, and to stave off the inevitable for as long as possible. Also look at it as a symptom not a cause.

Who cares about the rich-man economy, anyway? The fundamental reason for a bubble economy, and all the bad economic mojo for hapless workers and consumers as a result, is too much wealth concentrated in too few hands; in other words, the same old, same old all through history.

FDR's policies, as opposed to the fascistic policies of today like quantitative easing, led directly to the largest, wealthiest middle class of any country anywhere in the world anytime in history. In a healthy economy, all wealth is derived from labor and productivity and demand. It's the People's wealth to begin with, so they deserve a progressive government that keeps the lion's share of money in their calloused hands rather than the soft, manicured hands of the filthy rich.

Today, those few who have so much will sooner or later run out of things to buy and to do that will keep stimulating the real economy at a realistically sustainable level. But the greedmongers will still have a mountain of money left over, which had it been dispersed into the pockets of ordinary people would have stimulated the economy beyond our wildest dreams.

Instead, during Dubya's reign of idiocy for instance, they turned their ill-gotten gains into investment vehicles that inflated the GDP of the planet from roughly 75 trillion to an astronomical 750 trillion -- in less than 10 years since being awarded a massive wealth redistribution in the form of undeserved tax cuts under the tenure of "The Village Idiot." Naturally, with bets on top of bets on top of bets worldwide, anything would cause such a huge bubble to burst into super nova.

In 2007-8, that implosion/explosion was a complex web of derivatives based on "liar-loan" subprime mortgages, which were sliced and diced into varying degrees of risk with rated tranches. When families fell on hard times, and when they didn't have much equity to protect anyway, they just walked away from their loans.

Boom! The rest is history. When everyone started calling in their chits, it soon became apparent that there wasn't enough real cash behind any of the so-called insurance policies to cover all the bets in the entire world -- it was all a big illusion that came crashing back to reality at the slightest blip.

And the bubble we're in today is getting even bigger based on even shakier ground than in 2008: rentals, which are much easier to walk away from in tough times than subprime loans; student loans; credit card debt; car loans; you name it that can be turned into investment-rated tranches to be sold to the next greater lines of fools, who will buy insurance on top of insurance to protect themselves. In other words, none of the "guvmunt" regulations were effective ...because Republicans made it so. The same fundament conditions exist today as they did in 2008.

Many books have been written on the real causes of the 2008 Great Recession. Two of my favorites are: Bailout by Neil Barofsky (former special inspector general in charge of oversight of TARP); Griftopia by Matt Taibbi -- an entertaining but very detailed, on-the-record, historical account.

Incidentally, Kend, vis-à-vis your false statement that the Democrats never did anything to help the poor, did you deliberately leave out Lyndon Johnson, or, as a Canadian, are you really that ignorant of our history before offering such "authoritative" knowledge? In spite of vociferous Republican resistance, the "War on Poverty" was a humanitarian success story that helped grow the economy. Was it perfect, even near perfect? Of course not; what program of that magnitude, public or private, ever is? But, on the whole, it was a net net win for all. Too bad those with all the wealth and power can't connect the dots today.

Never mind the glaring evidence, you must know in your heart this phantasmic bubble we're presently in is going to blow. HUUUGE! Will you be back here afterwards to explain how so-called "conservative" economics, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, failed so spectacularly -- the second time in not much over a decade?

It seems that the only thing making it great in America again is the Great Bubble Machine -- a bloated cash cow of the super rich.

Just the facts.

Concentrating on Clinton Foundation Facts

The attached Executive Summary continues an investigation into the Clinton Foundation public record begun, by chance, in February 2015.

Since then, questions have started to swirl around the various entities that comprise what I call the Clinton Charity Network: a group of entities supported by a variety of donors from inside the United States and around the world. Beginning today, and regularly thereafter, numerous detailed Exhibits will examine the known public record of the Clinton Charity Network within the context of applicable state, federal, and foreign laws. http://charlesortel.com/concentrating-on-clinton-foundation-facts

Rick Steve: The only one that is arguing against the stock market S&P being a good investment over years is Thom Hartmann. Go oppposite of his advice and prosper.

Now Mr. Facts, look up "quantitative easing".

"Since the end of the financial crisis in 2008-2009, the US Federal Reserve has been, essentially, printing money to boost the US economy."

"First enacted by the Fed in the wake of the 2008-09 financial crisis, QE was basically what a central bank does when it runs out of its traditional arsenal of cutting interest rates and starts digging around in the bag for a new trick.

Frequently referred to as an "extraordinary stimulus" programme, at its most basic, QE is essentially when a central bank buys bonds to lower interest rates.

There were three rounds of quantitative easing. From late 2008 until 2010, the Fed bought nearly $2.1 trillion (£1.3tn) of treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities. The programme was halted when the Fed signalled that it believed economic conditions had improved.

However, once the US economic recovery faltered later in the year, in November 2010 the Fed announced another round of QE. QE2 ended in the middle of 2011 after the Fed bought $600bn of bonds, primarily mortgage-backed securities.

Once more, however, the Fed was too optimistic. In late 2012, the Fed announced another round of open-ended bond buying, which eventually resulted in it buying $85bn per month. The Fed began "tapering" those purchases at the start of this year, and the programme is set to end in October."

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29227597

Look at the chart.

#48. It was post #31 that had a link to the Dow chart for the last 10 years. Charts do not lie. Obama did it without a 1.5 Trillion dollar give away to Corporations. Prepare for the next depression because it happens everytime after the Republican Party creates huge deficits. Remember the Bush/Cheney Depression? How about the Reagan Recession?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2016/11/20/trumps-turn-repu...