Where Do We Go From Here (regrets for forgotten hap tips)?

• Mish sees current deflationary trends
• Hussman sees inflation as stimulus kicks in
• We go the way of Russia and Argentina
• Straus and Howe’s prescient forecast of revolution from mid-1990s
• Dmitri’s Orlov’s “comparative theory of superpower collapse”
• “The Quiet Coup”—USA as banana republic in Simon Johnson’s eyes
• A nice tutorial on the Geithner plan (late add)
• “Manning the barricades”—Economist Intelligence Unit (late add—refreshingly brisk)
• “Exclusive:  AIG was responsible for the banks’ January & February profitability”—Zero Hedge (late add—unbelievable; go to layman’s explanation if you’re not a Wall Street trader)

Is it possible President Obama is more clever than he appears?  That just as he baited and ultimately defeated the Democratic Party machine dominated by the vicious Clintons, that he will bait the oligarchy with a bank bailout plan that is bound to blow up badly (see previous post), only to turn on them and ride a wave of public support for a return to truly law-based, democratic, fair, Constitutional government?

One can only hope.  True, the “animal spirits” continue to hover at generational lows, but a return to denial and business as usual as they begin their forecasted climb will only make the final collapse worse.  Obama promised radical change, but he waffled on his stimulus (didn’t need a tax cut, needed more targeted spending on the unemployed and productive investments) and has proved to be a total wimp in confronting the banking crisis (a tool of Goldman Sachs, to be explicit). 

Okay, President Obama, do it your way, but the time to get radical on finances is slipping away.  You’re going to waste valuable taxpayer dollars that you’d rather spend on building up the American people and their productive powers bailing out investors that should be wiped out—to make room for new investment!

Don’t wait too long.  The people are for the radical changes, are sick at heart at the bailouts and the rich slopping at the government trough.  Congress will do what you tell them, just as Reagan’s Congress did, but you’ve got to stop listening to Wall Street.  It’s your Achilles heel.  Cut them loose after the “public private” banking bailout fails.  Put Volcker or someone from business who’s run a big budget in at Treasury.

Clean up your act, or you’re going to be viewed as “W2,” pun intended.  The economy is out of control, everyone knows it.  You were elected for your temperament, your seeming sense of fairness, your ability to see things from a broad point of view.  Right now the most important thing Americans want to see is fairness from their government in dealing with the economic crisis.  If they don’t perceive that in you (and you can fool some of the people some of the time…), you’re toast.

Wake up, Barack.  America’s burning.