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The Timebomb Who Would be President
Those who know him well regard him as a deceitful, violent, unstable liar who collaborated with the enemy and then postured as a hero. Meet the Real John McCain in this special, subscriber-only issue of CounterPunch newsletter, reported by Alexander Cockburn, Jeffrey St. Clair and Douglas Valentine. Why did Cindy McCain become a drug addict who, Phoenix doctors claim, at least three times sought medical attention for injuries consonant with physical violence? Why did Ron and Nancy Reagan shun him and try to derail his political career? Under the terms of the 14th Amendment is McCain actually barred from ever sitting in the Oval Office? Find the answers in CounterPunch newsletter. Subscribe now. ALSO, read David Price on the incredible case of Nicolas Flattes, whom the US government is trying to blackmail into becoming a spook! Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and gear make great presents.
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Today's Stories September 17, 2008 Forrest Hylton September 16, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Tiphaine Dickson Stan Goff Uri Avnery Michael Winship Jeff Halper Patrick Irelan Oscar Gonzalez Binoy Kampmark Fatemeh Keshavarz Sen. Russ Feingold Website of the Day September 15, 2008 Mike Whitney Peter Morici Patrick Cockburn Charles R. Larson Jonathan Cook Nikolas Kozloff Roger Burbach Helen Redmond David Michael Green David Macaray Ralph Nader Website of the Day September 13 / 14, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Wajahat Ali Robert Fantina Marcus Rediker Richard Neville Ed Gaffney Carla Blank P. Sainath Lee Sustar Joshua Frank M. Junaid Levesque-Alam Dennis Loo Zach Zill Omar Barghouti Bill Quigley Andy Worthington Stephen Dunifer Seth Sandronsky David Yearsley Patrick B. Barr Rannie Amiri Niranjan Ramakrishnan Richard Rhames Manuel Garcia, Jr. Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
September 12, 2008 Nikolas Kozloff Michael Hudson Lloyd Miller Steve Breyman Maria Rivera Jonathan Cook Ayesha Ijaz Khan M. Shahid Alam Robert Weissman Tanya Golash-Boza / David Brunsma Website of the Day September 11, 2008 Noam Chomsky Sharon Smith Ron Jacobs Marjorie Cohn Mike Whitney Jeffery R. Webber Paul Cantor Peter Morici Ray McGovern Linn Washington, Jr. Website of the Day September 10, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Conn Hallinan Ralph Nader Peter Morici Joanne Mariner Laura Tate Kagel / Chuck Spinney Dave Lindorff Scott Campbell Paul Farmer Anne Kilkenny Website of the Day September 9, 2008 Michael Colby Chellis Glendinning Vijay Prashad Jeffery R. Webber/ David Michael Green Brian J. Foley John Ross Pierre M. Sprey / Nicole Colson Marc Gardner William S. Lind Website of the Day
September 8, 2008 Mike Whitney Tariq Ali Pam Martens Bill Quigley Malini Johar Schueller / Robert Jensen Uri Avnery Win McCormack Howard Lisnoff Maria C. Khoury Website of the Day September 6 / 7, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Linn Washington, Jr. Patrick Cockburn Gary Leupp Nancy Kurshan William Blum Michael Winship Fred Gardner Nikolas Kozloff Wajahat Ali Robert Fantina Karyn Strickler David Yearsley Richard Rhames James L. Secor Missy Beattie Eric Patton Ben Terrall Thom Rutledge Dan Bacher David Macaray Jane Stillwater Grady Harper Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend September 5, 2008 Elizabeth Walters Bill Quigley Alan Farago Dave Lindorff Ira Glunts Peter Morici Deepak Tripathi Manuel Garcia, Jr. Michael Donnelly Martha Rosenberg Website of the Day September 4, 2008 Jeffrey St. Clair Paul Craig Roberts Ron Jacobs M. Junaid Levesque-Alam Andy Worthington Osama Dawoud Stephen Lendman Fidel Castro Website of the Day September 3, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Sen. Mike Gravel Vijay Prashad Nikolas Kozloff Ralph Nader Howard Lisnoff Steve Early / Cal Winslow Shepherd Bliss Bill Quigley Website of the Day
September 2, 2008 Marjorie Cohn Jonathan Cook Robert Weitzel Corey D. B. Walker John Ross Eric Walberg Judith Scherr Richard Morse B. R. Gowani Michael Greenberg Website of the Day September 1, 2008 Nikolas Kozloff C. G. Estabrook Manuel Garcia, Jr. David Macaray B. R. Gowani Saul Landau Charles Orloski Gloria La Riva Website of the Day August 30 / 31, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Bill Quigley Jeffrey St. Clair Andy Worthington Deepak Tripathi Stanley Howard Dave Lindorff Wajahat Ali Robert Fantina Josh Schlossberg Benjamin Dangl Missy Beattie Howard Lisnoff Suzan Mazur Rev. Jim Rigby David Yearsely Serge Quadruppani B.R. Gowani Richard Rhames Poets' Basement Website of the Day
August 29, 2008 Mike Whitney Brian Cloughley David Ker Thomson Joanne Mariner Neve Gordon Chris Genovali Ron Jacobs Michael Donnelly August 28, 2008 Judy Gumbo Albert Paul Cantor Saul Landau / Andy Worthington Ben Terrall Leonard Peltier Niranjan Ramakrishnan Donna J. Volatile Website of the Day
August 27, 2008 Anthony DiMaggio Jordan Flaherty Ralph Nader Melissa Checker Bob Sommer Cynthia McKinney Ali Khan M. Junaid Levesque-Alam Dave Lindorff David Macaray Website of the Day
August 26, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Michael D. Yates Paul Craig Roberts Andy Worthington Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Huwaida Arraf Joseph Grosso Sheldon Richman Binoy Kampmark Website of the Day August 25, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Bill Quigley Jonathan Cook James McEnteer Uri Avnery Will Potter Robert Jensen Stephen Lendman Wajahat Ali Carl Finamore Website of the Day August 23 / 4, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Patty O'Grady Nicole Colson Steve Conn Deepak Trapathi Robert Fantina Jonathan M. Feldman Joshua Frank Osama Qashoo Howard Lisnoff David Michael Green Dave Lindorff Christopher Brauchli Alan Farago Michael Winship Richard Rhames David Rosen Patrick B. Barr Jamie Newlin Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend August 22, 2008 Boris Kagarlitsky Laura Carlsen Bob Barr Marwan Bishara Peter Morici Manuel Garcia, Jr. Charles Mostoller Sumbul Ali-Karamali Keith Rosenthal John F. Miglio Website of the Day August 21, 2008 Allan J. Lichtman Dave Lindorff Loserville: How Obama Blew It Ralph Nader Joanne Mariner Wajahat Ali Ron Jacobs Rostam Purzal Anthony Papa Website of the Day August 20, 2008 Michael Neumann Ray McGovern Eric Walberg Fidaa Abed Daniel Haack Mike Whitney Website of the Day August 19, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Deepak Tripathi Marwan Bishara Saul Landau William S. Lind Martha Rosenberg James Brittain Pratyush Chandra David Macaray Website of the Day |
September 17, 2008 Wall Street Panic BluesThe End of the Blue Chip EconomyBy DAVE LINDORFF AIG, the quintessential blue-chip, one of the 30 companies that compose the Dow Jones Industrial Average, a company that in 2000 boasted a market capitalization of $217 billion, making it the largest financial institution in the world, is teetering on the brink of collapse. Worth just $7 billion today, the future of what was until recently the world’s largest insurance company is hanging by a thread—that thread being the willingness of Wall Street institutions like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, themselves facing credit issues, to come up with $75 billion in rescue loans. It used to be that investors who were worried about financial markets, or who didn’t like to take big risks, would put their money in what were called “blue chips”—companies that were deemed conservative, safe investments that could weather any storm. They had names like AT&T, General Motors, Ford, Boeing…and AIG. Well, AT&T is a shadow of its former self, GM and Ford are both being talked of as dead men walking by analysts, Boeing is on life-support, or, since it is being propped up by its military contracts, more appropriately death support, and AIG, well, it’s already got one foot in the grave. There really are no blue chips any more. The largest companies in the world, as Enron showed, can vanish overnight in a puff of smoke. Look at Lehman Brothers. Here today, then, poof, gone tomorrow. In AIG’s case, if the insurance giant goes under, it may take a lot with it. An article today in the Australian daily The Australian (Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp flagship and hardly a Marxian rag) put it this way: Should the US Federal Reserve fail in last-ditch efforts to secure breathing space for AIG, then sub-prime's cascading woes will have slowly smashed financial markets into worse shape than the legendary market meltdown of 1987. And, from there, governments and banking regulators alike will have to ponder the previously unthinkable: are we on the way to a place comparable with 1929? So what are anxious investors to do? Clearly there are no safe harbors in the stock market, which could as easily drop 40 percent or 70 percent tomorrow as rise 3 percent. Bonds don’t look much better. They may be more stable than equities, but not if the company that issues them goes bust. Then they are worthless scraps of paper, no better than the share certificates for Fannie Mae that are now being used to line cat litter boxes. The ratings agencies, like Standard&Poors and Moody’s, while exercising their usual timidity about downgrading a major corporate entity, have belatedly knocked AIG’s credit rating down two notches today, which is their way of hinting that if you are an AIG bondholder, you have a significantly greater chance of losing your shirt. Nor is it just investors who have to fear. Individuals who have tried to protect their families by purchasing life insurance policies, or who have sought to establish a secure retirement income by buying annuities from AIG, need to worry about whether the company will be around to make the payments when they or their beneficiaries need them. Sure, the states, which are responsible in the US for regulating the insurance industries, for the most part have established reserve funds to backstop insurance carriers, but like the FDIC which insures bank deposits up to only $100,000, these funds generally only back the first $100,000 of insurance or annuity coverage as a “cash surrender” value, or $300,000 as a benefit payout. But those state guaranty funds were designed to protect people from failures of fly-by-night insurance operations. They are woefully underfunded for companies on the scale of AIG. AIG is such a giant in the insurance business that as one corporate treasurer told The Australian: “If AIG collapses, then the world doesn’t have insurance.” The New York Times, commenting on fears among ordinary people that their insurance or their annuities may not be there when needed, quoted one insurance adviser</a>, Glenn Daily, who said a client who was an AIG policy holder was borrowing the maximum against his life policy, planning to park that money somewhere to see if the AIG crisis blows over. But he added darkly, “If everyone does this, the company could be driven out of business.” Actually, it’s worse than that. As Michael Lewitt, a Florida-based money manager, wrote today in an opinionarticle in today’s New York Times, AIG is a key player in the $60 trillion (yes that’s trillion with a “T”!) credit swap default market, a huge, international and wholly unregulated field in which hedge funds play, and whose collapse would make the 1929 Great Crash look like a minor fender-bender. So that’s what it’s coming down to. There are no Blue Chip refuges from the rolling disaster that is the US economy today. And there are no easy rescues—indeed according to one theory Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson let Lehman Brothers go bust because he knew he needed what funds the Treasury has left to try to keep AIG alive. It’s all a fragile, interconnected house of cards, propped up by a residual faith among ordinary investors who, at least so far, still think it has some kind of inherent structure to it. As card after card gets pulled out of that rickety stack—first Bear Stearns, then IndyMac Bank, then Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac, then Lehman Brothers, now perhaps AIG and Washington Mutual, a large savings institution that is on a death watch—at some point those investors and now insurance clients, too, may all decide to take their money and go home, and the whole thing will come crashing down. The good news is that, if the US economy collapses, the Pashtun farmer in northeastern Pakistan, the Iraqi shopkeeper in Fallujah, the Iranian worker in Tehran, and the peasant in Venezuela, will no longer have to worry about being bombed or having their children mowed down by a US helicopter gunship. The US would no longer have the funds to pay for such foreign wars. And because a collapse of the US consumer economy would also drag the rest of the world into a prolonged global slump, perhaps reminiscent of the 1930s, we might actually see a significant enough drop in carbon emissions from idled cars, factories and power plants that the global warming catastrophe that is threatening us all will be significantly delayed, giving humanity time to come up with a serious long-term response. DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-based journalist and columnist. His latest book is “The Case for Impeachment” (St. Martin’s Press, 2006 and now available in paperback edition). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net
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