Bizzaro World

The incredible lack of knowledge about basic economics in this country has lead us directly into Bizzaro World. You remember Bizzarro World don't you. That was the parallel universe in the Superman comic books where everything was reversed. Ugly was beautiful, people collected trash instead of throwing it out and doctors made you sick instead of curing you. Well, we're there.

Obama the Redeemer was in Florida flip-flopping on off shore drilling. Now, he might be for it, but only if it will help break the gridlock and get meaningful energy reform passed.
Yeah, that and the fact that polls overwhelming show voters favor drilling. But in the middle of his speech a black man interrupted and demanded that Obama answer about "the attacks against the African-American community" by the "same U.S. government that you aspire to lead." He pointed to sub-prime mortgages aimed at black and Latino communities, instances of police profiling, the Jena Six and the slow response to Hurricane Katrina.

Sub-prime mortgages were “aimed” at blacks and Latinos. Just like a gun. You see those bastards at Country Wide were just lying in wait. They spotted those juicy credit risks and just pounced. They cleverly induced their targets into this hopeless situation by giving them money that they clearly knew they couldn’t pay back. But they gave them the loans anyway, the bastards. They knew it was only a matter of time before the adjustable rates would rise, the exploited blacks and Latinos would default and fulfill their master plan to corner the market on bad debts and abandoned homes. Of course this was all just a side benefit. Their real objective was to financially ruin as many black and Latino families as they possibly could. Well heck, it was even worth ruining a few white families as long as they nailed the minorities. And it worked beautifully. Just look at the riches they reaped in the last quarter alone! Thornburg Mortgage took a $3 billion loss and Merril managed a $2.24 billion loss. J.P. Morgan was a little less successful. They only managed a $1.1 billion loss.

If this weren’t bad enough, Obama defended himself by agreeing. In fact he had always been against “predatory lending.”

I’d like for everybody to take a minute or two to say that term, “predatory lending” out loud and reflect on it.

OK, first I’d like to point out that when Obama was being a “community organizer” in Chicago, he was heavily involved with the liberal activist group ACORN. They did a lot of fraudulent voter registration, but they also issued many tirades aimed at banks and mortgage companies. They did “studies” where they “determined” that since blacks were getting turned down for mortgages at a higher rate than whites, this was clear evidence of racial discrimination. Of course a mortgage application isn’t allowed to ask a person’s race, but they figured that info got through somehow (nod, nod, wink, wink.) And furthermore, it wasn’t just race, it was location too. This, they called “redlining.” Here the banks were simply saying that’s not a part of town where we want to loan. And they were saying that because those parts were predominately black.

It was pointed out to ACORN that Asians were approved at a higher rate than whites, but they really didn’t have an explanation for that. Likewise, when this “sophisticated point” was made: If blacks were being held to a higher credit standard than whites, then it would follow that the backs who did receive mortgages would likely have a lower default rate, correct? Yes, that would seem to be correct. Unfortunately for ACORN the blacks who did receive mortgages actually had higher default rates.

Despite those facts, great pressure was exerted on the banks to make these loans to people they had deemed uncreditworthy in places that they did not want to lend. Laws were passed to make it easier to loan that money, and the banks complied. It was either that or get sued. But that was then and now they are "predators."

But what really struck me as perverse this week was the reaction to the news that ExxonMobil had a quarterly profit of $11.68 billion. People were outraged. They were offended and angry. Obama spoke of taking that money and using it to send checks of $1,000 to $500 to middle and lower class families (Hillary threatened to take their profits in the previous quarter.) Greed, which was identified as the reason behind these “obscene” profits, was denounced. Everyone seemed to agree, these profits were “excessive,” I mean, they were just too much.

And on the other side of the newspaper page was a different profit story. It was about how General Motors was posting a $15.5 billion loss. I could only assume such news would add a little cheer to a liberal’s day. Certainly this was something of a counter weight to the bad news that ExxonMobil had posted the largest corporate profit in history. Every cloud has a silver lining.

Aside from the fact that virtually every 401k and IRA in America has some oil stock, when did profits become bad? Do these people understand how big a part of our economy ExxonMobil represents? Do they know how many people they employ at very good wages? Do they understand the amount of assets they control? Do they know that oil companies are the ones researching and investing in those alternative energy sources they all like to hype, like wind and solar? Do they understand that those profits are exactly the source of funding for that research and investing? I’d have to say the answer to all those questions is no, they don’t understand.