http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts07162009.html

There is no economy left to recover. The U.S. manufacturing economy was lost to offshoring and free trade ideology. It was replaced by a mythical “New Economy.”

The “New Economy” was based on services. Its artificial life was fed by the Federal Reserve’s artificially low interest rates, which produced a real estate bubble, and by “free market” financial deregulation, which unleashed financial gangsters to new heights of debt leverage and fraudulent financial products.

The real economy was traded away for a make-believe economy. When the make-believe economy collapsed, Americans’ wealth in their real estate, pensions, and savings collapsed dramatically while their jobs disappeared.

The debt economy caused Americans to leverage their assets. They refinanced their homes and spent the equity. They maxed out numerous credit cards. They worked as many jobs as they could find. Debt expansion and multiple family incomes kept the economy going.

And now suddenly Americans can’t borrow in order to spend. They are over their heads in debt. Jobs are disappearing. America’s consumer economy, approximately 70 percent of GDP, is dead. Those Americans who still have jobs are saving against the prospect of job loss. Millions are homeless. Some have moved in with family and friends; others are living in tent cities.

Meanwhile the U.S. government’s budget deficit has jumped from $455 billion in 2008 to $2,000 billion this year, with another $2,000 billion on the books for 2010. And President Obama has intensified America’s expensive war of aggression in Afghanistan and initiated a new war in Pakistan.

There is no way for these deficits to be financed except by printing money or by further collapse in stock markets that would drive people out of equity into bonds.

The US government’s budget is 50 percent in the red. That means half of every dollar the federal government spends must be borrowed or printed. Because of the worldwide debacle caused by Wall Street’s financial gangsterism, the world needs its own money and hasn’t $2 trillion annually to lend to Washington.

As dollars are printed, the growing supply adds to the pressure on the dollar’s role as reserve currency. Already America’s largest creditor, China, is admonishing Washington to protect China’s investment in U.S. debt and lobbying for a new reserve currency to replace the dollar before it collapses. According to various reports, China is spending down its holdings of U.S. dollars by acquiring gold and stocks of raw materials and energy.

The price of 1-ounce gold coins is $1,000 despite efforts of the U.S. government to hold down the gold price. How high will this price jump when the rest of the world decides that the bankruptcy of “the world’s only superpower” is at hand?

And what will happen to America’s ability to import not only oil but also the manufactured goods on which it is import-dependent?

When the oversupplied U.S. dollar loses the reserve currency role, the U.S. will no longer be able to pay for its massive imports of real goods and services with pieces of paper. Overnight, shortages will appear and Americans will be poorer.

Nothing in Presidents Bush and Obama’s economic policy addresses the real issues. Instead, Goldman Sachs was bailed out, more than once. As Eliot Spitzer said, the banks made a “bloody fortune” with U.S. aid.

It was not the millions of now homeless homeowners who were bailed out. It was not the scant remains of American manufacturing — General Motors and Chrysler — that were bailed out. It was the Wall Street banks.

According to Bloomberg.com, Goldman Sachs’ current record earnings from their free or low-cost capital supplied by broke American taxpayers has led the firm to decide to boost compensation and benefits by 33 percent. On an annual basis, this comes to compensation of $773,000 per employee.

This should tell even the most dimwitted patriot whom “their” government represents.

The worst of the economic crisis has not yet hit. I don’t mean the rest of the real estate crisis that is waiting in the wings. Home prices will fall further when the foreclosed properties currently held off the market are dumped. Store and office closings are diminishing the ability of owners of shopping malls and office buildings to make their mortgage payments. Commercial real estate loans were also securitized and turned into derivatives.

The real crisis awaits us. It is the crisis of high unemployment, of stagnant and declining real wages confronted with rising prices from the printing of money to pay the government’s bills and from the dollar’s loss of exchange value. Suddenly Wal-Mart prices will look like Nieman Marcus prices.

Retirees dependent on state pension systems, which cannot print money, might not be paid, or might be paid with IOUs. They will not even have depreciating money with which to try to pay their bills. Desperate tax authorities will squeeze the remaining life out of the middle class.

Nothing in Obama’s economic policy is directed at saving the U.S. dollar as reserve currency or the livelihoods of the American people. Obama’s policy, like Bush’s before him, is keyed to the enrichment of Goldman Sachs and the armament industries.

Matt Taibbi describes Goldman Sachs as “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” Look at the Goldman Sachs representatives in the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations. This bankster firm controls the economic policy of the United States.

Little wonder that Goldman Sachs has record earnings while the rest of us grow poorer by the day.

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http://gata.org/node/7601

reviewed by Moishe Alexander, CFC Canadian Funding Corp CEO

OmniTRAX president and real estate developer, Patrick Broe …

A real estate developer?

Others undoubtedly saw that line and took in its full meaning. But I had focused on Broe as president of a U.S. railway company, OmniTRAX, who was bidding for BCRail. And who, rumour says, was offered a substantial consolation prize for losing out. Or being pushed out. Or something.

OmniTRAX had trains in the U.S., but had only just begun its quest for a Canadian empire. OmniTRAX had obtained ownership of Hudson Bay Railway and the Port of Churchill. What a deal that was, with the Arctic Ocean opening up because of global warming. Today is July 14, 2009 and today I think Pat Broe is a real estate developer who knows more than we do about how railways lead to real estate.

News item in BUSINESS WIRE for March 15, 2004: Broe begins land division with initial operations focused on Intermodal, Rail Related … Read about it HERE.

So OmniTRAX president, Pat Broe, is a major real estate developer. Early in 2002, he was meeting with, and corresponding with Gordon Campbell and promoting OmniTRAX as an attractive partner in Gordo’s vision for B.C. prosperity.

Broe, as OmniTRAX, already owned a small railway in the Okanagan, plus Hudson Bay Railway and the Port of Churchill. HBRY is 810 miles of former CN track, from The Pas to Churchill, Canada’s only Arctic seaport [www.portofchurchill.ca] Broe’s OmniTRAX took possession of the whole shebang, port and rail line, by paying $10. to the Canadian federal government in September 1997. Ten bucks.

Gordon Campbell, the Vancouver real estate developer, formed the BC government in 2001 and immediately began talking about selling BCRail. Pat Broe must have zeroed in very quickly.

Then Erik Bornman enters the scene by registering with Gordo’s B.C. government as a consultant lobbyist representing the Broe Companies. Bornman busies himself looking for B.C. investment opportunities in economic development and trade, such as rail transportation.

Soon Pat Broe, Dwight Johnson are having dinner with the B.C. Minister of Finance, Gary Collins. For some reason, police wanted to know what those men were discussing. There were RCMP inside the Villa del Lupa restaurant as well as outside, making videos of that meeting. Thank goodness.

Today is July 14, 2009 when various spectacular BC Rail properties can be scooped by CN for $1. Or so we hear.

I think that maybe Collins, Broe, and Johnson were talking, in a roundabout way, about land, lots and lotsa land to be had for 1/10th the cost of the Hudson Bay Railway plus Port of Churchill.

Pat Broe is a real estate developer.

- BC Mary.

“”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”

lynx has left a new comment on your post “Give me land, lots of land, under starry skies above …”:

In light of what BC Mary has just written – here is an excerpt from hansard between Joy MacPhail and Gary Collins: (Read between the lines and think real estate deal and it reads a whole new way.)

J. MacPhail (Leader of the Opposition): I have two concluding questions. These are a follow-up from my questions around lobbying. The minister said he never met with Pilothouse. Did he ever meet with anyone from Omnitrax itself?

Hon. G. Collins (Minister of Finance): Yes. I have met with Pat Broe prior to the B.C. Rail transaction process starting. I met with him once after the B.C. Rail transaction had completed.

J. MacPhail: Boy, I’m sure glad I get the questions right. Is the minister aware of any of his staff that met with Omnitrax on his behalf?

Hon. G. Collins: I’m not aware of that, whether it would have happened or not — certainly not on my behalf. I wouldn’t have directed anybody to do that.

J. MacPhail: And Pat Broe is whom?

Hon. G. Collins: He’s the owner, president and CEO, I think, of Broe Companies, of which Omnitrax is a subsidiary.

J. MacPhail: What were the two meetings about?

Hon. G. Collins: The first meeting was, “Hi, this is who I am,” on his part. “I’d like to come and invest in British Columbia. I think what you guys are doing makes sense. It looks like a great place for me to invest. I’m interested in all sorts of things.” Just a general get-to-know-you type of meeting. I have those regularly with potential investors in British Columbia, if they want to come and talk. It’s more of a welcome, get-to-know-you, individual meeting.

After the transaction had closed, Mr. Broe wanted to tell us that despite not winning the B.C. Rail contract,, he would be interested in continuing to be part of British Columbia, if he could — similar to the prior meeting.

J. MacPhail: Was Mr. Basi present at either of those meetings?

Hon. G. Collins: No.

J. MacPhail: Who staffed the minister?

Hon. G. Collins: I rarely take staff with me. I think it’s a waste of their time for the most part when I travel or when I meet with them. Sometimes I do; sometimes I don’t. It depends on what the need is. I had a dinner, and I didn’t feel I needed staff at a dinner.

J. MacPhail: Was the minister aware that Omnitrax was bidding on the B.C. Rail spur line to Roberts Bank during that period of time?

Hon. G. Collins: No, I wasn’t. I knew they were generally looking to do investments in British Columbia. We certainly didn’t talk in any great detail about any of their proposals. Rather, it was a general discussion of things they might do in British Columbia. They were still interested in British Columbia. They were disappointed, obviously, that they weren’t the successful bidder on CN, but they wanted to continue to have a presence in British Columbia. They were looking for things they might do.

There are a whole range of things they might do. I hope at some point that they are part of that.

http://bctrialofbasi-virk.blogspot.com/2009/07/give-me-land-lots-of-land-under-starry.html

reviewed by Moishe Alexander, CFC Canadian Funding Corp CEO