Excellent post. *shiver* Middle-America is getting the Marxist sucker punch. Ugh.
~
86. Chuck Pelto,

Yeah, Chuck… They can shovel it but they can’t take even a little ‘crumb’ of it back. Go figure? I can laugh at myself for all of my imperfections fer sure. Me cast the first stone? No way, José. Opinions are just that…we all have ‘em and we [so far] still have the right to express ‘em.

“Do you folks see the extent to which us little people/taxpayers are slated to take it up the backside when it comes to the government’s dealing with Wall Street and financial institutions???” — Geofizz

Check out my item # 22 here.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[If you're not paranoid, it's because you're not paying attention.]

“I don’t know if you are a racist, but you seem to spew hate of anyone you disagree with” — The Shallow

….sarcasm is now ‘hate speech’.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[If you can't laugh at yourself, you're taking yourself entirely too seriously.]

Chuck, I don’t know how I’m supposed to “show” you that Arabs had nothing to do with the transatlantic slave trade. For instance, Hugh Thomas, in his definitive, 900-page work on the subject (”The Slave Trade”), doesn’t mention any Arab involvement in the trade at all (except in discussing the separate, trans-Saharan slave trade, of course).

“Especially in light of the fact that the Arabs were taking slaves in Congo, which is on the west coast of Africa?”

I can find no record of Arab slave traders operating in West Central Africa, in what was then the Lunda empire and is now the Congo, during the time of the transatlantic slave trade (roughly 1514-1866). The trans-Saharan slave trade famously operated in the Sahara, elsewhere in northern Africa, and in East Africa.

Perhaps you can point us to a source which indicates that Arab slave traders were operating as far south as this, and whether it was during the time of the transatlantic trade? (You seem to suggest that the Arab traders stopped their operations there at the start of the European trade.) And whether they were in any way involved in sending slaves to the Americas, rather than purchasing slaves for Muslim lands?

Now, I don’t want to detract from your claim that there was at least some Arab involvement in sending slaves across the Middle Passage. However, I think the more important issue here may be that we’re even debating whether Arab traders might possibly have ever had any connection to the transatlantic slave trade. Why is this even an issue? Why did Spinoneone even think it was worth mentioning Arabs in connection with a trade dominated by Americans and Europeans, and why did you think that made sense? Isn’t this merely an obvious attempt to deflect attention from those who were primarily responsible for what happened (Americans, Europeans, and Africans)?

1. Did you know that to insure our bank deposits, the FDIC is suppose to collect fees from the banks, and that between 1996 – 2006 NO FEES were collected?? We have Congress to thank for this. Apparently the FDIC had collected “enough,” so Congress decided it need not collect more. Needless to say, the current financial crisis has required that the FDIC deplete a good chunk of its Depositors Insurance Fund, which in comparison to the scale of the financial crisis is looking rather miniscule at present (it is now down from $36 billion or so to $19 bln).

2. It gets better… Senator Dodd has a Depositors Protection Act he’s working on, and apparently it’s a matter of not IF but WHEN it gets passed. Sounds like a good bill, right? One that addresses the problem described above? Nope. The FDIC, which use to be exclusively focused on simply insuring all of our bank deposits, has recently become a Lender of First Resort to bank holding companies. Since this program (Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program) got started in October 2008, FDIC has lent over $300 bln. Dodd’s bill is about increasing the amount of funds available to the FDIC so they can lend even more. Only bank holding companies benefit from Dodd’s bill, not our deposits. Yep, that’s more government-issued debt that is backed by us taxpayers. TLGP has done some good where bank liquidity is concerned; never mind the problem of debt though.

3. The one thing you don’t see mentioned much in the news is the extent to which wrong-doings and actual fraud has been committed within Wall Street. All you hear is that these wall street people ran the company into the ground and/or played a role in bringing about this financial crisis. But do you ever hear the word “FRAUD” mentioned with any of this? Check out

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/03/on-traders-behaving-badly-and-cognitive.html

And apparently the Treasury is as much asleep at the wheel as the SEC is when it comes to actively enforcing ANYTHING:

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/03/wiliam-black-savages-treasurys-conduct.html

(in this article, William Black says that the treasury failed to “expose, and to the extent possible, remedy through restatements the massive accounting fraud that AIG was/is engaged in that triggers the bonuses.” — emphasis mine)

How many times have I read MBA-types asking in financial blogs “where’s the outrage?!?!”

4. Another bailout plan that is in the works is one dealing with the toxic assets. You remember all the coverage about the possibility of the government nationalizing banks? Well, an alternative to that is one where the taxplayer plays a much much more prominent role. It’s a “public private partnership” where the government lends money to private investors so that they’ll be incentivized to buy the toxic assets. You seeing a recurring theme here?? Once again, the government is lending money (i.e., issuing debt) which is backed by the taxpayers. The toxic assets on the balance sheets of many financial institutions are over-valued, so nobody wants to buy them. So the government lends:

“Depending on the different types of collateral, investors will get roughly $100 of lending [via Fed loans] for every $5 to $16 of cash they put up to invest.”

So it is hedge fund investors who do the investing; these are folks who want to see a high-yield return on their investments.

“If the Fed successfully reflates, hedgies get to pocket profits.  If the Fed fails, the hedgies are only out the $5-$16 premium they paid for the option.”

And who coughs up the $100 that is lost if Fed fails?? Taxpayers. The hedge fund investor gets to “play high stakes poker with taxpayer money.”

Folks need to be hearing more of the details about what is going on with our economy. Yes, there is plenty of blame for Wall Street, and plenty of Wall Street people who need to be fired and/or jailed. But most of what is happening can be traced back to intervention by our government. They are taking a really bad recession and making it much more worse.

NOTE: I’m not a MBA financial-type; so if any of you out there are, please feel free to correct me if I’ve made any misstatements.

More food for thought:
http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/slavetra.html

http://cghs.dadeschools.net/african-american/europe/slave_trade.htm
~
What blacks refuse to see is the rampant black-on-black crime. Black people still have a very ‘tribal’ ‘instinctuality’ [yes, Delia just made a new word]. Black people are STILL very tribal in many parts of Africa and kill each other on the daily on behalf of their tribal mentality and one can’t help wonder if the ‘black on black’ crime is unconscious tribalism that still runs deep in the veins of many black people.

-Anyway…just a ‘thought out loud’…I thunk it, wrote it and own it.

Spinoneone claimed that Arab slave traders had something to do with the ancestors of black Americans, and that’s just not true. — James

I’ll indulge you….

Show me where the Arabs had NOTHING to do with the trans-atlantic slave trade. Especially in light of the fact that the Arabs were taking slaves in Congo, which is on the west coast of Africa? And, furthermore, as I understand it, the Arab slave traders stopped shipping their Congo slaves through the Sahara routes after the Europeans established a settlement in the vicinity of Congo.

So, despite your claim, it seems that there IS evidence that the Arabs were, at least in part, involved with the trans-atlantic slave trade. Maybe not a lot. But some.

Hope that helps.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[The Truth will out.....]

I speak my mind and I may ruffle some lib-feathers but that’s not my problemmo. I yam what I yam. Nyuck!