Unbossed
and unbought news and information you can use
Volume
10 Issue 28…Dedicated
to the Dialogue on Race…July 13, 2007
Bit of History
Alan Greenspan
Born in New York City on March 6, 1926 to Jewish parents, Herman H. and Rose G.
Greenspan, Alan studied clarinet at Juilliard (1943-1944). He attended New York
University (NYU), where he received a B.S. in Economics (1948), and an M.A in
Economics (1950). After NYU, Greenspan attended Columbia University to pursue
advanced economic studies, but subsequently dropped out. In 1977, NYU awarded
him a Ph.D. in Economics, even though he did not complete the normally required
dissertation for an advanced degree in the subject.
From 1954-1974 and 1977-1987, Greenspan served as chairman and president of
Townsend-Greenspan & Co., Inc, a New York economic consulting firm. During
this period, Greenspan was elected chairman of the
Conference of Business Economists, president of the National Association of
Business Economists, and director of the National Economists Club. In the
summer of 1968, he served as Richard Nixon's coordinator on domestic policy in
the Nixon nomination campaign for president.
From 1974-1977, Greenspan served as chairman of President Gerald Ford's Council
of Economic Advisors, and from 1981 to 1983, he served as chairman of President
Ronald Reagan's Commission on Social Security Reform, which restructured the US
Social Security system. Greenspan also served on other presidential boards and
commissions, including President Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board and as
a consultant to the Congressional Budget Office.
On August 11, 1987, Greenspan replaced Paul A. Volcker
as chairman of the Federal Reserve. Shortly after assuming the Fed
chairmanship, Greenspan faced a financial market crisis. On "Black
Monday," October 19, 1987, the market collapsed as terrified sellers dumped
millions of shares. Acting quickly to avert more widespread panic, Greenspan
announced on October 20 the Fed's readiness to provide the market much-needed
liquidity. Fear receded and the Dow-Jones industrial average rallied over 100
points on that day.
After weathering this financial storm, Greenspan turned to fighting inflation,
rather than fighting unemployment. The Fed slowed the growth of the money
supply, and the economy experienced another recession. When Greenspan's term
expired, President George H.W. Bush reappointed him to a second term, despite
economic policy differences between them.
In 1996, President Bill Clinton, who believed in strong economic growth, even
if it meant a small rise in inflation, reappointed Greenspan, who had been criticized
for raising interest rates even when the economy had been slow and unemployment
high. On May 18, 2004, Greenspan was nominated by President George W. Bush to
serve an unprecedented fifth term as Fed chairman, a position he held until
January 31, 2006.
Greenspan received numerous honorary degrees and awards, including the
Presidential Medal of Freedom (2005), the highest civilian award in the United
States, Knight Commander of the British Empire (2002) and Commander of the Légion d'honneur (Legion
of Honor). He served on TIME magazine's Board of Economists, senior
advisor to the Brookings Institution Panel on Economic Activity, and corporate
director to numerous banks and manufacturing companies, including J. P. Morgan,
Alcoa, Automatic Data Processing, Inc., Capital Cities/ABC, Inc., General
Foods, Inc., Morgan Guaranty Trust and Mobil Corporation.
In 1997, Greenspan married NBC journalist Andrea Mitchell. (Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org, www.answers.com/ and www.infoplease.com
)
Housing Bubble
By Anonymous
Is this the real
life-
Is this just fantasy-
Caught in a mortgage-
With no escape from reality-
Open your eyes
Check out Kevin's site and see-
I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy-
Because I'm easy come, easy go,
Rates are high, turnover low,
Anyway the wind blows, doesn't really matter to me.
Mama, just bought a home,
Got an ARM with nothing down,
For a McMansion out of town,
Mama, life had just begun,
But now I've gone and thrown it all away-
Greenspan ooo,
Didn't mean to make me cry-
When he said ARMs were just the way to fly-
Carry on, carry on, as if nothing really matters-
Too late, the sheriff's come,
Turned in my McMansion key-
My family thrown out on the street,
Goodbye everybody-I've got to go-
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth-
Lerah ooo- (any way the
wind blows)
I can see you lied,
You spun the truth and ruined, people's lives-
I see a little silhouetto of a man,
Ber-nan-ke, Ber-nan-ke will
you do the Rate-Adjusto-
Quarter-point and lightning-very very frightening me-
Alan Greenspan, Alan Greenspan,
Alan Greenspan Alan Greenspan
Alan Greenspan figaro -Where Did He Go-o-o-o-o-
I'm the new Fed Chief and nobody loves me-
He's just the Fed Chief thrown into uncertainty-
Spare him his life from Greenspan's monstrosity-
Easy come easy go-, will you let me go-
Ber-nan-ke! No- we will not let you go-let him go-
Ber-nan-ke!! We will not let you go-let him go
Ber-nan-ke! We will not let you go-let me go
Will not let you go-let me go
Will not let you go let me go
No, no, no, no, no, no, no-
Mama mia, mama mia, mama mia let me go-
AlanG has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me-
Ebony Star Shines Over Wimbledon
By John Burl Smith
Ebony is one of the most valuable hardwoods produced by mother Africa. Evidence
of that statement was on display during the fortnight at the All England Club
last week. Coming in ranked 31, not having reached the finals of a grand slam
this year, dropping completely out of the top fifty, after not winning a major
since her last Wimbledon in 2005, Ebony Star spent eight months nursing a left
wrist injury. Once again rising to the top, like cream poured over strawberries
for breakfast at Wimbledon, Venus dropped from the mesosphere.
Dubbed "Ebony Star" at birth by her father Richard, a shaman in his
own right, who was the first to see her star on the horizon, Venus, seeded
number 23, languished in the shadows of favored players like Maria Sharapova, Justine Henin, Amélie Mauresmo and
Martina Hingis coming into the tournament.
Shaking off court rust, as if it was perspiration, two points from defeat
against a teenager ranked 59th in the first round and trailing 5-3 in the final
set against a player ranked 71 in the third, Venus barely escaped the black
hole of defeat.
Never doubting her chances, Williams refused to allow her brilliance to be
eclipsed. Ebony Star launched meteoric serves (one clocked at 125 mph), chipped
and charged with galactic speed, with surprisingly strong net play, going to
the net 17 times in the championship, while mounting a stellar defense. She put
on a remarkable display of mental toughness, shot-making, court coverage and
consistency match after match. Shining through four matches without a break,
Ebony Star beat No. 2 Maria Sharapova, No. 5 Svetlana
Kuznetsova, No. 6 Ana Ivanovic
and Marion Bartoli to win her fourth Wimbledon title.
She exuded confidence, saying, "I just have to go out there and execute. I
have the experience and everything to do it."
The first woman to receive equal pay as men at Wimbledon, Venus joined the
likes of Billie Jean King (6), Steffi Graf (7) and
Martina Navratilova (9), who won four or more titles. According to Richard,
"I think she can win three more, and I would be disappointed if she
didn't." Unlike those other women however, Ebony Star was the
lowest-seated (23) player ever to win Wimbledon, breaking her previous low seed
record set in 2005. It reaffirms that no matter what the state of her game
going into an event, Ebony Star's aura redefines the
field.
Looking at the board that lists past champions which had her name stenciled in
for 2007, below 2000, 2001 and 2005 entries, Venus was all smiles clutching the
Venus Rosewater Dish, the Wimbledon champion's plate ( they
should add Ebony Star to the plate's title). "I was really motivated
because no one picked me to win. They didn't even say, 'She can't win.' They
weren't even talking about me." Now they can't stop! Kudos Venus!
The Legacy
By Nancey Greggs
A few years ago, Bush was asked
how he thought history would judge him. And he responded, "I won't know,
because I'll be dead."
It would seem obvious to anyone that Bush won't have to wait until he's dead
after all - the nation, and the world, have already made it abundantly clear
that history won't have many kind words to say about George. In fact, the man
would have a hard time finding anyone to speak a kind word about him today, no less decades from now.
But to hear the neo-cons tell it (along with other various and sundry clueless
idiots), history will prove that George W. Bush was a true visionary, sadly
unrecognized in his own time as an intelligent, Christian man whose dreams of
spreading democracy throughout the world will have by then proven to be an
unqualified success.
Of course, the glaring hole in the Bush apologists' theory is the fact that
they, too, will be dead - in other words, as future generations look back on
the GWB years, there won't be anyone around to spin his behavior, his actions, his policies into something palatable.
There will be no one there to explain away his inability to speak coherently as
down-home charm, or his lack of knowledge as due to his being just plain folk.
There won't be any bandying about of words like decisive leadership, or
strength of purpose in attempt to describe what was in fact spineless adherence
to the will of the PNAC puppetmasters.
In time, George W. Bush will instead be seen for what he is, and always has
been: an arrogant buffoon whose disastrous policies cost millions of lives, a
warmonger pretending to be a Christian as he tortured and killed, a thief who
bankrupted his own country as he enriched those who aided and abetted his
crimes against humanity and against his fellow citizens. He will not be
remembered as a liberator, but as a destroyer of nations - including, sadly
enough, his own.
That will be the legacy of BushCo, one that George
will share with people like Cheney and Rumsfeld, Rove
and Rice - all of those who not only supported his insane policies, but put
them into action.
But what of the others among us, those who stood by and did nothing and,
through their inaction, allowed evil to flourish?
What of the politicians who sat in silence as the Bush
administration usurped power that was never theirs, ignored the Constitution,
curtailed the rights of the citizenry, and placed themselves above the law?
What of the so-called Christians who supported a presidency based on lies,
torture, and unending violence against the innocent peoples of the world?
What of the media journalists of the day, who replaced any semblance of news
reporting with endless chatter about celebrity gossip and the misadventures of
runaway brides?
We live in the most-recorded era in history, and the historians of the future
will have access to hours of footage of our brief moment in time. One can only
imagine that as they view it, as they trace the events that led to the demise
of freedom in what was once the greatest democracy on the face of the earth at
the hands of one man and his coterie of enablers, they will wonder not so much
about the enormity of his crimes as the fact that he was allowed to get away
with them.
Although I still support my party, I would just tell those who still insist
that impeachment is off the table not to waste their time calling me in at
suppertime. These days, I just don't have an appetite for anything else.
About Me: For more articles by this talented writer, visit http://journals.democraticunderground.com/NanceGreggs
Disgruntled says: Former Federal Reserve
chairman Alan Greenspan has been lauded for his lengthy stewardship of the US
economy. However, in recent years, he has come under considerable criticism for
the dot-com economic boom and stock market bubble, which burst in March 2000,
the current housing bubble and the trouble it is causing and his support of
George W. Bush's economic policies, particularly his 2001 tax cut plans and
privatization of Social Security. There are conflicting opinions regarding the
negative impact of the bursting housing bubble, but already there has been a
great deal of misery. Home foreclosures are historically high in many urban
areas; the refinancing craze is over and many homeowners are left with little
or no equity, the primary source of household wealth in America. As a result,
we can all thank Alan Greenspan for engineering one of the greatest transfers
of wealth in the history of this country.
Disgruntled
feels: Distorted! There used to be a time when US citizens could feel
good about our country. Maybe, we were naive and simply did not know enough
about what our government was doing to temper the euphoria of being US
citizens, because the US was the best nation on the planet. Now, with the
blinders ripped off and the knowledge that the US is not the world's knight in
shining armor, we can clearly see the imperialist power willing to accept
mountains of collateral damage to acquire the most valuable resources of other
nations, while paying lip service to "traditional American values,"
such as freedom, equality and democracy. Everything is skewed to the point of
being broken, crushed to the pavement like so much rubble. Things are so
distorted that it is hard to believe the most mundane news broadcast by
mainstream media. As a result, many of us have tuned out the lies and
distortions.
Disgruntled
wants to know: Blondes are nearly always portrayed as mainly sex
objects, and they are considered a lot less intelligent than women sporting
other hair colors. Although, blondes are said to have more fun! On a personal
level, I would not know, since blacks are not known for naturally occurring
blonde hair and dyes, extensions, weaves, etc., do not count. On the subject of
blondes, I could not help but notice that the women working as liaisons between
the White House and Justice Department and those that supposedly worked with
Karl Rove in the West Wing tend to be young and blonde. While young people can
certainly be and are highly intelligent, it has been my experience that to do
well in some government positions one needs some time on the job and a lot of
training to do those jobs well. These girls are barely out of college before
being given these demanding top level positions. One wonders are these blondes
really that savvy or are they window dressing and entertainment for their bosses?
Mailbox: E-mails, Faxes and
Telephone Calls
Email www.msnbc.msn.com
BAGHDAD - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
said Saturday that the Iraqi army and police are capable of keeping security in
the country when American troops leave "any time they want," though
he acknowledged the forces need further weapons and training. The embattled
prime minister sought to show confidence at a time when congressional pressure
is growing for a withdrawal and the Bush administration reported little
progress had been made on the most vital of a series of benchmarks it wants al-Maliki to carry out. Al-Maliki
said difficulty in enacting the measures was "natural" given Iraq's
turmoil. But one of his top aides, Hassan al-Suneid, rankled at the assessment, saying the U.S. was
treating Iraq like "an experiment in an American laboratory." He
sharply criticised the U.S. military, saying it was
committing human rights violations, embarrassing the Iraqi government with its
tactics and cooperating with "gangs of killers" in its campaign
against al-Qaida in Iraq.
Email www.msnbc.msn.com
WASHINGTON - Threatened abroad, U.S. diplomats have been hit with unprecedented
security restrictions, confining many to fortress-like compounds and
frustrating Bush administration efforts to get out and counter anti-US
sentiment. Lockdowns and prohibitions on travel now apply to Americans posted
to embassies and consulates in at least 28 nations, according to an Associated
Press survey of State Department warnings, internal directives and officials.
More than half the nations are identified as key to curbing the spread of
militant Islam. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the number of posts deemed
too dangerous for U.S. diplomats to bring families has doubled, from 10 to 21.
And since the 1980s, the number of missions where employees receive danger pay
has soared from two -- Colombia and Lebanon -- to 26.
Email Afrikaspirit@aol.com ..Greetings! Every Black person in the world should pay close attention to what goes on in the coming months in regards to this appointment. Will Ward do what is right by Black people or will he serve as a puppet for US interest!! RE: U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday nominated Army Gen. William Ward to lead the new Africa Command. Ward, who must be confirmed by the Senate, is only the fifth black man to attain a fourth star, making him a full general.
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